Nice 'n Clean, and Awaiting Seed

This past weekend brought in some cooler weather for us, and *gasp* RAIN! Yeah! I'm sure some of you might be like, "Yay... Rain..." but it was SO wonderful! It's been months since it rained here, and a year since I've even heard thunder. I found myself not minding being awakened at 5am on Saturday morning to the oncoming rumbles of God going bowling. Yes, at 30 something, that's still what I think about when I hear thunder. Rain just seems to make everything feel clean and fresh. Nice and new. It's helped relieve some of my anxious feelings about beginning the next season of growing, and has me feeling more gung-ho about getting seeds in the ground. This weekend's rain helped soften up the dense clay that's surrounding my raised beds along our deck/patio thing (ugh. I never know what to call it), and I was able to easily break it up, and add soil amendment and grass clippings. After last week's heroics in the front yard, the pointy shovel saved the day again! I'll be planting Hyacinthus, Crocus, and Chionodoxa in the spots between the raised beds. The Hyacinthus will grow along the base of the patio thingy, and I'll intermix the Crocus and Chionodoxa. There's a lot of purple there, but I think it'll lend a nice contrast to the green that'll be growing in the beds, and the red wood behind them. I didn't take a pic of where they'll be growing, but you can see an older pic here. I found those bags at Costco two weeks ago. I didn't realize what a bargain I'd got until I stopped by Lowe's (for a handy shovel), and saw the same varieties for almost double the price! Speaking of bulbs, my order from Peaceful Valley arrived this weekend. I ordered way too many, but I got to this task a bit late, and some of the other sites offering smaller quantities were sold out. I will either cook with what's not sown or I'll be experimenting with how garlic and shallots grow in different areas around the yard--probably the latter because that sounds a heck of a lot more fun than the absoluteness of cooking with them. Here's what I got: California Early White Garlic, French Red and Dutch Yellow Shallots. Happy Dance! Cha! Happy Dance! Cha! Oh! Warm welcomes to Just Jenn, over at Gamine's Garden. I'm glad you're here, and thanks for reading!

I am NOT Counting my Lemons Before They've Grown

...But I do see two that haven't shriveled, turned yellow, or otherwise fallen off. HAHA! Thomas over at A Growing Tradition left a comment on my 7/18/09 post with tips for growing Meyer Lemons which reminded me that, with the exception of watering, I haven't been paying attention to my lemon tree. So, I stepped outside, and looky what I spotted! They're actually taking on lemon-esque shapes! Now, these are still wee little babies so I'm not going to go running around my yard screaming, "I have two lemons" or anything, but what a pleasant surprise for this gardener's otherwise stalled summer growing season. Cheers!

Woohoo! I Received a Meme Award!

