Girls weekend ends up at the nursery

The first girls weekend of the summer came in April and of course it wouldn't be a good girls weekend we didn't end up at the nursery. With the possibility of frost in our future, we were very careful with what we chose.

The haul

We came home with another set of purple chives for Pooka and K to munch on. These will have the pretty purple flowers we can make chive vinegar from. We also bought a new strawberry plant (ours didn't fair so well over the winter) and a purple set of flowers called campanula.

Strawberries

The strawberry went into a pot in the back yard. It seems none of our strawberries from last year survived so it was nice to get a new set. This is one of a few we will be planting this year.

Pooka's picture of her flower

Pooka actually took this is the purple flower campanula. She had to walk in her flower bed and said "Well, I hope nothing was planted here." Pooka loved the color and the shape of it and the fact it was already blooming. She couldn't wait to show K her new flowers.  

In its new home

This was planted in her little pollinator bed since we did read that it was good for butterflies and maybe hummingbirds. Pooka loves having her spot of flowers, but I will admit, I no longer remember what is out there. I meant to draw a map, but well, I forgot so it's now her "random flowers" collection. Sadly, this is one of those jobs I fell behind on and I don't know if I can do it anymore. At least I have the blog which tells me what I planted if I go looking I suppose.

Purple flower chives

Finally her chives ended up in the herb bed Pooka is so excited for these and while Daddy jokes about needing to mow the rest of the chives, I know they won't stand a chance once Pooka and K can play together this summer and eat them all. 

Starting round 3

We got the last batch of our seeds started. I took 2 different trays since I didn't need 50 more plants. However, we did try a few new plants. Including the flowers that Pooka got for her birthday, Black and white minstrels. She was so excited to see how the flowers themselves come out.

New plants

 The other new thing we started was some pinkeye purple cowpeas. We all know Pooka loves having lots of color in her garden. This may not be something she can just eat straight off the plant, but we talked and if necssary we will look into saving them for our winters soups. As you can see below, they do look rather different from a standard green bean.

Green bean vs Cowpea

I forgot to get a picture of the finished trays (I think I was rushing a bit to get everything on the table for dinner). Pooka was very happy to start even more plants. The call of her garden is getting stronger since we have both started walking the garden daily. I know she can't wait till she can walk out there and just have a snack while playing with her friends.

Replacing the rose bush

Sometimes, things just do not work out. No matter how much love and hope and emotion is in them.  When Aunt S and I went and collected a rosebush from my grandmothers, we had to fight to get the bush. The bush was too happy where my grandmother had planted it and we didn't have enough of a root system. I had feared it wouldn't make it, and when our nursery was doing a 50% off sale, I knew it was time to accept that the bush didn't want to be here without my grandmother. I think I took this news harder than either child. Pooka loved its yellow and pink roses that spoke highly of my grandmother's love of flair. Brother really hadn't invested in it because it was not what he needed. Me well, I hurt worst because in a way I felt I had not only failed her in my inability to keep it alive, but I had failed the children in trying to give them their own little place to remember her. I wanted to give them something to remember her by. 

This is the bush

I finally had to admit defeat when the entire bush would break when it was bent. When I went to remove the bush, I grabbed the base and just yanked. The entire thing just came right out and when I looked at the roots, no new ones had even started. It wasn't going to make it even if I had given it another year.

the new rose

The nursery was doing a 50% off sale, and I took the kids to pick out their new great grandma rose. Pooka wanted something very bright and colorful for great grandma. Brother didn't want to be involved. He has handled this whole situation in his own way and having a rose didn't matter to him. He did love the name of a "Yellow brick rose". He thought great grandma would like that since she had always love children's movies. I liked the fact it was yellow and spoke to her love of COLOR and flair (I sometimes think this is where Pooka got her sense of style).

