In The Garden

We're far enough into the growing season now for me to discover some surprises in the garden beds due to free-wheeling labeling practices on my farmer's market purchased plants.

For instance, in my last attempt at a veggie garden, one my my "bell peppers" turned out to be a banana pepper. This year, I once again have a fully grown "bell pepper" that is distinctly not bell shaped. Is it a hot pepper? A sweet pepper? Is it even ripe? I have no idea. Based on a preliminary search of the Johnny's catalog, my guess is it's a "Mellow Star" Japanese-style sweet pepper and usually eaten green, but probably not the "Yankee Bell" I thought I bought.

That beautiful rainbow of cherry tomatoes? Supposed to be a sauce/plum type called "Juliet". My plan was to make salsa and sauce out of my tomatoes, since I'm not a big fan of eating tomatoes straight, but we'll see. In any case, I'm going to have a lot of them!

I'm not to worried about my mystery plants though, it's a good way to try something new, but it does make it harder to replicate if I find out I really like it!

With the exception of the broccoli, which is struggling against dual attacks from woodchucks and some insect I can't find (probably cabbage moths), everything is growing well at this point.  I've been enjoying some delicious salads and pesto and best of all the blueberries are starting to ripen! We put bird netting over the bush this year, in hopes to getting to harvest more fruit than usual, fingers crossed for some blueberry muffins soon!

In the Garden

After 3 years, my perennial beds have become well-enough established that I'm going to have to do some dividing and moving come fall, which means that for now, I'm blessed with a crowded bounty of flowers.

These photos are about a week behind, as we've all been laid low with some kind of summer virus, but the days have begun warming up and plants and the people are responding in kind. The tomatoes and peppers are dropping their blooms and starting to make their fruit. We've harvested our first lettuce and made the first batch of basil pesto.

LMC helped me harvest the basil leaves for the pesto, with a few tomato leaves thrown in for good measure. Picking tomato leaves is a new favorite pastime, which means that the fence is sometimes as much for the kid as the critters.

Despite my first fencing efforts, my broccoli was once again ravaged by a woodchuck, which I now know definitively as the culprit because I caught it in the act. From my brief internet research, it looks like my next step is to bury a portion of the fence.

It's also warmed up enough to bring the kiddie pool in action, which LMC loves to play in, provided I join her and she doesn't have to sit in the water. I think there are fewer things that bring greater joy to a toddler than moving water from one thing to another thing. As a bonus feature, when the pool isn't full of water it makes a great dance floor!

Sunny Days and Strawberries

Oh sweet summer, you are officially here and I waffle between trying to cram three days of activity into one weekend day and being completely lazy and just soaking it all in. Being lazy should win an awful lot more than it actually does.

I am amazed at how rapidly a garden can grow once you get your plants in. Some of my leaf lettuce is almost ready to start picking, I’ll likely be making some fresh basil pesto soon, and we’ve sampled the first sweet, sweet strawberries warm off the vine. This little girl of mine loves fruit. Any kind, all the time. So it was such a joy to see her eat that first strawberry and point at the plants looking for more and the heartbreak of having to wait another day for some more to be ripe. As these plants are young and small, I’ll be surprised if we get even two dozen berries off of them this year, but each one is worth it, so long as we can beat the critters to them.

Early last week, we had a visitor to the garden beds. My guess is either a woodchuck, which we’ve spotted in the neighborhood, or a skunk that our neighbors saw. Either way it gnawed the leaves off of three of my six broccoli plants. So it was off to the home improvement store and some quick installation of fencing. I’m using that green plastic hex mesh (chicken wire) and thus far we’ve had no additional midnight-snackers.  One of the broccolis seems to be recovering nicely, but I’ll likely have to swap out the other two. Live and learn.

In my efforts to supply LMC with some appropriate play clothes I sewed two pairs of the new Oliver + S freebie pattern, the Sunny Day Shorts. One in some Birch Fabrics Jay-Cyn fishy print I had in my stash and a second pair in some blue twill leftover from my Beignet skirt. I didn’t do anything fancy other than add top-stitching to both pairs. It’s a freebie pattern, so there’s not a lot to it and the drafting is a teensy bit off (one side of the legs seem to have a sharp point where you turn the hem, the other side is more of a curve, so it doesn’t exactly line up). Also, the rise isn’t quite long enough to cover the whole diapered bum, but for nice looking shorts that whip up quickly? They get the job done. Next up, I’ve got another t-shirt cut out and ready to go, after which I’ll probably take another selfish sewing break to try a go at making my first swimsuit. Because we just got LMC a kiddie pool and I’m gonna need something fabulous for splashing around in that! ;)

Weekending

With the arrival of good weather and the Annual Old Port Festival in Portland, it's really starting to feel like summer here. And with summer comes copious amounts of sunscreen, bug-spray and activity for the Cleaver clan.

