Naturally Optimistic

It's been so much fun seeing how much our little tiny raised bed garden is producing. And it was an experiment year. Due to an over zealous husband while I was away....we ended up with 17 tomato plants in our one little bed! While we have REALLY been enjoying tomato plants, they pretty much crowded out the beans, cukes & peppers. So this year we have lots of tomatoes, a couple of squash & that's about it! Next year the tomatoes are going in their own bed, or in pots so we can grow a few other things! August can eat his weight in grape tomatoes, daily. Wish we had a couple of those plants. I miss having fresh green beans & zucchini, but I'll make sure there's room for them next year. I'm surprised we're getting as much as we are. We got 10" of rain (in one day) the week after we planted the garden & we've been experiencing horrible drought like conditions ever since. I am looking forward to growing more next year! It's amazin...

Steve has been busy creating this tree garden in our yard this spring. He's been transplanting hybrid poplars & white pines and even a maple from other areas of our yard to this place where he's digging up the turf (very tough, btw). He's also planting some new cedar & spruces which he just bought this year (and then exclaimed "I have to stop buying trees!"). He also has been doing an experiment where he takes cuttings from the hybrids and places those either in dirt or water to see if root development will start and to see if THEY will turn into trees. These photos are from a few weeks ago - there is more "garden" now and more trees in said garden....hopefully by the end of the summer things will really have taken root (including the ornamental grasses & wildflowers that I'm planning on adding to the mix.

To celebrate Earth Day last Saturday, I had intended on participating in the city's "Clean & Green" program with Miss M (my mentee). Saturday rolled around, however, and we found ourselves to be deluged in April Showers. And very cool temps. So instead of chucking the whole idea out the window, I enlisted Miss M to help me start my seeds...which we did inside. We planted peppers, mini-pumpkins, spearmint, rosemary, marigolds, ornamental grass and two kinds of sunflowers. The most fun, however, was digging in the dirt. At first I thought Miss M was going to chicken out and use the little shovel the whole time...but I didn't push her and as I got my hands dirty - slowly but surely - so did she! By the end of our planting session she said "I just LOVE digging in the dirt." I'm hoping this leads to more joint gardening projects this summer. I am looking forward to tending to this plants with her and watching our hard work produce some great results! Righ...