Proof the rose never took

This is the hole after I yanked the old bush out. I didn't remember planting garlic over there, but apparently I had. You can see how the dirt is barely disturbed from where I pulled the old plant out. As I dug out a new hole, Pooka did wonder if I would find her letter to great grandma. I said that I didn't want to find it since it had been given to her and we shouldn't take it back. She understood that but it did tell me she was handling this like a kid and that she was doing okay with everything.

Bonus garlic

I did take the chance to remove the bonus garlic. The more I thought about it the more I almost remember planting some test garlic on this side just to see what it would do. Apparently they didn't do much since the bulbs were a bit small. But now its bonus garlic to go to our haul of garlic.

The new Great grandma rose

With only a small amount of work, and transplanting one of great grandma's stars, we got the new rosebush in its home. It has done well here and is getting ready to start blooming. Maybe having a rosebush with stars will be enough to remind all of us of great grandma. I know she would love that we are doing something small for her and so her Pooka and Brother can say goodbye.

FINALLY!!!!!!

About a week ago, I saw something in the garlic. Something that I was beginning to think was only a rumor, a scam to get people to buy different kinds of garlic.

What do you see?

But it turns out, they are not as mythical is bigfoot. We finally have proof that scapes do exist. We had a ton of them in our garlic bed. Scapes are actually the flowers of the garlic plant. Pooka was so excited to see these curly bits in her garlic. I was more excited since I had heard these were a yummy bit to try and we can't find them around here. Supposedly, the only way to get them is to grow your own. So Pooka and I went outside and cut them. 

I see Scapes hiding in the garlic

Pooka loved that when she cut them a bit of water came out of the plant. I told her that is how the plant is getting nutrients through it, and she found it cool. I will admit we didn't cut back as far as we probably could of, but since its our first year. I am happy with the over 5 oz we got. 

Hello lunch

 We kept our scapes simple by just sauteing them with a bit of oil. Daddy did a wonderful job of preparing them. It turns out you cut off the flower (the triangle part) and eat the stalk. I would definitely call this a success. Even Kiddo who is a tad pickier then the rest of the liked it. He said it was kinda like green beans with garlic. Pooka kept asking for more to the point we had to make her eat her meat before she could clean out the bowl. I barely got the picture before she finished them off. Now to wait another year and see if we can get more.

Cooked scapes that were yummy

We have flowers

Things are finally starting to get moving around here. We have flowers on the tomatoes which hopefully means we will have tomatoes in the not so distant future. The rainbow cherry tomatoes are flowering nicely.

Rainbow cherry tomatoes

These are the brandy wine tomatoes. I love how different their flowers are and the face that it has so much more texture to them. Pooka loves the fact it looks "different" and we are both interested to see how they compare to the romas.

Brandywine tomato flower is very textured

The roma tomatoes are in flower as well. They seem to really love their current spot. That entire section of bed just went poof and grew all the sudden. We are trying this year to use actual tomato so we will see how that works as well. So far it means alot of me going "Get in there."

Roma tomatoes are doing well

Certainly not last or least is the fireball tomatoes. I can always count on them to be the early birds and great producers. Although this will be our last year of them since we ran out of their grow ums seeds and I don't see the need to repurchase a kit for more of them. These little guys even have a tomato already starting.

Fireball Tomato flowers and tomato

One project done

It is official. We finished the pollinator bed. On Mother's day, Pooka, Daddy and I decided to get her pollinator bed finished up. We got her mulch and we let her just sprinkle her seeds on it wherever she wanted. I did tell her which seeds would be taller and which would be shorter so she may want those towards the front.

Seeds anyone

These are all the seeds that went into her flower bed. There are the seeds from her Great Aunt as well as the seeds the Easter Bunny left and some Pooka spent her christmas money on.  I even put some money to the cause. She was having a blast getting to just throw seeds down. Now in years to come we may be a bit more selective, but this being our first year and being a bit rushed, this is what we did. 

putting mulch out

After all the seeds were down, Daddy helped bring the mulch we bought over and literally pour it on the bed. Then Pooka and I got it spread out. We did have to be careful of the plants that were already growing, but Pooka loved "tucking in" her plants. 

