Strolling....

It's that time of year that makes my heart sing...a short stroll through the yard showcases so many of God's beautiful creations, like these chives... 

...and I can't wait to see blossoms on these snow peas, 'cause that means the yummy peas are not behind!

The grape vines are setting their bounty....

and the red potatoes are going crazy back on the old compost pile!

And it's time to check that hive for brood to see if the queen is still laying....

Yep....looks like she is doing pretty well for herself! 

 And there is already honey production underway.  I have one word for that....YAY!!!

More yummy baby grapes....

Anybody need any red sail lettuce?  It is always so prolific that I have a hard time using it as fast as it is ready....but I do love a couple of big red sail leaves on a juicy hamburger!

Looks like there will be plenty of plums for jam this year if the bugs and birds will leave enough of them alone.....here's hoping!

And the cherries are even setting....

The newest addition to our "permanent" summer time bird-watching pleasure.  We have at least two pair of indigo buntings that are nesting in the vicinity and the males are making frequent visitors to this feeder on the back deck....

And then there are the flowers....just as the tulips were dying back, the iris starting blooming.  First, these purple lovelies 

...and now these beauties.

Even the peonies are starting to bloom!

The apple trees are setting their fruit....wonder if the harvest will be as abundant as last year.  If so, I need to find some new ways to preserve apples...maybe dehydrate?

Before I forget, here are a few pics of the recent installation of the new queen and her attending hordes in our second hive....

 The queen and her loyal attendees....

...stapling her (in her cage) to one of the frames so that the rest of the bees and she can acclimate and make nice...we hope.  Several of the new boxes of bees in our area have killed the queen before she was even released from her cage, so here's hoping!

After the queen cage was securely attached, Willie shook most of the bees from the box into the hive...and then started putting frames back in....

 All ready to close up...

We'll keep you posted on how the acclimation process goes.  Hopefully, we will have a healthy, thriving hive with a productive, laying queen!  You think it's okay to pray for our bees?  I do!!  They provide us with wonderful raw, organic honey and provide the environment with a much needed service....pollination!

Check back in a few days to see how the new "family" is doing!

 



Our garden...progressively!

I shared about our recent addiction to the square foot gardening method....now to my favorite part....harvesting!  It started small...our first harvest was just enough buttercrunch and red sail lettuce for small salads...

But now I can see some luscious salads in my future!  And the swiss chard?   Yummo...apparently, the earwigs think so, too.  Bummer!

Loving this Red Sail lettuce....such broad tasty leaves and it is still producing during this hot June weather....pretty hardy stuff.

And then there's the peas.....just starting out here, but with the promise of lots of  yummy goodness.  I LOVE pea pods, but they are always so expensive.  Solution - we're growing our own with plans to freeze any excess for this winter.

We didn't have a very good radish crop, but did enjoy a few with some of our daily salads.  One thing I learned was that next year I will stagger my lettuce plantings a little further apart (had a glut of salad greens for almost two months).

Doesn't that look pretty? 

Broccoli, cabbage, peas, onions, spinach, chard, lettuce, onions, and carrots with some herbs (basil, chives, oregano, parsley, and cilantro) thrown in for good measure. Add the marigolds for a little pest control, and other flowers to brighten the whole effect....and now our garden is a beautiful part of our landscape!

 The radishes may be gone, but the broccoli and cabbage are sure looking good!  Homemade broccoli salad, anyone?

I'm really getting excited now.....PEAS!!

AND parsley...

onions....

Broccoli is looking about ready for harvest.

Well, it's been quite awhile since we first started on this process.  It all started with building the boxes in Feb/March.  Since then we've had quite a bit of fresh produce.....

• Lots and lots of lettuce
• Spinach and chard....used some fresh and froze some for later use
• Radishes - a few good ones
• Strawberries - not that great a harvest....going to leave them in for next year and see how they do.  If they don't produce well, they're outta there....I'm not wasting space on unproductive plants! 
• Cabbage - fresh cole slaw (oh, yummy) and froze quite a bit for soups this winter.
• Broccoli - the best broccoli salad ever and the rest put up in the freezer.
• Peas - did I mention I LOVE pea pods?  Well, some didn't even make it into my harvest bowl!  Somehow they made their way to my mouth before they could hit the bowl.  But we enjoyed them steamed...taste buds, awake!   And I have quite a bit in the freezer.  Can I just say that I am loving the look of that freezer now?  Maybe next year I will try canning.
• And the herbs - it is so nice to walk down the deck steps and cut some fresh basil for caprese salad.   Summer at its finest!

So now that the radishes, spinach, cabbage, broccoli and peas have completed their productive lives....well, they are being replaced.  The bush beans are coming up, the peppers are ready to be transplanted along the "trellis", the tomatoes are in bloom...already have 15 tomatoes of varying sizes, the zucchini is going in, and I'm ready to put in some beets and some more carrots and bush beans....staggering that harvest (see, I AM learning something in this process).

Next time I'll share some of our recent adventures...and that's my challenge - to get current with my blogging updates!  In the meantime, I think I'll just sit back, count my blessings and watch the garden grow!

A New Addiction

Yes, we are addicted....to the Square Foot Gardening method, that is.  And it all came about so innocently!  This winter we were at our local library, and Willie checked out a couple of books on gardening, one of them being, The Square Foot Gardener, by Mel Bartholomew.  The more he read, the more excited he became....it all made so much sense, especially, since this is our first foray into gardening in years (let's NOT count them, okay?), and the idea of a tilling up a large section of our yard to put in rows and rows of produce just wasn't all that appealing.  And theeen, we read that Mr. Bartholomew had a newer version of his book out which eliminated ALL tilling?  Hmmm....yup, you guessed it....we headed over to our closest bookstore and nabbed us a copy.  (Actually, we purchased it....that honesty thing, you know.)

First, the boxes had to be constructed...that was Mr. Man's job...

We started out with three, but decided we really wanted to be able to have a little more variety and even some fresh produce to freeze for soups and such later in the year so we ended up going with six.

Then it was on to deciding where we wanted the garden.....

Once all the boxes were in place, it was time to mix up "Mel's Mix", a combination of peat moss, vermiculite and several different kinds of compost.  THAT was a chore....at least it was until we decided to only do half of a "batch" at a time. 

And now the planting has commenced!  Strawberries were the first things to go in, quickly followed by lettuce, spinach and chard.  Oh, and those luscious spring peas!

One of the neat things about this type of gardening, is that you can customize it to suit your needs.  We decided that we didn't want to have to make cold weather frames for all our boxes, so we made sure that the additional two boxes had only frost-hardy plants in them.  Soooo cool!

And our more delicate plantings were nicely protected from that last frost!  Now it's on to more planting, and the best part.....HARVESTING!!

Check back for reports on our progress with both the garden and the bees....until then, face your challenges, embrace your adventures and cherish your blessings!