TreasuresInTerraCotta

Volunteers in the garden are one of my greatest joys.  I don't do anything and something unexpected pops up...sometimes where the little plant was last year, sometimes in a new place completely.  And they are free.  What's not to love about volunteers.  Even their name is inspiring.    Basil is poping up in the pot from last year. Marigolds are springing up everywhere, which is not surprising.  We throw all the spent flowers back into the garden with their beautiful long seeds.  I read about leaving tomatos to rot in garden beds and letting them spring up of their own accord by Brett Markham the author of Mini-Farming books .  So at the end of the season last year, we tilled a lot of rotton and forgotten roma and cherry tomatoes back into our two little garden areas. To me, tomatoes seem a little fussy, especially when you read about when to plant seeds indoors and when to mo...

For the first time the boys submitted entries for the County Fair!    Andrew did a "directed drawing" of a bird with fanciful patterns in Sharpie on water color paper.  Then he painted it with water colors.  It is in the top left. Calvin took some photos at the zoo.  It's on the right. The frames were high on a wall behind a fence because there were some ancient home models on the left.  So I couldn't get a photo of the boys with their entires, nor could I actually take a very good picture of them.     Here is the actual photo taken by Calvin.  I am having issues with my camera, so the actual 5x7 was not as clear as I hoped it would be, but he still received a blue ribbon.  Monday we ventured to the fair.  Behind them are their painted rocks.  Calvin painted a rectangular rock blue with buttons and nobs to look like a video game controller.  He received a bl...

The boys and I have been working in the garden off-and-on for a few months now.  First, we have a few herbs for use in the kitchen or that the kids like.  We've had the Mint plant in the blue pot for years.  We just sheer it down almost to the ground when it dies back in the winter and every year it pops out again...which is why I would never, never plant it in the ground.  The kids like to pick leaves to eat when they are playing in the yard.  So this year we added some Chocolate Mint (on the right). The basil I planted in February didn't survivie the snow .  Happily, Basil popped up in the pot where I had it last year.  There are at least five little plants, so I am hoping a few of them will hang in there.  We use basil in salad dressing and some Italian dishes.  Parsley: Curled leaf from years past and some flat leaf parsley from seed.  Here is the main part of our garden.  We dug in two bags ...