All done

Once we were all done, Pooka and I put up a little white fence around the bed. I know that there tend to be kids running around our yard and I would hate for one of them to run through the front bed. This is just a slight reminder to please not walk her. Hopefully in a few weeks there will be plants everywhere and they won't need the reminder. In this last picture you can also see the tree we cut down. This allow a bit more light the area and frankly, I hated that tree so I was happy to see it go. Now Pooka just needs to sit and wait and see. 

A Pooka's gift to Grandma's

I can never decide if Pooka honestly thinks everyone wants plants for gifts, or it is part of her little master plan to take over the world. One thing she asked was if she could plant some flowers for her grandmothers.

3 pots for 3 Grandmas

We planted 3 pots of gladiolas bulbs in some pots. She picked out the pots and the bulbs. I just paid for them. I guess in a way it saves me having to buy preplanted flowers.

The bulb packet after planting.

Then we brought the supplies home and planted the bulbs and waited. The bulbs came in a package of 15, and didn't think the Grandmas wanted that many flowers, (especially for the pots she had picked) I did let her put the extras in her pollinator bed. Now Pooka has the same flowers as her Grandmas.

Flowers and tomatoes

Since we did this over a month ago, we fortunately had some fairly good growth by the time Mother's day arrived. I will say one went to a Grandma weeks ago, and didn't look as nice as these. Fortunatly, Grandma's are understanding people. Add a couple of tomato plants that were started extra for the Grandma's (since 2 love tomatoes and ask for the plant) and Mother's day is handled with little stress and I can take a bit of time off that morning instead of worrying about wrapping things. Pooka gets to be all excited to share plants with her grandmas and then she will probably help them take care of it over the summer.

Humming bird planter

It sometimes amazes me what it takes to make a Pooka happy. Some days it is little things, like her being able to squish me to wake me up. Other days it is getting sit and color with a friend. Yesterday it was putting together her humming bird planter.

Humming bird planter

In order to do this, I will admit it required a trip to the nursery. Pooka and I dashed over one day while the boys held the fort down. I don't think the Easter Bunny read that there were no plants included. Pooka looked all over that nursery about 6 times looking for the perfect plants to attract humming birds. In the end, this is what she chose. 

Pooka's flowers

Now, I would love to say I have plenty of pictures showing the whole process of getting this thing together. But I don't since the assembly and installation took 2 parents and a Pooka. Especially since you have to put the one in that hangs out the bottom first and then can't put it down. 

Blackberry punch

This is the one Pooka loved since it was purple and black (It is more purple, Pooka's picture makes it look a but pink). It is called Superbells Blackberry punch Calibrachoa. I know nothing about it besides it is an annual and attracts hummingbirds.

Purple flowers

 The purple (again, Pooka's picture looks more blue) flower is a petunia I think. I didn't write it down. She loved the purple color and decided it would look lovely in her planter.

After much struggling and helping we got it set up. From this angle you can't really see the flowers out the bottom, but this is not where they will live all summer. Daddy was wonderful and gave Pooka a hook in the back deck by the sliding door. This way we can see the hummingbirds when they stop by. Now to hope this attracts some new pollinators to the yard. Pooka said something about having a Hummingbird Army of Doom to go with the Butterfly Army of Doom. I know I should wonder, but it is keeping her out of trouble for now.

Making good on a promise

A few weeks ago, Pooka and I had a girls weekend. The boys were gone, so we decided to start work on her birthday pollinator bed. Daddy and I had already marked out where we wanted it to go, but we needed to pull the grass off the new area first. We even had bought our first plants for the bed, so it was time to get started.

Before

Now, I had hoped this would be a quick little project. However, I could only find a shovel that was pretty well bent after trying to remove the bushes that were originally in the herb garden. Those bushes would not die.

With the bent shovel

As you can see, it was really only good for cutting the grass. But I could not seem to just shovel off the grass like Daddy does. It was getting rather late, so Pooka and I called it for the evening and decided to regroup and rethink it for the following day. 

