365 Day 285

I opened the jar of dilled beans Granny canned last year. My mouth was in heaven and I decided the only thing that could make it better was a Virgin Mary to go with it. So perfect, I finished the jar and had about 5 of these!  

365 Day 264

Pops stopped by yesterday with eggs and some beauties from his garden. Using some of our home raised pig sausage, his veggies (and some from our own garden), and a little parmesan cheese we had a delicious home grown and cooked meal

365 Day 219

Picture taken at the Dave Wilson Informational *8.4* 

"Take my picture when I climb the rock, Mama!!!"

Rock climbing is her new 'thing'

365 Day 207

Our strawberry garden! Our plants never left root stage but we got these happy plants from the farm. So thrilled to have them!
*Taken 6.29

365 Day 177

It was such a beautiful day outside we wanted to make the most of it. It didn't take these two any convincing to play outside. Little E actually chose to wear pants today and had a great time getting dirty and making dirt piles with her brother!

365 Day 170

My forgotten potatoes have apparently forgiven me. 

365 Day 164

Mr. Mann spent the afternoon helping Cliff tear down the fountain feature to build us this beautiful tomato bed. They did a fantastic job and this is going to be so much more useful than a fountain.

365 Day 161

Our last trip to Home Dept and Little E found herself in love with this watering can. She loves to help me water the plants every morning so Daddy indulged her and brought it home. It's been a huge hit with her and the other kids. Who knew watering plants would be so fun. 

365 Day 134

What a perfect Mother's Day for me. It started with breakfast with the family before we dropped the boys off to spend sometime with their mom. Then Cliff and I headed into Lowes to get some garden supplies. We then spent the rest of the day cleaning up our backyard and getting our new baby green put into the soil. Finish that off with family dinner (delicious leftovers care of great friends) and it was the most relaxing, perfect day for me.

Baked Peas with Fried Tulips

My garden is suffering.

 I was doing so well taking care of it and I had several very happy pea plants to prove it. Peas that I planted in October. Peas are, after all, the reason I garden.

Then it got really hot followed by several days of thunder storms. Then really hot. Then normal spring weather. During that time we were reminded that our AC unit doesn't work and with the rain I didn't think about watering my beautiful vegetable. Sadly, many of my delicious pods withered and died.

We had also planted 15+ more pea plants along our fence line that the neighborhood cats poisoned for us. There are still a couple that are trying to make it, but I'm not holding my breath. I had 8 more seeds planted in pots, but after leaving it in direct heat (rookie mistake) I've cooked all but two of those bad boys.


My tulips finally popped up. I planted a bag of mixed colors and 5 came up yellow (those will all be going) and only 1 came up red. 1 more was almost red. I failed to water those and they baked in the sun and now I have fried tulip stems.

I tried to grow some old garlic (seed left outside all year-oops) and a few other unknown plants but they never made it out of the seedling pots. I'm not really surprised. They were old!

I promised Cliff I wouldn't tear up the front lawn until I could produce tangible amounts in the back yard, but I'm starting to think that the back yard might be the better location anyway. Less grass on the lawn already. Meaning, less to dig up. Of course there is still the matter of the tree I removed already from my front lawn, but I'll still be replacing that even if my garden doesn't surround it.

All of my garden isn't suffering I suppose. Well, at least not to the point of dead.

I trimmed my citrus trees back a couple months ago but I didn't have a saw to finish the job. Now I'm regretting that oversight. The blossoms smell amazing however! Walking outside in our neighborhood (full of jasmine, citrus, and roses) is such a treat!

My berries are doing well. The blueberry bush looked more like a twig stuck in the ground but it came back to life and so did my Loganberry boysenberry other berry plant. I can't remember what it is anymore, but it's a vine that will produce berries and has thorns. Another one of my neglected (and abused) plants living despite me. It was used as the start/finish line scooter races so I wasn't sure.

I have my screw up of the season as well. I've been really excited to plant potatoes so I purchased some seeds. Then, when I started planting I could only find last years seeds (that were left outside in the elements) and assumed that was all I had. Needless to say last years seeds didn't grow but I did find my bag of potatoes with my canning supplies trying to grow. Time to get them some dirt and hope they forgive me.

I killed my lettuce almost as soon as it sprouted (the newspaper barrier smothered them) so Cliff planted a package of radishes in it's place. Those seem able to grow just fine. Perhaps it's because I didn't touch them at all...

Just one month ago Cliff got me two basil plants for our anniversary (real love comes in dirt!). Good thing he got two because I already killed one. I may have grown a full out basil bush last year, but I'm going to need to tend to them more if I want a repeat of that.


Cliff also added my chives (from seed!) to the pot and they are thriving. I never had any doubt about my ability to grow onions though. Hell, I now have a full pot of (flowering) green onions from the first plant I got almost 3 years ago. I guess the moral of my story is... don't trust me to grow it unless it's an onion. 

365 Day 125

Well before the season started I got prepared and purchased some seeds for our garden. I've since gone looking for them but couldn't find them so I assumed I hadn't bought what I had thought and went to planting the few bags I could find. Then today I went to the garage to get a mason jar out of the garage and I discovered this.

Needless to say I found my long lost seeds.

365 Day 109

We got an amazing opportunity to attend the UC Davis Arboretum tour and shop with Granny. We got to explore the gardens, talk to the experts, and even shop at their teaching nursery.  We all (even the baby) walked the 2.5 mile loop around the gardens. It was so pretty. Afterward we finished with the gardens we got lunch and ice cream in Davis. On the drive home she finally fell asleep and she was so tired I was able to take her out of the car still in her seat, carry her inside, and let her finish her nap in her chair.

365 Day 85

What a lovely treat it was to find some happy  little peas growing on my pea plants!

365 Day 63

Taming the citrus in our backyard. I love my house! Soon we'll have three citrus trees restored to their full potential after the long period of neglect they suffered from the previous owners.