Gardening, kids, and the stuff that goes with it....

Strawberries

2010-04-20T23:01:00.005-05:00

Some of our strawberries aren't doing too well, but the ones that are growing are really tasty! They just melt in your mouth.

I'm wondering if it got too cold for them. I planted the bare roots in October. I also rooted several runner plants around the same time (from the bare root plants.) The plants that are doing well are the runner plants that I put in the ground after the cold weather. I wonder why those are doing better. I would think the other plants would have a better root system. hmmm....

E doesn't really care - she just wants me to hurry up and take her picture so she can eat the strawberry.

Hello? Is this thing on?

2010-04-11T23:54:00.002-05:00

We're back! The garden is growing wildly, and I have a ton of photos to share. So stay tuned. To tide you over until then, here is a photo of one of our newest acquisitions to our backyard garden.

Cold and the last butterfly

2009-12-03T19:22:00.006-06:00

We are supposed to have snow flurries in San Antonio tomorrow. While the boys are imagining building snowmen and throwing snowballs, what it really means is a few snowflakes and a possibly frozen garden.

We picked the last of our cucumbers and red tomatoes. We picked a few green toms for some salsa, but we still have a ton of green toms on the vine. It is supposed to get down to 26 degrees, and I'm pretty sure the toms won't survive that. I'll probably go out tonight and pick some more.
We also picked the last of our green beans. We had an awesome harvest this year. These beans were great to eat right off the vine. Check out M's open mouth down below - he's getting ready to insert a green bean.
The boys found a butterfly. It was obviously too cold for the little thing, as it couldn't fly and was having trouble walking. They wanted to bring it inside so it could warm up and fly away and they were disappointed when I told them it probably wouldn't work - it was just the butterfly's time to go since they don't live well in cold weather. They started talking about it being the last butterfly and how they wish butterflies could live inside and live forever and couldn't they just build it a little house inside with flowers just for a little while.....sigh.

They were a little more cheery when I suggested that the butterfly came to our garden since we have the best dill (for laying eggs) and cosmos (for eating) in the neighborhood, and we are sure to see the caterpillars in the spring.

Quick chicken update:

We finally finished expanding our chicken run. Now the chickens can come out and forage more often and we don't have to worry about tying up our dog.

Today's Harvest

2009-11-24T19:33:00.002-06:00

Tomatoes are coming in nicely. We are still getting a few peppers and okra. And I think I can report that our chinese noodle beans have been our summer/fall bumper crop. We've been eating them almost every day, and the kids haven't gotten tired of them yet. I'm going to plant more of these next year for canning and freezing.

The gourd is trapped.

2009-10-31T21:28:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure what to do about this gourd. Somehow it had a massive growth spurt in between the times we checked on it, and it is now lodged in the trellis. The boys would like to cut the trellis and save the gourd because ( and I quote) "It looks like a butt!!!!" And what is cooler to a 9 and 5 year old than a butt shaped gourd?

Butt I don't think I have anything that will cut through the trellis - it's pretty thick metal. Although the gourd seems stronger - it's already bowing out the metal on one side.

E doesn't seem to care - she's too busy deciding which piece of okra to eat first - tough decisions!

Grubby grubs

2009-10-27T19:43:00.005-05:00

I have decided to grow garlic this year. In preparation, I put horse manure in one of the raised beds back in June. I let it sit there until I was ready to plant the garlic (planting dates are usually in Oct. here in Texas). As I was digging in the horse manure (which composted beautifully - the dirt looked good enough to eat!) we found several beetle grubs. We normally find a few small ones in our other beds - they come from june beetles (but we usually call them June bugs).

These were bigger than we had seen before. Maybe better dirt (or manure) equals bigger grubs? Or maybe a larger beetle found our manure pile tasty.

Well, our chickens LOVE grubs. Love, love, love. They actually fight each other other these things. So, we spent a while grub hunting for the chickens.

Look how happy the grub hunter is as he holds his catch.

As we continued our dig, we apparently uncovered a couple busy making baby grubs:

Yep. Two little june bugs getting busy in my garlic bed. Isn't nature exciting?

This blog may be dying, but my garden is not!