After

The next day, Pooka and I sat down and decided this was getting done today, one way or another. And since I still couldn't find the good shovel (Daddy had hidden it), Pooka and I used what was on hand, my little gardening trowel. It is not the best tool for the job, and took quite a bit of work, but we sat there for awhile and got it done. I would use the trowel to pull up the grass and Pooka put it in her wheelbarrow to go to the street. In the end, it looks pretty good. I know there are a few random pieces of grass in there, but it is started.

The first plant in her bed

This allowed Pooka to finally start planting in it. She started with her butterfly bush that she bought with her own money. She has planted more, but that was the limit for that day. Even Pooka was tired of staring at the bed and wanted to go get some other stuff done. 

Good to know

Well, I think I killed the amaryllis from last year. At the end of last summer I cut them back like I had seen done on the internet. We placed them in the garage to get cold and go dormant.

The amaryllis when I brought them in the house. 

We brought them in a month or more ago. We watered them and set them in a warm sunny spot. Hoping that maybe we would get some color out of them. We waited, and waited and waited and I am finally calling it. We have not seen a bit of change in any of them. Pooka is more then a bit upset, but I knew it was maybe 50-50 if this would work. Well, at least we tried. Next year, we will just have to make sure Pooka gets a new one to replace these.

The amaryllis now. 

Surprise Pooka

For Pooka's birthday, Brother and I made a big deal about this huge, heavy box.We made it seem so heavy, and so difficult to handle, you could see Pooka's eyes light up that something perfect was in the box.

Pooka's gift

Needless to say, she was a bit disappointed when all that was in the box was a small card. She read the card, and after Mommy explained it, she lite up. This GIANT box was her gift.  We gave Pooka a spot to make a flower bed the size of the box. I even promised to limit my funny faces at growing flowers since we won't get anything out of them.  She has already been spending her gift cards to some department stores on seeds. Places where most kids would of bought toys, my little one spends $20 on seeds and decorations for her new bed. This bed will be hers to design and do what she wishes and we will help her with some of the cost. But to see her light up and be happy about the perfect gift, that makes it worth it, even if I won't get any food out of it. 

What does it take to make a Pooka happy?

Pooka is very much like other children right now who are very confused. School keeps being cancelled for cold, but it looks nice out and she wants to do things outside. I know she is tired of hearing me tell her to put on another layer. She looked at me the other day and said "Mommy, I want spring." You are not the only one child. I am tired of having to figuring out if what we have planned is going to happen or if it is cancelled.

So imagine how excited she was after yet ANOTHER cancelled day of school when I came in with the mail that contained a package for her and more seed catalogs. She dove for the catalogs until she realized the package had her name on it.

Pooka restarts more lists of more "Can we Momma?"

Pooka read her name and address off the package, then I helped her read who it was from, which was her great Aunt and Uncle. Pooka tore into the package and the look on her little face. She was so excited. She pulled out this metal tin which she flipped over to see it contained flower seeds.  I helped her read the types and she asked if we really could plant the flowers, even if we can't eat them. Little did she know that I already had a plan there. I will admit, not being a flower person, I didn't know what a cosmo or a larkspur is, and I think I have heard of verbena before, so we had to look up some pictures of it.

The package also contained a gardening calendar that Pooka made a point to sit down and read front to back. She wants to hang it in her bedroom, but people were coming, so we put it on the back of the front door with a magnet for now, and Pooka loves looking at its pretty pictures and I read her little facts off it.  

Snow Day and Flowers

Today we woke up to a 4:45 AM phone call from the school saying yet again it was too cold and nasty to send the kids to school. No problem, I could use a snow day. And Pooka and Brother were happy with it too. Granted it is too cold to play outside, but kids always find something to do. I think Pooka is planning to make plans for the garden.

Signs of life when it is just too cold.

