Let's try this again...

So, I attempted to return to this blog once before, and without success, but here goes another try...

First of all, one big announcement: our family has grown by one tiny member. Lincoln Danger is here! He was welcomed into the world on December 19th at 9:20 pm. We had a great, natural birth experience (notice I say great, despite the pain!) at a birth center. The only people present were myself, Lucas, our midwife, and her assistant. We had a very relaxed atmosphere and were back at home 5 hours after the birth! Lincoln is thriving and we can't imagine our lives without him!

And of course I have to share a picture of the cuteness:

Or two:


Or three:


Ok, four. But this one is food related! See, he's already helping me cook!


Since this is the first post in awhile, I'm going to keep it pretty simple. If you recall, we had planted a garden way back when. Well, unfortunately, most of it was lost in Hurricane Ike, but we did manage to eek out a couple items. Below is our largest watermelon. We actually harvested 2, but this one was our best hope. We were forced to harvest much earlier than planned due to a freak Houston snow this fall. So, the watermelon was only half-cooked. When we cut into it, the flesh was pale, pale pink. Lucas was brave enough to sample a piece, and declared it tasted like eating the rind. Yum, huh? So, our lesson learned was: plant earlier, so we can harvest earlier!



The combo below is kale and basil. The kale spent its time in the ground labeled as red leaf lettuce. It was from a seed packet of mesclun, and I had no idea how many leaf varities were in there. This one had red leaves, so I figured it must be red leaf lettuce,having had no previous experience with kale. When I harvested it, it looked and felt nothing like red leaf lettuce, so I was off to do some internet research. This led to my proclamation that we had ourselves some kale! I looked up recipes, had such great plans, washed it, dried it, lovingly placed it in a ziplock bag in the crisper...and promptly forgot about it. The next time I discovered it was much much too late (*shudders* to think about it...). So, another lesson learned: don't forget about your harvest!


Ok, I think that we are off to a good start! Let's hope I can stick with things this time around!

~Kelly

The first harvest

Our garden has produced its first harvest: 2 cherry tomatoes! Lucas does not like tomatoes, so these were enjoyed only by me. I had to savor them, because I'm not sure the plant will produce any others...it seems to have developed some kind of disease (perhaps blight?) and has no signs of further tomato growth at this point. I plan to continue to water it in hopes that we will get a few more, but at any rate, I am happy to have at least these 2 in my first gardening attempt! Our squash plants are enormous now and have a few flowers that bloomed this week. Although I am really excited about them, I am also a bit sad in that in their growth, they have begun to take over some of the other squares of the garden, completely hanging over and blocking the sun of the peppers and parsley. Both peppers and parsley still seem to be hanging in there, so we'll see...The watermelon has also begun to vine out of the box and we are now trailing it along the side of the deck. And, the basil, which I thought was a lost cause, is finally starting to grow! We also have mesclun, which is fair to good. Something ate half of the red leaf variety, but the rest is looking good. I'll have to get out there soon and take some updated pictures.

Garden

So....haven't posted anything for awhile. I have had a few failed baking attempts (I entirely blame my oven. More on this later), have started a backyard garden, went through a few weeks where I made things, but didn't think to photograph them (guess we'll just have to make homemade ice-cream with homemade caramel sauce again...oh well!), and was mostly lazy. I thought I'd attempt to make up for my laziness by promising a series of posts--as in one each day this week. This is a lofty goal, however, and you will be lucky to see one every other day. Though I will try my best.

Today I thought I'd share about my garden. Since we moved in a year ago, I have been talking about the wonderful garden I would have now that I had my own backyard. I suppose I could have managed something during the "apartment days," but the closest I got to gardening then was my window oxalis, which could live anywhere and I'm sure could be tended to by a hamster or other small brained creature with moderate rate of success. Pondering just how we were going to get anything to grow in our clay soil lasted nearly the whole first year we were here. Then, our neighbor told us about square foot gardening, which would eliminate any soil preparation and contain the garden to a set spot all at the same time. Perfect!

3 weeks later...


We have a garden! Looking at the picture above, from the bottom left hand corner, going from bottom to top, then top to bottom: 2 squares of watermelon, cherry tomatoes, basil, empty square (was going to be zucchini, but no stores seemed to carry those seeds this late in the summer), zinnia, mesclun, zinnia, spinach, empty square (was to be zucchini, again), 2 squares of peppers, 2 squares of squash, parsley, and mesclun. All except the tomato and zinnias were from seed. I also have a larger tomato plant in a container on the deck. So, we'll see how well we do! I've already found a worm and some sort of tiny grasshopper looking thing eating the leaves on the watermelon sprouts, which is why I have thinned the sprouts back yet. Want to make sure I leave the strongest one! I am pretty sure I have over planted in terms of big plants--the book recommended one squash plant for every 3 squares. I went ahead and planted 2 next door to each other. Oh well. If one doesn't make it, I guess I have a back up.

In the picture, you will also notice the presence of our dog, Wembley. He thinks it is his job to dig up any bark, pieces of mulch, or large clumps of dirt that might be present in the garden. If you spend any time near our yard, you will most likely hear the sounds of: "Wembley! No! Get out of there!", followed by a crazed black dog streaking through the yard at a speed way to fast for a human to catch. He will then proceed to streak straight by you, through the garden, and start the process over. We are going to look into a small fence. This in lieu of Lucas' suggestion to just get rid of the dog. Deep down, I think he really does like him.

Tomorrow (or the next day, whichever...): Peach-raspberry pie