I didn't plant them, but I'll enjoy them!

I'm writing this, sitting outside on a gorgeous day; not really able to see the screen, but my reflection instead. I'm amazed I have wireless out here, nonetheless, because it's gorgeous and the kids never want to be inside. Really, I'm thankful for that.

In any case, there are some gorgeous flowers that have been around the house since early spring, and some I took pictures of and put online, but there are just so many nice ones I wanted to share them here.

Meanwhile, Z is my official compost dumper. She takes it outside for me and puts it in the "new" compost. We have one that's more turned over than the other one, so she knows where to put it. :) I also made the older one smaller, since it's more broken down, and the new one bigger.

Enjoy! :)

These are from early spring, when it was cooler out.

Idk what they are, but they are doing great!


The mystery sprout V 2.0! Ok, I did plant this, rather, I transported it. ;)


Mystery Sprout V 3.0! This is actually growing in the compost.


Violets!


I love these!

I caught a bumblebee! Do you see it?

Plant Death and Rebirth

Ah the cycle of our garden. The tomatoes (round 2, or three?) were looking really nice. Basil 2.0 and parsley. The dirt wasn't great but it was happening. But then we went away for a week and they just didn't survive. We have one tomato left and he's still a small little bugger. :( The herbs we can always try again round the year, with better soil. And thanks to Sarah's mom for giving us a grow lamp and a seed starter box, next year looks more promising. That's something at least.

I've been pretty bummed that I can't grow A THING. :( I also didn't see the cucumber's sprouting, but lo! They were. That was one nice thing we noticed before we went away. But just to balance that out, when I came back the second compost was way moldy and infested. This was my fault, since I forgot to add the dry leaves to it. Gah. Oh well.

So lets pick ourselves up just a little. There is hope. I've actually been finding a lot of sprouts in the compost. How silly is that?! I mean, I know that they grow there, but it's funny that dirt and death can grow better than I can when I try. >:| Anyway, I see it as a special treat. So we planted them! I have absolutely no idea what they are. :D

Chaim is also excited because he spread a bunch of wildflower mix and he thinks it is starting to sprout too!

It's possible that this is apple. But who knows!


No idea.


These I noticed when I was going to plant a carrot top, but I don't know what they are or how they even got there!


Carrot top


This is a nice little row of cucumbers! Yay!! Finally! :D


Annndddd the garlic! It looks great, especially since we planted out of season..we'll see how that goes...


This is what my kids do for fun... Saying "Ee-ah poo poo pee pee".


We didn't plat this, there are a bunch of flowers that just come. The purple and yellow ones and the bell flowers died, then came these (on their way out) and small little white stars.


These are also all over now. I don't know what kind they are but they are big and creepy. Another great thing is that I found a macro mode on my camera and I'm liking how these pics are coming out!

My not so green thumb

So all of that in the last post is basically for naught. I'm so upset. Here's what happened.

The tomatoes were left outside to bask in the sun. One day I knew it was going to rain so I made sure to bring in my bras flapping in the breeze and everything else I could think of. What happens the next day?? Chaim brings in the tomatoes, which we forgot outside. :( The few that survived Zalah pulled up by the roots. She also did this to some plants Chaim was trying to re-root and she broke part of the garlic off, but at least that part wasn't so damaging. We tried to replant tomato seeds, but by this point if they actually grow, it will be pretty late in the season to see fruit, like what happened last year. :(

I'm counting on that little guy in the front, but I don't want to hold out too much hope!

We had nice little basil sprouts. I don't even think I had a picture of them. So of course, when I watered them and went to return them to their windowsill, I undershot, bumped the edge and spilled the whole thing all over the floor. Bye bye basil. I tried to replant the basil as well as some parsley, but the dirt was too wet. So I mixed in more dirt to get the right consistency but now it looks too packed down and I don't know if the sprouts can break through. It's not well draining at all. How bad can you be at making dirt!?!?!

Next, the garlic. Ah the garlic was growing so well. It's so easy, isn't it?? So we decide it's high time to plant them outside, the roots were packed in their little containers, and we had two to a small pot! Well, guess how I felt when I look online just to double check the best time to plant them (mid spring, early spring?) and see FALL. WHAT? So much for that. We attempted a shady spot and hopefully it won't be too hot for them to grow. Over watering can also be a problem, and it is spring. So we'll see how that goes.

The garlic

I did learn that you can eat those green tops, so that's something at least.

Speaking of garlic, I also read that it's good to put a layer of compost on top. Well. The compost is not ready. (Though I have to say, it does look good.) Maybe if we were smart and did it all last summer and through the year it would have been ready by now. Grrr.

Lastly, I planted the cucumbers. Might as well at this point, right? So who knows how they will turn out. The soil is supposed to be warmer, but I didn't want to wait and I didn't start them inside so whatever. Those 3 sticks in the back are where each group of seeds are. The kids helped me put 4 seeds in each hill, and if they grow I can then thin them down. It looks a little dry, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and the rest of the month, so it will be plenty watered. I hope something sprouts!



Oh, and in case you guys are wondering, the spot by the fence is actually fairly sunny for most of the day. The reason I say the garlic is in a 'shady' spot while the "real" garden pictured above is the sunniest spot is because the garlic is along the fence back by where the shed is, and when the sun gets too far west it becomes shady again. So the garlic spot has some sun, while the main garden should get a lot of sun. The idea was to put the tomatoes in the back there, but I hope it doesn't stay shady there for too long in the day. I took this picture at about 11am. It's almost noon and it's sunny there now.