2009-10-27T19:29:00.007-05:00

And I have the pictures to prove it:

Red zebra tomatoes

Broccoli (with bonus volunteer basil plants!)

Chinese noodle green beans

Birdhouse gourds

And okra is still producing pretty well:

The recent rains have brought new life to the garden - it was amazing how quickly everything sprang to life. Our peppers are still producing, and I was able to get some strawberry plants for our first ever strawberry bed.

Earth Oven (the big one!)

2009-09-14T22:04:00.018-05:00

Well, we didn't wait long after building our mini earth oven to start building a larger one. We're still not done. Our projects seem to take longer since we have 3 little helpers running the project with us.

We are trying to do this as cheaply as possible. So far, we have spent only $39 on supplies - mostly sand (the kids keep absconding with it - I think we need to build them a sandbox)

Alrighty - we began with a circular foundation, made from large pavers (obtained free from our neighbor). We only dug about 4 inches down into the ground since they ground rarely freezes here. In areas where freezing is more common, the foundation should be dug deeper down to provide more stability.
The outside of our foundation. And, yes, that is our littlest one minus her clothing. I don't know what happens. When I bring her out, she is fully dressed. I turn around, and her clothing has disappeared.
We filled the foundation with old broken concrete, rocks, and broken bricks. We had most of this lying around in our backyard.

We filled the foundation the rest of the way with small gravel (free from craigslist!). Then we put in several glass wine bottles (thanks Josie!) for insulation (helps the heat from escaping down into the foundation)

We filled the spaces inbetween the glass bottles with our insulation mix - clay slip (basically watered down clay) and perlite. We couldn't find a source of sawdust, and the book recommended perlite as a good second. We formed a ring with bricks (free from Julie - thanks!) to surround the oven mix (clay and sand) that would form the foundation for our hearth floor.

The hearth floor - the earth oven book recommends using fire brick. We were unable to locate a free or cheap source in our area - there aren't that many fireplaces in our part of Texas. The books says that unglazed saltillo tiles might work well, and my husband was able to get all 6 of these for less than $5 at a tile store. They don't butt up against each other as closely as we would like, but we are going to see if they work out for us.

Building the sand dome - I think this was everyone's favorite part. Who doesn't like playing with sand? We made ours 16 inches high - like the book recommends.

We're mixing up the soil for the first layer of the oven. This is a mix of clay, sand, and water. The clay we got from our own yard. The sand we purchased from the home improvement store. Everyone had muddy feet after this!
We're adding the first layer of the earth oven. It goes on four inches thick around the sand dome. The sand dome was covered with newspaper to prevent the clay from sticking to it.

All done! Doesn't it look beautiful?

A few cracks started to form a couple hours later. We just filled them in with more building soil.
After about 4 hours, we went back and cut out the door. Then we started firing up the oven - this is more to help it dry out than to cook anything. The oven won't perform at it's best until it is totally dry. Since it's been raining (yea!) it's really moist out (it started raining after we lit the fire - hence the tarp).
You can see at the top of the door, and at the very top of the oven where the clay is getting lighter and is drying.

It will probably take a couple days and a couple more firings until we add the next insulating layer, so stay tuned!

Persimmons

2009-09-11T21:44:00.006-05:00

We have a persimmon tree in our backyard. They start to bloom early in the year - around March. Then they grow all the way thru September. If you pick one too soon, you'll know it. Unripe persimmons are full of tannins - it feels like your cheeks are getting sucked inward by a strong vacuum. No kidding.

So, we usually wait until they are just starting to turn orange, then we pick them and let them ripen on our countertop.

If we wait too long, the birds get them:Here they are, waiting to be picked:We usually let most of them ripen, and then we scoop out the flesh and save the pulp for making muffins, breads, etc. The pulp freezes really well. They also taste awesome when eaten fresh. But they all seem to ripen at the same time, so they don't last long.

Mini earth oven

2009-09-06T21:14:00.010-05:00

We have been wanting to build an earth oven for a while, and we decided to try and make a "mini" oven this weekend to test out our building soil and our technique. It was a lot of fun, and we were so impressed by how easy it was, that we are going to start the foundation for a bigger one soon. The book we are using is Build Your Own Earth Oven by Kiko Denzer.