In all the cold and the snow, Pooka was so happy to see a small sign of spring. Her paperwhite bulbs had finally flowered and the front room smelled wonderful. Pooka was so happy to see signs of life when the outside world is frozen over. Although it has made Pooka more in interested than ever in what she wants to grow for spring. Good thing a couple of new seed catalogs came in the mail and have her complete attention. 

Paperwhite things...

A few days after Christmas, Pooka and I were at Target and we found these paperwhite bulbs on clearance for 75% off. Seeing as Pooka's birthday had just passed, we grabbed it so she could have some sort of plant in the house.

Sadly, I don't have any pictures since this was during the stint where I left the camera at Grandma's house, but Pooka was so happy to rehydrate the dirt and plant all these little bulbs. She just kept telling me "I am finally getting dirty. I am a happy girl. Spring needs to come soon. "

Pooka's Paperwhites. 

My poor girl was born in the wrong season. She loves spring and summer and planting and getting dirty for her birthday. Simple things make her happy.

She has been watching the progress of the flowers carefully and this is what they look like today. Now if I can remember to bring in Pooka's amaryllis from last year we will see if we can regrow them. At the end of the summer, we cut the plants back to the bulb. Hopefully they will work when I bring them in the house soon. But thats a job for another day. Until then Pooka is happy with the plant she has.

Seeds seeds everywhere

The milkweed pods have started blowing their little seeds around, which meant Pooka and I started harvesting the seeds, especially since I don't want milkweed growing everywhere.

Milkweed ready for harvest

First we cut the little pods off once they show signs of being read. This generally is the pod either opening up a bit, or bits of white fuzz hanging out. I wish I had better knowledge of when they are ready besides the seeds getting away, but I don't.

Seeds all lined up and ready to go

Here you see one that is ready for harvest. The seeds have this nice brown color to them, and they are all lined up. Pooka said "I love the texture of them, and they look pretty too." Next I get the brown paper bag of seeds and hand it to Pooka. Once we have it split open a bit, Pooka gets to put the pod in the bag.

Seed removal

Once the pod is in the bag, Pooka gets to put her fingers in the pod and drop the seeds into the bag. There is ton of white fuzz like you would see on a dandlelion, so do not do this if you have anything sticky on you hands. (I made that mistake after handling a sunflower. I looked like a yeti with the amount of fuzz on my hands). I am leaving the seeds in their until next year, but I may let Pooka plant one or two not just to make sure they are viable. They probably won't flower, but she will know they are there.

Weird yellow dots

I found these little yellow dots all over the milkweed. Apparently they are an aphid that really likes milkweed. Lovely, now to find another way to get rid of the buggers.

Surprise

Pooka had a very big surprise the other day. She went outside to check the front garden and this was on the amaryllis that is on the front porch. We didn't expect these to bloom at all and I was trying to figure out if I cut them back to get some color in the winter. Maybe it is a good thing we didn't. It has 4 buds on it total, but the first has bright burst of color on the front porch.

Pooka's picture of her flower

Surprises

The garden continues to surprise.

On Monday we found flowers on the potatoes. This made Brother and Pooka both very happy since it has to bloom and then it will die back and we will have blue potatoes. Pooka decided that they were very pretty flowers as well. I will admit it is a nice pop of color now.

Blue potato flowers

Then Tuesday I walked past the green easter basket of marigolds. These were planted in "extra" dirt from holes where we planted or seed starters that didn't start. What did I see? Two possible squash plants. I am trying to decide if they are zucchini or the mystery squash, but surprise there are extra plants. Now to move them to something else and then probably restart the marigolds. Again.

Is it Zucchini or mystery squash

This morning, I was doing my morning walkdown of the garden and I found a caterpillar on one of the tomato plants. I didn't have the camera so I didn't get a picture of it, but I did have Pooka grab her bug house and we collected him. My preliminary research is saying this is an armyworm that turns into a moth. I am not sure we are going to let him live in captivity, but he is not going on the tomato plants again.

Not the best picture, but it shows he has probably been out there a while.