how does your garden grow?

quite well, in fact!
had kale for breakfast and dinner today. so good.
tomato plants in their cages.
bok choy ready to be grubbed on.
radishes are nice and peppery.
carrots have beautiful greens on them.
and the beans are starting to grow up the lattice.

strawberry plant

as a thank you gift for throwing her a shower, lizzie got me this really fun strawberry planter. it came with soil pellets (just add water!) and teeny tiny strawberry seeds. it has a perfect home on the front steps next to the garlic, basil and parsley.

hens and chicks

when i think of summer time and my mother i think of soil and sweat and flowers and raspberries. my mother likes to garden. she grows beautiful flowers so she can fill vases around the house with plants from her yard. and she has a thumb for raspberries (and makes the best raspberry jam). she does it for herself and is not a perfectionist, which allows her to always enjoy her time outside in the garden and the yard. when it becomes "work" or tedious or inhibits other activities (like hanging out with family) she stops. i really admire this about her.

when she was in town a couple of weeks ago, she shared this love of greenery with me and bought me a dracena, a button fern, and hens and chicks. i channeled her and her gentle gardening hands late last week as i planted the fern and succulents in pots. here's to hoping i can keep them alive!

seedlings.

here are the beginnings of our precious little seedlings that are starting to sprout! inside we started cabbage, jalepenos, eggplant, cauliflower, broccoli, various peppers and six kinds of tomatoes. we're quite proud of how they're growing.

i wanted to use them as a background to showcase the awesome new postage stamps the usps debuted recently. i'm a geek for postage stamps. as i've been quite disappointed with the selection this year i was pleasantly surprised to find these go green guys on a recent trip to the postal office to send an ollie's package. each stamp has a different directive for ways to live green. simple things really. and i suggest you take a look if you are wondering in what ways you can simplify your living and minimize your carbon foot print.

getting our hands dirty

this year jp and i bought our grab-bag tin of seeds from baker creek. we've never planned our harvest so far in advance and were giddy to begin. after we organized the seeds, made a planting chart, and gathered all the appropriate tools, jp and i headed out on a shady tuesday afternoon to the gardens to sow some seeds. jp and i were astounded by how unique many of the seeds look. we've never had such a variety in our possession so we were squealing with delight over how exotic seeds from simple veggies can look.

we use square foot gardening to plan our plantings and we've found that it really makes weeding quite easy. additionally, it makes the most use of small space and seems to increase the bounty. last year we didn't plant too much: some tomatoes, squashes, greens (most bolted), cabbage (which failed us), zucchini (was coming out of our ears) and some other miscellaneous green goodies. this year, there's a whole lot more variety and we're using discarded crib sides we found in the alley to train our pea and bean vines. we're quite proud of our head start.

we use planting mix that we get from the local landscape supply store and we supplement that with nutrient-rich soil from our chicken pen (which is our compost bin). thank you, ladies.

can't wait to see what bounty we get!

garden beds

last week jonathan built us some fancy new garden beds. we've started some seedlings inside and are currently making our plan for planting other seeds directly in the beds.

so much to do. so much good food soon!

remants of past lives

when we moved into jason street last august there was a rose bush that had already bloomed and wilted for the season. this year, we got to see it in action. as the buds grew and bloomed and thrived and became more and more vivid, i wondered about the owners that have lived before us in this 100 year old house. who planted it? what care did they take? how proud of it were they and how excited were they each spring that they saw it bloom?there's a lot of neglect that needs to be cared for in our yards. i like this glimpse of intentionality and concern for beauty that the homemakers before us planted. and through writing this i have decided that, even though i have grand plans for xeriscaping, this rose bush is not going anywhere.