We arranged some large pavers on a wood base and built our sand dome on top of that:

Mixing the clay/sand mixture to the right consistency - the kids' favorite part:

Adding the clay/sand mixture over the sand dome.

Somewhere in the middle of this, it started pouring down rain - woo hoo! We kept the oven dry with an umbrella.

Cutting the door and scooping out the sand mold:

Then we lit a fire to help dry out the inside.

We hope to be able to fire it up later this weekend and cook a few mini pizzas. This oven is not insulated, so we don't expect it to hold heat for very long, but we'll see! More to come!

It looks like a garden again because...

2009-09-05T13:46:00.005-05:00

...beds are filling up with plants:...the tomato plants are getting flowers:
...peppers are growing:....kids are getting muddy :-)

The weed you can eat

2009-08-27T00:00:00.005-05:00

Wild Purslane is usually seen as a weed. When A first started exploring our backyard, he discovered some and dubbed it "the alien plant". It does look a little weird - big fat leaves, red stem, and teeny tiny yellow flowers. I never thought too much about it - I always pulled it up and disposed of it. It grew like crazy and came back all over the place.

A couple years later, A wanted to know what the alien plant was really called. So, we researched, and, after a trip to the local nursery, discovered that it was purslane. And we found out that you can eat it. A promptly tried a leaf, then immediately spit it out. I asked him what he was expecting, and he said "not that". It does have a somewhat bitter taste, but we rarely eat it by itself. We cook it with eggs, soups, and sometimes we put it in our stir fry.

Turns out that purslane has really high amounts of omega-3's. So it's also good for you.

And not all purslane is wild. Some purslane is sold at nurseries as a ground cover. Here's a picture of one currently growing in my garden:
Purslane is extremely drought tolerant, so it has been flourishing in my yard. The one above gets chomped on regularly. It seems to have juicier leaves compared to our wild ones:
Although, with more water, the leaves on the wild plants will get pretty juicy, too. But I rarely water the purslane. Unless I'm planning on eating it. Below is an example of purslane that does not get watered (and it also gets walked on):
When it gets damaged, the leaves turn a sort of purple color. And the red stems really stick out. I think it does look a little like an alien plant.

What's currently growing?

2009-08-26T23:46:00.008-05:00

Or better yet, what is trying to grow. The weather people are expecting lower temps next week - only a high of 95 degrees - woo hoo! I'm tired of these long 100 degree weeks. I want my garden back!

Alright, off my soapbox.

Here are the seeds I started about a month ago. I've been keeping them in trays which I keep filled with about an inch of water, so they stay moist. They also only get morning sun, and they are pretty much shaded after 1pm.

TomatoesSome peppers - these are cayenne:The yellow cucumbers are doing surprisingly well:And here is our cotton plant. I'm hoping to overwinter these guys. Not sure it can be done, but we'll see.And here is proof of our flood! We are using this to try and solarize the soil and kill the virus that sent our tomato plants to an early death. And for some reason, the kids get a really big kick out of playing on outdoor carpet.

hmmmm....

2009-08-24T22:22:00.002-05:00

I couldn't think of a title. I have ignored this blog for over a month! Lots of unpredictable events have unfolded these past weeks (the biggest one being a minor flood in our hallway and bathroom, resulting in carpet being pulled out and tile installed - all done by me and my DH).

I'm planning to bring this blog back to life. Well, as least wake it up from it's sleep, anyways. I have started seedlings (I don't care that it's too hot!), and have been taking cuttings and have started amending soil beds for the fall garden.

Seeds started:
Red Zebra toms
Illini star toms
Cayenne peppers
Unknown chili piquin peppers (super hot!)
Cotton (planted really late, I know, but the kids and I did a lesson on cotton, so it seemed appropriate that we plant cotton seeds).

I'll have pictures soon!

Summer heatwave update

2009-07-10T23:19:00.007-05:00

"It's so hot. Ya wanna be lazy. So hot. It will almost drive you crazy."

Anyone remember Teddy Ruxpin? Thanks to my sister (who listened to him almost every night) , I have that song memorized, and it's been popping into my head lately.