LMC got to take in her first parade, which featured beautiful large-scale puppets from Shoestring Theatre and sampled a bit of fair food. We also visited her first farmer's market and picked out plants to go into the new raised beds, which despite her efforts to pluck them back out have been firmly planted into their new homes.

The boxes are approximately 4 ft x 8 ft x 6 inches. We got a yard and half of loam delivered from O'Donals in Gorham, which we combined with some of our Garbage to Garden compost from last year.  We probably could have gotten away with a yard of dirt, but the leftovers will go into additional boxes we hope to have in place for planting next year.  Because, obviously two boxes aren't gonna cut it. :)

As for this year's plantings, I kept the plant list fairly similar to my first garden attempt, with the addition of lettuce:

• Plum tomatoes for salsa and sauce (3)
• Sweet bell peppers (2)
• Broccoli (6)
• Lettuce (6)
• Basil (4)
• Thyme (1)
• Rosemary(1)

I think I'll probably pick up a few more herbs (I'm thinking cilantro and maybe parsley and mint) and I also planted 4 strawberry plants around the deck in addition to our existing blueberry bush.

Growing up I lived in a house on a corner lot with a huge backyard that my parents filled with all sorts of edible plants. We had cherries, granny smith apples, boysenberries, strawberries and cherry tomatoes most of time. As a kid, my friends and I would spend our summer afternoons out there, reenacting dance routines from Newsies over the sprinkler and eating our fill of the backyard bounty. It was bliss.

Now as a grownup, I live in a house on a corner lot with a huge backyard, that I'm slowly filling with edibles, so my daughter too can eat sun-warmed fruits and veggies to her heart's content.

A Spring Stroll

Having grown up in California, and gone to college in the Oregon, I have a slew of friends who still reside in those more temperate climes. So while we still had snow on the ground, my Facebook feed was filled with West Coast photos of freshly bloomed daffodils. Now, June is in sight, the snow is but a memory and the daffodils have come and gone, but it feels as if Spring has just arrived in Maine. Suddenly the grass is green, the trees have leaves, and everything is in bloom.

In my own little garden, the sand cherry is in bloom, the violets are out, the bleeding heart has grown to massive proportions and the tulips are starting to fade.  My perennial bed, now in its third year,  is starting to fill in and I may have to start doing some dividing come fall.

Now that the weather is nicer, LMC and I have started taking a little stroll together before I head to work in the mornings, giving me a chance to scope out the neighbors yards for ideas. The phlox that's everywhere? Totally want some of my own. That perennial bed around that birch tree? Divine!

When we first moved into our little house, I  started my flower beds with no real plan or knowledge. I got the gift of some plants from friend's gardens, picked up a few of my own and started digging out red brick mulch, tearing out layers of landscape fabric, and plopping plants down and crossing my fingers. Three years later, between some experience and episodes of This Old House, I'm starting to learn more about this gardening thing. Or at least paying more attention. I know enough to know that moving plants is pretty easy, dark mulch makes everything look better and if something doesn't work out you can always plant something new in its place.

It's good to be out in the garden again.

Hoppy Easter!

When the day starts so early, it’s hard to get non-blurry photos of an increasingly active (and expressive!) little one. She’s just on the cusp of toddler-hood these days – walking more than she crawls and understanding things and almost almost talking. But Easter started around 5:30 AM with opening the basket/bucket and a low-key egg hunt with 6 or so eggs placed in highly visible places filled with cereal puffs.

Having put my clothing-making energies into her birthday dress not that long ago, I turned my maker skills to toys this go around. The rabbit is Alicia Paulson’s Miss Maggie Rabbit kit, which was a joy to put together. I misplaced the yarn that came with the kit, so I made the capelet out of some Berroco Vintage DK I had left over from earlier projects. I also dyed a pair of playsilks with Kool-Aid (Mixed Berry blue and 2 packs of Lemon-Lime green), which was quick and fun. Of course, I got totally upstaged by her Memere who showed up with a tricycle! Not that her feet touch the pedals yet, but I imagine they will before too long.

