Anne & Tissues...

Things were a little quiet around here, so Lucy started reading Anne of Green Gables. You know what a tear jerker it can be!

Mostly about a mid week update...

An excerpt from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery.

"What is the name of that geranium on the windowsill, please?"

"That's the apple-scented geranium."

"Oh, I don't mean that sort of a name. I mean just a name you gave it yourself. Didn't you give it a name? May I give it one then? May I call it - let me see - Bonney would do - may I call it Bonny while I'm here? Oh do let me!" 

"Goodness, I don't care. But where on earth is the sense of naming a geranium?"

"Oh, I like things that have handles even if they are only geraniums. It makes them seem more like people. How do you know but that it hurts the geraniums's feelings just to be called geranium and nothing else? You wouldn't like to be called nothing but woman all the time. Yes, I shall call it Bonny. I named that cherry tree outside my bedroom window this morning. I called it Snow Queen because it was so white. Of coure, it won't always be in blossom, but one can imagine that it is, can't one?"

This was a conversation between Anne and Marilla, but it got me thinking. Maybe that is why some of my plants don't grow well! If I named them, they might do better. Feeling the love and all. Only time will tell. 

For this Wednesday, I thought I'd take you on a short walk through the garden, knowing how much you've been wondering how it growing. 

Lucy can lead the way.

First, step into the garage, these are the (from left to right) Cucumber starts, Summer squash start (some didn't germinate, so I started more last weekend) and Starship summer squash. 

Here are Lucian, Heather, George, Godfrey, and Kevin

Out front we'll pass the bird feeder, so you may as well see that the gold finches have arrived. Also our Flicker is back. He likes to hang onto the bird feeders tipping them over and the food falls all around him. In the picture, he's trying out the suet squares we made.

Now to the garden. On the right you can see our strawberries. They are growing well, but no flowers - and therefore no fruit quite yet. 

This is Phyllis, Horace, James, Jim, Redwood, Scarlett, George, George II, and George III.

The raspberries are only in their beginning phase of transplanted life, but each are showing signs of growing and that sure makes mama happy. Within a few years we'll have more than we can keep up with.

The herb garden is only beginning, but growing well. There is garlic, chives, chocolate mint, parsley, oregano, and thyme.

Now to the main garden. The first bed here, is red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, spinach, green onions, broccoli, bush beans (nothing showing quite yet) and peas in back. 

Say hello to herbert. 

Here is Lillian

Jeffery, alice, and Jamie.

In the second bed, we have carrots, radishes, beets, more broccoli (these are transplanted starts), and storage yellow onions.

Red, Balmy, and Phillip

these transplanted broccoli seem to be doing alright in this mild weather. 

A clump of storage onions (Margery, Megan, and Michelle

Walla walla onions in a side 4X4 frame

The poor asparagus isn't doing well, but hasn't handed in its dinner pail yet.

I love how the water drops lay on the flower right after a nice refreshing rain.

The last stop is the back yard cold frame. We planted everything here last winter, and have been eating from them since march 16th. We are through all of the radishes, but the lettuce and spinach is doing very well. Most of the Pac Choi bolted, but one plant is still producing. 

One side of our cold frame. Carrots, radishes, and beets. A stray red leaf lettuce is also growing. I call him Lost.

One side of our cold frame. Beets, Red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, Spinach, and pac choi

 Well, that's the grand tour. I hope you have enjoyed yourself! We hope to see you around here again soon.

Saturday Morning Jubilee...

What would you do if you woke up early, emptied the rat traps (#4), cleaned out the area where corn is going to be planted this evening, cleaned out the old radishes in preparation to plant more, opened the cold frame and saw that there is a lot of delicious lettuce, pac choi, and spinach that might bolt if not eaten? Why, make a spinach omelet of course!

Well, that's what Lucy and I did. We chopped up some spinach, ham from the pig out in the sty, mushrooms from the mushroom block in the root cellar, and some tomatoes from our hot house - well almost. We don't have any pigs in the back, or a root cellar full of mushroom blocks, or even a hot house (yet) so I settled for stealing from the refrigerator instead (until we get all of those, Safeway and Walmart keep a good supply for us). We all have our dreams though, and I imagined that was where we got all of the ingredients. It makes you feel like ma kettle or maybe Laura Ingles Wilder's pa. 

Then we sat down at the dining room table (possibly hewn from a large tree during the winter snows) and watched the birds eat their breakfast in the front yard. 

Lucy thought it was delicious, but contented herself with "Hot." Which of course means, "Gosh, dad, that was smokin' hot delicious!"

Tootaloo for now and I hope your breakfast was as entertaining and fun as mine! and for the PacNorWesterners in my area, Enjoy the sunshine!

I chopped up Spinach, Ham, Mushrooms, and Maters. The cheese we melted on the top.