Well, we did get some good rain one day this week. It didn't last long, but it did fill up our rain barrels that my husband had just finished a couple days before. Yea! Now I want more barrels. With the 100+ degree days we've been having, I'm going to use up all the water fairly quickly.

We have a few plants that are still growing/producing, but most everything seems to have stalled. Our asparagus beans are still producing. I even put some new seeds in the ground last week and they have sprouted and seem to be taking off.Our gourds are also taking off. While our pumpkin leaves are wilting in this heat, the gourd plants are doing really well.A is posing with his bottle gourd. He wants to make his own berimbau which is an instrument used in capoeira. He's really excited that it's growing fairly quickly.Our gourds are currently being attacked by cucumber beetles. Normally, they enjoy our cucumber plants, but since it's too hot for those, they have moved onto our gourd flowers. So, we've been spraying garlic spray and squishing the ones we can see - here is A in action:It's a shame, because they can be such pretty bugs.

Short break & first figs!

2009-07-04T12:07:00.007-05:00

Sorry for the long absence. I had a run-in with the lawn mower and a piece of bale wire. Needless to say, I didn't win, and I am now nursing a lower leg injury.

So, I haven't been in the garden for almost a week. I've been having the kids water. This was the week I was going to start sheet mulching most of the raised beds (since it's too hot to grow anything right now).

Until then, I will be posting older pics of past going-ons in the garden. Enjoy!

First figs!

Asparagus beans/Yard long beans

2009-06-20T14:54:00.005-05:00

We decided to try some asparagus beans ( also called yard long beans or chinese noodle beans) this year. They are drought tolerant, and they even tolerate our Texas heat. While our bush and pole beans seem to be wilting in our 95 degree days (it's been soooo hot lately - we hit 100+ degrees last week a couple times), the long beans seem to be doing just fine.

They make this pretty little flower, and when the flower falls off, there is a teeny tiny little green bean.

It's amazing that they start out this small and (overnight it seems!) they grow into inch long beans....

... and progress to semi-long beans....

... and finish as really long beans. I need to time them, but I'm pretty sure it took less than a week from the time the flower fell off until harvest.

Squash vine borer info

2009-06-11T12:09:00.004-05:00

I had a comment from Dawn, an avid follower of mine ;-):

"I've always wondered how do those kinds of bugs find the plants that they love the most? Are they native to your yard? B/c then wouldn't you have every kind of bug there just waiting for you to plant their plant specialty? I mean, where do they come from??"

Isn't it crazy that out of all those plants in my garden, they are able to hone in on just the one they need? Your comment cracked me up, because I can just imagine a line of bugs in my backyard, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for me to bring out their favorite meal.

Here's a link for some more info on the squash vine borer. It wouldn't let me paste a URL in the comment box for some reason.

Squash vine borer

This is talking about Kentucky, but it's pretty much the same for Texas.

I also read in the Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening book that this is mostly a problem for home gardeners - not so much for big squash farmers. Maybe the use of pesticides?

This might be a better answer to your question:

How do insects find the right plant?

I learned something new today.

Oh, and for some reason, I just can't have a regular post without a picture in it. It doesn't feel right. So here is M, checking out the small pumpkins that are starting to develop on his pumpkin vine (which is free from vine borers!)

No easy death for squash vine borers

2009-06-10T23:30:00.005-05:00

This is a squash vine borer. It is about an inch and half long, and about the thickness of a pencil. It starts out as a teeny tiny egg - like the tip of a ballpoint pen. After it hatches, it burrows its way into the stem of a squash plant.

Look what it did to my lovely white pumpkin plant. I had to slit the vine to get it out. I covered it up with dirt, since other bugs like to take up residence in there if it's left exposed.
I've lost too many squash and pumpkin plants to these dang bugs. Although disposing of them has become a little more entertaining. These guys used to get an easy quick death by squashing (ha! pun intended). But now, they become chicken food. These guys are to chickens what dark chocolate truffles are to me - gourmet food. They will actually chase each other around, grabbing at whoever got the bug first, trying to snatch it out of their beak. It's a lot of fun to watch. Probably not so much for the next squash bug waiting in line...