Thank you so much, Rachel, over at GrafixMuse's Garden Spot for giving me this great honor! I don't think I've received any awards, rewards, or prizes in years and years! Rachel and I started blogging about our garden's around the same time, and I've enjoyed seeing how her garden has developed. She provides great information on her blog, and takes beautiful pictures. I also really enjoy her section dedicated to visitor's she's had in her garden. So, here are the Meme award guidelines: 1. Link back to the person who gave you the award
 2. Reveal 7 things about yourself
 3. Tag 7 other bloggers at the end of your post and link to them
 4. Let each blogger know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
 5. Let the tagger know when your post is up. Here are a few things about me: 1. I still enjoy watching cartoons. I especially enjoy watching Japanese anime (NO English voice-overs, please. So much gets lost in translation). This has been a good thing since watching cartoons comes with the role of "parent." I don't mind sitting with my 7yo to watch some 'toons. It certainly comes in handy when he finds a new cartoon to watch, and I need to watch it to see if it's appropriate. 2. One of my dreams is to take a few weeks or even months out of daily life, and tour Japan. This is actually one of DH and my life goals. We have been saving $40 a month for a few years now, so when the time is right, we'll be ready to fund the trip. 3. Like Rachel, I too hate shopping. Not just clothes shopping, but shopping in general. It can be such a time consuming task, and with kids, my time and their patience can be short. I tend to do most of my shopping online. This has been especially helpful with clothes since I'm petite, and stores tend to forget about stocking good, fashionable clothes for petite women. 4. I hated school (sshh, don't tell Ribbit! She's a teacher ;-) ). I hated the social forces of having to conform, and I hated the pressures of having to learn "useless" information. Looking back, I wish I'd performed better in school, but would NEVER go back and do it over again. Besides, I am perfectly happy that I can now fill my head with whatever sort of information and nonsense I please. I think that feeling the way I did about school has given me a unique view of it all, and I want to ensure that my boys don't feel like that about school. I also want to make sure that they know there are other things outside of a school environment that are just as important. 5. I enjoy just about all aspects of my domesticated life. I love being at home with my boys, cooking dinner for my husband, sewing, and even cleaning. Yes, cleaning! I don't like taking the time out of my day to clean, but once I'm sticking it to the dirt and grime, I enjoy the task. I look at cleaning like I do gardening. It can be difficult work at times, but it's a nice stress reliever, and the outcome is often satisfying. 6. I love beer. The darker, the more pungent, the better. I want to learn how to make beer. Although I've heard of it, I haven't ever tasted--nor do I have the desire to try tomato juice in my beer (sorry Granny!). 7. My name is "Amy." Growing up, I never liked my name, and still slightly dislike it. It can be grating, and sounds sorta nasally "Aaaameeee." There's no option for a nickname with Amy either. I tried coming up with nicknames and being called something different, but nothing ever fit or stuck until "Momma." My boys call me "Mom," but that's ok. I feel more comfortable with the name "Momma S" than "Amy." I'm not used to divulging personal information about myself online, and thinking about things to write about was sort of tough. Besides, GrafixMuse hit on some of my ideas first, and I didn't want to be a copycat! Now onto the task passing this award on... Most of the blogs I enjoy have already received the award, but here they are, in no particular order (ok, the 1st two are--just 'cause I know them personally): Our Grande Family This is my older sister, Michelle's blog. Being 3k away from my family is one of the hardest things I've had to endure, and her blog helps ease the pain. little t jane Tracy has some of the awesomest artistic tastes and talents I've seen, and I miss her bubbly personality TONS. Stacy's Cottage Garden Stacy hasn't been around recently, but I'm sending an award her way because her garden looks great, and I've enjoyed her blog so far. I'm hoping she has the chance to get back into her garden, and her blog. Our Engineered Garden Ok, I think everyone who gardens, blogs, or has visited GardenWeb's SFG forum knows who EG is. He rocks! He's one smart dude, and he cracks me up. The Corner Yard Ah, Ribbit. I love reading her blog. She's so witty, and her words just flow so well. Shawn Ann's Garden Shawn Ann is in her second year of gardening--first for SFGing. There's a lot going on around her garden, and I like watching it all unfold on her blog. Even though she's due with #3 soon, she's seems to be doing a great job of keeping up with it all. Annie's Kitchen Garden Sometimes, when I read Granny's blog, I imagine she's my granny. She is such a ham, and her personality really shines through her words. Reading her blog, and enjoying her pictures is like she's inviting you into her home for a cup of tea and some cookies--no wait--pumpkin pie... yeah... Thanks for reading, for sharing your gardening and life experiences, and for passing the award along.

