Being that I love P. Allen Smith and record all his shows and watch them faithfully, four years ago, I planted New Dawn roses at the base of an arbor.

In the opening of his show there is always a picture of an arbor with these roses that is so magnificent I can’t stand it. I wanted one of my own. I have learned so much from his show. Slowly but surely my house is becoming my garden home. I’ve made lots of mistakes such as the time I pruned my hydrangea and didn’t realize that I cut off all potential flower clusters. No blooms that year. I’ve planted and replanted. I’ve dug up things I planted. I move things around to find that perfect design a lot.

I have dreams for paths and focal points and areas of mystery and whimsy. Maybe one day I can achieve that but for now I just want to share my New Dawn roses.

They were just starting to bloom here. Now, it is covered. I have to figure out how to prune this beast though. The thorns are treacherous and I have trouble guiding the branches to where I want them to go.

In time.

Thanks P. Allen Smith!

Since we moved into this house, five years ago, we have planted a garden. It was a struggle getting into the garden groove for the first couple of years (although we always had an abundance of vegies) but now I feel like we are rockin’ right along. Everything runs smoother now. We ammend the soil with things like lime, fertilizer, our own rich compost and then we put up a chicken wire fence to protect it from any of animals that enjoy our yard. Craig turns the soil and then I get to planting.

This year it started out like this:

With water, sun, weeding and love, it has now turned into this:

Over the years, we have tried a huge assortment of plants. Some have worked and some have not. This year we tried cauliflower and lettuce for the first time and to my amazement, they have done super well.

The cauliflower started out growing really fast. My small seedlings popped in no time:

I was worried about it for awhile because the huge leaves started to get holes. Cabbage worms? I have no idea. I never see any pests around so I just let it go.

Before you know it…….BAM, I’m grilling it with olive oil, s & p. Delish!

I sowed some butter crunch lettuce seeds in two neat rows. We have been enjoying salads every couple of days. It is super smooth and crunchy:

The peas are gigantic but I’m a bit dissappointed in the taste. Last year, I had leftover sugar snap peas that were awesome. Ben would eat them right off the vines. So sweet. This time around I picked up something else. If I catch them when they are tiny, they turn out to be sweet…

But then when they get bigger they are like blech! Is it because I have to actually cook them? Maybe I will try that because they are gigantic:

The swiss chard is amazing. I’ve been supplying my Mom with it weekly and we have been eating it weekly as well:

Cucumbers are absolutely nuts. Want some?

You know I had to plant something Caliente, Jalepeno:

The tomatoes are just starting to ripen. When they do, I will have 5 zillion. I did find three yellow cherries that were ready and me, Monsta and Craig gobbled them right up. They were like candy:

To sum it all up…..Nothing brings a family together like a garden. Me and Ben share our time out there daily and it is like he sees it for the first time every day. He notices everything and how great is it when your four year old is eating peas before 10am.?

I would like to add that our garden and lawn  is completely organic which makes it that much more awesome.

Well, I enjoyed taking you for a small tour of my garden. I would love to hear some of your stories. Anyone enjoying harvests of your own?

While Earth Day was a few days ago, I’m behind in posting the pics.  We had a tremendous day talking about all the kind things you can do to help save our planet.  Monsta likes to discuss these things.  He is always pointing out litter that we see when we go out.  He asks why did somebody throw that on the ground Mommy?  Keeping our kids aware is the most important thing we can do as parents.  They will grow up learning that Earth is our home and it has value and we don’t want people to dirty it up.  He gets that we recycle in the house but maybe I need to bring him down to the recycling center so he gets to see the big picture.  That would be an experience for him and me.

Using the dirt that they dug up from putting in our new fence last week.

Filled a pot that we got at a Spring fair up in Westchester County.

Look at me, I did it!

Planted grapefruit seeds from a grapefruit we shared months ago. It was delicious and we dried the seeds on the windowsill.

Planted zinnias in Cubby’s pot.

Add some water and wait…….

What are some of the fun things YOU did for Earth Day?

Six months have gone by and let me just tell you, they went by super fast! My sweet, little Cubby is a champ with one tooth already breaking through his gums. I feel another one right behind it too. It has been a sickly winter around here. Monsta doesn’t ever seem to get over these dreaded colds. He has been sporting a lovely cough for over two weeks now – good grief. I feel that the better portion of my day is telling him to cover his mouth or don’t cough in the baby’s face. It gets tiresome. The sun being out though makes us happy. We have been outside for days. I have successfully weeded all the beds, replanted my blueberry bush and replanted my herbs from the garden into pots on the deck. I have repotted ALL my african violets to cheer them up. I feel terrible for them….I just don’t have enough windows in my house to put them in. Poor little guys. What is left on my priority list is to plant some bulbs I picked up and some peas and some cosmos. Then I can move on to my regular ongoing list. It never ends but I love it!

