3830's Garde 2013

It's with heavy heart that my precious 809 is being inhabited by Professional Squatters.  That thought kept me awake for 3 hours in the middle of the night.  Last week during dinner I asked Robert to tell me that houses do not have feelings.  Right?  Right?  Robert thought for a few seconds and then said, "Well.....have you ever read Stephen King?"  Not a good answer for me.  So this morning as I am making Hawaiian bread for Sacrament I decided to document our garden to this point, our garden up here at 3830...to get away from the sadness in my heart.  Yes, I know...STUPID ME!
But welcome anyway...to our gardens.  This was a special planter given to me by Diane Pepin when she left...and it's a lovely reminder of her, as are my succulents.

 This is the first strawberry of our season but hardly the last.  I made about 43 cups of strawberry jelly,  gave more berries to Marissa who probably got double that amount.  Daphne made one full batch of jelly from our berries.  We've eaten them as we peruse the garden.  We've had them over shortcake, over those dessert cups. Under whipped cream, or over ice cream. They were amazing.

 

 Here are the cherries I picked from the tree to the north of the garage.  This is quite a bowlful and there would probably be more but Robert tends to eat a lot of them right off the tree, as it should be.  We wrapped the tree as best we could in netting to keep the birds away from them but they did get a couple.  Plus I left a couple for them as well...it's only fair, right?  There's a 2nd cherry tree, a little one that even bore fruit this year. That tree was given to us free from Jan Fish.  There were 3.  One was destroyed when a branch fell, one Robert moved to the tree lawn which probably will never bear fruit (poor dear).  But the one out front may grow big too now that it has more light.

 

Right next to the cherry trees is a plum tree.  Actually I thought they were all cherries but this year is the first year we've had plums and boy are we going to have a lot of plums.

 This is the first of our tomatoes to start to turn red.  Many more where these are coming from.

 Oddly enough, this huge pumpkin vine has grown from the compost bin...I TOLD Robert to not stick the old pumpkin in there...well, perhaps we will have lots of them.  I just hope they don't smother my cukes..I'd rather have cukes.

 Plus the raspberries are beginning to turn. And let me tell you...we have more raspberries than we will ever know what to do with them. In fact, I finally used up the last of the frozen ones from 2012 for Father's Day and that was after I kept giving the frozen ones away to Hillary, Marissa, and Jan Fish.  Any locals might see a small truck stand out front this summer...just for raspberries.

 This is just one section of the 'square foot gardens'.  The front rows are WallaWalla sweet onions. The back are potatoes..and it's only part of the crop we planted.

 Our peas are podding. Right now they will make a great addition as snow peas in stir fry or salads...I just want the peas.

 This is the lettuce bowl I planted after we did the gutter garden which we've already eaten.  This combines both red and green lettuce.  Perhaps I planted them too close together...but I'm learning.

 After the wrascally wrabbit ate my pepper plants, I bought more and planted them in pots.  All different colored peppers...and voila...we already have a green one growing.

     Here's my little outdoor fairy garden.  Just started this year in the primrose path.  Hank is making me an indoor fairy garden box so I can entertain my little friends all year long.  I have some special succulents for that one.


And to end this portion, here's one of our Lady's Dew Cup...what you are looking at are big bubbles of dew, caught within the leaves, even the huge bubble in the center.  If you look close at the bottom, you will also see the horrible, bane of my existence, MIDGIE/Mucklehead/whatever.  Hate these things..and hate the 3 weeks + that we must endure them.  But they have no eyes, no mouths so other than providing food for birds and telling us that Lake Erie is healthy I have no idea what they are worth.

 Robert didn't tell me he was going to the baptism today of James Eddington, one of my piano students...mainly because he thought he was working all day but luckily didn't have to do that.  So he comes down all ready to go and naturally I'm all grubby, cleaning, laundrying, and making bread for Sacrament meeting and what is he sporting in the shirt pocket?

Close up, this is his missionary tag. In French, of course!  And he's still fluent in the language of his mission.  Tonight, along with Marissa, Hank, Jill and her dad, and Daphne, we head to  Cleveland to see The Book of Mormon musical. Robert's going with his tag in place and told Hank he should wear his if he still has it.  Of course today, all the tags for missionaries are black with white lettering.  Perhaps he needs to wear a colored shirt....or we should add some black behind it.  Whatever...my Robert will always be the missionary.  A man he works with saw the musical Thursday night and said it was incredible. But he warned us to get there early, dress light since it is standing room only there are so many bodies that the Palace at Playhouse Square is roasting.  I'm guessing Robert will just attend in his white shirt...and white tag.  Cute man!