Garden Bounty.

Our garden is finally coming into its own. We've been picking banana peppers for about a month now, but it's like these last two weeks have really sent it into overdrive. The N-boy and I spent a couple of hours on Saturday rescuing it from the weeds.

A very superfluous cauliflower plant. And a tomato plant with a mind of its own.

The weeds have no chance when the N-boy is in action. Especially in his cute hat. 

It's hard to see in this picture, but there are at least six eggplans on this one plant! And more on their way. 

Banana peppers by the pound.

We have two more raised beds that we didn't use this year that we started prepping for next year.

 Highly exciting moment-using some of our compost for the first time! 

Next up: canning our great supply of banana peppers!

From Russia with Love.

This weekend we had a small party/get-together/gathering in celebration of the N-boy's safe return from the land of ice and snow. And vodka. And beets. And instant coffee.

We ended up with a few more people than I originally thought were coming (which was super awesome!) but a little stressful since the N-boy and I are not party throwers. In fact, I'm pretty sure we've never had this many people in house at once! But we were really excited and had a great time. It was also nice for him to meet some of the new people I've started working with or hanging out with in the last year while he was gone. It's been weird to talk about people that he's never met before, so it was good to put some faces with names.

And of course it was good for him to reconnect with friends and family that he hadn't seen in a year.

We were also super excited to learn an important lesson about gardening. Apparently what I thought might be a tomato plant was really a weed. A very well watered and tended weed. Also, we had peppers ready to pick! So we picked some of those and put them on the grill. And most importantly, if your garden ever needs water you just need to get a flock of small children with watering cans. 

Please come live at our house and water the garden every day. And look adorable doing it. 

 We repaired painted tattoos with old eye shadow. 

And watched Russian Winnie the Pooh. 

And then it rained. 

Of course it rained right after we had the minions water the garden. But we needed the rain SO badly that I really can't complain about it.

It was an absolutely wonderful day and we're so grateful for our friends and family who could come welcome him home with us!

Raised Vegetable Beds

In this third year of home ownership I decided to again try my hand at a vegetable garden. We planted a garden the first spring we were in the house, and I learned some very VERY important lessons about reading and believing the information printed on seed packets.

Lesson 1: If the seed packet says that the acorn squash seeds need to be 3-5 feet apart, it is serious. It is not an attempt to deceive you. Do not plant the seeds one foot apart.

Lesson 2: If you fail to follow lesson one, you cannot use tomato cages to corral fully grown squash plants. But your husband will get a kick out of watching you try.

Lesson 3: Gardens have to be weeded, not just watered. That same water you give to the plants is also a favorite drink of the weeds. Your husband will not get a kick out of coming home after a week away for research and discovering that you have adapted the mindset that if you ignore the weeds they will go away.

Last year because of some crazy uncertainness about what our plans were (moving or not) we didn't do a garden. But this year we decided to give it another go, this time with raised beds. Our house sits on the side of an old railroad embankment, so even though the trains and tracks are long gone, a lot of bricks, glass and other debris remain in the soil. My friend Bob helped me build the beds [this adventure, aka Laura's Adventure with Power Tools, will be elaborated on in a separate post], and then the MomCat volunteered herself to fill them with soil when she was here for an extended visit.

Daddo started the seeds and then sent the seedlings out with the MomCat. Here is how they looked when I planted them on May 14.

Note the tape measure. Yes. I really did measure. 

Daddo sent me a several types of each vegetable, so I buried the cups next to the plant so I'll know what's what. 

I'd like to raid Pinterest for cute little plant markers. Maybe this weekend. 

And here is how they look on June 11. I can't believe how much they've grown in less than a month! 

I've got broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants and tomatoes. So far I've only lost one of the tomato plants, and he was sickly looking to begin with so it totally doesn't count.

What are you growing in your garden this year? Any tips for a successful garden?

The vegetables have arrived!!!

I think it's fitting that my first blog post after a small (ok longish) hiatus is the result of the previous post. 

WE HAVE VEGETABLES!!!! 

So despite the fact that I failed to follow the instructions on the seed packets that very clearly indicated the zucchini need 3 feet of space EACH, we have harvested our first eggplants and zucchini. 

Now I admit, the garden is a bit....crowded. I used tomato cages to somewhat corral the zucchini and the acorn squash, which I really do think helped. The N-boy, however, felt that a dramatic gesture was necessary to show just how crazy the garden has become. 

Our first harvest yielded three zucchinis and three eggplants. And we also picked two cute little flowers to put in the kitchen. 

Even Catcat is benefiting from the garden action with fresh picked catnip!

We can't wait to see how much more we get from our first gardening attempt. 

First weekend of Summer.

Even though Memorial Day weekend isn't until next weekend, it seems like Summer has officially kicked off here in Northern Indiana. The humidity started in on Saturday, with Sunday bringing high temperatures and bright sunshine to make it altogether rather sticky outside. 

Saturday we rode our bikes down to the Farmer's Market, where we got a LOT of meat, fresh veggies and some shade plants for the garden. 

We spent the majority of Saturday afternoon outside putting in these plants, and our first ever vegetable garden. 

We're growing acorn squash, beets, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, chives and basil. We're using the marigolds as a natural version of pesticide.

It's not a huge garden, but we're very excited for our first year growing our own produce. We restrained ourselves, otherwise we would have gone WAY overboard for this first year.

Saturday night we cooked out on our patio (some of the newly acquired meat) on our brand new Weber grill that the Momcat and Daddo got us for our fourth wedding anniversary. It was SO much easier to use than our old travel grill!

Thanks, parents!

We've spend a lot of time outside in the last week, so I really haven't done much (any) crafting. But I leave you with the N-boy's artistic contribution to our landscaping design. He's been taking the bricks (we live on the edge of an old railroad embankment) and rocks we've found in the yard to create festive piles and designs. 

Hopefully I'll get some crafting done so that I, too, have a creative contribution next week.