To get that ugly squash vine borer pic out of your head, I'll leave you with E - enjoying her outside time while eating dirt:
See that white thing behind her arm? That's the actual spoon she was using to eat the dirt. She's so civilized.

Behind the scenes workers

2009-06-09T20:10:00.009-05:00

If you've been to my house, then you've probably seen these, but I haven't shared some of the backyard helpers on my blog yet.

The first 2500 workers (approximately) have been with us for about 3 years. They joined us, not knowing that I had accidentally killed 1000 of their relatives. Well, not me directly. Our lovely Texas heat did. I had placed their home outside (in direct sun - what was I thinking?) and it just got too hot for them. I would like to think that most of the worms escaped somehow and wriggled away to a better life.

I still have the current bin outside, but the heat problem has been remedied by burying it halfway underground. Here is an inside view of our worm bin:

It's almost harvesting time. I use the castings for fertilizer - usually as worm tea. We have 2 bins - the second smaller one is used to hold extra worms, which I allow to multiply then pass on to friends so they can start their own bin.
And sometimes, these guys get used as treats for our next 3 workers:
Our 3 chickens. They are going on their 3rd year with us. We started with five. One died after one year with us (no idea why), and the 2nd one was unfortunately attacked by our dog. These girls reward us with not only eggs, but also with manure, which really adds good, organic stuff to our garden beds.And I'll leave you with a wonderful picture. Thank goodness, no more of our sunflowers have been beheaded. Here's one of our new giant sunflowers blooming:

The perils of a front yard garden

2009-06-01T12:45:00.007-05:00

I have been doing more gardening in my front yard over the past few years. A first it was just flowers, but I have been adding vegetables slowly, adding some raised beds, and covering up the grass with more useful plants. We have our beans growing in the front, as well as pumpkins and other assorted herbs. There is always some danger to these plants, as the front yard is where my kids play with the neighbor kids. The neighbor kids don't have quite the same love of plants as I do as I have seen them running over my plants, as well as attempting to pull things off. My oldest usually sets them straight, and we have had fewer and fewer incidents.

I planted several sunflowers in a tiny bed near my mail box. A couple of them were the giant types. Well, we had our first one open up a couple days ago, and I was so excited! It was over 6 feet tall, and it was gorgeous.

But then tragedy. We came out this morning and found this:
Someone had ripped it off its stem, pulled out several petals, then dropped it to the ground. I was really upset.

Here is where it would have been. Right in the middle of these unopened flowers. They even bent some of those stems.

I wish more people would instill a sense of responsibility in their children. Don't destroy things that don't belong to you. At the very least, if you have a need to rip defenseless sunflower heads off of their plants, please grow your own and then do whatever you want with them.

I'm glad they left this one alone. It's not as big as the first one, but it's still beautiful.
I thought about putting a sign up, but that would probably invite more trouble. Most of these kids are just bored.

Other scenes from our front yard garden:

M planted a pumpkin seed in the front yard. It doesn't seem to care that the soil has not been amended or that it has been attacked by squash vine borers (twice I have saved it!). It seems to be thriving.

Our 2nd sowing of beans are coming up:

And finally - our figs are coming in - yea!

Blog revival - New gardening video!

2009-05-30T23:59:00.004-05:00

I have been neglecting my blog, can you tell? I have many pictures to show, and my garden is doing great (except for my tomatoes - a story for another day). What would be a better way to revive this blog than with a new episode of A's Gardening show!

tiny disclaimer - succulents are not my thing. A has become interested in them, and the information he provides in this video is true to the best of his knowledge and understanding of how it all works. I'm pretty sure it's a combination of stuff he has read, and stuff he has heard from his Aunt (who is an avid succulent collector).

Enjoy!

Angel's cactus cuttings from Suzanne Mireles on Vimeo.

2009-05-12T22:08:00.003-05:00

Remember the dove nest?

Here they are!

I took this picture yesterday. Today the nest was empty.

Random kid gardening pics

2009-05-04T21:19:00.004-05:00

A is mixing composted chicken manure into the front part of this bed. We will be planting melons here. My hope was to have the vines grow up and over the dill as it dies down, but it looks like we'll have to tear out the dill (unless the ladybugs take care of all the aphids for us!). See how the dill looks all sad in the background. Darn aphids.

