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june kids and garden journal

Wow, is June already come and gone?

There are so many times I want to jump on here and blog.  And then I just don’t get around to it.

I’ve also found that when life gets tough, I need to keep my head down, keep the prayers going up and just take care of myself and my people.  And things have been a bit more “tough” lately- busy with the kiddos, a new job and really the whole new world of life outside of active duty Army.  It’s not all bad tough either, there is a lot of good in there.  But I find it hard to balance the extra work, attention and prayers that life needs during tough times with the quiet time I need to reflect and recharge.  The quiet time seems to be scattered throughout the day in little bits grabbed here and there and for some reason I just have trouble spending my time here in little bits, so instead a knit a few rows, read a few pages, catch a few winks.

Like I always say, living life trumps writing about it.:)

But I have to post at least once this month!  Time flies and I am more often reaching for my iphone camera than the fancy one, but, I do make sure that I pick it up and purposefully capture my kids at their current ages.  I can hardly believe that my baby Oliver is coming up on five months old.  He has become the heart of our family.  Like the hearth we all gather round when we need a bit of extra warmth, he is always there with his sweet baby cheeks, kissable lips and gummy smiles.  Boy is he ever loved.  Dash and I think he is our prettiest baby yet.

4 months old, lookin for a fist-bump

And these other two crazy kids.  They keep us busy these days.  They are best friends.

Amelia at 2.5, on the left is the usual face I get when I point my camera her way.  The right is the rare occasion of a semi-fake smile.  She is still her mama’s girl, but when she gets hurt, she needs Dr. Daddy.

Asher at 5.  Currently on a haircut strike and a learning streak.  I can’t believe he isn’t even a pre-schooler anymore.  We are officially starting K in the fall and we are super excited to be doing it here at home.

I am loving these summertime kids to the moon and back.

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June garden!

And while I’m here (cause who knows when I’ll be back!:P), a quick peek into the garden!  Everything has taken off and the harvest is rolling in these days.  Tomatoes are doing the best, the beans are doing pretty well too, but for some reason, everything else seems to be moving a bit slow and looking a bit small.  I have a feeling I may have added a little bit too much cheap compost to the beds and not enough rich/sandy soil.  Or it could just be the high heat we have already been getting coupled with the bugs that never fail to plague.  We have picked a few peppers, squash, eggplant, tomatillo, okra and even cut a few of the zinnias that are finally starting to bloom, but I do have to admit, I was hoping for better.  Each season brings new lessons though!  The weeds are getting a bit crazy out there and I will have to get out and do some serious weeding here soon.  We will be starting some pumpkin seeds soon and planning a few more things for the fall.  I’m feeling like a good clear out in August and some more work on the soil will get us in shape for a better fall harvest.  For fall we will shift gears to plants like brussels and broccoli, carrots and beets, corn and squash, beans and new herbs and of course pumpkins.  For now, we are enjoying and preserving our bountiful tomato harvest!  Maybe soon I will have to post more about how we preserved our tomatoes.

Happy gardening.  Happy summer!

Posted in adventures in gardening, days of summer, garden journal, my babies, spring garden Tags: , , , , , , ,

by mamabrit

2 comments

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KrisJune 26, 2012 - 12:39 pm

I would love to hear how you preserve your tomatoes! I love your garden posts. Your pictures are simple and so pretty. Isn’t it crazy how the kids grow up right before your eyes? My boy starts 1st grade in the Fall. How can this be???

ElisaJune 26, 2012 - 3:56 pm

Pretty. I love your pictures. How do you get the white/glow look? Mine are always so very bright, not soft. I can’t believe how much older Amelia looks in just a half a year! They grow way too fast.

garden journal: may

I’m starting this new post series in the hopes that it will help me keep better track of our gardening adventures!

The garden has been a half-nurtured place this past fall and spring.  Between planning for an overseas move that ended up not happening to welcoming a new baby into our family (and planning another move- hopefully closer to Austin and to daddy’s NEW JOB!), that beloved space back there just hasn’t gotten the attention and investment that I really dream of giving a garden.  But given that fact, I think things are still looking pretty good out there.

Since constructing all of the raised beds, I decided to keep all of the herbs in pots.  Hopefully I will find a prettier way to place them about the yard, but for now they are just sitting in a row along the side of a raised bed.  Basil is looking and smelling great and we are getting lots of ripening cherry tomatoes-perfect combo!  We’ve got lots of different tomatoes growing and looking good out there right now- we purchased them all from starts, but maybe in the fall we will actually start our own seeds.

