CORA'S TOMATO PLOT

GARDEN KIDS

 They wanted to show off all the wildflowers blooming in our yard (most of which were planted from the seeds Uncle Jamie gave them for Christmas) before heading off to Daycamp, but most of them are so small they're hard to see in photos. Cute kids though, right?

SWEET SLIPS

We saved some mature potatoes (since January...) and planned to stick them in the garden when the spring planting season arrived. Well, when we finally did the research, we learned that you're supposed to plant "slips" for sweet potatoes (even though you can plant the entire potato for many other varieties). So we got to work growing our slips. Jay conducted an experiment between rain water and our double-filtered Fisher Ferry water: the rain water produced shorter slips with broad, dark green leaves while the FF water produced very tall slips with tiny leaves (reaching for the light).

This is what they looked like about 2 weeks ago - they got broader and taller, respectively.

One sad remnant carrot that tried to make a comeback after Jay had tilled and treated the garden box.

Digging trenches, dipping in root health solution, laying them flat, and covering with dirt.

Fingers crossed we get some delicious Mississippi Sweet Potatoes this summer!

(These were purchased from a local farmer, not the grocery store)

GARDENING AND THE GREAT JAMES

Jay and Cora spent some time after dance class prepping the garden for winter veggies and planting seeds. This season we're going to try broccoli (our favorite veggie), lettuce, and spinach. We got very few tomatoes this summer, even fewer snap peas, and our carrots and potatoes were ridiculously tiny. The only thing that thrived were the cucumbers (and they sure created a lot of foliage to clear out before we could rotate the garden), and most of them were too big and bitter to eat. Fingers crossed we'll at least get good results from one out of three of the new plantings!

Just look at that smile! She was so happy and proud to be helping daddy!

 While daddy and Cora worked, James mostly entertained me inside the house (I was making dinner), but when he noticed Cora moving on to chalk drawings, he had to go out and join her. He's not into yard work much. Kinda like his mama...

 

James got some GREAT news today and he was SO VERY PROUD to go through his folders with me after school and tell me all about it! After being on RED the past two days (why oh why are we back to this again?!), he came home with PURPLE today! He also had a 100% score on his AR test to show me (get excited folks, that's a big deal! most kids in his class aren't even taking the tests yet because they aren't ready), as well as his first set of "graded" papers that were all scored with 3's and 4's (a new, non-graded system his school is using this year, where 3's basically mean he's right on target/meeting expectations for his age/grade and 4's mean he's exceeding those expectations). This was his second AR test, and the first one did not go nearly so well. He knew the book by heart and could easily answer any question we threw at him, but we think he just needed to get used to taking tests on the computer (they never did that at Agape, and we just started letting him play on the laptop at home when school started. Jay has been practicing with him by writing out questions for him to read and answer (fill in the blank or multiple choice) on the computer, so I know that helped. We also had him go over this book for 3 days rather than 2 before signing off for him to take the test, so the extra repetition likely helped as well. It seems the AR tests are like a book report (without the essay writing, of course) to ensure the kids are paying attention to the story and can recall details, but they also test reading skills by forcing the kids to read and answer the questions completely on their own (so, the more familiar they are with their book and the specific words that are perhaps a little harder to decipher, the better chance they have of answering their exam questions correctly). We're super proud of him (and looking forward to seeing the actual progress reports that will come home next week, not to mention the STAR exam results that we're still waiting on). James will have to keep working on his behavior, but he's handling his academics beautifully!

POOTATOES

When I texted Jenny to see whether these were in fact edible potatoes from our garden or simply buried cat turds, she told me they were obviously pootatoes... Who wants to come over for dinner?!

JUST A WEE ONE

Cucumber or watermelon?...

MORNING HARVEST

3 of the 6 cucumbers we've harvested since returning from Disney!

Too bad their size makes them a little bitter (we're trying to pluck subsequent growth quicker!)

SAFE AND SOUND (AND EXHAUSTED!)

The cucumbers exploded while we were gone...

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Very well, thanks to all the rain we've had recently.....

WINTER PEAS

Before the hard freeze, I picked the 2 little sugar snap peas (only one shown because I had already eaten the other...) and 2 little snow peas that had made an appearance recently, just in case the plants didn't survive the "arctic breeze" heading our way tonight (temps of 15 "feels like 5" predicted). Jay and I shared them and they were delicious. Fingers crossed our "winter peas" survive the cold and produce more!

FIRST HARVEST!

The few strawberries that have popped up pretty much instantly molded once they started to turn red. Major bummer. And now those plants are done? They sure aren't producing any more strawberries... The tomatoes on the other hand are doing great! Even after last night's (and this afternoon's) severe thunderstorms knocking over the top of the plants. We harvested our first 4 ripe cherry tomatoes today. Feeling so very proud!

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

Things are filling in nicely. We lost the cucumbers, but everything else seems to be getting bigger...

The tomato plants are taller than Cora now..

And there are even some veggies to be seen on those plants! Now if we can just get them to turn red and delicious, then pick them and enjoy them before the deer and raccoons and possums...

GARDEN IMPROV

Shortly after planting our garden, the weather unexpectedly changed and we were faced with below freezing temperatures for a night. So Jay improvised and used James' new toy to build a fort over the garden (later adding a sheet and a heat lamp). When he walked outside with the fort kit I thought he was crazy, but it worked. And no, that is not a real snake in the garden. The kids put it there to help scare away the raccoons. No idea whether it's really working or we're just lucky, but so far we have had some growth and zero chomping, so hopefully it is!

ITCHY GLEN GARDEN

After 7 years, I finally convinced Jay that we should try our hand at gardening. A very small, low-key garden. He even sacrificed the best grass in our yard to build the container... (We don't have many full sun areas, and the only other spot is way beyond the reach of even multiple hoses, and is frequented by deer.)

Jay's coworkers generously gifted him with a gift card to Home Depot last month in order to somehow commemorate GG, and rather than planting a tree, we decided to use the money to start our garden. GG was a wonderful gardener, and gardening always brought her a lot of joy and satisfaction (and we all benefited from her efforts throughout the year in the form of pickles and preserves and other goodies that she canned).

Cora looks like she's slamming the brakes, doesn't she?...

The kids helped transport dirt in their buckets and mini wheelbarrow, they helped us choose the plants (we just picked a couple pots each of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, rosemary, and cilantro to start with), and they (mostly James) helped us plant them properly.

That should have been a "fingers crossed" sign, not a thumbs-up...

Gardening is hard work. Popsicles were earned.

 Fingers crossed our garden bears fruit (and veggies) this summer!