Sunflower Seeds

It's pretty amazing how quickly a sunflower goes from being the most beautiful thing in the garden to the biggest eyesore. When a sunflower is done, it's really ugly. Oona and Elinor were done, so we cut off their heads and took out their seeds to make roasted sunflower seeds. We left their stalks in the ground for now, to possibly be used as stakes for future plants.

 

Unrelated, but also fun: falling backwards in a chair.

Fall Garden

In early September we took out the last of our summer garden and planted for fall. In the backyard, Stupice and Sun Gold (cold weather) tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, green onions, carrots, celery and herbs are growing slowly. Sylvie loves picking the carrots every week or so to see how they're growing, which means we will have very few carrots by the time they're ready. I think next time we plant carrot seeds we'll plant a few in a see through garden so we can watch the root grow.


The front yard is all sun so it's growing much more quickly. Sugar snap pea and fava bean plants, lettuce, bok choy, red kale, purple and while cauliflower and broccoli. Back in September, Sylvie planted marigolds around the broccoli and cauliflower because aphids are supposed to hate their smell and so far we are aphid-free.

Yesterday our bok choy was ready to be picked for a stir fry dinner.

 These kids get very excited about growing and picking their own dinner.

Garden Update: Melons

We planted 3 watermelon plants in the front yard and exactly one plant produced exactly one watermelon. We have been watching this watermelon very carefully and with much excitement. It didn't seem to be growing anymore for the last few weeks, and it seemed to have that hollow-ish sound, so we decided it was time to pick.

Unfortunately, it was a little early and the watermelon wasn't as sweet and juicy as we would have liked. Fortunately, my girls will eat watermelon no-matter-what.

Our Crenshaw melon plants produced two big Crenshaw melons and we did much better with those choosing the right time to pick them.

Our Crenshaw melons are so juicy and yummy. They taste like a mix of cantaloupe and honeydew.

Sunflower

In news from the garden that's just a couple months old...remember the sunflower seed that Sylvie planted in a cup at school and then moved as a tiny sprout into our garden? (You can see a picture at the bottom of this post.) In August, Sylvie's sunflower opened and it was a very exciting event around here. 

 We painted sunflower-inspired paintings...

And Sylvie worked at removing the sunflower seeds to feed to the birds. In the end, we just hung the whole decapitated sunflower head on our front fence so that the birds (and neighborhood kids) could help themselves. 

Tomato Season

It's tomato season, one of my favorite times of the year. We are growing three types of tomatoes this year. Number one is a small grape tomato variety. Nora eats every single one right off the plant.

Nora really likes tomatoes.

Number two is an heirloom variety called Black Krim. This is our second year growing Black Krims. They are beautiful, yummy and perfect for caprese salad.

Number three is a gorgeous heirloom Pineapple tomato.

Since we are knee-deep in tomatoes we are giving them away to the neighbors and also keeping a look-out for good tomato recipes. Last night we made a Fresh Tomato Tart, which was basically pizza with a pie crust instead of pizza crust. It was a big hit with the whole family.

We will also give some of these tomato recipes a try.

Of course, the best way to eat a garden tomato might be straight off the vine, which is what Sylvie, Amanda and Nora did in Amanda's backyard yesterday after a swim.

Garden Update

There are so many fantastic things going on in our garden right now. Our lemon cucumbers are growing like crazy and taste so good.

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago, it now actually trails several feet down the path.

Our tomato plants have lots of green tomatoes ripening in the sun. Our bell peppers, Armenian cucumbers and melons (crenshaw, cantaloupe and watermelon) are all growing and flowering.

We have blue lake green beans and are just waiting for there to be enough for a whole dinner's worth. 

We have a brand new baby artichoke, our first tiny jarrahdale pumpkin, and flowering butternut squash plants.

And so far our attempt to espalieir two dorsett golden apple trees is going well. 

And I certainly cannot forget this. The sunflower seed Sylvie planted in a cup at school several months ago is now taller than her. We are anticipating this beauty will open up any day now.

How Our Garden Grew

Remember our little spring garden we planted back in February?Boy has it grown! Yesterday we had a fun family morning in the garden and picked a bunch of yummy stuff! Here is Sylvie picking pole beans.
Our giant Japanese cucumber! So delicious!
Pole beans, tomatoes, bell pepper and cucumber!

Color in the Garden

Yesterday, Sylvie and Thomas made a Home Depot run and I requested that they bring home something colorful for the garden. They chose purple, red and white ranunculus, one of my favorite flowers. They were just what the garden needed for some springtime color.Our zucchinis are giving the garden plenty of color too.
We are even starting to see some color in our tomatoes!
Red ranunculas, lettuce and spinach.

Garden Progress

Our spring garden is growing so beautifully, and again the bugs are cooperating quite nicely, at least for now, and staying away. Since we have a small garden space, I like to plant my lettuce pretty close together and then pick the outer leaves frequently. Tonight was our first salad from the spring garden. Mostly our red leaf lettuce, which is growing like crazy. Also growing like crazy are our zucchini plants. I had kind of forgotten what an enthusiastic plant zucchini is. Once again, Sylvie proves to be a much better close-up photographer than me. This is her picture of our romaine lettuce.