Behind My Garden Gate

Every year that we've had a garden I've been determined to do a photo journal of it. But between planting, weeding, fertilizing, staking, watering, harvesting I barely make it to the end of the season to take the perfunctory picture of our efforts. But this year I've been snapping away. And so, with that, I inflict upon you pictures of our picket fence garden.


Here is the garden in mid-April. There is a raised bed on the south end of the garden that we used to plant strawberries in until I let them go to seed one year and we had the worst berries in the world. They were about the size of the tip of my pinky finger and very chewy. Weird. So we tilled that under this year and put our peas in there instead. (Note: we do everything in our garden from seed and if at all possible harvest seeds from the previous years plantings to nurture in a mini-greenhouse over the cold winter months. We direct seed peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach and onions. Everything else we plant in the greenhouse about mid-January to start as seedlings.)

Do you see the arbor Jason made for me out of one of our fallen trees from the ice storm? I absolutely love it. I'm not of the "Let's head to Lowe's and buy something plastic." arbor mind-set. He used the tree limbs and branches from a seventy year old pin oak to make this arbor. I have planted morning glories and a clematis to climb up it. They are slowly making their way up the bottom, but you can't see it in this picture. Also it was mid-April and they were about three inches high at this juncture.

This is the view looking south at towards the raised bed. All the foliage behind the raised bed is a kiwi arbor. It is actually hardy-kiwi not the kind with the furry shell you buy at the store. Our winters are too cold here to allow us to grow that variety. This kind is more like a grape-you eat the whole fruit. Last year I made jelly out of them which was a gigantic pain in my ass and I will never do it again. The girls usually stand under the arbor and pick as high as they can reach and eat them until they are sick. They do that with our cherry tree too. Sit under it and spit the pits.

In this picture you can see our garlic, onions, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, bush beans and the start of my gigantic 3 foot high marigolds. I'm convinced that the reason we never have to use any pesticides on our plants is because of my marigolds. We never have rabbit problems and our tomatoes never have bug problems. I plant them from seed and they get to be at least waist high. Also, we order ladybugs in the mail and set them free to eat the aphids on our lettuce. Two years ago I found the girls out there with a jar catching all the ladybugs.




These pictures were taken about three weeks ago. Everything is a little bigger and Jason was building our tomato cages. He makes them out of branches and ties them together with twine. They are so cute. He is obsessed with his tomatoes and is kind of like a little old man out there talking to them and checking on them. He always plants way too many and we inflict them on all our friends and neighbors.

So that's it. I can't rouse myself to get out of my jim jams this morning and walk out and take more pictures. Everything's much bigger and we are harvesting some lettuce and radishes. We also put in our jalapeno peppers and banana peppers. We plan to put in squash and okra this afternoon. Jason also has a corn patch to the north of the picket fence garden. He has about 7 rows of early sweet corn coming up. I have also convinced him to till a pumpkin patch for me again this year even though he hates growing pumpkins. I love it! I love having the girls go out and pick their own pumpkins from the backyard. This year I plan to feed one milk because I hear that makes them gi-normous! We also have an apple tree, an herb garden, a cherry tree and an asparagus patch.

Okay, so shield your eyes so you are not overcome with cute-ness! Ready. I'm serious. Only look through parted fingers. Ready?
Molly's piano recital was yesterday and every year the students play their two songs and then do a duet. This year Molly did her duet with Jacy and it was just about the cotton candy sweetest thing you have ever seen. Ever. Seen. (Aside: I see all you bloggers out there taking my period. emphasis. to. make. your. points. You think I don't see you??? Piracy! She cries! Just kidding.) Jacy was soooooo nervous! She sat by me in the audience because her duet with Molly wasn't until the very end and she kept looking at the program and counting how many were before her! It was adorable. She got a teensy bouquet of roses just a little smaller than Molly's afterwards for her valiant effort! Her violin recital is next Saturday.



Our pool is open and the kids are begging me to let them swim even though the water is about 60 degrees. I stuck my feet in yesterday and they were numb when I pulled them out. I'm thinking about letting them get in today and see how long they last. It's actually a very warm weekend here. I was so hot yesterday and we got the elephant sprinkler out.



I'm soooooooo ready for summer! So. Ready. The kids have another 9 days of school left and they are so checked out already. I can taste summer like a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich. I love summertime when I can de-program my kids from school and the influence of their sassy friends. When we have nothing planned and we just get up one morning and decide what to do over breakfast. I love vacations and road trips and ball games and crafts and barbecues. I love playdates and swimming and sleepovers. Roll on summer!

Here are my favorite images of summer.

Clothes drying on a line. Fireflies. Wild blackberries and cobbler. Homemade ice cream. The smell of new plastic pool toys. Picnics. Trips to the lake with the boat. Roses on a picket fence. Saturday morning farmers' markets. Swimming. Beach umbrellas. Lemonade. Sun tea. Barbecues. Fireworks and watermelon and sitting on the back deck laughing with the neighbors while the kids run around sweaty in the dark.

Is it here yet?