Mason and I took a bunch of photos yesterday and here they are. This is most of the plants we have growing in the garden. Mason took some of these photos. And he consumes very few of these, although I hope to make a project of this and have him eat at least two more veggies than the zero he eats now.
Chile pepper, one of ten varieties I planted, courtesy of Stan and Nicole's farm. I have no ideas what kind of chile this is. You can imagine that finding out will be sort of a chancy thing.
An itty bitty carrot plant. This is one of two varieties I planted from seeds. Last year, I planted them in shallow soil. This year, deep soil is their temporary home.
Right in the middle of the picture is a small cucumber, perhaps one inch long. Not sure how big they're going to get.
My cilantro got big, too big for the enclosed area I set aside for vegetables, so I transplanted it to a flower bed. It turned into a flower, delicate white blossoms and has now borne little round seeds.
Fennel. Not sure how to use this kind, which I think is called bronze fennel. It's dill-like, and the roots are not that celery-like braising kind.
Mint among the oregano. The colors are so similar and they seem to be very good friends. Both oregano and mint are surprisingly prolific and I need to ensure that neither one takes over the place.
We have an abundance of peas, and I think it's three varieties. One kind of thin and sweet and tender (snow peas), one kind of thin and chewy and one--sugar snap peas--fthat are fat and tender. These are those.
Peas, just a different view.
Lavender. We have lots of lavender, but the bees haven't started their humming yet. It looks beautiful, it smells beautiful
This is a canteloupe blossom. The recent heat has done wonders for the growth of the two plants we have.
Mason's watermelon plants. We went to the garden center, he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a seed packet for his favorite big summer fruit. Two plants that I hope will grow huge!
Can you believe the color of this chard? It seems to come in scarlet, purple and yellow.
Wee basil plants, sweet basil, in hanging pots. I can't WAIT to get at this. Have you ever had tomato sauce made with fresh-picked everything?
One of many tomato blossoms. I have four or five varieties going. One has borne fruit, but it is small, hard and green
The tendrils of the Yellow Indian Woman Bean plant I am growing from beans I bought from Rancho Gordo in Napa, California.
May 16: The Garden at Full Speed
The garden is in full swing. We've been eating lots of greens, radishes, started eating broccoli, have been garnishing with parsley.
The peas are flowering and maybe we'll be eating them in a week or so. The carrots have sprouted, and the basil is coming along. The tomatoes are small but valiant, and the second round of radishes is in the ground. In another bed, I have ten kinds of peppers, a couple of watermelon plants and a solitary eggplant.
That terrible looking thing at left is a baby cucumber! I am looking forward to a long summer of veggies.
March 27: Early Spring Gardening
Erica kindly sat on the freezing-cold rock bench for a moment so I could get this photo and post it up so Nana can see how the garden looks with Erica actually in it.
March 14: Late Winter Gardening
FINALLY, we are getting some warm weather. It's rainy and springlike today, so I dragged
Erica and Mason and the girls down the street to the garden shop to get a few bags of soil
to wrap up the expansion of the garden.
in the TOP photo, on the right is the new retaining wall I built last weekend to allow deep
soil at the back end of the garden and shallower nearer the street. I put in the top course
of wall bricks yesterday, and I filled in behind it as you can see in the picture on the left.
In the LEFT photo, you can see the whole layout. The semicircular part in front is a flower
garden for Erica and Robin to develop. It's all new this year. The original scope of the
garden was from the right corner to the patch of cilantro next to the plastic cover. Every-
thing to the left of that is new soil.
I planted romaine lettuce, broccoli and collards in that new section. The back part of that
section, next to the retaining wall, is where we will plant some seeds to get some big fat
long sweet carrots. Those seeds go in the ground April 15, just four weeks from now.
I am also going to plant some early peas along the right side. It's hard to see, but I
have deer netting, very fine net around the rectangular part of the garden. The corners
and the middle posts are flower-hanging poles. And I put a curlicue-plant hanging pole in
the middle of the garden, too.
The next big part is working out the flower garden with Erica and Robin. Erica wants to have
a place to sit among the flowers, likely under the crape myrtle. I love that idea.
February 21: Sledding At Wolftrap
Maybe the last decent day of sledding at Wolftrap Farm Park. It was 40-something degrees. This is a composite of four photos.
Erica went sledding with her friend Eva. It was fun for both of them.
February 14: Pizza to put the snowstorm blues away
Our neighbors Gary and Phyllis invited us over for pizza last night. Here's what happened.
Gary gave Mason some tips in spreading out and flattening the dough.
Mason waited attentively while Gary darted away for a minute.
Dough flattened and ready for saucing, Gary fetched his fancy peel
Gary and Phyllis had prepared cheeses, meats and veggies for the pizzas.
Mason's a cheese-and-only-cheese man.
Into the oven, onto the pizza stone with a deft yank on the special peel.
Erica's turn to fashion a pizza from the 1/3 whole wheat pizza dough.
Roll it this way, roll it that way, and always with a dusting of flour.
Dad? Dad? Hello? Can you pause photographing for a sec?
Just a portrait of Erica in Gary and Phyllis's big, pretty kitchen.
Pull the crust onto the peel and prepare to "decorate" the pizza.
Robin and Phyllis actually were confident the guys and kids would do OK.
Hot pizza! Nudge the crusty crust up, slip the peel beneath, tug the fabric...
...kick the oven door shut...
...and deliver the pizza to the table at top speed!
Mmmmm. Mason's cheese pizza arrives.
Mason checked the cuts with a practiced eye.
While Mason's pizza cooled, Erica got the tour of ingredients.
Pepperoni was the second stop on the Pizza Parts Parade.
Meanwhile, Mason started sharing the pizza.
Mama gets her piece of the pie.
Phyllis took her turn at the pizza making, and her product had the effect of...
...making me put the camera down for the rest of the evening to
devote my full attention to eating more and more and murmuring about how delicious it was.
February 14: Snow pix from recent days
In the thick of the second biggest storm in a week, Feb. 10, looking toward our cul-de-sac.
Feb. 11, Erica making the most of the snow. Under the surface, there's still more than a foot and a half of snow.
The lonely life of the snowshoveler in this year's winter. You can see that this street is untouched by snowplows.
That's our house graced by another 6 or 8 inches. Above, neighbor Alexis is coming by for a visit.
I have to admit, our neighbor Cassidy knows how to fly on a saucer.
February 8: Digging out to make room for more
See the boy buried in the snow above? Well, that's the garden sculpture that I put on the back deck to gauge how deep the snow was as it fell. The video below shows the progression.
February 7: Sun kissing the snow
This is the view from the crest of the hill on our street looking down to the cleared streets below. This and the photo below are panoramas I put together from several photos.
Our house is on the left.
Neighbor Gary watching the end of the street being cleared by a front-end loader.
Looking up the street from the main road.
Gary got this photo of me shoveling the nice powdery snow. The last 12 inches was fluffy.
The feathery snow started blowing early in the day.
No snow plow made it to our street, but SUVs and trucks could get back and forth.
Neighbor Paul and the incredible snow stacked on his deck.
The garden is in full swing. We've been eating lots of greens, radishes, started eating broccoli, have been garnishing with parsley.
