Ready, Set...Wait!

This has to be the most difficult time for gardeners everywhere. The weather is tantilizingly beautiful, but you know good and well a frost/freeze is lurking it's ugly head somewhere in the near future, you've set your summer seeds to germinating and now it's a waiting game.

I set my squash, zucchini, and tomato seeds to germinate this weekend and with the exception of a rain storm coming through tomorrow for the duration of which they'll all be moved inside, the weather should be nice for the next full week to keep them outside for a long time to come. I've also put some rosemary cuttings in some water hoping they'll root. The bush I have is wildly out of control and I want to move some to the other corner yard as well. If they don't work, I'll just buy new transplats.
Below is the only battle wound sustained in yesterday's compost haul. The truck door and I had an altercation over how much clearance was actually needed to shut its door.

Think this looks bad? You should have seen the truck. Okay, so there wasn't a scratch on it, but whatever.

The morning did come early, and the girl marched into our room saying, "Guys...the big, bad morning is here!" Sweet summer gardening dreams.

Spreading the Fever

The weather has just been uncanny recently. Today I took advantage of that and me, the truck and trailer went to go fetch a load of compost and help my girlfriend make herself a super-awesome raised bed garden. The man helped fetch and tie down the compost and then I brought it to her and we unloaded the sucker. I think it's going to look great once she gets it planted!

Here's the whole corner. She's got two long beds and one square one in the middle.
Close up of one of the long beds:

and here you can see the back bed and the large box.

Do you see where it's all located!?!? In the corner of the yard. That's right! It's the other, other corner yard that my super abilities to plant suggestions in others' minds that led her to put the boxes in the corner yard. Corner yards ROCK!

Here we are enjoying the fruits of our labor. This is my girlfriend:

And here I am enjoying the sunshine.

It was a good day. Now I'm ready for a bath and so are the kids.

The morning comes early. Especially when the kids for some stinkin' reason decide to wake up earlier on the weekend than they do on the weekdays. They complain when we wake them up at 5:45 AM, but on a weekend, let's all just hop out of bed at 4:20, no problem!

*sigh* Sweet gardening dreams. ;)

Watch Out Harvest Monday. Here I Come!!!

One day soon, you will again be seeing me on Daphne's Harvest Monday. You can count on that. It's been a long, hard winter, but we've had such good weather recently that things are flushing out. I'm terrified, however, that a late cold snap like we always seem to have will wipe out all of my hopes and dreams of an early spring, but we'll play it by ear.

So far, the onions are looking great. If you can look between the black containers you'll see some planted broccoli. The front most container has celery in it, which I've declared to be the SLOWEST growing stinkin' veggie ever.

The lettuce has been transplated and loving its location.

I've got three garlic beds. This one is doing well.

This next one is doing well also, however it's the one in the other corner yard that keeps getting pilfered by rogue animals. This is the first time I've planted hardneck garlic. How will I know when to yank it?

Last year I had so much success with the potatoes in containers that I thought to try again. I've moved the location to behind the fence because they were all just unsightly in the front yard. They haven't gotten above the surface of the soil yet, but hopefully they will soon.

The girl saw and wanted purple potatoes, so I dug a furrow in the mid corner yard's beds and stuck them in there. Those, as well, haven't done anything worthwhile, so we'll see how they do given a few more weeks.

The cabbage can't be left out. It's coming along just fine as well.

As many of you know, my other venture that I'm absurdly passionate about is my side venture, Keychains for a Cause. So much has happened with the small business in the weeks following Christmas. Proceeds of the sales of the keychains go to support my school's Relay for Life Team. Since July (Granny was our first customer and started our ball rolling) we've sold 267 keychains. Not bad for a word of mouth business. We're donating 10 keychains to our school's Learning Center to give to students who were failing 2 or more classes and brought their averages up to a C or above! We've also added a ton of new designs including:

The teal ribbons for ovarian cancer awareness among other causes,

Red ribbon for AIDS and heart disease awareness among other causes,

Rally ribbon - who doesn't love a good race...and...if you look closely enough at this picture and the next....

Yes, I got my embroidery software back!

I'm not a super-stud with the embroidery, but it can be done now.

We also added three different kids of cat/dog ribbon and another horse pattern.

So, in my best efforts to pimp myself out, head on over to Keychains for a Cause and click on the 'order your keychains here' link on top and support our Relay team and get awesome keychains in return. You can also 'friend' our Facebook page and get all of our updates.

The morning comes early. Sweet fund-raising, gardening dreams.

Seeds weren't started...but...

The girl is four today! I can hardly believe it. The boy said he was glad she was four because maybe she'd start listening to him better now. He obviously doesn't recollect being four, himself.

Her shock-gift of the day came with a Rapunzel hair brush and book. She just loved that film and has taken to drawing stick figure Rapunzels on all of her papers at school.

Then, the best gift in the world came at night. Every Rapunzel needs a castle and Dad drew this one for her.
It's just perfect, isn't it.

The morning comes early. Sweet dreams, girl.

Potatoes are in!

I decided to do the potatoes in containers again since they worked out so well last year. I put them to bed this afternoon so we'll see how they do this year. I can't wait to do a roast potato dish with the yellow and purple potatoes. Yummy!

Still trying to decide about the carrots. I think I'll hold off on them until late summer/fall. Last spring they were spindly and I had to get them out of the ground quick to make room for other things. I really think I'll just wait even though it will be hard.

Off We Go!

Purple potatoes are in. Yellow potatoes are chitting on the counter. Lettuce and chard are planted. Broccoli and cabbage are nestled quietly.

Tomato seeds will get started tomorrow and possibly even the squash and zucchini since I got so wonderful of a head start on them last year I might try it again. The rest of the compost placed in tubs for distribution throughout the season.

Man, I forgot how much I loved spending the days outside. Now if only we could make this last and forestall the deadening heat of June and July, I'll be a happy girl.

The morning comes early, and we're gardening again, my friends. Sweet gardening dreams.

The World According to the GIrl

As we were getting dressed this morning:
"Well...I love Pilgrims, but if the Pilgrims were at the pizza store, I wouldn't talk to them because they're strangers."

It's only outdone by her telling me a while back, "Mommy...you're beautiful *pats my shoulder.* Just like a big, fat cow."

Heading out today to get some compost to amend the beds. Weighing the options of tilling up the beds and hopefully getting some of those possible bug/SVB eggs in the soil good and busted up and the possibility of also chopping up some of the worms I thought I've seen recently.

Tomorrow should find me transplanting some of that lettuce and broccoli and cutting the potatoes to plant in pots since that worked so well last year. It will be good to play in the dirt again.