Lonesome Carrot

Over the summer of last year, we planted carrots. None of it came up and we forgot all about it. Then one day, we saw big green leaves. We thought it was a carrot, but it was almost a year old, it couldn't be. We pulled it up and sure enough it was a carrot! The seed must not have sprouted until later on in the season. Or last least that's what I'm saying...It's much better than saying we ate a carrot that was a year old. Ha!

It was actually pretty good. It tasted a little more like dirt than store bought carrots. I'm not quite sure why or whether it was normal. This was our first one ever! 

This is the start of her perfection to the eye rolls. It's funny now, not so much when she is doing it to you.

Grapes Galore

We have these two grape stalks that I got as a bare root when we first moved here over 5 years and they are such great producers. We always have more than enough! One year I picked over 3 bags worth of Trader Joes size paper bags. Now I need to figure out how to can/preserve these yummy seedless Thompson grapes!!! 

One thing about having massive amounts of grapes is fighting off the birds. It makes me very sympathetic to the wineries around here. Although it is kinda fun to see the kids try to shoo away the birds. Free entertainment!!!

Bountiful Garden

It is such a treat in the summer time to go out in the garden every morning and see what kind of goodness our garden has for us. We have just a side yard, but we sure get more than enough fruits and veggies. We also love to share our bounty with friends and family. We eat lots of cucumbers and tomatoes so we plant lots of those! With the drought conditions we are having now, we might not have a garden this summer. This makes me very sad. We'll keep praying for the rain!!!

Pallet Repurpose Project

Our backyard is very plain and we have lived here for 6 years. Time to do something about it. Add something, anything. I began perusing Craigslist for free pallets. Our first one was from a house around the neighborhood. It had been used to deliver some fencing material. It was nice and sturdy. I was hooked and so excited to get more pallets. In the next weeks, there was a posting for a bunch of free pallets in Petaluma. I, eager to get more, asked John to go get some...It ended up being all the way out by the raceway. Um that wasn't exactly the Petaluma that I was thinking of. It was John's only day off and I sent him on a wild goose chase for some pallets that were not in good shape. The worst part was that his cell was dying as he was gone and we didn't have the charger in the car. I was a bit worried when 3 hours later he hadn't made it home yet. I don't know if I'm ever allowed to ask him to pick up pallets ever again! 

These are reassembled pieces of the pallet. This was a family effort. Magnus learned how to pull nails from wood and how to hammer without busting his thumb. It was a hard lesson.

In the end, this was a lot of work. I would do it again though. Magnus was able to glean a lot out of this project. Plus it does add a lot of colors to the yard. There are huge orange/yellow blooms of begonias, yellow alstroemeria, and purple flowers.

Our Own Planter Boxes

For the longest time, I have always wanted to make our own planter boxes. Every year it was always on the to do list, but it never made it because I was too impatient and would rather plan my plants right away instead of waiting for the boxes to be made.This year, I planned ahead and started in Feb! Yep that right! A whole 3 months before the officially planting season. But it worked because here we have them!!!

We bought the lumber at Home Depot. It was a long piece that we had cut to fit our yard space. In all we spent a little over $40.00 Not too pricey I say! 

These are lined with chicken wire at the bottom, just in case we ever get any critters that might want to eat up my goodies. 

I also put in a few layers of paper bags from Trader Joes to help with weed control. Hopefully that works! These are looking so good and because they are a little taller I don't have to stoop so low when I do have to work on them. A plus for my back! Hooray for planning ahead!!!

Our Prolific Grape Plant

I am so excited about our grapes! We've had these guys for 3 years now and they have been giving us grapes abundantly for 2. I have to say that I have not done too much with this plant. It just wants to grow and give us yummy fruit. I am very okay with that!



We have nibblers in the name of Soph and Magnus that likes to see if they are sweeten yet.



Peek a boo, I see you delicious-ness!

Our grapes

This is the second year that these have been planted and they are already yielding such amazing tasting grapes. I am so proud of these babies. Having an edible garden has been great. Since these are in the front yard, anytime we leave the house, you can see us in front of our vine sampling them. Even Soph gets in on the action!

Our Bounty

Isn't that amazing??? All we had to do was purchase the plant, dig a hole in the ground and remember to water daily. Or in our case whenever we remembered, which could go as long as 4 days! We try our hands at gardening every year and so far we have not been disappointed. Magnus loves to help out too. Pretty soon our darling girl will be able to join in on the fun. We used the zucchini for a stir fry, the cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes in different salads. They were all delicious.

The seeds are growing!

So it looks like the cucumbers are definitely growing and then we also have some zucchini that are slowly sprouting up. You can't see in this photo, but the watermelon is up to something. Hopefully in a few days we can see more of it. Now we have to seperate these into smaller containers and hopefully they continue to strive.

Seeding starts

Magnus and I planted some seeds into this egg crate while Sopheary took a nap one afternoon. Hopefully this works. We have a row of watermelon seeds, cucumbers, cayenne peppers, and zucchini. Magnus is really excited about the watermelon . He thinks that it will grow to the size of the ones that we buy at the store. I think he'll be excited for whatever grows from that since last year his seedling never grew. So we'll see if anything grows from this. I've never done seed starts this way.