Loving this weather! It is so nice out that I feel like I have a new lease on life. We don’t have to rush into the house when we get home and I even started pruning some shrubs and plants today. As a matter of fact, I’m going out right now again. Ben just woke up and that is the plan. My pansies even came back from last year. How happy am I? I will leave you with this cheery photo of Cubby. Melt my heart.

First flower to bloom from a box of seeds I sprinkled by the pool fence.  I go out to look at it every morning and to see if any friends have joined him.  So far…..nothin’

We just had a wonderful holiday weekend and I hope you did too.  Craig took Thursday off so we had four days together.  We basically stayed home and played around in the pool.  I worked in the garden and Craig cleaned the garage.  We attended a beautiful wedding on the Fourth of July and had a great time.  Ben had spent the night at my inlaws, so we had Sunday to relax.  Now that the garage was clean, I spotted my pottery wheel.  I got inspired to sit down and throw.  It has been a year since I’ve stopped going to class and I miss it terribly.  It was rough at first because I have a kick-wheel and it took quite a bit of effort to get the wheel going the speed I wanted.  I’m 27 weeks now and my tummy was definitely in the way a bit.  I managed and enjoyed.  I wasn’t rushed so I decided to make a nice salad bowl.  You can never have too many of those.  It felt really good to get back into the clay and the process.  It is also nice having my own wheel because I can just leave my work on it till the next day.  A luxury you don’t have when you have to work at a studio.  I was really pleased with my bowl so I will share:

                                   It will stay as greenware (unfired) till I find the time to get back to the studio.  Who knows when that will ever be.  I already have an office full of stuff that needs to be fired, glazed and fired. 

I also mentioned that I spent a lot of time in the garden.  The bunnies are doing great.  The Mommy sits close by under our hydrangea now keeping her babies protected. 

                          I even spotted her nursing in the nest the other day.  Couldn’t get those pictures though – sorry.  We peeked at the babies and they are so much bigger now.  They have fur and their eyes open.  It is really amazing.

The garden has been doing great.  Things are just growing and growing, even the weeds.  I pulled about 50% of them but jeez, it is hard.  My pole beans are the BIG show right now.  I never planted them before and don’t even know how large they are supposed to get.  Does anyone know? 

                          It really has been a lovely Monday so far.  Ben has been sleeping since 2pm (4:30ish now), I was able to trim (finish off the bottom) of my bowl and reflect on the nice weekend.  Getting back to throwing is huge for me.  It makes me feel good.  I suggest you all find something that you have dropped and try it again.  It does wonderful things for the body and soul.

Snuck (is that the past tense of sneek?) carrot puree on pita then topped with sauce that had vegies in it.  Muenster cheese on top and parsley and the kid is presently EATING it!  I’m psyched.

 Just came in from working all day with Craig in the yard.  Garden is up.  That includes tomatoes and onions planted.  From last year I had lemon balm (nice in iced tea or lemonade), sage and oregano.  The fence is assembled and all I have to do now is take a trip out east to get the rest of the plants I want.  What a relief.  I can’t do as much being 20 weeks pregnant but I have to say I sort of rocked out there.  hehehe

Off to see Star Trek tonight – YAY!

Started on my garden today.  I only got a quarter the way through though.  Better than nothin I suppose.  A lot of grass is actually growing in there and that was time consuming to remove.  I planted a couple of dahlias (too early) but I needed to because they were dying in the pots I had them in.  I hope they make it. 

AND…..

I also dusted off my pottery wheel today!  I sat down and threw myself a small pot.  I was surprised that it all came back to me so quickly.  I haven’t touched clay for over a year.  The only thing I found difficult was the kick-wheel.  It’s hard to keep that cement stone turning.  I didn’t quite have the speed but whatever I did was enough.  There is a cute, little pot sitting in the garage now.  I’m psyched about it.

I’m totally wanting to start preparing my garden but it is way too rainy out. 

Thoughts:

What to plant..hmmmmmm

tomatoes

carrots

cukes

peas

maybe onions and garlic this year

I’ll try corn again

no squash

eggplant

strawberries

I think I’m going to need a bigger garden!