The fall garden!

At last, the fall season is here. We survived the four months of hot, hot, hot, and its now starting to be nice outside again. I’ll take four months of hot for 8 months of gorgeous weather!

Well, it was an educational first year of gardening in beds with drip irrigation. We had a hornworm epidemic that wiped out 90% of the tomatoes, but here are the winners:

The basil. Those are two basil plants, and they grew to be HUGE! I clearly only need one plant next year. I’ve been snipping off some stems, putting them in water inside, and using them on pizza and pasta. SO good.

The bell peppers. These are different than the big red peppers in a grocery store. I have to get the name of these from Leslie, tomato lady. I bought them at her plant sale, and they did great in the triple digit heat. The worms did not get to them, until I removed the tomato plants. Then, they started to work on the peppers. I have been slicing and freezing these little cuties, and use them in tons of dishes. I love freezing food, so it doesn’t go bad. Just learned you could do that with fresh ginger. Scoop off the skin with a spoon, and throw the whole thing in the freezer. Take it out frozen and grate how much you need for your recipe. Awesome!

At plant world, I asked what could I do to prevent the hornworm issue. I got this stuff, organic powder that I dust all over the plants. One bite of this, and they die. Take that! So, that’s the white stuff you see on the plants.

Some new strawberries.

Now, that the towering cherry tomato plants are out, the grapes can get full sun and actually start growing!

We had two surviving grape tomato plants from the big bed, and they have taken off with a fall crop coming! Its nice to see something surviving.

Just two buddies hanging out:)

They’ve really taken to the trellis!

The newbies, an early girl tomato plant..

… and a broccoli, that grows in cool weather.

Recently, the newly added strawberries to the grape bed. This will be the fruit bed. There’s a lady at church that grows this type of strawberries, and jams a ton each year. I would love to have lots of strawberries, so here we go. They won’t give me a big crop now, but will start growing roots and getting ready for next year. Sure hope so:)

The lovely herb box. The bottom left is thyme, and it really spreads! Italian parsley in top right, and chives in top left, since the basil crowded out my other chives.

Another attempt at growing some dill, since I botched the last dill plant up. Dill tastes so good in soups!

Gardening is so fun, but I haven’t been able to go out and play with it all summer, due to the heat. Now, its fun to come outside in the morning, before the kids are up, and play with it.

On other things, we’re really trying to help Ethan go poop in the toilet. We had a miracle on Sunday at church, when he actually did it in the nursery bathroom. It gave me so much hope. So that’s my mission this week, is to keep that momentum going. He can tinkle like a pro, goes great in public restrooms, no accidents. So we’re 50% there!

I’m just trying to figure it out, and to not stress about pooping, and stages, and motherhood, and everything:) I’m just thankful for each day, that its a new chance to make it a little better than the one before. I need to keep praying for patience with all the little things that the kids can drive me crazy on, like Ethan’s stage of asking the same thing over and over and over again. I guess that’s a toddler thing, but it sure can drive you bonkers.

Update as of now! As I was typing this post, I heard Ethan calling from the bathroom that he went poop. I found him on the toilet grinning, and he did it! I just want to scream with joy!! YES! Plus, he’s being good and staying in his room in the morning, even though he’s awake. He went out on his own to potty, which is what I want him to do. I’m now attempting to help him not wet or poop at night. Trying, as that will just come when it does, but I don’t give him snacks or drinks about an hour and a half before bedtime. I hope I’m doing this right, because this first kid potty training stuff is enlightening and crazy! :)

Ok, gotta call Shaun and tell him the good news! Have a great day, everyone!

Gardening chapter 3

Well, its been about two months of gardening and we've already had some failures! More opportunities to learn:D The seeds on my washer and dryer are, well, I think I'd rather just buy the plant. I kept finding my box of seeds knocked over on the washer, spilling dirt and the plant out everywhere. By the third time, I discovered it was the washer's violent spinning that caused the plants to jiggle off their books and fall.
Shaun and I were preparing to dig holes for the trellis (which I forgot to add the picture of that to this post, next time!) outside by the big bed. Shaun started digging down with a post hole digger, and found a lot of mud. He severed the main irrigation line to the garden, whoops! So that job took a little longer, replacing the pipe, digging again for the trellis. Its massive. It will be great for the green beans and cucumbers.
For seven bucks, we got a HUGE bale of straw from a nearby local, using it for mulch. (If anyone in town needs some, let me know:) I've never used straw before for mulch, but I like it! Its a little messy, but does the job really well. Don't try to garden without covering your soil. Save that water from drying out fast, and save your plants. (Don't mind our messy shed)
This little plant is amazing, Verbena. It lasted outside from last fall till now, through 30 degree temps! Its not supposed to do that, according to Mike at Star Nursery. I told him, 'well, it did', and he said I was lucky. This flower is incredibly hardy and is ok with the heat of our summers. I decided to give it its own pipe for water, since it was such a trooper.

I got this really great stuff from the tomato lady, called Amazing Kelp. You spray it on your plants, and they do really well. What your doing is foliar feeding, feeding the leaves with nutrients that increase blooms and food production. Well, I didn't do too well with the instructions, and sprayed my parsley a few times. Now, its gone platinum, and thinks its the Tower of Babel. I called Leslie and found out I'm only supposed to spray plants with it about twice a season, whoops again! I'll be replacing these plants with new parsley, since its not giving much leaves, just height. Sometimes, you gotta restart again, and again.. but hey, you learn!

So, I sprayed the roses with the kelp the correct way, and this plant exploded. I wish I had a before pic, but I can tell you that it did not look this big before. Its awesome! If you want to buy some kelp for your garden, click HERE.

The superstars (tomatoes) have not arrived yet, but in the meantime, I've been growing some cabbage. Their doing pretty good. The lettuce is ok, and the green beans that I transplanted didn't do so well. I think I still need to learn how to harden off the seeds before planting them into the garden, another reason why I'll just buy the plant.

So, the reason why the pots are within another pot is to help the moisture not get drawn out from the original plant pot. Clay pots can be stinky in desert heat, but this might work. I read about this idea in Leslie's book. There are three types of mulch shown here, from left to right; pine needles, hay, and rocks. All will work, just choose whatever mulch you like to use.

Here, we have the lovely mint, which grows like crazy!

Strawberries, ahh!

and Dill!

My happy, little gardener, who is learning the names of the plants daily. Ethan and I spend time together in the morning outside, when Kevin takes his nap. Its great one on one time.

So, just waiting for Leslie Doyle's plant sale this month, at last! I can't wait to try her tomatoes. I have all these tomato recipes saved to use this summer. By the way, wasn't General Conference fabulous?! I prayed to be taught by the spirit, and I heard so much that I needed to hear. Simple prayers do not go unanswered. I can't wait for Thursday, when the transcripts will be on lds.org.

Sometimes, its hard for me to put in words all my thoughts on this humble blog of ours, but I know that gardening, photography, none of that stuff matters. What really matters is spending time with my family, teaching the gospel with the precious time that's been given to me, enjoying the small moments that are golden. Shaun and I do progressive movies, watching a little here and there. We're on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I love the quote "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." I hope everyone had a wonderful conference and found great peace in you hearts from the messages:)


I used a fun Lightroom preset for thes images, click HERE for the preset!