Let it Grow, Let it Grow, Let it Grow!

In the midst of all my consta-blogging lately (well, my version of consta-blogging anyway), I figured it was about time to stop and smell the roses.
Or...the pomegranate, cucumber, and tomato blossoms plus marigolds, oleander (nasty smell if you ask me), and...and...lettuce? Okay, well, I ran out of things that smell in my backyard. But, what I'm trying to say is, it's time to dedicate an entire post to what we've got growin' on around here.
Ha.
Did you get it?
I said 'growin' on...like you would normally say 'goin' on but since I'm talking about plants and stuff....it's...you' know...growin'...
.....
you get it.

So anyway...here's an update on all things green here at our homestead.

You've met my garden box before, yes?
Well, here she is all covered up, modest-like, in her shade cloth.
Yeah, this was my first attempt at keeping our mini-garden covered from the delightful amounts of sun our backyard gets!
It's tomato cage wire covered in cheese cloth, held together with clothespins. I would say I had a love/hate relationship with my shade covering but...that would be a big lie.
I hated that thing. (Imagine taking it on and off to water)
But I am nothing if not a by-the-book kind of gal and a version of this is what was suggested in one of my gardening books and anyway...I gave it my best shot. JC humbly went along.

And there's a shot of our meager little family of plants toward the beginning of April.
Along the back, we have tomatoes and cucumbers, running down both sides we have lettuce and marigolds at the front, and in the middle, peppers. All just kind of starting out.
The rest of the spots were waiting to sprout some carrot and radish seeds!

Momentary subject change! Here is what our grass looked like for a little while at about that same time. I think it's beautiful! I am guessing it starts to look like this when the regular-type grass starts to come back among the winter grass. I have no idea if I'm right but it was really really pretty.

Bethany thought so too!

Our apple tree is a confusing fellow...I can never really get a good read on him, so I am often left to just wonder to myself how he is doing.
But this year, he gave us a little present...blossoms! At least we know something good is going on!

Speaking of blossoms, here is the Queen herself, always willing to share her mood and progress with the world. And you people wonder why I assign genders to our trees...

The plum tree offers shade to the littlest ones!
(Ben found a little plum on the ground after a windy night. I later found it stuck down in our garden soil. I believe he was planting it.)

And there are still plenty on the tree!


This was a fun day! The first day we used lettuce from our garden in a salad.

Then there was the day we got Bart.
Bart is yet another attempt to keep birds from the blossoms on our trees. The cd's we hung are great but once we have a cloudy day or the sun starts to go down, they lose their reflective helpfulness and we needed something equally intimidating.
Bart the Owl.
From Home Depot.

See, if I was a bird wanting to grab myself some budding fruit off a tree, I would be like...those blossoms look good! ...but...what is that...?

And I'd look closer and I'd be like...oh man, that is one scaaary lookin owl. I don't know why he cares if I eat these blossoms but I rather prefer to not get him riled up.

And besides that . . . it appears a half-naked child is patrolling the area as well.
I just assume not catch his attention either.

Yep, that's how it'd happen.

Moving on.
A while back we let the kids start their own little seeds in their own little mini-green houses we found at Home Depot. They wanted them so badly and we let them earn them and honestly I figured they would just die anyway.
Not so.
Those seeds did rather well! It got to the point that we needed somewhere to transplant them. JC found the old planters that used to hang in front of the windows on top of our house and decided they were in plenty good condition to re-use as...well, as actual planters!
There was enough to have one per kid, so we got to work on that!
The kids filled their own planters with good soil...

With some help. I can't ever pass up an opportunity to get my hands dirty.

Bethany feels the same way that I do.
This is often the case.
She's her mother's daughter!

They worked hard.

Ben helped with some soil prep.

And at some point along the way, I told JC to have at the project of finding a good shade solution.
Because I was really tired of the shade cage thing. And he had this idea simmering for month and months. But...you know...it wasn't in the books so...I had a hard time...and anyway...I have repented. Because . . .
look:

From pure JC-innovation was born our perfect shade solution.

We tried it out for a week or so.
And it worked. And it was beautiful.
So he made another one.

And it worked. And it was beautiful too.
So he made another one to cover the kids' planters.
And I finally took some pictures of him working.
(And yes, I know his shirt appear very sweet. It is Bethany's favorite shirt because of the love it professes between JC and I. I feel for her the day she looks closer and realizes it actually says, "I LOVE it when MY WIFE lets me go hunting." Yep. I have no comment.)

They just roll on out!

Soon, all was operating under custom amounts of shade every day.
I love that they go down and up so easily! I can determine exactly when and how much sun my plants get and it is wonderful.

It makes for a very happy little garden!

SO, we have spent a whole lot of time working outdoors the past couple of months! It has been really nice and very fulfilling for all of us! The kids are at such a phase where they can either help or occupy themselves (somewhat) happily while we get the stuff done that needs to get done!
It's kind of weird. I don't know what to think about it. But, luckily, I haven't had much opportunity to sit and think about it! It's been so fun to be involved as a family in something great like this.
I'll tell you what though, having one more category of living things to keep alive and thriving can feel a little overwhelming! I make sure to keep priorities in order though...kids have gotten food, water, and attention? Scout has gotten food, water, and the opportunity to shun my attention? Okay, I can give the garden some food, water, and attention.
The good thing about the garden as opposed to the other two categories...it doesn't really leave any sort of mess behind...

Well, anyway, it has been a wonderful time being outdoors among our growing things the last several weeks. I am determined to abandon nothing once we start staying over a hundred degrees but I know it won't be quite so pleasant at that point! We will see!

Oh, and for an update - - we lost some plums and lots of citrus blossoms. Bart needs to up his game. The kids' precious little transplants didn't survive the transfer and I blame myself. We shall get flowers to replace so that James can stop being sad. My lettuce is all going to seed...we planted quite late in the season and it took us a while to get the hang of appropriate watering and (obviously) shade. No carrots came up, very few radishes came up and I squashed some of the ones that did...the shade things are still working great and our tomatoes and cucumbers are FLOURISHING. I love them. Though the cucumbers have some sort of fuzzy fungus-y thing I am trying to figure out. Ugh. Seriously, it's like having more kids. Haha

I still say it's all growin' great though!
(See how I brought back the joke I made earlier?...)