I have started deadheading my cosmos and other flowers. M has been collecting the old blossoms and "planting" them in various garden spots. He is convinced they will grow. Sometimes he buries the whole flower, and sometimes he buries it above ground.

No pics of E. She has been taking nice long morning naps during our gardening time.

Lifecycle of a Ladybug (lady beetles)

2009-05-04T21:05:00.007-05:00

Ladybug Eggs.

Ladybug Larva.

Ladybug Pupae.

Ladybug!

Oh, and FYI - those little white things on the plant around the ladybugs are really really really really bad bugs. Also known as aphids. Well, they aren't too bad - they do provide the ladybugs a food source. Eat faster ladybugs!

From garden to table

2009-04-30T22:47:00.004-05:00

Fresh garden greens (Forellenschulss, Lollo Rossa, Black seeded simpson, and cilantro), and dragon tongue beans.

Salad, stir fried beans with a little bit of teryiaki sauce (the kids were upset that most of the purple color disappeared during cooking!), and sauteed red cabbage and onions. A complete backyard garden meal. (sorry - forgot to take a before picture of the red cabbage before chopping it up!)

Garden critters

2009-04-21T23:10:00.005-05:00

The anole lizard. Very common here in our yard. These lizards are usually green, but can sometimes change their colors - we've seen lots of brown ones. We counted 8 of these in our front garden. Here's a link for more info: Anole Lizard

One of our favorite insect critters is the ladybug. This one here is taking a rest on our chile pequin plant.

And, the good 'ole roly poly, or pill bug, or whatever you call them. These things are great amusements for my kids. I remember having a roly poly farm when I was little. And we recently discovered that these little guys love to eat the roots and leaves of newly sprouting bean seeds. We're learnin' something new every day.

Goodbye cool weather veggies - hello Doves!

2009-04-20T22:30:00.010-05:00

With the warm weather arriving and getting warmer everyday, our cool season crops are slowing wilting away. While I look forward to tomatoes, peppers, and melons, I'll really miss being able to step into the backyard and pick fresh greens for our meals. They just don't like our Texas summers.

And look! A pair of doves had decided to nest in our persimmon tree - right outside our bedroom window. I commented that their nest looks very unstable. A and I looked up some info, and it turns out that doves are known for making shabby nests - sometimes the eggs fall right through the bottom! Let's hope that doesn't happen to ours!

Prickly Pear hopes

2009-04-16T12:34:00.002-05:00

Our cactus is starting to fruit.

Hopefully we'll get enough this year to make some prickly pear jam. We only had 3 fruits last year.

First!

2009-04-15T15:59:00.006-05:00

Our first tomato!

Our first pepper! (a Flame pepper - supposed to be very hot)

Our first blackberries!

Our first lemon! (okay, the whole tree is covered with these, but this one seemed the biggest).

And, this is not a first, but an update to the earlier swallowtail caterpillar chrysalis. We had been checking it every morning, waiting to see. The only day we did not check it was Easter Sunday, and wouldn't you know it, on Monday morning, all we found was the husk. It would have been awesome for my kids to see the new butterfly Easter morning. They were still pretty excited with the husk - that seemed to be evidence enough for them.

Randoms pics from the garden

2009-04-07T23:46:00.006-05:00

I took a few quick pics from our garden this evening:

Remember the swallowtail caterpillar I talked about in an earlier post? (it still hasn't hatched). Here is what the caterpillar looks like when it first hatches out of it's egg and before it sheds it's first skin:
Here is one of my dill plants already starting to flower:

Pea pods:

Pea pods no more:

The exploding cabbage

2009-04-05T13:35:00.003-05:00

What happened to our last cabbage?

a. Some critter came along and took a bite out of the cabbage.
b. One of the boys (or both - they can do a lot of damage when they team up) decided to take a whack at it with a shovel.
c. It's the natural growing process of the cabbage.

Which answer do you choose?

Well, answer a. has happened to our cabbage before, but never to quite this extreme. Deer never make it into our area (since we're in the middle of a neighborhood, and our dog is pretty good at chasing out any critters that make their way into our backyard. So, this was not a critter attack.

