April 28, 2014

Garden Update: Week 10 (Part 2)

I LOVE MY GARDEN!!!  It's makes me so happy when I see all my plant babies growing up into food or flowers.  It's an awesome feeling especially when you know you grew them.  :)

I have a lot of things to share this week....
Earlier in the week, I had talked about how I had a strawberry that was ripening and I had my first watermelon spout.

Now here's the latest.....

On Thursday, my strawberry was ready to be picked!!

And picked it I did....

And then I ate it.  So yummy!!  :)

That same day, I checked on my peas.  I was so happy to see I had a pea pod that was fat and ready for harvest.  I carefully picked it off the vine and then studied it.  I grew this all by myself from seeds I got at the dollar store.  The peas took off so fast.  I would say they are probably one of the easiest to grow.  I've kept them inside in a sunny window and they are very happy.

I opened my first pea pod....to this amazing beauty.

6 perfect little peas.

I finished off the strawberry and I have saved the pea pod and the strawberry cap.  Not ready to discard them.  I want to save them for my garden book.  :)

I got my first marigold bloom.  Though this type of marigold isn't all fluffy like the ones I grew last year.

My lillies popped.  I got this plant from Lowe's for $3!  It's such a pretty orange.

I had to do some re-potting yesterday.  That took about 2 hours to finish everything I needed to get done.  All the little terra cotta pots are emptied and everything is in bigger containers.

Here's my container garden on the deck.  This is the view I see when I look out the back door. 

Here's another view facing from the side where my grill is.  Those green colored pots sure do pop.  :)

Now inside.....here's what everything looks like....next year I might just skip the little terra cotta pots and grow the spouts in bigger containers like the ones pictured below.  It seems some plants stop growing until they are put in bigger containers.  Probably because they need more soil than what those little terra cotta pots give them.

Remember earlier in the week I mentioned I had a watermelon sprout?  Well that one sprout is now 4 sprouts.  :)  These are going to need to be re-potted soon though.

I had some leftover sunflower seeds that I planted back on April 13th.  They are getting so big each day.  I'm determined to get some sunflowers.  :)

I'm also happy to share with you that I have carnival squash.  Three of them!!  
I planted these on April 13th as well.

My cherry tomatoes are growing.....the one by the window in back is the tallest one.

My aloe plant is strong and healthy.

Today, when I got up, I checked my peas.  I love checking on them to see if there's any that are ready to be picked.  And I had another pea pod ready to be picked.  The pod was much smaller than the first three.
This is now my 4th pea pod.  :)

4 adorable peas that only last for this picture.  :)

Produce Stand- Visit 6

Sunday was a busy day.  I had a huge to-do list in no particular order.  Just stuff that needed to be done mostly around the house.   You know....those chores no one wants to do.

-grocery Store
-meal plan
-laundry
-vacuum
-mop floors
-re-pot plants
-lowes for soil and pots
-gather trash
-trash dump
-dishes
-wash bedding
-dust
-put stuff away
-make veggies for the week
-make protein for the week
-make dinner
-relax

Needless to say the relaxing part didn't really happen until I was eating dinner.  I had so much to do and Nate couldn't help me because he was out with some friends target practicing.  You gotta be prepared for the zombie apocalypse right?  :)

I got a late start.  I wanted to be up and out of the house early before the church crowds hit the stores.  But that didn't happen.  OOPS!  I did do some menu planning and I decided I needed some more veggies than what I got the day before at the produce stand so I went back Sunday morning.  I didn't want to get the produce from the grocery store, plus I had an excuse to go back to the produce stand.  :)

Here's what I got.  Some more cherry tomatoes, red potatoes, a zucchini, a squash and a salad mix.

I spent $7.60 on everything.  (I spent $14.50 the day before bringing my produce total to $22.10 for the week)

Virginia Roadtrip

This past Saturday, Kristen and I took a road trip.  The destination was Haymarket to go Burnside Farms to check out their "Holland in Haymarket" which was a field of Tulips and a field of Daffodils.

We first stopped off at the Gordon Road Farmers Market.  Kristen had never been and I wanted to show her why it was my favorite place.  We both bought some goodies.  She got a basil plant and another herb.  I bought a squash plant and a lettuce plant.  

The lettuce plant in the middle is the one I bought for $3.00!  :)

We also both bought some salad dressing from Balsamo's Family Kitchen.  It was delicious!!!  I also bought a yummy salad.  I ate it on the way to our next stop.....

We finally made it to Haymarket to Burnside Farms.  We got our passports which was $3 to tour the flowers.  I grabbed a basket and we both walked around taking pictures.

Field of Daffodils

Some Tulips and Hyacinths

So pretty....

We walked around to the barnyard to see the animals.



A horseshoe

A Tom Turkey

Here's some sleeping pigs.  There was a sign that these pigs bite.  I'm glad they were sleeping.

There was also some chickens and some goats.

