On the other hand,
my flower and fruit and veggie gardens have been keeping me content. This year is the first since we’ve lived at
our home that I’ve really had time to give to them. The first year we lived here I attempted a veggie
garden; it was a miserable failure! But,
that was because I worked full time, we went away most weekends and I just didn’t
realize how much time gardens really require.
Well this year was
different. I went into the season with
things already planned out. I bought my
seeds early, drew out on paper how I wanted everything planted in the garden, decided
what I wanted to preserve or can, and kept up on the maintenance the gardens
require right from the get go. The kids
and I have thoroughly enjoyed it!
Claire has become
quite the strawberry patch keeper! She
loves the responsibility of “going to get the berries” every day. She carefully picks the ripe berries for her
berry bowl, but also eats several before we even make it in the house, ha-ha! We canned some strawberry jam and froze some
strawberry pie filling. I used the Ball
Blue Book recipes for the jam and pie filling.
That was my first preserving experience and it went fairly well.
“Knee high by the fourth of July”, is the old
saying regarding corn height this time of year.
Well, I guess if you’re just a toddler your corn should be as tall as
you are!
I grew some loose
leaf lettuce in my garden this year and it’s been wonderful so far! I’ve harvested it twice and it comes back
very quickly. I’ve been making a lot of salads
for lunch lately with my garden lettuce, an apple, dried cranberries, chicken
breast and goat cheese; it’s so yummy!
Today we picked
some wild black raspberries behind our house and in the woods. They are very plentiful, but so are the
mosquitoes! I picked for a short while,
but there were enough that I could have picked all day long! Cody and Claire both enjoyed picking with me;
Claire did accumulate some raspberries in her bowl, but Cody ate every last one
he picked, ha-ha! I plan to make more
jam with these beauties.
I’ve also been
enjoying my flower gardens! Here are
just a few of the amazing flowers we’ve had this year.
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| Clematis |
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| Lilies |
 |
| I love the color of these day lilies! |
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| Roses |
