Cucumbers!

Last week was a bit crazy for me.  The school year is coming to a close and it seems like everyone's going a little stir-crazy.  We are definitely ready for Summer break!  Shopping, packing, and planning for vacation have monopolized most of my time lately.  And, I've been attempting to get all of my listings posted on my etsy site for a big shop update (just have to take those pictures!).  I finished up the Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway and will post the results this week. Jesse went to the principal last week for the first time because he told a little girl he was going to moon her.  (On a side note, that's totally something his Daddy would do!)   And last week, during a failed attempt to have a play date with one of Jesse's friends at the pool (the pool was EMPTY due to some maintenance problems), Micah fell into the duck pond and is now trying to get over a cold, which he has since passed on to his older brother.  (He shares so nicely!)

In the midst of craziness, our vegetable garden is sprouting like crazy.  The cucumber vines have dozens of little yellow flowers on them, just waiting to bring forth more cucumbers.  Here are two beauties we picked this weekend.

Micah got to pick the first one.

He pulled so hard, that he fell backwards when the cucumber finally let go of its vine.

Jesse got to pick the biggest one.

He's so proud.  

Ready to eat

There's no better way to get my kids to eat veggies than to let them grow their own.  Even Jesse, who wouldn't eat a store bought cucumber even if I bribed him with candy, devours one he grew himself.  Soon, there'll be enough cucumbers to start making our own pickles.  (The boys are so excited about homemade pickles!  Do your kids like pickles?  Mine LOVE them!!!!)  And I  know I've been posting about my garden a lot lately, and not much else, but I promise, there is some crafty goodness coming very soon.  

Growth

I love my little garden!  So far, the peas aren't doing so well, thanks to a bunch of slugs and aphids.  (They also devoured Jesse's flower garden.  We have since planted new seeds, and they're doing well - poppies, nasturtiums, and more giant sunflowers, as well as his snap dragon.)  I was desperate to save my cucumbers and tomatoes, so I have to admit that I caved and used traditional vegetable pesticides.  After I did it, I stopped by the Bluffton Farmers' Market and found our "gardening expert" who gave me a huge list of ways to get rid of pests without spraying them with chemicals.  Well....next time....

One of the 6 cucumber plants

I have never planted tomatoes from seeds, and so far, I'm so pleased with their progress!

18 tomatoes and 6 cukes!

We got our first "harvest" of peas this week - 3 whole pea pods!

Jess was so excited to pick his peas

Proud gardener

This is how he washes off his peas.  Isn't this how you do it?

I am dreaming about the vegetable goodness that will soon be blooming in our backyard!  But, I am also savoring the little moments we can stop and rest, discussing how the plants grow and how God made all plants different, what we can do to help them grow, and just plain sitting and enjoying each other's company...  Because I know all too well, that my garden is not the only thing growing...

Jess and I

Sharing a pea pod with his little brother 

Bite

Yum!

I am so thankful for these little moments with my boys!  Hopefully, I'm fostering a love for gardening, and the Creator who allows all things to grow.

Sprouting!

 There are some promising things sprouting!  I hope you're having a great day in your part of the world!

gardening with the boys, part 3 (seed-starting pot tutorial)

In order to start our plethora of tomato seeds, I needed little pots or seed starting trays.  Everything around here is so ridiculously expensive (and I'm cheap) so I started looking for alternatives.  I saw this adorable little gadget that helps you make pots out of newspaper.  But you don't need that little gadget!  You can make your own newspaper pots!  They're biodegradable and free.  You can't get much better than that!  Here's how....

1.  Put a shoe on the good foot, a slipper on the casted foot, and park on the step so you can play with mulch.

2.  Continue to play with mulch.

3.  Try to wrestle the jar away from Mommy when she's trying to use it.

4.  Use really cute face to try to get my way, but eventually give up and go back to mulch.

OK....really....back to business.  All you need is newspaper and a pint mason jar.

Tear newspaper into a single, half sheet, and fold in half lengthwise.  

Lay the jar on the folded edge, and roll up.

Flip the jar so the jar sticks out of the bottom.

Fold in the excess paper where the paper ends first.

Fold down another third. 

Fold down the last third.  (Notice the boy has lost interest in mulch again.)

Tuck the last fold under the other folds.

Turn the cup over and remove the jar.

Fold in upper edge so the top doesn't unravel.

Ta-da!  Seed-starting cup!  Add your potting mix and plant seeds as directed on the seed package.

I put all my seed cups in a heavy-duty cardboard box so I can bring them inside if they get cold.  

I hope this helps other frugal gardeners out there!  Happy planting, y'all!

gardening with the boys, part 2

The sun has been very busy warming our corner of the world.  Temperatures are slowly climbing, and with the warmer weather, come hopes of a fruitful growing season.  Oh!  I have big plans for this little garden of ours this year!!!  This year we're trying some square-foot gardening, to pack in enough veggies to eat, share, and can for later on in the year when a garden-fresh tomato is a sweet, distant memory.

I love gardening all kinds of vegetables, but tomatoes are by far my favorite!  There's nothing quite like the taste of fresh-picked tomato, ripe and sun-warmed.  YUM!  I knew I wanted to plant a bunch of the little darlings this year, but after checking the cost of plants, I almost choked!  Six bucks for one tomato plant?!   Really?!  No thank you.  So, we decided to start from seeds.  Jesse and I picked out all of the veggie seeds we wanted to try and a brick of condensed seed-starter soil, and got to work.  We started by digging out the herbs (particularly the oregano) that had taken over the box during the winter.  We had to add a little dirt and manure to the box since the soil depletes a bit every year.  Jared took some pictures for us while we prepared the bed and planted our row of peas.

Micah getting in on the pea-planting action

Besides the veggie patch, Jared also dug out a small bed next to the garage for Jesse.  Jesse wants to plant his own flower garden.  He picked out one yellow snapdragon, a package of giant sunflower seeds, and a seed mix for butterflies.  He's so excited to have a little patch of garden that is all his own!  I love seeing how happy this makes him.

gardening with the boys, part 1

A couple of years ago we decided to start a raised-bed vegetable garden in our backyard.  Jared and I found some plans here, bought some non-treated wood at a hardware store, and got to work.  We had to change the dimensions a bit to accommodate the wood we found.

Our neighbors helped us measure, dig, and haul dirt.  (Thanks, Mike and Meagan!)

Jesse wanted to help too. 

Jesse wanted to build his own vegetable box....just like his Daddy.  (He was almost 3when we started gardening together!)

We've had some great success gardening in the box.  

Jesse (3 years-old) liked to checking out his beans, peas, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes.

Some of our lovely cucumbers

I know this is a picture of Jesse (4) squirting his cousin in the face with the sprinkler, but it also shows how pretty our garden is in the background.

Planting with Jesse (5) last year.

We've learned some things along the way... 

*  It's really not worth it for us to plant green beans, lima beans, or peas since they take up a lot of room, but don't produce very much food.  (This year we are planing just one row of peas in the back of the garden because Jesse REALLY wanted them, and they are totally fun to watch climbing up the lattice.)

*  You actually have to water the garden if you don't want all of your plants to die.  :)

*  We have some finches that call our back porch their home, and they insist on taking a bite out of every ripe tomato.  (I don't mind sharing some of them, but come on, birds!  We want some too!)  Bird netting helps to save some of the tomatoes for my family.

*  I've moved our herbs out of the box.  They take up so much room, and overwhelm the other plants.

Next post will be our plans for this year's garden!  I can't wait!!!!