My Garden

I decided that over the years there has been something missing from my garden photos.  

The gardener...

I'm always the person taking the photos.  So I talked my husband into taking a couple of photos for me.  I can't wait to scrapbook them with photos of my plants and harvest.  I love this wire basket.  I bought it a few years ago and had it above my kitchen cabinets for decor.  But it's the best garden basket ever! And you can see why I love being in my garden.  It has the best view on our entire lot. At least until someone builds on the lot next door.  

Friday night I harvested over a pound of Oregon Sugar Peas (if you have crappy soil like me, they'll grow like crazy so go for it).  And three heads of romaine lettuce.  I harvest part of it and leave the lower part behind and it grows more lettuce.  You can see it by my left hand in the photo.  Click on it to enlarge it to see it better.  I also harvested a handful of green onions and the last of the strawberries.

And I love my mini rototiller.  Thank you Honda - my garden looks amazing this year with very little effort!

Soil

I love soil, I hate soil.  But I think I finally found out what I need to do to get it right.  I have a Row type garden and a square foot type garden.  I love them both.  Improving the soil is a pain.  I found out that Millers products have high salt content because a lot of their stuff comes from an area left behind from Lake Bonneville. The plants don't like all that salt. OOPS.

 The garden center owner I visited with has a son who is a soil scientist. If you'd like to know which garden center, email me.  He said THIS FALL to add all the grass clippings and leaves I can find (3 to 4 inches) and then cow poop - lots of it. Then add the recommended amount of nitrate and he said my garden will almost grow out of control with no need for fertilizer next year.   Good thing there is a guy nearby trying to get rid of some of that.  He'll drop it off in my garden when he drops it off at the neighbor's garden.  I can just hear the gears in your head spinning.  Quit it.  I know the jokes.  Ok whatever.  Go ahead and laugh.  My other neighbor is.  His garden looks amazing compared to mine.  He talked to that garden center about 10 years ago.  I've lived and learned.

Because my husband loves home and family

I know there are many men that work hard for their families both at work and at home.  I know that some don't.  I know that some can't.  We can never take their work for granted.  So that is why I share this with you.  I am grateful for my husband's hard work in the yard this last week.  Together we picked out and purchased 4 new trees for our yard.   Together we planted them.

 We are desperate for shade as the temperatures reach the 100's.  And after 4 summers of listening to the AC constantly, he caved in. I chose trees that grow quickly and look lovely.  They also have other benefits. 

 The Ash tree above loses all its leaves in the fall in about a day.  Makes raking easy.  It also gets huge.  We will only need 1 tree in that spot versus the 4 on the landscape plan. It's also the kind of tree I can picture my kids climbing in one day.  (Hopefully before they graduate from high school) The choke cherry grows fast and my neighbors have one - it grows well their clay soil and that means it will grow well in our clay soil. 

 You can see that the trees are on the same side of the house as the AC.  Most of that wall is solid except the two 2x4 windows that let in a lot of heat.  So between the burning bush and the Improved Canadian choke cherry things should be much cooler in a year or two ... or three.  

This is the view from the front of the house. 

Strawberries

This is the first year we've been able to grow enough strawberries to eat. I can't eat them but the rest of my family can.  My children helped me pick them and then I washed and cut them up.  We added a touch of sugar and my children were in heaven.  There is no better way to get them to eat fruits and veggies than to grow them yourself.

Time Saver

So I have things that I use to make my life easier.  This is all part of fatigue management.  I love gardening and it's been a huge help with healing from cancer treatment.  It all distracts me during check up times.  And I love eating fresh veggies.  I eat more when I garden.  That's a good thing. My kids have turned into pro gardeners too.  If at first they don't want to help, don't push too much. It may take a few years but they'll come around.  And don't be afraid to use time savers.  

This time, by Orbit (out of salt lake city utah) is super handy.  It has an automatic side and a manual side.   This allows me to fill up my watering can when I need to mix organic fertilizers, etc.  One of these days I'd like to get a hose that is shorter but this'll do for now.  I attach the hose to the time and then to the drip line system that consists of PVC pipe and drip line.  We live in the high desert and it gets hot in the summer with almost no rain or humidity.  And we are on a well.  I don't want to use the pump all day.  

You can see here how the PVC pipe runs all along the south side of the garden.

Wild flowers indoors

We planted a huge patch of wild flowers in front of our house. Basically we tilled it, tossed about $50 worth of seed out there and then watered it.  This is the first year these have grown. It's mostly going to be trees out there when we finish so it's nice to have a pretty filler for now.  My daughter and I spent a while gathering these the other night after Family Home Evening.  This pitcher was a wedding gift to my husband and I. I love it and it's perfect for wild flowers.

 Nikon D7000, 50mm 1.8 set at 2.8, ISO 800

Paper Leis

Well, we got the first part of this project complete.  We painted the card stock with watercolors and then we used a flower punch to cut out the paper flowers.  They actually look really cool.   My son cut out a few.  But mostly I did the cutting.  It isn't easy for little hands.

I think they turned out really cute!  I can't wait to finish the project - how about when it's too hot to enjoy the great outdoors most of the day. 

Punch by EK Success.

