In The Garden

My garden is coming along nicely. The zucchini and yellow squash plants are huge an covered in blooms and I've counted no less than five baby zucchini on the plant already. The cucumbers were slow starters, but in the past week they have really grown in size as well. And my new location for the tomatoes seems to have been just what they needed.

Last night while I was watering the tomatoes, I spied some red in there. I checked on them this afternoon and they were perfect for picking.

They never made it in the house. My hand model ate them as soon as I was done taking the pictures. I had to let her eat them, how do you tell a kid that she can't have veggies? And I am so thankful that I have at least one veggie eating girl. I'm still working on the other one.

I've got something else to share as well, but since I go through dry spells at times, I thought I ought to wait a day or so. I'll give you a hint though, it's the beginning of my new quilt and I love it!

Playing in the Dirt

The little one and I went to get some plants for our "garden" the other day. Our poor excuse for a yard is an even poorer location for a garden. While we have fabulous trees that shade the house and keep it very nice and cool in the summer, those same trees allow for precious little sunlight in the yard, which is really just the side of a hill. Last years selected location for the tomatoes was a poor choice, so I've opted for the only place that gets a good expanse of sunlight - smack dabby in the front yard. I will now (hopefully) be able to give directions to my house by mentioning that it's the one with all the tomatoes and snap peas in the front yard. I have high hopes for little plants, as I do love fresh tomatoes in the summer!

I'm also trying out some squash and cucumbers in the tomatoes old location, as cucumbers did well there last year. Only time will tell at this point, but this little zucchini plant looked pitiful when I put it in the ground and just a few days later it's doubled it size and looks like it's happy for now.

Not planted this year, but equally anticipated are the mulberries. Did I mention last year that we had lived in this house for 7 (I think) years before we realized we had a mulberry tree? And it's not like it was tucked away in some hidden corner.....it drops juicy, dark purple berries all over what little flat(..ish) yard we have and also all over the driveway. This one tree will yield gallons of berries and I will spend a week and a half obsessed with gathering them.

And another new neighbor in our yard. Honestly, this summer marks nine years in our home. Surely we would have noticed these vines before, which have leaves resembling grape leaves and seem to be forming clusters of.... could they be muscadines? Or scuppernongs. The same thing, I believe, but isn't scuppernong fun to say? Only time will tell for these newbies. And if they do fruit, what to do with them?

I spent an hour tonight working on a birthday present. I got as far as cutting the fabric and sewing four rows of basting stitches to a very long piece of fabric (I hate sewing basting stitches) and then I finally concluded that my "black" fabric is really not black at all, but dark brown. That is not a good feeling, especially since I went to two fabric stores looking for this particular kind of black fabric and still ended up buying brown. Bugger. That's what I say.