Still here

I promise that we are still here. The science garden is moving along. To be honest, we had left for a vacation, and we returned in a rush to begin school routines and school. We have one whole week under of belt of early mornings, lots of kids and stuff to do , and coming home to the quiet of garden. 

A message from great grandma

As a result, I will be trying to get back to updating everyone here. One thing that has been rather odd  this year is that Audrey the Morning Glory has not exploded as she has in years past. This year, we have only a few tendrils and even fewer flowers so when Pooka got a purple morning glory the morning she started school, we told her it was her great grandmother telling her to have a great first day. She looked at the flower and said "I will have a great day. I love you." before running inside to finish getting ready.

Hopefully things can settle into a routine and I will be getting back to the blog more regularly.

Peek-a-boo

Pooka found something hiding in her watermelon plant. a tiny little watermelon that is getting bigger each day. She is so excited to finally be getting a melon. Now to see how big it will get. This is off Pooka's watermelon plant that we only agreed to since it said it lives in an 18" pot. Otherwise the rule is we don't have space for a melon plant. Good to see it is doing something. Now to keep watching and see if we get anymore.

Watermelon

Making the bed

This year we tried to start most of Pooka's pollinator bed by seed. It didn't work. Either I pulled them all thinking they were weeds, or they didn't come up through the mulch. Either way, her bed was looking a bit empty.

Before

I took Pooka, Brother and her friend E to the nursery one day. I told her I would buy her a couple of plants and she could buy herself a couple of plants for the bed. Pooka rushed to get her money so she could buy what she wanted. We ended up getting quite a few plants. One of the nursery staff asked if we needed a cart, and I said no thank you since the rule is we have to carry what we take out. This prevents anyone from getting too ahead of themselves. Pooka bought herself a hollyhock and a daisy (since she is in daisies after all Mom.)  I then bought another chamomile for the herb garden, as well as a Dragon's head and Carpathian bell plant. 

Nursery run haul

Pooka and I planted them the next day when it was just the two of us. She loved getting to lay them in her garden and dig holes. I will say that can be a challenge since their are some tree roots under her bed from a nearby tree. In the end, she was rather happy with it, and made sure that each plant would attract either hummingbirds and/or butterflies. She will be so upset if she doesn't see a hummingbird this year.

All in

Three days of harvest gave to Pooka

In the last few days, we have finally seen the garden start to produce. On the first day, it started with a jalapeno, a yellow cherry tomato and a sweet pepper, Pooka swears she has never had the sweet peppers before. I told her it is the same variety we have every year. These peppers like our yard as compared to bell peppers which no matter how many tricks we have, it never seems to do well. I may or may not of eaten the cherry tomato seconds after this picture was taken.

first day

The next day, we came in with peppers. Lost of peppers. We have one poblano and a ton of jalapeno. Daddy says they are not too hot, but they are great for us. I will say jalapeno poppers are in our future, but it was nice to be able to be able to say "I think we need a bigger boat" or bowl in this case. Pooka has grown up with Daddy and I repeating the line from JAWS when it comes to the garden.

second day

The third day of harvest gave to me, 4 cherry tomatoes and a ripe fireball tomato. We were so excited to finally start getting tomatoes. Luckily, I had tacos on the menu, so we were so excited that for dinner that night we were able to use the a garlic bulb (more on that later),  an onion, tomatoes and hot and sweet peppers all in the tacos. It was a very good dinner and the kids love tacos, so they were quite happy to have it.

Third day

Hopefully soon, I can really feel like the garden is giving us it's bounty. It just feels like all of this is so much later then usual. I don't know if it is the cooler weather, or that I may of been a bit late starting some things *cough cucumber cough*, but I will be so happy when I can skip the produce department at the grocery store for at least a few days.

Berries everywhere

Berries have been coming in almost daily. We get our choice of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. While we may not get enough to make jam out of, it has been great seeing Pooka and Brother sharing berries for lunch everyday. Sadly, I think we are just about out of raspberries and blueberries for the season, but at least we got a good snack out of them.  Maybe next year we will get even more.

A small harvest one day of berries and peas. 

Plants bought in at the fairy tea

While we where already at the nursery for the fairy tea,  I couldn't help but to make a quick run through the veggie and herbs section. I did have a purpose, we had some sugar peas killing off a pepper plant, and I wanted to drop a basil plant in between to fix the problem. While we were there, this cute little orange pepper jumped into my arms. Because, lets face it, carrying a fairy garden, I didn't have enough to carry. Pooka just loved being able to bring another color into the garden because as she told her friend "Normal food colors are boring."

Sweet basil and orange pepper

Hard days

I try to be honest with whoever reads this and live isn't always full harvests and pretty pictures and memories. Somedays, the memories are good but make you miss the one they are about. This is so very true today. Out of nowhere last night, Pooka asked me to read to her the book "The Next Place." It is a book we got for her when her Great Grandmother died. Then she cuddled up to me and told me she missed her.

I would love to say, I had some wonderful way to make her feel better, but I didn't. Truth is, I miss her too and my being home has reminded me of that. It use to be days like today, Pooka and I would have taken her to run errands, or gone over to visit her and have me sneak chores in. I mean, Pooka spent probably the first 5 years of her life helping to take care of her, calling her so she didn't get lonely, and making sure Great Grandma had her cane.

I woke up this morning missing her as well. The morning phone calls just to chat and give her someone to talk to, and all the little things that drove me crazy when she was alive. That woman taught me patience if nothing else. I went outside this morning to water the new rosebush. We had finally put her sign up, a sign I will be keeping for us, but out of nowhere, we had roses. Lots of roses. Maybe, just maybe someone knows we are thinking of her, or maybe the rosebush is happy, but it put a great smile on Pooka's face, which was something she needed. It was also a lovely color of yellow that I know she would love.

Roses on a rough day