The Garden in Autumn

 

Strangely, the raspberries are flowering again this year. I have never seen this before.  Also my rhodies are flowering to!!? Any explanation?

 

Our new blueberry patch has 12 new blueberry plants in it.  We grazed all summer on them.

 

bird bath

 

 

dahlias, fiery.  The only type I have.  

 

 

tomatoes have had a great year

 

  

 

dino kale + olive oil + pine nuts + sautee = one  of  my favorite spring and fall meals!

 

the artichokes are giving us a second harvest, gotta love the pacific northwest, wow!

 

sunflowers in October make great bird feeders

 

beets cuddling

 

yellow chard-- I'm a big fan of color!

 

wherever they go, the kids leave their mark!

 

parsley loves this cool weather and is thriving

 

above: ten tomato plants, on their last legs.  But lots of green toms!

The Vegetable Garden in June

Flowers in the garden

Chard stem, up close

Chard, leaf

Above & below: potato bed is flowering

Lettuce & peas, peas climb up old raspberry canes

Above: Marina's flower bed

above: drip irrigation, and nice moist soil

Recently planted squash starts, above

Above: planting starts

I think this one, above, is a pumpkin start

Colorful lettuce

Some of my many June starts, above

Kid's Art Craft: Painting Rocks for the Garden ~ Some ideas for making a mini garden for & with your kids

It is great to set up a craft for your kids that you can actually use and enjoy later. Painting rocks is one of those special crafts. We used acrylic craft paint and spray it with a shellac to preserve the paint, otherwise it will wash off in the rain. The stones make nice garden ornaments and great gifts for family and friends.

Here are some tips and ideas for painting your rocks:

• use a separate paint brush for each color
• paint garden insects, ladybugs, birds, butterflies, faeries on your rocks
• paint each rock a different color and make a rainbow
• try painting words on rocks
• make a mandala with different color rocks and patterns radiating out into a circle
• place your painted rocks in your kids' very own mini garden with kid friendly plants, vegetables, and flowers
• paint different vegetables on your rocks then mark the rows of your vegetable garden with them
• paint your kids' names on the rocks
• paint different weather scenes on your rocks: sun, rain, wind, snow, lightening . . .
  

Painting outside, Marina

Marina painted beach wood, sea shells, and various sized rocks

Grandma's (Nanny's) Magic Garden Marker, by Candice

Butterfly, by Marina

Star in the night sky, by Marina

butterfly

Making a Child's Tepee for the Garden, Ideas from Sharon Lovejoy

I needed to find a book to read while I nursed baby Stella, so I grabbed a few off my shelf and sat down to have a look. I opened "Sunflower Houses" and bam!! It was amazing! How could I have never looked at this book before? And where has it been? Did it magically appear? Has it been incubating on my book shelf, waiting for the right time to show itself to me?

The book is written by Sharon Lovejoy, garden expert and naturalist and has all sorts of inspiring garden ideas to share with your children, or your inner child. Some of the magical ideas in Sunflower Houses are:

• Floral Clock: mark the hours by when the flowers open and close
• Kinder Garden: Tiny Garden filled with plants from A to Z
• "Fish in a Bottle": How to grow a zuke or cuke in a bottle
• Barnyard Garden: like with Colt's foot, bee balm, cowslip, gooseberry, etc.
• A Child's Own Rainbow: Flowers and plants planted in curving rows, one row red, one orange, one yellow, and on. . .
• Butterfly garden
• Sunflower House
• Bean Covered tepee
• Flower People
• Flower Chains
• Leaf Hats

You can see how intriguing these ideas are. I decided on making a bean tepee that very next day and with Stella on my back I chopped down six young alders and began to string them together. I am almost done, I just need to find more hay bale string. The girls loved it when I tied sheet around the tepee and made a little hideout. My plan is to move the tepee to the garden and plant beans all around it and wait for the beans to cover the tepee, all the while enjoying it. I think I will make a couple more tepees now that I see how easy and fun it is! If you are a gardener or want-to-be-gardener and you have kids this book is a MUST HAVE!

SOME LINKS:

Also checkout Sharon Lovejoy's book: "Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots: Activities to do in the garden"
Sharon Lovejoy's Blog and pictures of her bean tepee: http://sharonlovejoy.blogspot.com/2009/03/spring-is-in-soil-and-air.html

Buy her books directly from her, personally inscribed: http://www.sharonlovejoy.com/bookorder.html

Buy her books at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Sharon%20Lovejoy&page=1

Checkout her book: Sunflower Houses: Inspiration from the Garden (garden discoveries for all ages)

Here is my tepee process, in pictures:
Because the alders are so abundant on the farm, I chose to use them for the tepee. They also grow very straight. On the downside the wood doesn't last long in the elements.

Putting the sticks together: it turned out much bigger than I expected.

Using hay bale twine to tie the poles together. the twine lasts a long time, and is easy to find (usually). Almost done in the pic, a few more to go.The girls began placing flowers inside the tepee.

Time to Plant in the Garden: Pacific Northwest Gardeners & kids too!

Above: Kiki the cat likes to join us when we are gardening

April IS here and if you have not planted cool-loving vegetables, now is the time! Some of my favorite vegetables get planted in late March early April. Case in point: spinach, beets, lettuce, snap peas, chard, potatoes, radishes and kale. I bundled the girls up and they helped plant the vegetables. Stella (1 yo) actually placed seeds in rows too. She loved it. I worked quickly to keep her from trampling too many planting beds. Marina planted a few rows herself. Then we hurried inside and made some hot chocolate and read stories. Ahhh, the best of spring and winter!