Stinkin' weather

I'm not one for HOT weather.

I swell up.
I get crotchety.
I get super sweaty.

I just plain HATE HOT HOT weather.

It's been in the 90's for a long while now.

It hasn't rained for weeks.

Our yard looks like the wheat fields a couple miles away.

It makes me wish I lived in the Pacific Northwest with their somewhat milder temperatures, and their rain.

However...

my garden is in full swing.

I'm getting a bounty this year because my sweet husband has set up the sprinkler and we water the garden(s)
(one large sweet corn patch and one large garden patch for other things) every day or every other day.

For weeks now I've been picking these beauties...

they are GOOD and for some reason, they taste like the sun.

The other day I started picking these guys...

and I made some minty sun tea with my spearmint that seems to multiply year after year, even though every year I rip more out.

(I had the perfect glass jar that I bought at Goodwill a year ago.)

So, even though the temperatures are TERRIBLE...and the kids beg everyday to go swimming at my uncle's house, we are reaping some benefits.

I'm just waiting for the tomatoes, and corn, and potatoes, and onions, and peppers, and cabbage, and zucchini, and cucumbers to produce.  

Have you all jumped on the gardening bandwagon?

It's all I thought it would be...mostly

Like so many times, I set my expectations too high for my time off of school.

I make lists.

I cross things off lists, and write more lists.

I think of everything I've let go by the wayside since Christmas break, and I write it all down to accomplish over Spring Break.

It's foolish.

I feel foolish.

However, SOME of that stuff got done this week.  And isn't the fact that I got to do this

a little rewarding.  You see, I didn't have to travel down to Florida or Texas, or even California to experience weather in the 60's, and 70's.  It was nice and sunny here everyday.

We got our 4-H pigs

and the kids got them out almost everyday to play around with them.

Grace and Ev each had a friend over to spend the night and then we all went to the mall the next day.  (Whose idea was THAT anyway?  :-)  )

My garden got planted

with three rows of peas

17 red potato mounds..and

47 onions and 2 rows of lettuce.

I planted some pansy's on the porch

and just enjoyed all the sunshine and my time outside.

It was a good time to relax, it was a good time to regroup, and it was a good time to get excited about what Summer Break is going to be all about.

It was a great week even though we didn't make it past Elkhart County.

It's time

I feel guilty.  And hypocritical, let's be honest.

I really do.

You see, each time I let a couple days go past without posting, I feel bad.

I'm also, truth be told, a little irritated when those blogs I follow don't post something new for me to look at everyday.

I know this is wrong.

And I know I'm a hypocrite.

I realize we all have busy lives.  Good grief don't I know it.

We are all human, too.

I know that.

So I'm feeling remorseful.  Wicked.  Lazy.  Bummed.

So I'm posting today about what I did yesterday after an all afternoon club volleyball tournament.

I got ready for summer, in a small kinda way.

The sun yesterday put me in the mood.

To plant things that is.

I first had to get all my supplies in order, and then I checked a website that told me exactly what I needed to start indoors when.

I found an old enamel box that I repainted.

I painted it my favorite color of pistachio.

Once it was dry, I lined it with paper towels to catch the water that would come out of the bottom of my pots.

Each year, when I purchase vegetables plants from the nearby greenhouse, I save the little pots for the next year.  6 of them fit perfectly in the enamel box.

I filled each one with seed starter...

wet it down a little and then added some seeds.  Tomatoes and peppers should be started indoors NOW.

These tomatoes are the size of your pinkie nail and can just be thrown into salads, tacos, etc. and not cut up, so they aren't mushy!

Then I put more soil over the top of the seeds, and watered some more.

They fit just right in my kitchen windowsill where the sun was streaming in.

All ready to grow.  I'll have to find another place to get other seeds started.  For now, this is enough.

Truth Thursday...how does your garden grow?

I've already started looking hard at the gardening catalogs hittin' my mailbox.


What, it's only January you say? Well, all the more time to plan, right.

I AM a planning type of girl.

In my organizing post the other day I showed you these...

I keep one for canning, which tells me where I bought my fruit from to freeze, how many of each thing from the garden I canned/froze, as well as how much each thing cost for me to buy if I had to buy it, and in what quantities.


The Gardening binder keeps track of my garden layout for the year, what seeds/type I planted, as well as the cost of all that too.


I realize this is a little OCD of me, but it helps me from year to year know what worked well and what didn't. Believe me, it's hit or miss around here with the kind of hard clay soil we have. Some years I've had an over abundant garden, and some years, I've had to plant it 3 times (last year) because our fertilizer either burned it, or we got too much rain, etc.


My garden keeps us in produce for the whole winter. It makes or breaks how much I have to spend on groceries for the winter too. It's awfully nice to go to my freezer and get a box of strawberries out in the middle of February that ACTUALLY taste like strawberries.

You ALL know what I mean, don't pretend the strawberries you buy in the middle of winter actually have a flavor. They don't.


So, as I look through my catalogs: The cooks Garden (cooksgarden.com), Burpee (burpee.com), and Park Seed Company (parkseeds.com) I get excited.


I plant both flowers for my cutting garden as well as vegetables.


So, as I was perusing the websites today, I thought this might be some of the items for this year...


Jade green beans

sweet peas


2 kinds of butterhead lettuce (heirloom variety)


zucchini (which usually over runs my garden, and usually grows to the size of a small baseball bat because we have so many...)



big rainbow heirloom tomatoes (really yummy!)


red potatoes

and onions (only for Brent...I HATE onions...but that's another post)

watermelon, jewel strawberries ( I have 3 rows that come back every year)

this beautiful new variety of zinnia called red lime

peonies (my favorite)

and cosmos (a flower that comes on strong and lasts for months!)

I'm really chompin' at the bit to get going. Last year I started seeds in my basement under a flourescent light. Some ended up making it, and others didn't.


All I know is that I'm ready to get my hands dirty! How 'bout you?