An Overgrown Garden

Yes, I do have my garden this year! Jesse was so kind to get out there in April and get it ready, and we planted the seeds together. Awww.

Then, my Mom so graciously pulled weeds while she was here - just after Jude was born. Somehow we picked the hottest day of the year for her to do it, but she did.

However, even with all the help, the garden still ended up looking like this by the end of June:

What a sad looking place. So, I got out there and put in my time and later that day it looked like this:

And, now, I'm afraid, I've let it grow again and we're probably back to it looking more like the first picture. Ugh. Oh well. We ARE successfully growing beans, squash, zucchini, rhubarb, tomatoes and bell peppers. So, that's a plus. Now, I just need to pick some and actually do something with them.

Somewhere in there I also planted strawberries and pumpkins, but I haven't seen those come up yet. I still have hope for the pumpkins, but not the strawberries. I'm afraid the strawberries probably got lost in the mix some time ago. Maybe I'll try those again next year.

Eat Your Veggies (Part V)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living, May 2008

I think my garden is the best I've ever seen! I might be a little biased (and naive), but I can't believe how many beautiful vegetables I've been able to grow. It's probably beginner's luck, which will make me very sad when I try and recreate the same goodness next summer, but I'll definitely give it a whirl in 2010. Here's a picture of what I was able to glean just one day last week:

This is only a glimpse of what has been going on. Let's see . . . throughout the summer we've gotten 5 or 6 cucumbers, 30 something carrots, 3 or so bags of lettuce, 5 or so acorn squash, 2 watermelons, 5 or so tomatoes, gobs of cherry tomatoes, 2 beautiful green peppers, lots of green beans and 2 pumpkins that will be ready just in time for carving. It's been so fun!

The only things that haven't been particularly successful are the peppers. I have two green pepper plants, one yellow and one red. Out of all four plants we have only had 2 green peppers (which were beautiful!) and a yellow pepper-that hasn't turned color yet.

Next year I think we'll swap out the cucumbers for zucchini (since it's so yummy on the grill and I can use it in bread or cake), and I probably won't plant many carrots, if any. I don't have anything against carrots, but they have been hard to pull out of the ground And, it's kind of hard to plant them without planting thousands. What if I don't want thousands? What if I only want 10, can I have just 10? Okay, okay, I'll stop this little rant on carrots. I just won't plant them next year, that's all.

Things I have loved, though, are the tomatoes (especially the cherry tomatoes), the squash, the peppers (of the ones we've gotten), and the pumpkins. And, of course, I'm looking forward to seeing how the watermelons turn out too. They might make the list.

Faribault Flowers

This one is really for Mom. Just wanted to show you how happy my flowers are on the front porch.



Jesse convinced me to buy the terracotta pot rather than a black flower pot. I'm loving it. So simple. So classic. He tends to be right when it comes to those kinds of decisions. I better keep trusting him.

Eat Your Veggies (Part III)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living, May 2008

Well, I did it. I pared down my garden shortly after I wrote the last post. Although it was difficult to start it wasn't so bad once I got in there. I had to keep reminding myself that we couldn't possibly eat all the vegetables that those plants were going to produce anyway. Eight tomato plants full of tomatoes? Not likely.

On the same day we finally were able to pull some lettuce from the garden and eat it. So exciting! It went nicely with bleu cheese burgers. (Bleu cheese purchased in Fairbault, MN with my mom!) Yum.

Eat Your Veggies (Part II)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living, May 2008

This post has been a long time coming. It's almost 3 weeks overdue. I've been distracted this month with having my wonderful mother in town for a week, and a cabinet refinishing project that came along with her. (Pictures of that project coming soon.) I can't talk about that, though, until I share more about my little garden. First things first.

As of three weeks ago tomorrow all of the vegetables have been planted, a lot of the extra dirt (mentioned in the previous veggie post) has been removed and a little fence has been put into place to divert the bunnies - thanks to Jesse for encouraging me to put one in place. It would have been so like me to put in all the effort of this garden, forget the fence, and then cry when the bunnies came and ate my new veggies - he is so good at gently helping to prevent any breakdowns. So perfect for me.

