Our first REAL harvest

I know, I am a horrible blog owner, but honestly I am trying to enjoy more activities with my girls (since I have been working) without being concerned about getting decent pictures at the same time.  It's rather liberating.  Anyway, thought I'd share the girls' first real harvest in their gardening careers.  This year, we discovered that cucumbers will take over your entire garden bed.  But on the up side, they are VERY easy to grow.  Here are their first cucumbers of the season!  There were six, but they ate one for today's snack.

The rest, we are going to attempt to make pickles with.  It should be an experience.  I promise to share pictures of our result!

The girls' garden

The girls are in full gardening mode now.  This year they planted cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, tomatoes, banana peppers and I transplanted some mint from our herb garden at school.  So far, all of the plants look pretty strong and healthy, so hopefully they will get a good harvest this year.  Keep you fingers crossed.

(this box just has cucumbers and lettuce)

Spring has sprung?

The weather is warming up here.  Today, it was a sweat producing 85 degrees.  That type of weather calls us all out to the garden (barefoot of course).  I am on spring break this week, so the girls and I have been catching up on some school, some chores and preparing our garden for spring.  This year we are planing green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach.  Hopefully we will be able to grow enough to make at least a couple of meals. 

These boxes will hold spinach, lettuce and mint.

You can't see it, but Zion is holding a stick that Ashni painted last summer.  It has been in our backyard all winter.

 Ashni making rows in the small boxes (despite the fact that I said they didn't need rows).

Did I mention that Zion was wearing pants with a bunny tail?

Bijou's muddy toes (well, muddy toe).

That is hysterical laughter on Bijou's face.  I swear.

I was quite impressed with Jena's strength.  Zion is little, but she weighs a TON.

The Kids' Garden

We had our first attempt at a garden last spring and the girls could not wait to start their garden again as soon as the weather warmed up. This year their garden contains potatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes. We planted spinach, but I don't think it gets enough sun, so the plants sprouted and then stopped growing. Last year, we got a good amount of basil and rosemary, but just a few tomatoes. Hopefully we will have a more bountiful harvest this year. The girls love being able to eat food that they've grown.

Oh yeah, we also accidentally "planted" some black beans. Bijou and Zion were playing with a big bowl of dried back beans in the backyard and dumped a bunch in a pot of dirt. A few weeks later, we had a pot of little bean plants.

Starter Pots and Terrariums

We are desperately awaiting the arrival of spring in our house. The winter has taken its toll and my vitamin D deficiency is at an all time low (okay, so I really don't have a vitamin D deficiency, I just REALLY miss the sun). So to lift our spirits we decided to exercise our green thumbs. None of us actually have a green thumb, but we're working on developing one. I, personally, know my limitations in the care of plants, so the girls and I made mini terrariums. I figured moss grows under our trees in the backyard with no help, it seems like something that we could keep alive. I like the little burst of green that these bring into the house (seeing as we have no house plants).



My mother is a little more adventurous and much better at keeping plants alive (I need verbal cues for food and drink, not just silently waiting for water in a little pot). She and the girls planted their flower seeds in starter pots. Hopefully they will sprout and we will be able to transfer them when the weather gets warmer. The cashier at Home Depot seemed very surprised that the girls wanted to plant their own garden and that we were letting them. I guess they don't get too many kids in to buy potting soil and seeds (which is unfortunate).