Let Me Introduce You to Our Front Yard

Whenever we come and go, we do so through the garage, so I don't really see the front yard very often. This past week, however, I've had to park down the street while our cul-de-sac was being resurfaced, and this gave me the opportunity to see what others see when they approach our house. When I stopped to get a good look at our yard, I was a little ashamed! How could I be spending so much time working in the back, planning ("planning" since nothing is actually "growing") to grow beautiful things that only we will see, and be doing absolutely nothing about the part of our home that everyone sees? Yes, the lawn is green, but the section between the lawn and our house is just sad looking. Something had to be done with this mess. Good thing the back yard and garden are on vacation right now... With the exception of that speck of sun that quickly travels from the middle to left of the plot, this 12'x7' section is all shade. These rocks are between the above section and the walkway leading to our front door. The little green that was growing, and the brown covering the rocks were "baby tears." Baby tears looks like mini clover all clumped together. I visited the GardenWeb's Perennial forum for guidance on what would grow well in full shade, wouldn't be too invasive, and wouldn't take a lot of maintenance. I received many great suggestions, and took a list of my favorites to the nursery with me to see what the gardener would suggest for my specifications and our climate. One small trunk and front seat full of earthy smelling soil amendment (I need a few bags for the back yard--oh, and a minivan too, please), and one flat of vinca minor later, I was ready to start work! Okay, the soil amendment has many different types of poo in it, so "earthy smelling" is a bit of an understatement, and it left my car smelling stinky for two days, but I digress. The vinca minor will have very pretty periwinkle flowers in the spring, and nice green foliage the rest of the year. It also does well with low water usage, and full shade. Let me just tell you that breaking up 84 square feet of dry soil with concrete like qualities by hand is back breaking! It didn't help that on Friday I did the first THIRD of the plot using a flat edged bleeping spade! Oye! After the two arduous hours I spent breaking up dirt which resulted in me barely being able to hold my toddler because my arms and shoulders wouldn't stop twitching, I had to think of a different plan. After a strong cup o' jo on Saturday morning (and a few more aspirin), I headed to the store for a nice, pointy shovel. Oh, baby. What a difference a little point on the end of a shovel makes! I was able to finish breaking up the rest of the dirt, go back and redo Friday's third of a section, AND start adding the amendment in less time than it took me to do everything else I'd done up to that point! Look at the difference between the amendment and soil. Day and night, if you ask me... It's a good thing I bought a flat of plants... All 48 of the little buggers were all twisted around each other, growing into their neighbor's cell packs, and a pain to separate. While practicing the difficult virtue of patience, I was imagining the looks I would've received from the gardener if I had asked for less than a flat. Ah, the things we think about to keep ourselves going... Once I had the cell packs separated from each other, I then had to trim and break each section of roots. Needless to say, gloves were not acceptable for this task. I needed to be able to get in there without my sense of touch being hindered by blue fake leather gloves that are too big for my hands. *Note to self: Clip nails before working gloveless in dirt.* Well, here are the results of it all! I forgot to ask how far apart I should plant the vica minor, so I went with about a foot between each plant and 16-24 inches between rows to get 4 rows. Hopefully they won't take too long to fill in the dead space... I hope you enjoyed your visit to our front yard! Have a wonderful Labor Day!

When I'm not Gardening or Chasing After Children...

...I cook and bake. Since my watermelon, cantaloupe, and sweet potatoes have stopped growing, I have *nothing* happening outside right now. I wanted to post something, so I thought I'd share my other addiction--I mean hobby; cooking and baking. One day, I'll be able grow things to help feed this hobby LOL. Last night's close call with a complete mess is what spawned this post. This past spring I stopped buying sandwich bread, and had been making it from scratch. I use my bread machine to mix the dough and let it rise, then I bake it in bread pans in the oven. I love it! The bread is so fresh, and I get to control what ingredients go into the bread (i.e. no junkie ingredients). I didn't bake any over the summer, however, and I guess this is what happens when I take a break: After a good beating--I mean kneading, it turned out great! The other thing I bake most often has to be pancakes. I've been making pancakes since I was probably 12 or 13... This electric griddle is THE BEST! It folds nicely for storage, and the cooking plates come off for easy clean up. I think the only other thing I've cooked on here are grilled cheese. Blueberry pancakes are yummy... ...but blueberry sauce on pancakes rocks! Did I make you hungry? teehee Feel free to visit my page over at All Recipes. I've been cooking and baking for as long as I can remember, and writing reviews about what I cook since 2003. I've only recently started taking pictures of my results... Cheers!

