into the forest

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today we hiked into the forest. It was a little chilly, but a clear beautiful day. I'm so glad we decided to go out instead of sucumbing to the oh so popular after lunch nap~









lots of people were out on the trails, so glad that we were out there too, taking in God's beautiful creation.

seeing green

In our gardening class this week we tried out some plant/tree identification. Yikes! I'm telling you, trying to identify a plant or tree can sometimes feel like trying to locate a pin in a haystack-but what we try to do is to narrow down the possible options. Are the leaves opposite or alternate? Is this leaf from a deciduous tree or is it evergreen? What is the leaf pattern? It's a bit like being a "green" detective, which really is fun. There are so many great people in this gardening class-retirees, young adults in their twenties, moms, farmers, former librarians, really it's such a fun and varied group (also a nice touch to the classes is that at each class hot coffee and tea are offered along with baked goodies, there is also fruit for those who are avoiding the goodies-I eat both :)
Yesterday the woman who spoke about composting was truly an inspiration. She was trained in another field, but in her late forties she decided to go back to college to get her Masters degree in soil science- I love it! (I especially love it because I turned a year older this week).
So today as I got home from a little shopping (went out to get some plant/tree guides of course) I took some pictures of green outside~

~lichens on a tree


~moss in our driveway

~rosemary planted last September when we first moved here and a hellebore that was just repotted today (the hellebore I received from class, from a Master Gardener-she gave several of them away).

~the books I purchased today


One thing about living here is that while is does get a little cold, it doesn't get cold. It's a very green place, really almost year round (hence the rain as well-but there's sun today, yay!-we take it when we can get it). Perhaps this green place is a great place to learn about gardening-maybe it's "growing" on me-pun fully intended!

after school....

~we walked to the park


~noticed that the leaves are turning


~played on the swings




~appreciated the vast blue sky




~walked back home with a little crochet work in hand

(our stay at the park was a bit short, because someone hurt their pinky toe on the play equipment-flip flops have been officially put away for the season).

a day at the farm

We visited a local farm this week and had so much fun looking, observing, learning~

~sheep grazing


~a meal cooking on the open fire


~beans and pumpkins out in the sun


~a beautiful brown calf taking a rest


We had a lovely day, and for some reason I could see us embracing the farm life (small time farm life, that is)-maybe, someday.

the community garden-photo update

here are my wonderful cucumber girls-they are always so excited when they find something that is ready to be picked


kale, chard, and lettuce-seeds sown late in the season, still growing, tasting good


dahlias, tomatoes, snapdragons, and watermelon-all squeezed in here. I over planted, I know that the watermelon is going to take up a lot of space, but its right next to the lettuce and chard area and once that is all harvested I'll leave that space empty for the watermelon to happily spread out


tiny verbena and more tomatoes-I love planting flowers along with the veggie plants


rainbow chard

the hot and humid weather has really got things going in the garden (that includes the weeds as well). Its exciting and the girls are so helpful, I'm so glad we decided to participate in this gardening adventure.

lunchin' outside

Despite the terribly hot weather and humidity yesterday (and see I've been wanting this hot weather for my garden) the girls wanted to eat outside. My natural instinct was to tell them that it was way too hot, but then I decided to go along with their wish. After all saying "no" at times gets a bit old.

They told me they want to do it again today-but popsicles are needed.

summer morning

*tomato blooms

*blowing bubbles

*baby basil

gardening on the cheap

Have you ever seen an idea or product on TV or in a magazine that looks cool, but you aren't quite sure you want to buy it due to price (this happens to me alot). Well this happened to me again with this product. One day while shopping at our towns big box store I manage some how to place one of these things in my shopping cart. Then as I started placing my items on the checkout belt I began wondering "do I really need this? can I make this myself?" Suddenly the cashier said she wanted one too, but thought she could make a homemade one-I totally agreed with her-and right then and there I decided to save myself 9.99! (thanks Ms. Cashier wherever you are :) A couple of weekends later I got a bucket with drilled holes in it, placed some torn newspaper in the bottom, and with a green plant plastic tie anchored the tomato plant to the bucket, added soil-

and there it is my homemade tomato planter! Not to pretty but cheap, I wonder if its going to work, we'll see.

Another thing I've being doing for my gardening is just keeping a simple compost bin outside on my deck. Actually I started doing this last summer. I just got a big container drilled holes in it, then placed leaves, torn newspapers, soil and compost (that I purchased), and then some veggie scraps. I did add a couple of worms in it last summer, but I think I need some more (I don't believe those worms from last summer made it through our terribly cold winter). I try not to overload the bin with too much stuff because it can easily get out of control-especially since I have such a small space in the first place. I use veggie scraps only-nothing else (adding meat and dairy scraps lends to the possibility of attracting unwanted creatures-yikes!)

A new thing for us this year on the gardening scene is that our family is participating in a community garden. We purchased a garden area from a local farm and we are currently working hard to get things planted out there. Its fun, but also intense at times (like trying to till clay like soil with weeds growing everywhere). I'm so excited about this project and even the hard work it entails. So this is the summer of growing-in many ways.

(please share any frugal gardening tips you have, that would be great)


(small compost bin)

more flower love-full force

more flowers, I know.

Enjoy your weekend~

planting and more simple sewing

It finally got warm enough to set out my large tomato transplant (this one is not from our seed starts, I bought this one). I don't think we should be having any threat of frost at night now, after all its May right?


These small seedlings are just getting some fresh air (just a little hardening off). I'll bring these inside for the night-I want them to grow out a little more before sending them out into the the real world full time.


And more simple sewing-a pillowcase bag! This idea was from the June 2007 issue of Martha Stewart magazine. Basically cut the pillowcase on the diagonal, hem the raw edges-sew the middle hems of the bag together, hem the bottom bag and voila', there you have a new bag. This is such a great summer bag, I could see using this bag at the farmer's market to carry lots of fruit and veggies.



The link for the bag is:

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/sleeper-of-a-bag
Don't you think you should make one?

playin' in the backyard

This weekend, in between the spring rains, we were able to venture outside for a bit, and it was good. Many days (too many I think) we stay couped up in the house trying to figure out what to do (a syndrome of many who live in the midwest). So to get outside is wonderful, freeing, and a sure way to lighten any mood. In fact one of my goals this spring/summer is to let the girls get outside more and to just experince good old fashioned outdoor fun-do you remember that? Now days outside play just has so much competition (computer time, videos, playstation) that it becomes a little difficult to convince the kids that outside play is worthy of their time (way more so than the forementioned items). I think that activities like tent building, jumping rope, kicking ball, running should be part of their daily summer play.





My motto this summer-"lets take it outside."

spring-new beginnings

We've been waiting for spring for awhile now it seems. Some days fool us with temps in the 70's then only to be accompanied by highs in the 40's or 50's the next day. I want spring to come and just stay awhile. I want to enjoy it before the heat of the summer beats us down. So in preparation of spring we have been doing some seed starting, flower planting and just dreaming of the garden to come of course. Last year the garden didn't do as well as we all wanted, but oh well thats how it goes sometimes. So now I'm looking forward to the promise of another chance-another chance for a harvest. I'm thankful for this and if my harvest comes out less than I desire again, its good to know we have a great farmers market (: