Valerean

While we were out and about on my birthday we stopped at Rockledge Gardens , which is one of the loveliest garden centers I've ever seen. Along with countless plants for purchase, there are all sorts of outbuildings where you can buy gifts, food and fresh vegetables in season. They have amazing landscaping ideas, too. Here's a wall made of pallet wood for displaying potted plants. Isn't that pretty? It's quite a trek covering the center's five acres, but worth every minute. Highly recommended if you're every within driving distance.

Lately my insomnia is raging again, so I'm making an extra effort to take refuge in things that make me calm and happy. At the moment I'm working through the leftover yarn in my scrap basket and making a wrap with a very interesting repeated stitch that is turning out kind of fabulous. I'm still embroidering the March tote for my calendar project, although that's still slow going. I might embroider just one panel so I don't run out of month before I finish it. My guy planted our spring garden and things are beginning to sprout. This weekend I'll harvest the first of our scallions and use them in a stir fry.

The first watermelon in our garden was starting to turn yellow on one side, so although it was small we decided to pick it. Last year we lost all the watermelons we grew because the heat made them burst open before they ripened, so we had high hopes for this one. As it turned out it could have spent another week or two in the garden, as it was only a little sweet. But the crisp, cold taste of fresh melon straight from the garden is like nothing else. :)

Last month when we were out in the garden I went hunting for watermelons in our little patch. The vines grow so thick that the melons actually play hide and seek with us. :) My guy didn't think we had anything bigger than a marble at that point, but I knew better and found this baseball-sized melon. We've had such good luck with these melons we're now planting seeds from ones we saved from last year's crop (thank you again for the original seeds, Maria.) Then I found a second melon even bigger than the first. Watermelon are very easy to grow here, but they will take over an entire garden (and a yard, for that matter) if you're not vigilant and control the vines. Finally I found a third, which was the biggest of all. Since I'm six weeks ahead on the blog by the time this post these delicious treasures will be ready to harvest. :)* *Update: Unfortunately all of our first crop of watermelon burst, probably due to excessive rain. We're now wo...

I have so much arugula in the garden we're going to be eating salads for the next month. This plant grows wonderfully here, and the bugs don't touch it. Our cucumbers got off to a slow start thanks to the cold spring we've had, but they're finally producing too. We also have corn again, and we're hand-pollinating it in hopes to improve the yield. No bets on whether or not it will work, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

We're now enjoying veggies from the garden pretty much year-round, but late spring is when everything starts producing like crazy. Our patch of corn here will be ready to raid in a few weeks. The arugula, which I asked my guy to plant for me over winter, loves both our soil and the heat (which is weird, because it's not supposed to like the latter.) The green beans and radishes are doing well and adding lots of freshness to our dinners every week. The watermelon (from our seeds from last year, that came from your seeds the year before that, Maria) always tried to bust out of its bed and take over the yard, but we're keeping it in line, and hoping it will produce more of the sinfully sweet fruits we enjoyed last year. We've also planted bell peppers and cucumbers, which should start producing soon, so we're quite happy. There's hardly anything to complain about in the garden. Well, not counting the caterpillars, which apparently love my fen...

It's been a while since I did a garden update, so here's what's happening: my guy is rebuilding the fence after discovering a nasty infestation of carpenter ants in the old wood. Thanks to Maria sending me the seeds I'm growing fennel for the first time, and it's gigantic. I'm harvesting carrots almost every day from this patch; they're small but very sweet and tasty, and go well in salads and winter dishes. A few of our older green onion plants have bolted, and as you see here have sprouted seed heads. I'm going to try to grow some from seed.

Sometimes when I look at our lemon tree I imagine planting dozens more in the back yard. Our HOA would probably sue us if we tried that, but it's nice to daydream. I love this tree. It just keeps on producing, no matter what the weather. In my next life I'd like own a lemon orchard, please.

Our fall garden is well underway now, and we're trying a new variety of corn. The bugs certainly seem to like it, sigh. But we might get a few ears to eat this month. I'm picking radishes to have with dinner twice a week now, and we just had the first green beans, too. My little chili pepper plant doesn't like the cold much, but it is still producing. If I can get the current crop of peppers to ripen before the really cold temps arrive, then I'll dry them and hang them in the kitchen. Our first planting of lettuce bolted due to the hotter weather, but we've got another six heads in now and we're hoping they'll give us salads for Thanksgiving. My scallions are the workhorses of the garden; they keep growing back no matter how many times I trim off pieces to use in my stir fry recipes. In between is my jalapeno pepper, which has given me some nice, spicy peppers for nachos. Our cucumbers have flowered, but I'm not sure they...

I gave our neighbor some extra pickling cucumbers I picked up from the farm market, and in return she gave me some of the bell peppers she's growing in her garden. As I was slicing them up for the freezer this one gave me a little surprise. There was a tiny pepper growing inside it. I've heard of this but never saw it before now. So cool.

Summer is my favorite season, and as we enter the last weeks of it I'm usually a little sad. Fall is my least favorite time of the year, and leads into winter, which always ends up being holiday disasterfest in some form or another for me. This year, however, summer has been so filled with fun and joy I think it will carry me through the darker months. Life can be like a garden if you plant enough good ideas, love and kindness. Maria sent me some packets of seeds, one of which grew into this delicious watermelon. I'll never forget the delight of seeing it grow, harvesting it, tasting it and sharing it with our neighbors. This is just one of the happy things that happened this summer. Also, I've come to realize just how very happy I am to be writing without having to worry about marketing, self-promotion, dealing with the disgruntled, etc. No one bothers me and my business partner is fabulous, and to be able to say that after almost ten years since I struck...

My guy decided to redesign our little veggie garden for the fall, and added some stepping stones between the beds to make it easier to harvest things. He's also trying vertical rather than horizontal planting this time around. I asked him to grow two new plants this fall: jalapeños and chilies, both for cooking. Other than the hot peppers, we're growing corn again, along with bell peppers, carrots, cucumber, lettuce, pole beans, radishes, tomatoes and watermelon, which have all been successful for us in the past. Maria, the carrots and watermelon are from your seeds, for which we thank you again -- they're both delicious. :)

We can't grow too much during the summer here, although the watermelon seeds Maria kindly sent me have gone wild and produced not one but two melons so far. There also seems to be something going on between Kat's oregano and our watermelon vines. :) That online advice to plant the root ends of scallions you buy from the market to grow new ones? Actually works. Also, if you just cut off the top they do grow back; our neighbor has one she's been trimming and growing back for three years now. The bell pepper is hanging on despite the scorching temps. This one plant has given me enough peppers to freeze and last for the next six months, and now I'm sharing the new with our neighbor. Even the tomato plant refuses to stop producing. :)

My guy has been helping our neighbor by building shadecloth racks for her gardens, and asked me to help by making sleeves in the cloths for some PVC pipe to anchor it. That meant sewing 4 ten foot sleeves, but it wasn't a problem. I just marked the cloth and ran it through the machine with my guy's help to feed it along. Here's where you can see one of the sleeves I sewed. It's always great to help my guy with a project, plus my neighbor promised me payment in produce from her garden. :)