news from the garden

Please keep in mind that I'm a craft blogger, not a gardener, while reading this.

We took all of the wonderful suggestions that you gave us for good things for kids to grow and planted what we could find and also what interested the kids. Our crop was to consist of: tomatoes (in pots), cucumbers, corn, sunflowers, red and yellow peppers. At the last minute we decided to put pumpkins on the side of the house where I realized I'd never have time to finish putting in perennials.

Guess what's doing the best? I cannot believe that these were once four, 6 inch seedlings. In fact, this picture is over a week old and the vines have now covered that window. (Sob! That was the natural light that came in on my sewing machine.) I believe we have Audrey 2 growing out there and I'm expecting to be missing a child any day now. Not only that, but we have two rogue pumpkin plants growing on the side of the garage (which is not attached to the house and about 70 feet away from these plants). I have no idea how they got there. I so hope we get some pumpkins from all this because the kids and neighbors are way excited about these plants.



The tomatoes did well and we've eaten most of our harvest. Did I take pictures of those? No. I told you, I'm a craft blogger, not a gardener or a foodie.

As for our garden on the side of the garage that was supposed to get plenty of sun, enjoyed a season of lots of rain and got some compost from the landscapers - well, not such good news. The animals claimed all the corn before it was taller than Trixie. Four of the six sunflowers have suffered the same fate. Glenn did discover two cucumbers this week, so that's good news. Nothing on the pepper front other than tiny plants. At least they aren't dead.

This is not a sunflower that we planted. It's growing near the fenceline about 20 feet from the kids' garden plot. I thought it was a weed for some time and since it was growing when it was hot and humid (we did have a week of that here), I spent that week indoors ignoring yardwork. Once I finally went to pull it, I noticed that the flower head, which hadn't bloomed yet, looked oddly familiar. Glenn and I decided to let it be. This is what we got a week later.

Next year, I might just wait to see what grows on its own.

in progress

I should be putting projects I've finished on here, but this picture has a background that thrills me to no end. My lawn!!! It's green and soft and full. All that work last spring - watering the seeds, turning into old lady MacGyver yelling at the kids to stay away from it - it paid off! Not much shows around the quilt, but trust me, it's there. I've been doing handwork out in the yard just to enjoy it. This might be the year I go from an inside sort of girl - to an outdoor girl.

The quilt - it's another doll quilt from Prairie Children and their Quilts. I really am planning to do every single one in the book. I wasn't kidding about it being an obsession.

The twist here is that I'm hand quilting it. I know, I swore I'd never do it again. However, since I've been going to the quilting group on Tuesdays, my interest has been peaked. I see all these women hand quilting week after week and I started thinking, "Maybe teaching myself was part of the problem. I'll bet it'd be a lot easier if I asked for a lesson." That's exactly what I did last Tuesday. Jan showed me how she did it. Elaine said not to watch her because she doesn't follow any rules(yet she turns out beautiful work constantly). Turns out Carmel was hand quilting for the first time(I'd have never known it). I think I'll pick a new spot each week to sit and observe. Before long I should be on my way.

Just watching Jan for a few minutes made a world of difference. What I've learned: It's okay to ditch the hoop, I need a good thimble(I've yet to find one that was comfortable to work with - right now I use those little stick on leather pads), the key to rocking the needle for me was to push the fabric on top down with another finger(I'm sure that makes no sense without a video - sorry).

This one is half done! It's hard to see because I'm quilting in the ditch.

Also in progress: My studio and my quilt.

This is a possible layout of fabric for the backing.

I've yet to put pictures of the studio up because it kept evolving. By evolving I mean that I kept taking over more space in the basement until I finally moved the kids out of the back part completely and claimed it all as my own. As I finish it up, I'll post pictures. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of the month. Carol is coming to visit and I want it in order for her.

the kids

First, thanks for all the nice comments about the stairs! I'm so thrilled to have that job behind me. It was a big one, but not very technical or hard to do. About all you need is a staple gun and some time to do the same. Oh, almost forgot - you'll need some advil the next day for your arms.

The kids have asked for a vegetable garden this year. They got the wrong mother.

Still, we're going to give it a go in a very limited way. We have one spot that gets enough sun - next to the garage - which has now been turned over to them. We're going to limit what we grow to the seedlings we can buy from the youth group sale at church. I've put a rain barrel on the side of the house so they can get water without running the hose. This really is going to be up to them. I do great with gardening stuff for about a month - from now until it gets hot. Them I'm out. Needless to say, I stick to drought tolerant and native plants because they don't get much help from me.

Any suggestions as to what would be easy for them that we should scoop up at the sale? We're also going to do tomatoes in a pot near the back door and some basil in a pot for dad to cook with. I'd like it to be a positive experience for them, so the easier the better for now.

This was Trixie's idea of helping.

the lawn - phase 2

We're still on the road and hoping to be home sometime late tonight. I took the updated lawn pictures the day before we left last week. With any luck we'll return to an even greener lawn. (Our neighbor, whom I refer to as "the lawn whisperer", has been overseeing the watering in our absence.)

before:

two weeks later:
before:
two weeks later:
What's come in so far has been the rye grass part of the mix. By the end of next week, all the types should have had time to germinate. Then I get to start picking out the little weeds that have come in along with the grass. Fun.

I may not post on Thursday because I'll be in the middle of unpacking and a mountain of laundry. See you Friday.

the yard - phase one

This is the year. Every year we say, "next year we're going to fix the lawn". And every year another season passes us by. But not this time. The electricity went out in the garage last fall and the only way to fix the problem was to run a new line out there. That meant a trench was dug through the lawn. (I use the term "lawn" loosely because our lawn was really a small patch of clover and creeping charlie with a few blades of grass trying desperately to claim some ground.)

Replacing the grass in the area that was trenched became a good reason to get off our bums and get moving.

Phase one - kill off all the nasty stuff.

While I wait, I'm enjoying a few new plants. As much as I think I want a cottage type garden I'm drawn to more exotic things at the garden center. These are asiatic lilies. I believe this one is 'tiny ghost'.

And for Poppy, a poppy that just bloomed. Good thing I took a picture, because the recent storms have blown off all the petals.

The landscapers have since come and removed the dead stuff, added new mulch and seeded. Today we noticed a green hue out there! More pictures as things progress.