Garden Blogger's Death Day

I'll make the sadness of it all short... Here are the before and after pictures of the contents of my SFG. They weren't dead until after I pulled them all up... This still counts, right? ;-) What was left of my Yolo Wonder Bell peppers... I posted pictures of these last month, I think, for Death Day, but they weren't truly dead then... Not watering for a few weeks did the trick though. It's been so blazin' hot out that I don't think my watermelon, cantaloupe or sweet potatoes have grown in at least a week. I was beginning to think I had created a "bush variety" of sweet potatoes because they aren't vining at all. I wanted to see what they were up to so I pulled one today. Poor things. And, for my big disappointment... My broccoli and cabbage seedlings are all shriveling up. There's a patch of mold on this pot's soil. I think their deaths are due to too much moisture, not enough sunlight, and too much heat from sitting next to the window. Good thing I'm ahead of myself for the upcoming growing season! With the exception of my seedlings, I'm welcoming this month's nasty business of garden death, as it signals the upcoming season of cool weather crops. Instead of looking at my empty SFG with longing, I'm patiently standing by for the weather to cool off enough to get another round growing. My first season of gardening has been more turbulent than productive, but I feel I've learned a few things, and am better prepared for what's to come.

Harvest Monday picked on Sunday and Tuesday and posted on Wednesday

HA! I think that title made me realize I've had a little too much coffee, and not enough food. I see more and more of the blogs I read joining in contributing to "Harvest Monday," (hosted by Daphne's Dandelions) and I actually had stuff I harvested on Sunday with intentions of contributing too, but didn't get around to posting about it! Doh! Anyway, here are the goods... On Sunday, I picked all of the ripe cherry tomatoes, and made doubly sure that DH brought them in to work on Monday. He ate most of them for a snack, and gave a few to someone who loves tomatoes. The tomato lover confirms that they were good tomatoes. LOL I also picked a few pears to see how they'll taste. Yesterday I went to work on the SFG, and decided at the last minute to rip everything out. Here is what I harvested before the destruction began (tune in on Monday for carnage pics). My three bell peppers ended up with the same rotting/scorch marks as the one seen in the picture... They were pretty small too. At least I had a good turnout of chili's! I hadn't planned on using anymore okra because I didn't think I would get enough to do anything with, but there were more out there than I expected. After I tore everything out of the SFG, I made a mix of Bumper Crop Soil Amendment (since I don't have any home made compost *yet*), fresh and dried grass clippings, bone and blood meal, coffee grounds, and added this to the existing soil. I've tried to take all the information I've read about fertilizing and amending soil, and putting that info to work. Alas, it just seems so complicating to me that I'm crossing my fingers with this mix. I did a few soil tests two weeks ago with a home kit, and my results showed very low to no nitrogen. This is why I added the coffee grounds, blood meal and grass clippings. Let's hope I didn't overdo it! So guilty! While I was mixing everything in buckets, the LO got into the SFG, and started throwing dirt everywhere. I, of course, grabbed the camera and clicked while I disciplined. Check out how tall that zinnia in the background is! He kept getting into the bed, so I gave up on that battle, and handed him a bowl in a fruitless effort to dissuade him from throwing the dirt out of the bed... Boy Wonder started 2nd grade yesterday. He had a great day, and is excited to be back in school. Dad and I were both sad to see how fast it's all going by, but are so proud of how big he's getting!