Garden photo update

My garden is feeling a little behind.  Last year my peas were twice as tall.  I can tell because of the trellis.  

My peas are just starting to blossom.  I've got oregon sugar pods this year and I can hardly wait to eat them.

The panels are 4 feet tall and 16 feet long. I love cutting these panels into just the size I need for say, trellising cucumbers.  This way I can put them closer together and keep them from taking over each other and the rest of the garden.  I especially love the lemon cucumbers.  They are not bitter and add a little Marukan rice vinegar (gluten free!) and I'm in heaven.

Cattle Panels or wire panels are made from galvanized steel and don't rust.  A friend at church cuts them and makes them into really great tomato cages.

Plants

It's my favorite time of the year, ok, well almost, but it is that time of year when the plants that I started in the spring are actually growing outside and starting to look like something.

Corn

Cabbage

Heirloom tomatoes

romaine lettuce: 

Jade Bush Green Beans

Roma Tomatoes

Mostly a winter playground

There's a few feet of snow left up at Tony Grove.  We drove up the other day and hiked about 1.5 miles into the lake from where we parked the Jeep.  Tyler and I took the kids along too and they were good sports.  We even had a little snowball fight on the way back down just before 2 snowmobilers passed us.   You can see the road is part river right now.  

 Doubt anyone will get their coveted 4th of July camping spots this year.  As you can see, it's going to have to melt really fast.  Although tomorrow will be 91 in the valley so who knows.  It warmed up quick.  New gardening photos soon.  It's so behind because it was so wet this spring. 

Our staycastation photos

We just want to share a few more photos from our great trip to Park City in the spring.

If you click on this first image it'll be large enough to see my daughter's face. They had packages pre-made with marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, and roasting sticks.

I stared at this gorgeous place and it rugged architecture for hours.

 Here is our view from the fire pit.

And here is the entrance into our two bedroom sweet. @ bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a powder room, living room, small table, large table, wet bar, kitchen, tile, hand scrapped hardwood flooring, and lush carpet.

Let me ask you, have you stayed with HYatt?  They are offering an Endless Summer program which is book 2 nights, get 3rd free.  Then we get there and when the guy at the check in desk asks if it is for a special event, I said, It's a fun father's day surprise.  HE said, 'well, let's get you some more room.  Can I just say that having a two bedroom suite with a kitchen and 2.5 baths was amazing and totally unexpected.  HE also gave the kids toys for the pool and big bubble wands.  They think of everything there.

 Kid's bedroom:

 fab kitchen!

master bedroom - includes TV and Fireplace 

Master bath to die for! OH wait, I have tile just like that at home.  And the shower was almost identical to ours.  Home away from home for sure! 

  The powder room~

 Out door adventures coming soon.

Father's Day in Park City

We wanted to make this trip for memorial weekend but felt like we should wait for Father's day instead.  So glad  we did because our home would have burned down because of a faulty switch in our fridge that led to some cooked food on the top two shelves. Fridge has been fixed and Sears payed for it.  It all worked out and it was wonderful.

 Ten Things that made me laugh while we were in Park City.

1. My daughter's laughter on the Alpine Slide with daddy and her blood curdling screams on the Alpine Coaster with me.

2. The look on our faces when the host opened the door to our upgrade room - from a 2 queen bedroom with a kitchenette to a two bedroom suite, 2 bathrooms, 1 powder room, full kitchen, and two porches.

3. My son standing in water up to his knees in the wading pool and sticking his face in the water to test out his new green TYR googles.

4. The fact that my husband can't go anywhere without bumping into someone from our valley that he knows.  Tyler had the privilege of saying the opening prayer during the Visitor's Sacrament Meeting in the Park City Chapel.

5. The ski lift operator that looked just like my friend B. from Vancouver BC.  In the 30 seconds I was there I actually looked around for Sarah McLachlan t-shirts.

6. My kids jumping on the trampoline training set up.  My daughter did two back flips and my son did a dozen forward flips.  Their smiles made me smile.

7. The poor lady freaking out on the payday lift as she and her companion rode back down to the base - she was scared to death. She even complimented our children for being brave.

8.The wedding guests in front of  us in line at the alpine slide were in short frilly dresses.  They thought that wrapping a sweater around their legs was a good way to remain modest.  And the boyfriends that took off so they could arrive at the base first.

9. The $575,000 half acre lot for sale in Deer Valley.  Great View but wow!

10. The four young business men who looked like they had just stepped out of an issue of Esquire magazine who were racing each other down the alpine slide.  I'm glad they chose that over the coaster.  They would have damaged their expensive suits. 

click on the photos to see then larger.  

Tap -Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Finale

My daughter loved her tap dance this year.  And she nailed it - perfectly.  She hasn't had this much fun with tap before.  She completed the entire dance without a delay or looking at others to remember.  She really had fun and I had fun watching her.  My Dad could hardly believe how good she did and gave her oodles of compliments.  But most of all, she was super pleased with her performance.

 Here is the part of the song where the old guy says that he said Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and now his girl was his wife.  And my daughter got to be the angry wife while he says "and oh what a lovely thing she is too." She could hardly do it without laughing.

And this year's finale was the best EVER! They used streamers on a wand and danced to Firework.  It was breath taking!