Fourth Frog

As if we hadn't had enough fun with the fireworks on the 4th, our evening ended with even more excitement. The Badger was taking some of our firework debris back to the trash can when he found this enormous frog in the backyard. He generated just about as many "ooh"s and "aah"s and dancing, squealing kids as the fireworks had.

So Far, So Good

My tomato plants are growing!

I also have this little pepper plant, and it's doing well too.

Beautiful

Another Rabbit Around Here

A real, live rabbit has moved into our neighborhood. I do not know where he actually lives, but he usually spends his mornings foraging in our backyard, which is full of clover and dandelions.

When the kids say "Look! There's the rabbit!" I'm never sure anymore whether they're talking about the rabbit pictured above or about our Rabbit.

Here We Grow Again

My gardening plans, which in years past have been grandiose and elaborate, are limited this year to what I can grow in my two small planter tubs. I may not have even gotten around to doing anything with those except that a neighbor of mine gave me three extra tomato plants.

Here they are in their happy, sunny spot:

Grow, little tomato plants. We love you.

Durned Critters

So, Glenda calls me the other day and says "You're not going to believe this."

Eh?

"I'm sitting here at my back window watching the squirrels climb up our corn stalks, take off the ears of corn, peel them, and eat them."

I did not know squirrels could do that. I have grown corn in squirrel-populated areas before and I have never seen that happen.

But it happened. They ate all our corn.

We had five or six lovely rows of corn, and we hardly got any to eat.

We've also had a big problem with rabbits. They ate our beans. They ate our sunflowers. They ate my sweet potato leaves. The sweet potato leaves are trying to come back, but I don't think they stand much of a chance.

And all those beautiful tomatoes? Well, we're getting some, but the critters are nabbing the ripe ones, taking a few bites, then leaving the rest on the ground for the bugs. It's painful to see a beautiful garden-ripe tomato in this state:

Next year I will begin experimenting with methods of deterring small critters. I can't let this happen again!

The Harvest

We're getting some good stuff out of our garden, despite the critter problems. The potato bed gave us a nice yield.

Bean is pleased with how his little garden looks, with corn and cucumbers and tomatoes:

And the cucumber vines are still going strong. Lots of these cute little baby cucumbers growing. Maybe I'll get to do another batch of pickles.

Baby Potato

The other day when I was working in the garden, weeding the potato bed, I accidentally bumped one of my potato plants and this little guy broke off.

There was just something about this cute little potato, in perfect potato shape only itty bitty, that I took a fancy to. Maybe it was because he fit so nicely in my hand.

I kept him for a few days, trying to decide the best thing to do with him. His small size and the fact that there was only one of him made it a bit of a quandary. I thought it would be cute to bake him and serve him to Roo with a tiny pat of butter. I might have done that except when I opened the bag of potatoes in my pantry to find some other good bakers for the rest of us I discovered the whole bag had gone soft and sprouty. So they all ended up in a big mash, including the little guy. They were delicious.

Perfect Pesto

I went a-harvesting in my garden yesterday and brought home kale, chard, yellow squash, and a huge pile of basil.

So of course I made pesto.

I set Bean to work peeling garlic cloves for me. He had so much fun he peeled more than the recipe calls for.

I threw them all in my robot culinaire anyway. I was in a garlicky mood. I also poured in olive oil and added a chunk of parmesan cheese and a handful of walnuts. I'm not rich enough to buy pine nuts, but if you use walnuts it's called "winter pesto" which sounds very chef-y instead of very tightwad-y and I like that.

Oh, and salt. Don't forget the salt.

Whirrrr!

This ended up being the most scrumptious batch of pesto I have ever made. I think it was the extra garlic. Even Roo gobbled it down on crackers.

Garden Update

I spent four hours working in our garden this morning. Dadgummit, I love this prairie soil! (I live only a couple hours drive from Pioneer Woman, so I figure it's time I started saying "dadgummit.")

The peas are making pods and the corn is coming up. There are gaps in the corn where my dear sweet children have STOMPED on the plants, but we should still get a nice crop.

We have FIFTEEN tomato plants. I am so excited. Here are our biggest two:

In the past, I took vine-ripened garden tomatoes totally for granted. Then last summer I lived on the Oregon coast. There is not enough sun and heat there to grow tomatoes in your backyard garden, but I still tried. It was a dismal scene. So I figured I could pick some up at the farmer's market. The farmer's market had tomatoes and they were even red and big and round, but they were only sort of red and ripe. Even though they had been grown inland where there is a little bit more sun, they still lacked that deep color and perfect juiciness that tomatoes get when they have baked all summer under a broiling hot sun. It's going to be broiling here in a couple months and I'm going to hate to go outside, but my fifteen tomato plants are going to love it and they're going to make me a very happy woman.

Anyway.

Here is the smaller of our two garden plots. In the foreground is our Amazing Potato Bed, which is going bonkers. Behind it we have planted squash and melons and other viney things. And more tomatoes. And the wall o' waters are awesome at keeping the rabbits from snacking on tender young plants.

Finally, here is the Kid's Garden. Bean is very proud of this garden. He thinks he's taking care of it himself. He sure is doing a nice job, isn't he? It sure helps to have Mom working beside you when you're doing your "weeding." Really, though, he is doing his best and it's going to be a fantastic garden with corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, squash, broccoli, and random flowers.

First Harvest

We grew a Radish! Aren't we clever!

It was tasty!

I am absolutely loving this square foot gardening stuff. Things are starting to grow in our squares, as you can see below. The squares are so much easier to take care of than traditional garden rows.

We are having trouble though with critters (rabbits?) nibbling on our tender young plants. I had some old Wall of Waters sitting in my garage, so we decided to put them up around some of our peppers and tomatoes to see if that wouldn't keep them safe. We'll see if it works.

Garden Beginnings

We are employing both traditional and up-to-date methods in our garden.

Here is one of our "Square Foot Gardens."

We're into "Use-What-You-Have Gardening," so it's edged by old boards of Glenda's and extra concrete edging from my house, with twigs to mark the intersections of the squares. Hey, it works!

Here are some radish sprouts coming up in one of our Square Foot beds:

Here is the traditional part of the garden, where we have so far planted three rows of peas:

And they're coming up. See?

I love this prairie soil. It's real dirt! In Idaho I had clay and on the coast I had sand, so this stuff feels just lovely in between my fingers.

The Very Beginnings

I realize I'm about a month behind, but I finally got some seeds started for my Very First Garden on the Prairie. I planted tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds in my seed starting kit a few days ago. This morning I was delighted to discover that they are indeed sprouting-- just barely! They were old seeds Glenda gave me, so there was some question about their viability. Plus, I'm always amazed still that anything I plant actually grows. Too many years of killing plants before I knew what I was doing.

Anyway, If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it and look very carefully, you can see quite a few tiny shoots uncurling in this photo:

Here's a closeup of what they look like right at first. Before they reach up and put out leaves they have this fuzzy white stuff on them. Funky, huh?

Seeds are so fascinating.