I'm a blog slacker

Well, fellow gardening bloggers, sorry for not posting anything in a while... The garden has sort of taken a back seat for me with preparations for Boy Wonder starting 2nd grade on Tuesday, and trying to squeeze in a few more activities before summer break is over. We've also had our 1 year anniversary of moving to CA, and it's had me feeling a little down and out. The garden would normally kick those bummy feelings, but I haven't been gardening! It's too stinkin hot, and I'm too busy for it! The good news is, there hasn't been a lot going out there... I finally got around to frying up the okra I'd been stashing. I chopped and froze about 1.5 sandwich bags worth, and ended up making way too much for one sitting. Now I know that next time I grow okra, I can probably cook about 1/2 that amount at a time. I don't know that DH and Boy Wonder will be glad to hear that since they didn't like it a lot. The LO and I, on the other hand, scarfed the fried okra! Then again, I've got southern blood runnin' through my veins, and the LO eats almost everything. He's been the one eating the cherry tomatoes, in fact. I tried them, I promise, but I didn't like them! Blegh. I served the fried okra with BBQ chicken topped with grilled Fresno's. So yummy... This is the lone giant purple zinnia that grew from the 6-10 I planted on June 1. The first picture was taken 10 days ago, and I thought I'd caught it at the end of it's bloom, but it turns out it was the beginning... the second picture is from today. The zinnia has filled in nicely... Here is my first watermelon. She's still growing, but growing sorta crooked. I think this may be the beginning of the end for her. I recall reading a blog or forum post somewhere where melon's that weren't fertilized grow for a while then die off, and I'm jumping to this conclusion due to the funny growth. The good news is, I ensured these ladies got some lovin'. Teehee The one on the left was pollinated 3 days ago, and the one on the right was done today. Here are my Texas Grano 502 onions. I started them on the 7th, and they began sprouting on the 11th. I have them growing in a 2:1 combo of Miracle Gro Seed Starter and vermiculite, in a plastic container that salad greens from Costco came in. I also started my first round of Waltham 29 broccoli (3 square pots) and Red Acre Cabbage (circular pot) on the 13th. It took the broccoli 4 days to begin sprouting, and the cabbage 6 days. They're looking a little leggy so far... Hmm... I guess there have been some things happening around here after all! I'm feeling a little better now... Yay!

I knew something like this would happen...

We went camping in Bodega Bay for a few days, and something happened while we were gone... A female watermelon bloomed! Oooh, I'm all turned about inside. I wasn't here to make sure this lady was pollinated, and now I have to sit around with fingers and toes crossed! I guess I'd be doing that even if I had ensured pollination, just waiting to see if it would be healthy and grow... Male watermelon flowers, waiting for mates that won't appear in time... Patience seems to be paying off with these peppers so far. There are 3 healthy looking (gasp) bell peppers on the front plant. Since it's getting close to the end of the season, I'm leaving the Fresno's on the plant to turn red. 4'x2' cantaloupe bed. All three are blooming, and only males have bloomed, but I think I spotted 2 females this morning. Now the trick is getting them blooming at the same time! Do the melon's leaves seem small? The Meyer lemon blooms from last week died, but there's already another round going. The interesting thing about these blooms is their size difference. The blooms up until now have been small, like those seen below. See that big one though? There is another set of all large blooms like that one. Maybe these will do some growing. I cleaned up and reorganized the shed yesterday. This was an unplanned project (I have yet to do any planned projects ugh), but I needed to do it before putting the camping gear back in the boxes. Thanks, Boy Wonder, for helping make a quick job of it. I don't have a before picture, but it was a mess. The boxes were under the shelves, and bags of soil and folding chairs were in front of the boxes. I could barely get to anything on the shelves, or into the boxes. The shelves still need to be tidied up, but it's great being able to walk straight up to them. During our trip to Bodega Bay, we stopped at Candy & Kites for salt water taffy and a kite to fly on the beach. I wanted a windmill for the garden, and Boy Wonder chose a ladybug. A few pictures from the trip... These wild orchids were growing all along Route 1, and down the hillside to the beach. There was also a beautiful variety of succulent but I forgot to take a picture of it. Dad helping Boy Wonder get his kit up in the air. It took no effort at all because of the constant breeze. It also only lasted about 30 seconds before Boy Wonder decided digging in the sand was much better than a self flying kite! Cheeze! Boy Wonder took this... He's got a great eye for a 7yo.