The First Pumpkin

I've tried planting pumpkins before and they've never grown into anything. This year, I've got vines all over the place (which are really prickly, by the way) and the leaves are the size of a small umbrella. I had no idea they got that big! There have been lots of flowers, too, which are really pretty when they open up. Now we have our first pumpkin starting to grow and it is growing really quickly! In the last 2 days, it has gone from about the size of my thumb to 6 inches long and 4 inches wide. It will be interesting to see how it develops and how big it actually gets.

Garden Makeover

I've had plans for a while to make some changes to my garden. The bark I had down on the path really needed to be replaced and I wanted to add an arbor for the morning glories that came up. Since we didn't have any plans for this weekend, I decided it was as good a time as any to put my plans into action.

After a trip to Lowe's, I got started with cleaning out the old mulch. My older daughter really wanted to help, so I raked while she scooped it up and then dumped it around the outside plants. Then, I put up a screen around the air conditioning unit, which sits next to the kids' sandbox and gets it's fair share of sand tossed inside. We're hoping the screen will stop that little game. I spread the new mulch over most of the path, and instead of using wood chips this time, I put down rubber mulch made from old tires that have been chopped up. My kids think it's the coolest thing and it should keep them from getting splinters in their feet when they head out to the sandbox.

My final task was to build the arbor, which turned out to be a lot easier than I had expected. It only took about an hour to put together and my girls were fascinated by the building process. I didn't have time to get it stabilized, but it was put together and standing up by last night. I took some time this afternoon to get the stakes in the ground and attach the legs to them, so it's pretty stable now. I still want to use a couple of L-brackets to attach the arbor to the planter boxes, but I don't think it will go anywhere before I can get to doing that.

I spread the last couple of bags of mulch and trained the morning glory over the side of the arbor (after trimming it way back - I had no choice since it was impossibly wrapped around the hook holding the hummingbird feeder). I also have a tomato heading up the opposite side of the arbor, which should keep it from being trampled as the kids go in and out.

I am so happy with how it all turned out. We have such a small yard that it's nice to have this little jungle where the kids can run in and out and play. The girls were already deep into a game of flower fairies by the time I was done, so I know I'm not the only one who will enjoy it.

Turf Wars

My peas and pumpkins are at war. I have potatoes taking over one of my boxes. The beans are starting to make a tee pee. It's a crazy year in my little garden and it's been fun to watch it grow. I put my garden together haphazardly, letting my older daughter pick what goes where and just seeing what comes up and how it does. Sometimes we're successful and sometimes it's a flop, but it's always fun to keep track of the plants.

This year, I put my tomatoes on the front porch, since they will take over the garden and prevent anything else from growing under them. That left plenty of room to plant some new things, like the potatoes. I had never seen potato plants before; I just thought they'd be fun for the kids since you can't see the tubers as they grow. Turns out, potatoes grow huge plants above the ground. Mine are about 3 feet tall, have pretty little pink flowers, and are producing some kind of fruit from the flowers. I just had to "corset" them today with string to keep the plants from completely blocking the path between the boxes. Apparently, when the tops start to die back, it will be time to harvest the potatoes, but I have no idea how long that will take. So far, they seem to be really happy and green, so I assume it will be a while.

I've planted pumpkins before, but the plants have never done very well. They'll grow for a little while and then they'll either wither or something will eat them, so I've never gotten a pumpkin to grow. This year the pumpkins are VERY happy. I have 2 plants and both are climbing like crazy and have lots of blooms. Pumpkins have huge leaves, a fact I hadn't realized before, and the stems are really prickly, making it even trickier to keep them trained upwards because they fight back when I try to feed them through the netting. I hope I get at least one pumpkin off of these vines. My kids will be beyond excited if we do.

I planted peas next to one of the pumpkins, not knowing that the pumpkin vine would be so enthusiastic. The two sets of vines are fighting for space on the trellis netting and I have to keep untangling them to give them each their own space. My older daughter is keeping close tabs on the peas and harvests them as they ripen. So far, they haven't made it into the house because she eats them as soon as she picks them. I don't mind, though. How can I complain about her eating peas? She also keeps a close watch on our blueberry bush, but those fruits either go to her brother or into the fridge since she is allergic to them (she vomits within an hour of eating raw blueberries; she's fine with cooked ones).

She has also done some random planting in my tree box. There were a few seeds that fell as we were planting, so she took them and stuck them in the soil of the big box. We now have another pea plant growing up between the lime tree and the tangerine tree and a sunflower starting to appear in a bucket that she filled with soil. And we have a tomato volunteer that popped up in the middle of the tan bark from a tomato that fell last season. It's starting to flower, so we'll probably get a few tomatoes from it, too.

Some Pictures

On Sunday, we were finishing up the garden. My older daughter really loves gardening, and likes to be involved in all aspects of the process, from turning in compost, to choosing and planting seeds, watering, and especially harvesting. Right now, she checks our blueberry bush for ripe fruit and then gives any berries to her brother. She is allergic to raw blueberries (but fine with cooked ones), so she is happy to pass them on to him. This is her going through the seed box and picking the ones she wanted to plant. The compost bag made a perfect seat.

This morning, I had to take Ben back to the vet to recheck a urine sample and do one more blood test. While we were waiting for her to come back into the room, my youngest was entertaining herself with the crate. She was actually able to get entirely inside - and get back out again - but I didn't get a picture taken fast enough. It was better than her usual means of entertainment, which is to be as loud and obnoxious as possible.

Thursday

It's been a busy few days.

Thursday was the baby's music class, Music Together, which is usually pretty fun. I've been doing the same class for 6 1/2 years now, since my oldest was a year old, so all of the music is REALLY familiar - I think I'm on my third time through the series of collections. I keep going back, though, because my little one enjoys it and is just naturally musical (she sings ALL the time and is remarkably in tune) and the instructor is the most amazingly talented man I have ever seen. During the course of a session, he will play the mandolin, violin, viola, saw, banjo, and possibly others, plus you can see he genuinely loves what he's doing. He also loves to have the class do rounds and partner songs, which are my favorites (try getting some people together and singing "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", and "This Train is Bound for Glory" at the same time. Really cool!)

After that, we hit the garden center to get a few things to fill out the garden. I needed one more tomato plant and a few other random vegetables, plus a couple more bags of compost. I also got a tangerine tree to put in my big planter, so hopefully the girls will have home-grown tangerines in the future (my son doesn't like oranges in any form). I put my tomatoes on our front porch in pots this year, since the last couple of years they have completely overgrown my garden and kept anything else from growing. I'll have to keep them a bit more tame than I have in the past to keep them from overwhelming the pots, but they should do really well out there since the porch gets so much direct sun in the summer. Once things are starting to really come up, I'll post some pictures and keep you updated on the progress.

My son's tae kwon do class got moved from Friday to Thursday due to the school's fundraising auction on Friday night, so we had a later evening than usual. The baby fell asleep on the way home and REALLY didn't want to wake up, so she refused her dinner, had a quick bath, and went to bed. She didn't seem to miss not eating. My son was very proud that he got another stripe on his belt during class for learning his one-steps (he already has one for forms), so he only needs one more (for three-steps) to be ready for his next test. He is currently a blue-green belt, which is his sixth belt, and will go for a blue belt next time. It's taken him a long time to like the sport, but this year he finally enjoys it and has really taken to the forms. He even makes up his own, but he can rarely remember all of the motions he's put together.