We then walked over to the Tulip field and took a ton of pictures.  These are my favorites.

This picture of the single tulip was taken by Kristen.  So pretty!  You were allowed to pick the flowers.  The tulips were $1 each and the daffodils were 2 for $1.

Here's a picture of my the Kristen took standing in really big wooden holland shoes.

I picked 5 tulips to bring home.  4 had their bulbs which I replanted.

Pretty red tulip

Some more pictures....



Afterwards we drove back the way we came.  We stopped off at a Market that looked really cute on the outside but once inside it was pretty much a grocery store.  They sold a bunch of Amish related products to that was cool.  We then got back in the car and got to Warrenton where we had lunch at Ruby Tuesday.  Then we thought lets go to Culpeper and then hit up Sperryville.  We stopped at Lowe's to see if they had green pots that I wanted and they didn't so we went on to Sperryville to check out the Big Red Barn store.  It was disappointing because it was now a antique shop.  :(  We drove over where Cooter's used to be and it's now a bakery and the tourist trap across the street sells antique tables which a made daily.  Yeah not really sure how that's antique.  haha  :)  Sperryville was a huge disappointment.  I guess no one goes there in the Spring and it's only open for Fall during apple season?

On the way home we stopped at Miller's Farms to see what they had in stock and then we had some time and went to Stafford to the C&T produce Stand so Kristen could see it.  We also picked up some things there too.  

Here's my bounty.......

Oh....My sister and my niece were in town so we got to spend some time with them that evening.  I had some more pea pods ready and Kristen and Ashley got to try some.  And of course Ellie.  She loved them and wanted more but I didn't have anymore for her.  She might be getting some for her birthday which is upcoming this weekend.  If I don't eat them first.  haha 

Here's E sitting on the step in my foyer.  She was looking at her mama.  :)

It was a fun day but we were both really exhausted by the end of the night.









April 21, 2014

Garden Update: Week 10 (Part 1)

I hope I don't get annoying with all of my garden post updates.  :)  I promise I'll only be updating when I have some exciting gardening news to share.  And I really do have something exciting that can't wait till the end of the week.

My deck garden is as happy as can be, soaking up the rays.  Everyone got a good drink of H20 and I totally had to get a photo this morning.  :)

My strawberry had more red this morning.  :)  YAY

Are you sitting down?  The exciting news I have to share that just can't wait till the end of the week.....I have a WATERMELON sprout!  :)  That's right folks....a watermelon.  :) *takes off the gardening gloves*

Produce Stand- Visit 4

I stopped at my favorite new place, C&T Produce stand today.  

On my list was to get peppers and cherry tomatoes.  I ended up with a little more than that.  I also got a bag of salad mix and I got 2 onions.

Fresh salad mix and onions

Cherry tomatoes 

Green Bell Peppers

Everything is vibrant in color, big in size and best of all is farm fresh!  :)  I spent $12.15 for everything.  The salad mix was $2 for the whole big bag, the peppers were .75 cents each, the onions are $1.25 per pound and the cherry tomatoes are $2.50/pint.  I got 2 pints b/c I love taking these guys to work to snack on.  :)  At the grocery store I was buying cherry tomatoes at $4 per package and not getting the quality that I am at this produce stand.  I'm saving money and getting fresh veggies.

I made a small side salad with my dinner tonight.  Fresh salad mix, cherry tomatoes, some ranch dressing and black pepper.  It was yummy!  :)  My husband even raised his eyes and said "that smells good" so I made him a nice big salad with some chicken, low fat cheese, cucumbers, black pepper and croutons.  He's not a tomato person so more for me.  :)

April 20, 2014

Garden Update: Week 9 (Part 2)

Week 9 update- Part 2.  I did some re-potting this morning so.........

Here's what my container garden outside looks like now.

I planted some newbies this morning.  Some white potatoes (from eyes of a potato I had), an orange lilly, and a beef steak tomato plant.  I really love the green color pots.  These are the new ones I picked up yesterday.  I want more of them....I'm gonna call them garden green or green thumb green.  :)

I also noticed I have a nice big squash flower!  :)

And my big strawberry is turning red.

This is the inside now.  I put all my cherry tomatoes in a window box with a trellis so they can starting climbing up it.

My peas are still climbing.  I think there's about 5 pods now!  :)

Here's the biggest pod.  You can see the peas in there.  :)

This is the aloe plant I got from IKEA.  I potted it this morning.

My lavender plant is growing like crazy.  I think I am going to have to repot it soon.

I have 3 sprouts now on my sunflowers.

And here's flower petals from the peas and sunflower seed casings I've collected in the window.  :)

I hope everyone had a great EASTER.  We spent the day at my in-laws and had a good time.  For dinner we had grilled pork chops, roasted red potatoes, saffron rice with broccoli, and biscuits.  It was also Gene's birthday and I brought a chocolate cake from Wegmans.  
It was very moist and delicious.  Good times with family.  :)