Planning and Dreaming again

We loved gardening so much that we decided we needed more space closer to our daily life. And so we moved to a new house on half an acre with plenty of space for fruit trees and bushes, vegetable and her gardens, some flowers and hopefully bees and chickens.

We also have plans to try to make our new space friendly for the birds, bees and butterflies (among other creatures). And so I have been searching out resources and stumbled across this article about How to plant milkweed for monarch butterflies (which is one of our goals for this summer).
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21 to 0

We picked 21 cherry tomatoes today.

Not one of them made it home.

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.

~ Lewis Grizzard

Plant a row

I've got a post up about community gardening with children on my other blog.

The snack garden?

We've been hanging out in the garden. The kids eat the cherry tomatoes and the peas and beans faster than I can grow them. We've taken to calling it the snack garden. I am not convinced I will ever manage an actual meal from it unless we plan to eat it in the garden - nothing makes it home.
We water and weed and I take pictures of flowers and weed some more. The kids eat, climb the trees, chase butterflies, call to the birds, play in the fairy garden and annoy help the neighbours. And I weed some more.  Then we all go home and wish we had more cherry tomatoes and raspberries to eat.

More lavender lovelies

These wonderful little dolls

Patience...is hard

So many things in the garden are close... the peas, the beans, the tomatoes, the carrots - ok not really for the carrots but we had to pull one up to see!  Sara ate it anyway. I can see that we will need more space next year. I am not sure much of the produce will make it home. It seems to get eaten at the garden.

Our Morning Routine

For the last few days we've been getting up early, grabbing breakfast, and heading off to the garden. When we go by bike, which we have been trying to do more regularly recently, we stop off for a snack of blackberries at the bushes by the river. Then it's off to the garden to see what's new. The kids help me inspect and water and then they head off to gather raspberries or play in the fairy garden while I weed and putter. We stop for (another) snack - often a version of these and then head off home for lunch and hopefully an afternoon adventure. I must admit I like the mellowness of these mornings, the small amount of work we do together before the day gets hectic and the time we spend caring for this slightly wild and always wonderful space.