Garden Update: Week 3

Four of the eight potato plants are growing strong! I was really not expecting that to happen. Hopefully, there will be little potatoes underground by May.  The radishes continue to grow mature leaves. The herbs look good. The carrots, lettuce, and onions are slowly getting bigger, but I did plant them late in the season. It might get too hot pretty soon. Several of my friends said they haven't had luck with growing peppers, but I put in a green/ orange sweet pepper. We'll see! I don't know how the eggplant will do either.

radishes and herbs

green sweet pepper, eggplant, lettuce, and potato

another view of herbs and radishes

radishes

new - potato sprouts

first potato to break ground

We keep a net over it to keep out the armadillo, bunnies, and raccoons. I ordered a summer weight row cover to replace the netting. I hope the cover will help prolong the growing season, before it gets unbearably hot. It should also help block out insects. Right now, we have a spider mite problem. I am thinking about spraying horticultural oil, which is effective and safe. The last thing I want is the plants to get destroyed by pesky insects, yet I want to keep this garden organic.

Bluebonnets in the Spring

First Hair Cut

Yes, we waited 2 years and 7 months for Evie's first hair cut! I was sad to say good bye to her baby curls. It was time, though. She kept getting tangles and the back was uneven. She was very serious the entire time. She said, "You taking my hair off?"

all finished!

silly face

a little treat for a good little girl

Puppet Show

 Evie had another play date, so we went to Coppell's Center of the Arts for a Jack and the Beanstalk Puppet Show. It was really cute. Evie and her friend really enjoyed it! At the end they met the giant's wife. Evie kept saying, "I met the muppet show!" She did see the Muppet Movie in January...

Evie sat on the floor most of the time. At the end they met the puppet! They were so excited!!!! Evie couldn't take her eyes off of it.
 
 
When we got home they had time to play doll house and dress up. We ate lunch and then made a fun dessert- ice cream in a bag! I have done this with my fourth graders for years. You put milk, sugar, and vanilla in a quart size bag. Then put ice and rock salt or kosher salt in a gallon bag. Place the quart bag in the gallon bag and shake! In ten minutes, you have ice cream.

 

shake! shake! shake!

yum!

it's cold

wagon ride after some yummy ice cream

Grapevine Sea Life Aquarium

Grapevine Mills Mall has a small chidlren's aquarium. Everything is at kid's eye level. It is just large enough to hold young one's attention, but not too big for them to be bored. We met up with my friend Robin and her daughter Stella. Evie and Stella always have a good time together. Since Stella is older, she is very patient at leading Evie around. Evie is very intrigued by everything Stella does. It's a very sweet friendship.

scared face

stella

evie wouldn't go in the bubble alone

shark tunnel!!!

touch tank

Garden Update Day 7

The radishes are the winners for sprouting first! On day three tiny little seedlings emerged through the soil.

Coppell Community Garden has been a wonderful resource for starting a garden from scratch. It also offered a free gardening class that helped give me direction on where to start. Coppell has two community vegetable gardens. Volunteers adopt a plot, grow and harvest their veggies, and then donate the food to Metrocrest Social Services Food Pantry. In 2011 the garden donated almost 2,000 pounds of produce! Wow.

this shows you how tiny the seedlings are....



A Garden to Grow

After talking to a friend who has had a vegetable garden for a couple of years and after attending a gardening class, we took the big jump and set up our own garden! Judd built a raised garden frame one weekend.  The next weekend we bought soil and sowed seeds! We are taking the organic approach to this from the beginning!

ready to work

we lined the bed with newspapers and paper bags to block weeds

then...

we layered with organic compost, leaves, manure, and humus

evie took a chapstick break after some hard work

Evie really had a great time helping set up the garden.

She loves wearing gardening gloves and her boots and scooping up dirt with her shovel.

In about 60 to 90 days we'll have radishes, carrots, and onions ready to harvest!

We also planted some potatoes, but I think I planted them too deep.