As far as answer b. goes, we did lose one head of cabbage (rather part of a head) to an experiment (of which I was not informed). Angel decided to see if other plants would grow inside a cabbage! He planted a couple of bean seeds and a tomato plant into little holes he dug out of the cabbage head. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this (failed) experiment. But no little boys messed with the cabbage this time.

So that leaves us with the last answer. This is what will eventually happen to all cabbages as time progresses. The head of the cabbage will split open, and a seed stalk will emerge. Well, that's what I read anyways. I'm hoping it goes as planned.

P.S. I edited this post because apparently the answer to this question was not very clear. Is it clear now?

A's Gardening Show - Episode 1

2009-03-31T20:44:00.006-05:00

My son A has big ideas. He has always had big ideas. They form in his head, and then he tells them to me. These are not just regular ideas (which he also has a lot of) like, let's build a plane out of these scraps of wood, or let's build a playhouse, but really big ideas. These ideas include everything from building a robot that will clean his room for him to inventing a machine that will provide food for everyone who is hungry to making laws that would make it impossible for people to litter. Some ideas are better than others. Most of them are just really good ideas (and not just from a kids point of view), and others are just out there. He is used to me listening to his ideas, and then saying "That's a good one! How could you make that happen?" Lately, when he comes up with an idea for a big project, I have him add it to his running list (I count that as handwriting for school!). I wish I had the time and energy and money to make all his ideas come true (I would LOVE a house cleaning robot!), but, as it is, some are forgotten.

So, when he pitched his newest idea to me, and I said, "Let's do it!" I could see the excitement running through his little mind. Big ideas.

His latest idea (pitched to me this last Sunday): He wants to film a gardening show similar to the one on the PBS Create channel. I can't remember the name, but the one where the guy picks a veggie, and then the whole show revolves around it - growing, cooking, cultivating, crafts, etc. He wants me to send it in to the create channel so that they will put it on TV. He wants to see himself on TV. He has been telling everyone since filming that he is going to be on TV. I have been fielding lots of questions from friends (and neighbors) asking what channel he is going to be on. He is super excited.

So, below is Episode One of A's Gardening Show. It is scripted by A. All I did was point the camera and then add some nice transitioning effects during editing. Did I say that he is really excited? I love his passion. I've watched the video so many times, I almost have his script memorized. I really love the boy he is growing into - it's amazing to watch.

So, enough of my ranting about how awesome my son is. Enjoy his first episode below.

Angel's Gardening Video Part 1 from Suzanne Mireles on Vimeo.

Oh, and I am going to send it to the PBS Create channel. What's the worst that could happen?

Quick caterpillar update

2009-03-30T09:50:00.003-05:00

Here's another photo of the caterpillar that was preparing for his (her?) chrysalis. It is now fully encased. The little black blob at the bottom of the chrysalis is the outer skin of the caterpillar. I'm assuming it wriggles out of it, but I have yet to see it happen.

Hopefully we'll be able to see a butterfly emerge (or at least a new born butterfly). We've hatched these out in aquariums before, and it's pretty exciting.

Dill and the caterpillars

2009-03-26T14:11:00.004-05:00

We planted 4 dill plants 3 years ago, and they have come back on their own every year since (sometimes in both spring and fall). We use them as part of our butterfly garden and plant them with cosmos (which come back every year as well).

We already have swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. The caterpillars that cocoon (it's actually a chrysalis) in the fall stay that way until the spring. Then the butterflies locate a patch of dill (or fennel, or related plant) and lay their eggs. Then the little caterpillars show up, eat a lot, actually shed their skin a couple times and change color then do this:

See the little tiny string on the side? That's what is holding up the caterpillar while it waits to form its chrysalis.
Oh, and those little black things to the left? That's caterpillar poop. Just FYI.

Here's a link to some more info:

Black swallowtail butterfly info

I'll post an updated chrysalis pic when I get one. Below is the same caterpillar a couple days before.

Our Garden is growing - March 2009!

2009-03-23T21:55:00.009-05:00

As promised, here are some updated pics on how our garden is doing. You can scroll down to my previous post for the full before and after effect.