I am also really missing having a compost pile right now.  We had to buy compost/soil to amend beds and I hate spending money on dirt:P  So far we haven’t seen too many pests, but this morning I noticed that something seems to be chewing tiny little holes in everything.  I may try a simple soap/water spray before going for the neem oil stuff.

The seeds that I did directly sow were in the ground a bit later than I would have liked, but they are coming up and looking good now!  When I added soil to a few of the beds, I got a little bit too much compost and not enough sandy loam type soil, so the seeds were having trouble coming up at first and I had to amend the soil a bit more.  It’s also probably due to the fact that I bought the cheapest bags of organic compost that I could find:P.

The growing list right now includes about 10 tomatoes, 8 different types of peppers, eggplant, okra, tomatillo, green and yellow beans, yellow summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, salad greens, lots of chard, calendula and zinnia and tons of different herbs including lavender, tarragon, oregano, basil and more.  It looks like we even have a volunteer cantaloupe that has popped up.  We still have the tree citrus trees, but for some reason that I cannot figure out, they aren’t looking very well.  The mandarin tree, which gave us a few fruits this past season has some healthy new growth toward the bottom, but after blooming well up top the branches are all slowly losing leaves, turning brown and dying.  I’m suspecting some sort of fungus or blight?  Both the lemon and mexican lime are doing the same and although all three bloomed beautifully, no fruit set.  I have checked my watering methods and have been sure to fertilize and add good soil so, I just don’t know.  We are in a rough area for bugs and blights I have learned- it’s sad.  We also lost our pear tree to fire blight:(  The peach tree is doing great though!

I’m content with what we have out there for now because as I mentioned before, we have another move on the horizon!  Hopefully headed to the Austin area to be settled in a place that will allow us to put down some more garden roots and to at least have a small flock of chickens again!

May 2012 garden (with one last bed to be weeded, soiled and planted- hopefully with some roots like carrots and beets!)

How’s your garden growing these days?:)

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Posted in adventures in gardening, days of spring, garden journal, spring garden Tags: , , , , , ,

by mamabrit

5 comments

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KrisMay 10, 2012 - 10:31 am

We don’t plant until memorial day weekend where I am….but I’ve started some seeds indoors and they are doing well. The sugar snap peas are begging to be put in the ground so I plan to do that a little early as they do like the cooler weather. Your garden looks wonderful. So full and healthy looking. I am going to be using a lot of pots this year too….just strewn here or there…wherever they can find good sunlight.
Chickens! I am raising 4 sweet baby chicks right now. So much fun. Good luck and happy harvesting!
Kris

ElisaMay 10, 2012 - 3:42 pm

It’s looking great!! My veggies are still in planters mostly. It’s definitely cooler up here. We do have some very very wild tomatoes that are growing from our compost seeds. They will be yellow cherry tomatoes that we can eat.

ColleenMay 23, 2012 - 4:43 pm

Yours looks beautiful! We are backyard-less (hopefully for the last summer!) so we are gardening at my parents’ this year and having the most success we’ve ever had. Admittedly, it’s more because of my brother and sister’s efforts and not so much my own (they take care of the day-to-day watering and weeding). But it’s looking great, and we’re just about to start harvesting our lettuce.

I would LOVE to have citrus trees! But citrus and Kansas winters don’t mix terribly well. Maybe someday if we have a sun porch, we’ll do potted trees so we can bring them inside in the winter? Sorry yours aren’t doing too well right now. :(

Molly Makes DoJune 13, 2012 - 1:27 pm

I saw your comment over on “Carrots”, Catholic+Mama+Garden (one of my favorite combinations!), I had to come check it out! What a lovely garden, it’s exactly what I want our backyard to look it in a few years! Are your raised beds just cedar logs (are they nailed together, or just stacked?)

mamabritJune 13, 2012 - 2:04 pm

Welcome to my space Molly! I’m always glad to “meet” other Catholic-mama-gardeners :) I wish I had more time to fill it with words and photos lately :) Baby #3 and the garden have kept me a bit busier than normal these days! Our raised beds are just 8×4 ft cedar landscaping timbers and right now they are just stacked (two high). I want to make sure this is the “real” setup (we’ve switched it around so much the past few seasons) before putting it all together for good. I think two of the easiest methods to secure the timbers would be to buy some metal corner brackets and screws to hold the timbers together or you can buy a one inch circular drill bit and drill a hole through at the ends and then hammer a bit of rebar down through the hole (and into the ground as well) to hold it all in place. The latter is my plan- the rebar is pretty cheap at a place like Lowes!

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