The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden. . .

That is right you see. . .Do you remember that little Primary song? Well, here we go--3rd year at this home (still feeling like a complete novice). Hopefully we'll be blessed for our attempt at a tiny garden! I put Gehrig in charge this year (with the promise that if he does a good job of watering and taking care of our garden, we'll let him get a Parakeet. . .more on that later). [For my records, we planted the garden from seed on May 15th--the tomato and pepper plants were planted a week or two before that as plants.]

Lou has taken more and more pride in our lawns as time passes and wanted me to take a picture of how nice it looks right now. I'm partial to the flower beds (I take care of those)--but love it when the lawn looks this nice! :)

 

Our Blooming IRIS Plants
Aren't they beautiful? I got them from a good friend's yard (some that she didn't need) about 2 years ago and they're doing particularly well this year!

 

Here's our little garden. Can you see where I've planted in the flower beds? We have little budding lettuce plants, spinach, beets, carrots, strawberries, etc. Can you see that beautiful large broccoli plant hiding between the flowers in the front flower bed?

 

Gehrig wanted me to post a picture of his sunflower he planted. He actually dropped a bunch of sunflower seeds in our garden before I planted and had dozens and dozens of them growing like weeds! :)

 

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Oquirrh Temple Dedication and the Fruits of Our Labors

Oquirrh Temple Dedication
We had the unique opportunity to attend the temple dedication instead of holding our regular 3 hour block meetings this Sunday. Our plans to go together were unfortunately changed last minute, so I went to the 9AM meeting and Gehrig & his daddy went to the 3PM meeting. We each heard different talks and all were uplifting and excellent. I just thought father and son looked so handsome all ready to attend the dedication, I had to take a picture. Such a cute pair!

The Fruits of Our Labors
Gehrig has been the main gardener in our family, but somehow, this huge zucchini got past both of us! Isaiah is showing off the pre-dinner tonight. The kids are actually not as fond of squash as I'd think they would be, so tonight I tried out a couple of different recipes (Stuffed Zucchini, Baked Zucchini and Parmesan and of course, Zucchini bread). They didn't encourage me to save the recipes except for the zucchini bread. That was a winner, of course!

Our Beautiful Flowers!

When we got back from Idaho, the flowers were looking so beautiful! These are all from my little flower garden!

Gehrig and Damian can actually be good for the garden. :) They were collecting snails (to play with--just as long as they're out of my garden!) and weeding at the same time!

Gehrig called this his Snail Family Reunion.

While the older boys were helping with the garden, Isaiah, on the other hand was pulling out all of my onions (for the 3 or 4th time). Aarrgg!!!! I sure hope we get something to live this year. In his defense, he had seen me weeding and while I left for 10 seconds to get my gloves, he "weeded" the onions right out!

After School Snack

Would You have been this excited about cucumbers and tomatoes for an after school snack? I know I wouldn't have, but look at how cute they are! Maybe part of the excitement was because they came from our very own little garden!

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Anybody Want to be Depressed With Me?

Yeah, I haven't blogged for a bit largely because I made another major attempt at potty training for the past couple of weeks and LOST--YET AGAIN!! Whoever said girls were easier than boys or younger children were easier or some other sort of nonsense, hasn't met my children!! I give up! She can wear diapers until she's 16!! Of course, as soon as I start paying her some allowance, she'll have to buy her own dang diapers!!! Okay, can I really be mad at that darling little face down there? I love the little turkey!!

On a happier note, all of these vegetables came out of our itty-bitty garden! How about that?!!

What's Growing At Our Home? ? ?

I thought it would be fun (at least for my records) to show the progress my little gardens are making. I tried to do some comparisons from before our Idaho trip to 9 days later. Can you tell how much the lettuce and spinach grew? How the strawberries are turning red now? And how pretty my flowers are? It's fun to have some success--however small it may be. We're actually eating salads with our own greens! How about that?!! :)

I should take a more current picture of the plant on the left here. It's HUGE and blossoming all over!

Tilling the Earth. . .

A few weeks ago I was talking to a sister in our ward, Jen (whose husband, Greg, is pictured here, helping till the earth) about my desire to have a garden and my failures to this point. She had mentioned that she'd be happy to help me. This was right before my trip to Idaho, so when I got back and Lou surprised me by getting home early on Monday, I called her to see if we could borrow her tiller. She said that her family has a tradition at this time of year of helping another family out (after receiving generosity from one of their family members that wouldn't take money for their help but suggested they "pay it forward") in some way. She said that they had been discussing what to do this year and wondered if I'd be willing to accept their help in putting in a garden? Are you kidding?! I was elated--until the fear set in that I might fail and they'd be disappointed in their efforts to help us. When I expressed my concern, she promised that she would help me throughout the summer and would make sure that we had food to harvest! Can you believe the generosity? So, not only did they let us borrow their machine, but Greg came and helped Lou get it set up with a border and everything. The next day (the one when I spent all morning weeding the flower beds) Jen came over and helped me plan out what and where to plant each vegetable or fruit, pull weeds, put weed killer down and a weed barrier. We planted a small row of lettuce and spinach in my back flower beds. (I spent a total of 9 hours that day in my yards!) They are great gardeners and have a surplus of supplies that they're just donating to the cause. I am so grateful and really appreciate the blessing in our lives! So. . .with their help, I should have pictures of some success in a few months! YIPPEE!!