Little Miss Cleaver has become obsessed with belly buttons of late, whether it’s spotting mine and poking and laughing or displaying her own upon request. Onesies are definitely out. So obviously she had to check her new bunny for a belly button.

After some unwelcome snow on Tuesday, the weather seems to be settling into spring. My daffodils are blooming, with tulips coming not too far behind. It means we can go to the park, try out slides for the first time and play in the yard. Now if only we could convince LMC to wear shoes. Right now it's like putting booties on a dog, with much awkwardness and whining.

We’ve already had one happy afternoon with a batch of neighbor kids in the driveway. We’ve got sidewalk chalk and digging tools at the ready.  I’m hoping to get together with our neighbor in the next few weeks to have a raised bed building day. It’s been so long since I’ve had a veggie garden  and I want to get out there and grow some things!

2011 in Review

We became homeowners on Dec 31 of 2010, and a lot of this year was learning the in and outs of being homeowners. We removed what didn't want and started building in what we did. We peeled wallpaper and painted walls.

Shoveled snow and learned the importance of roof-rakes.  (Hint: don't pile that much snow that close to your house)

Perennials were planted in the spring and bulbs were planted in the fall. Lawns were moved and leaves raked. Floors were swept and appliances replaced. And at some point along the way it stopped being their house and started being ours.

Starting the day after we moved in, we filled our home with friends: Pie Day, poker games, dinners and documentaries. The highlight was inviting over all our friends for a summer time barbecue and concert.

And we saw a little doggy online and decided to invite him to stay for the long-haul.

During Lent I wore skirts for 47 days and visited Washington D.C. for the first time.

In sewing, I got my own studio space and made a thing or two.

Fiber-wise, I learned how to dye and needlefelt.

I bought a loom and made a total of one scarf.

I also did a fair amount of spinning, but haven't quite met my knitolution of knitting anything with handspun yet.

Knitwise, this has been a huge year for me. I've released three patterns with Quince & Co., one with Twist Collective, and six on my own. I started a mailing list.

It's amazing to me how much has happened in one year, and how quickly that year has gone. There's snow on the ground outside now and it's a few days to Christmas. It's been a helluva year in the best way possible.

Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy New Year!

A Day in the Garden

It was a beautiful sunny Saturday, perfect for a day in the yard, starting my garden. I started off the day at the wonderful Broadway Gardens and after pestering the staff with a few questions, came home with a decent haul.

I transferred my purchases from the car to the potting setup in the garage and got to work.

I put together a pair of hanging baskets for the back porch,

planted some pansies and morning glory seeds around the base of the lamppost out front,

planted a strawberry plant in the backyard barrel,

and spent a ton of time prepping the soil to plant a pair of mint plants next to the back porch. (I don't know what had grown there before, but it left behind quite the root system!).

It was one of those work days where the fruit of the labor aren't readily apparent, but it's a good start and it was nice to finally get something in the ground!! (Next up - picking a spot for the black and raspberries, and tilling the soil for the veggie plot).

Catching Up

Last week was a wonky week for me - between getting back from the DC trip to the snow on Friday - it was just weird and disjointed. In the midst of all I didn't feel super motivated either in dressing or taking photos, so all I have for Lent proof is these two. Don't worry, you're not missing anything.

Lent Day 21 (above):

Necklace: Sears

Cardigan: Joy by Kim Hargreaves, made by me

Tee: Target

Wool circle skirt: made by me

Shoes: Clarks Outlet

Lent Day 22:

Sweater: Gap

Skirt: Granny skirt, drafted and made by me.

Boots: Naturalizers, Macy's

My seedlings are doing well. Almost everything has a little seedling now (except the mint). Up until a few days ago, though there wasn't a hint of activity on my peppers or tomatoes. The soil was too cool, methinks. Then while driving, Mr. Cleaver mentioned that the despite the cool weather, the sun made the car really warm. Only in Maine, he said, do you drive around with the window cracked in 38 degree weather.

His comment gave me an epiphany, and immediately when we got home, I put my tomato seeds under my clear glass cake dome, and voila! within a day seedlings!

My other big triumph of the week was finally cutting out my Beignet skirt yesterday (the blue twill is the shell, the polka dot is the happy happy lining).

I spent some quality time in JoAnn's yesterday and picked up two patterns, some notions, the lining fabric and fabric for two more projects - including the pattern and material for a new casual skirt. I'm putting my plans for pants on hold and as soon as I finish the Beignet, I'll dive into that skirt pattern, because really, the denim skirt needs a break!!