So that's that. This is year two of a slight interest in gardening while really knowing nothing of what to do! And the more we learn, we still don't know enough. It's actually quite sad. We would have either known what to do back in the old days, or just not have been very successful and healthy individuals! I wish planting wasn't a dying art. I wish it came standard with learning long division, phonics and the history of New Jersey. :(

Also, it is GORGEOUS today. Really.

The Return

One Quick Thing. . . then again, it's me we're talking about

I just have one quick tip I'd like to share. Put your scallions and herbs in a wet paper towel, fold it around the base and store in the fridge in a produce bag (I reuse mine, and actually I hardly have them since I buy my produce loose). The water keeps them fresh and I think even growing. These scallions are a few days old and are firm and luscious.

I love scallions!

Come to think of it, remember when I mentioned Chaim's other other night job? And how I started this blog the day he got fired? So it's been about two years since then and we found out his unemployment is ending in two weeks. :( This is after an error in which they held about three weeks, which we had to go in in person and refute and still are waiting for it to come through. But it doesn't really matter so much because it's basically over. So now what? I have no idea. We're trying the gardening thing again, have a nice compost started, but something tells me we'll need more than that to live on. Hmmm.

The heat and hot water isn't on, which is a pain but hopefully the oil truck will come again tomorrow.

And children, why don't they sleep?? Do they want to be zombies? It's after 10, and I still hear Lyla in the room. Meanwhile I'm ready to pass out!

In case I didn't say so on here yet, Z is basically officially potty trained. So that's awesome! Lyla is officially in the middle of TERRIBLE TWOS!! NOT AWESOME!!!

I'll keep you posted on the news.

It's been a long while.

So in May we moved to Bayswater. The mosquitoes here suck. I graduated with a BA and it means nothing. But I've learned I can clean practically anything. Not out of skill but out of repetition. The kids are completely insane. I really wish I could get out of the house and have some sanity but that hasn't happened thus far. I've learned a few recipes but even cooking counts as "me time" meaning the kids don't let you do it.

Because of the move to a more 'urban' area, we don't have access to a washer and dryer anymore. I'd been using friends but just yesterday went to a laundromat for the first time ever. Zalah likes to call it the laundry-pants store. That shit is expensive. I still take darks home to line dry. Also, I'm not opposed to some light tub washing. BUT because of this, we don't cloth diaper anymore. Chaim is tickled pink, but the cost of diapers sucks. While we cloth diapered for those few months, I had a huge Costco box of diapers for Lyla and hardly made a dent. Since moving I think I've bought two at least, maybe three. I'm actually upset about it. :(

We also haven't composted, though I thought about it. We brought five of our six attempted tomato sprouts and out of five that grew short, four grew well for a while. But they were started too late and never made fruit, and just keep wilting in this terrible humid climate. :(

A bonus is that we live close to the beach and far from other bullshit, but everything has its complications. The apartment is nice, big, fairly decent but boiling hot. Except when we don't have hot water but I never shower in it anyway. I've made new friends and try to see new and old, but its tough to get it all done. I think I could manage to see people and run errands, but its the unexpected things and getting kids to get ready, eat enough, and have enough with you to handle the everyday basics and the random Oh-shit moments, like Lyla barfing in the car seat.

The kids. Ah the kids. They don't eat well, they don't sleep well, and then they try to say they want to eat when it's time for bed. 'Terrible ones' eat your hearts out. Zalah can really throw them now that she's two. Lyla can also still have her moments, but I do think much is personality and Lyla seems more calm. Zalah is very serious, even though she's sweet and likes to help, and gets frustrated easily and is very bossy. She says very funny things though, such as "Don't make me mad!", "Don't tell me no!", "I like people. We have to be nice. We can't fight.", and "Seriously!?". Lyla is talking more too, saying "gubby" for "Buggy" and little things she repeats after us. Z won't potty train, and Piotr has decided to pee all over the bath mat and outside his box. Fabulous. I gained weight that won't go away, yes, even with diet and exercise. Even with living in a sauna and chasing kids til you sweat, every single day. Must be that I can't Zumba every day... Piotr's not so slim either. Chaim just started working at a gym though, so that should help him, and it would help me if I ever had a babysitter. At least I'm not pregnant.

I'm not sure what else to say, though I bet there is more. I'm currently exhausted and have to pick Chaim up from work. The kids FINALLY went to bed after trying for a good two hours. :P At least the place is fairly clean, if not boiling hot.

My Beautiful Garden!

So far I've weeded and put up a net canopy and gate. We planted two bushes: raspberry and blueberry. I hope they grow!! The amazing thing is, most of this stuff was found. Some of it in that very spot, such as a pick tool, zip ties and rocks (to prop all the stakes up and keep the gate and net securely in the ground). Other things that were 'found' were all those wooden slats (from the broken part of the patio) the 2x4, the broom handles and the wooden rod (on left), the gate and the ribbons. We bought the net last year and the seeds and plants were bought as well. We also bought gloves and borrowed a cultivator (human-powered). That's it! I hope to plant in a week or two! I'm excited to see what grows! :)

The New New Addition to the Green List!

Compost!!!

Compost bin.

Compost bin.


Compost bin.

Compost bin!


We are starting a garden. These are my professional rock removers.

Here you can see the garden, complete with gnomes, in the background. All the way to the left in front of the fence is a pile of rocks. We are planning to go to that bush on the right. There are already some flowers there. Can you tell how far I weeded up to this picture? Lol. I did some more work on it after going to Home Depot. We really have to get started on planting NOW. I bought a few seeds such as tomato, cucumber, string beans, watermelon, radish, and lettuce. I also bought a sprigs that are supposed to grow into a raspberry and blueberry bush! We'll see how it goes! I hope I have enough room. If not, we'll skip some seeds this year. I'll try to post updates if anything grows! Wish us luck! :)