Things are coming along well. I planted too many of each vegetable with the idea that I would pull out the excess plants once they have had time to sprout. I figured at that point I would be able to select the strongest plants and allow them to grow well. Now that they have been planted, though, I realize that pulling any plants out will be very sad for me. Humf. Because it's necessary I think I'll need to somehow grow a smaller/harder heart and muster up the courage to do that soon. The next post about my garden will come after I've done that. Maybe that will give me the motivation I need.

In my garden I have (from top left): pumpkins, green, yellow and orange peppers, beefsteak and grape tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, beans, watermelon, carrots and acorn squash.

I'm loving watching it grow so far . . . so fun.

All Things Red

So many fun things are happening in my gardens this year. (Update on the veggie garden is coming.) It's the first year that I have been more present to the outside of my house than the inside of it come spring. There has always been a long list of projects to accomplish in the house that I haven't had enough time to even think about our yard. This year, though, is wonderfully different. Enough things have been crossed off the list inside that I have space and time to think about the outside. I'm enjoying it.


Last fall I planted my first ever flowers! I love tulips so very much, and I saw them on sale at Wal-Mart, so I thought, "What the heck? I'll give it a try". Not knowing whether or not they would actually come up (combined with the fact that I'm extremely frugal) I didn't buy very many - hence the sparsity.


I'm delighted that I actually grew something, and they compliment our red front door so nicely.

About the same time my tulips sprung up I made my very first strawberry pie. (Nice awkward transition from tulips to pies, huh?) I was asked to bring dessert for our family Mother's Day lunch and as a result of two things: a) Jesse and I had a delicious strawberry pie with a friend about three days prior and b) strawberries were selling for only 99 cents . . . strawberry pie seemed like the right thing to bring.


I used a nice, standard Betty Crocker recipe for the crust. It turned out well. Next time I will try a new way of crimping the sides - my technique was a little elementary. Okay, embarrassingly elementary. My mom has the most beautiful way of doing it, which I will try next time.


I used this yummy recipe for the filling. It was delish!

Eat Your Veggies (Part I)

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living, May 2008

I am so excited about my new project! It all started with a large, ugly pile of dirt behind our garage. This pile came about when Jesse (using all of his manly power) dug out lots of dirt from the side of the garage (a very uninteresting story in which I will explain no more). Piles of dirt are difficult to get rid of (i.e. dirt cannot go into the yard waste bin that the city picks up, so it must be loaded into a truck and taken to the dump, which we have done before and is very time consuming and not fun at all). Therefore, it sat there through the fall and winter and began to grow weeds. I'm sure our neighbors were pleased. Yes, we are "those" people in the neighborhood. You're welcome, neighbors.

Now that spring has sprung the snow has melted revealing to us again just how large and ugly this pile of dirt really is.

Well, what shall we do with it?

Turn it into a vegetable garden, of course! Oh, my father will be proud. And, my Grandpa 'Kowski would have been so proud. Now, if I will only be able to make it grow. Hmmm . . . we'll see.

I've never had much of a green thumb. I only have one house plant that has survived, and that is only because of Grandma George's intervention. It is an ivy plant . . . shouldn't be difficult, right? So, a veggie garden is probably not wise. But, why not give it a try?

I spent the better part of my Saturday last weekend with a hoe in hand digging out the weeds of our pile of dirt. I did a number on my hamstrings and had difficulty walking for the next three days. Nevertheless, I managed to get partly there with planning out my lot. You can see it marked below . . . using beer bottles, of course. A little insight into us living life in Iowa! (For all concerned family and friends . . . we're not truly redneck, I promise! At least in comparison to some folks here. The beer bottles were just the only "stake-like" contraption I could find in the garage.)


The plan for the next couple of weeks is to finish the plot. And, then . . . I will finally be able to plant some seed. I'll post with updates. Get excited!