Omelet w/ parsley and chocolate mint to garnish (fresh from the herb garden of course) 

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Mostly about Sparrow Hawks and holly hocks... except the holly hock part

We had a visit from the neighborhood sparrow hawk. He swooped in like he owned the place and scattered all of the little birds like chaff in the wind. Then, realizing dinner was gone, he stalked around a bit, kicking random pieces of dirt and muttering to himself. I think he'll be back as we have lots of birds living on the "you-provide-food-we-provide-the-entertainment" plan. 

It was also Lucy's 2nd birthday on Friday. We invited over a small host of friends and had lots of cake, cupcakes, coffee and candy - with some carrots on the side. We are the kind of family that doesn't want to spoil our girls and teach them that there are entitlements. We don't own the Taj Mahal, but we are happy and thankful for what the good Lord provides. So that being said, we only got her a small kitchen, a potty training chair, a dish set for the kitchen, a few Toys-r-us specials, those few outfits she couldn't do without, a watering can... well anyway not very much. And all over her friends did the same, a small bike, (thanks grandma Kathy) a baby, a tea set, lots of crayons and coloring books, chalk, and so on. So, as you can tell we are keeping to our guidelines and not giving her anything that is not part of the absolute necessities of childhood. ;-)  She was grateful and muttered a quick "ya-ya" which for those of you who don't speak her language means thank you. Then she pointed to the next present and said "Prize!" (we are working on that)

More pictures from the weekend...

I always take a lot more pictures that I post, so here is a short video of a few more from this last weekend...

Tacoma Home and Garden Show!

Today was quite  an eventful day. We started by trying to clean up some of the large branches broken by the recent storm. I say try because we failed in some of the instances. It seems that we may need an expert after all. This may not be a "do it yourself" type of clean up.

After that, we went to the Tacoma Home and Garden Show. As usual the land scape companies create a beautiful display and you think, "Why can't my yard look like that?" I'm sure for the right price it could. However, until then I'll muddle along. They also had some nice waterfall/pond ideas. Someday I will do this, but it will be in the post dog era of our lives. Right now, our labs would love it if we had a pond for them to jump in... but they'll have to keep on wishing.
I think that I did well, I set a budget and only spent 19 cents more. I saw the springs promise hellebore that I've been eyeing and kept walking. There were other nice ones too, but instead we came away withA Tree Peony (Mo Guan Yu Chi). I've never heard of them, but they sound simple to care for (partial to full sun and don't overwater) and I like peonies. The tree idea should help because our other peonies always flop after a bit. If I'm proactive I do the staking, but usually I find their fallen remains laying this way and that.
We also got some Miss Lucy Oriental Lilies and a couple of reblooming day lilies for the garden border. The people at the stands actually worked for the companies and with the flowers, so they were a wealth of info about the hows and watch out for's.
Last of all, Cisco from Gardening with Cisco, master gardener extraordinair, and self promoter of brussel sprouts was on hand doing his Saturday radio show. We listened in a bit and then got a picture, posted below. Lucy wasn't quite sure what to think, but someday she'll start being nice to people we don't know, saying hi and what not, and we'll have to teach her that you don't just say hi to everyone you meet. (The troubles of parenting!)
So, lots of fun and now I get to do more planting! The ground has been intermittently freezing, but we'll get them into their new homes soon.

Spoils of War

Mini Blogger learning how.

Who could pass up that name?

Cisco, Lucy, and I

Lucy and Helen enjoying the home and garden show.

Snow Day #2

Upon waking up this morning, the realization that there was no chance of working or much else, we decided to play in the snow instead. We started by following Catherine's (a gardener in progress) example and make our snow gardeners, except I need to finish our raised beds and trellises so I gave ours a nail gun. 

Since all of the flowers were under 6" of snow, a little imagination, food coloring and water in a spray bottle made a snow flower. It was supposed to be a primrose, but then it may have gotten mixed up with the pansies - so don't hold me to which kind it is now.  

Lastly, in spite of the snow, there were lots of song birds out frolicking. They are fun to watch and listen to as they go about foraging for seeds. All in all it was a non productive fun day! 

Snow gardeners complete with nail gun and rakes. 

Lucy is helping with the Eyes an Noses

It's a new kind of snow flower

Not much water to drink or bathe in!

snow day #1 2012

The way a crow

Shook down on me

The dust of snow

From a hemlock tree

Has give my heart

A change of mood

And saved some part

Of a day I had rued.

      

                             Robert Frost

We woke up to a small amount of snow this morning. I don't exactly dislike the snow, but I know it makes lots of people happy. Lucy was too young to remember last winter's snowfall, so we went out looking for fun. About 15 seconds later we came back. She called it "ucky" and that was her last word for now. There is always next year.

Below the snow photos are a few blooms. It's gardeners bloom day for January. I wasn't going to post because there isn't much right now, but after seeing the not much en everyone else's garden, I felt a little better. Spring is coming...
Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens to see what others around the world have blooming now.

whoops...a little over exposed, but you see the snow. Front Yard

Back Yard

Can we come out and play?

Primroses are hiding from the snow

The weight of the snow may be too much for this little guy.

Is this blooming?