It looks a lot greener, right? Starting with the purple in the middle of the page and going across: 1st bed: purple cabbage, 2nd bed: Angel's garden, 3rd bed: empty bed. Next row: 1st bed: potatoes and beans, 2nd bed: onions, lettuce, beans, cosmos, 3rd bed: empty. The bed in the very bottom right hand corner is our spinach and green cabbage bed (which is almost gone - I'm going to miss fresh spinach!)

The cement block bed at the bottom contains one blackberry plant. My husband planted it there. I don't know how well it will do. I haven't researched blackberry plants yet. Add advice in the comments if you have it!

M's garden - he has one marigold, 2 peppers, and one tomato plant (that he dug out of my garden and replanted into his own - it's not doing too well).

This is A's garden. He's got a variety of things - broccoli, potatoes, beans, cosmos, peppers, peas, onions, and more.

And here is what our experimental bed looks like. It's got tomatoes, peppers, and some cucumbers in the back.

The next post will cover the garden in our front yard. If I could, I would till up most of the grass and put in more garden beds. But then we might not be able to sell our house (when that time comes).

Backdated post - Feb. 2009

2009-03-21T22:09:00.004-05:00

I'm backtracking on pictures here - I've neglected this blog, but, thanks to friends, I'm going to be posting here regularly (cross my fingers!) on how my garden is growing. I've added their garden blogs as well, so stop by and check out their gardens!

From Gardening pics Feb. 2009

Here is what the garden looked like in February. My husband added 3 new garden beds for me and the kids to play with. Yea!

From Gardening pics Feb. 2009

Behind M (who always seems to attract mud while in my backyard - he needs a sandbox!) is the new, larger garden bed my husband put in. It's not a raised bed - sort of an experiment. I planted red clover as a cover crop last fall and my husband tilled it up in Feb. and outlined it. We have planted tomatoes and peppers in it (pictures to come this week!)

From Gardening pics Feb. 2009

And, unfortunately, you will probably see that this picture has not changed much since Feb. I am not very good and keeping supplies and misc. stuff organized in my garden. These leaves (which I collected from people's trash pickup - can you believe they were throwing away good mulch/organic matter!?!?!?!) are pretty much in the same spot. They've been split open more because the boys enjoy jumping on them. And I have at least 5 garden shovels, but can usually only find one. I'm hoping to work more on garden organization this season.

Look forward to updated gardens pics and info this week!

Starting more seeds....

2009-01-23T22:14:00.001-06:00

I had the kids help me start some more seeds today. Well, that was the plan. I had a whole list of seeds that I need to get going, but once the container of seeds packets was brought out, M just had to pick out his favorites (I had no idea he had favorite seeds!). He decided he wanted to grow Daisies and Lettuce.

Here he is with the package of Daisy seeds:

"The seeds are so small!" he exclaimed as half the package of seeds slid out onto the blanket we were sitting on.

M carefully deposits the seeds onto the soil.

A helps write the name of the seeds on our popsicle stick markers.

E helps keep our popsicle stick markers organized and full of slobber. (I think the slobber will help the seeds grow better).

Ta Da! The seeds are ready to grow!

So, I was going to list all the seeds we got started today (for future reference), but all we managed to get started was, well, daises and lettuce. We'll keep ya updated on their progress.

2009-01-20T20:25:00.000-06:00

In just a few short weeks, my tomato plants have gone from this:

to this:
The basil is doing very well:

The organic jalapenos do not look so hot (but the bell peppers in the background do!):

I found a cool site that gave directions on how to make pots from newspaper, origami style:

Pretty cool, huh? Here's the link in case you want to try it out yourself:

Origami newspaper pots

Other seeds that I have going:

Lavendar (Jan. 3rd)
Oregano (Jan. 3rd)
Fatalii peppers (Jan. 3rd)
Lemon cucumbers (Jan. 16)

I have 4 different tomatoes (all started Jan. 3rd):
Roma
Purple Russian
Green Zebra
Pink Oxheart

My husband just finished installing the last 2 florescent lights on my seed starting shelf. I can't wait to get more seeds going. Every time I walk by the plants, I peek in to see how much more they have grown. I think I did that at least 10 times today.