Fun and Mental Changes

Meet Charlie. He is one of many helpers in my garden. I found him this morning when I went out to the garden. Prior to gardening, I couldn't stand bugs. Bugs would make me jump and were always associated with fear and (in most cases) annoyance. Now bugs hold a special place in my heart for the services they provide to my organic garden... well, now that I know a little more about them. Spiders I would never have considered myself an arachnophobe, but I had a definitive dislike for spiders only tinged with a slight fear. Now I know better. While you don't want an infestation of spiders, having a few on hand (not literally) actually keeps other bugs away. According to Dr. Linda S. Rayor, Assistant Professor of Entomology, Cornell University , spiders are considered to be the most important terrestrial predators, eating tons of pest insects or other small arthropods every year. And those webs, that have always creeped me out, are actually my gardens best defense against unwante...

I'm tagging this post under Bible Study, but a Bible study isn't really a part of today's blog post. It's really just an observation that struck me this morning while I was in the garden. First off: MY FIRST SPROUT OF 2010!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! And of course its Zucchini! I love zucchini and seemed to have mastered growing it last year with my first garden ever. So I'm not surprised that I'm pulling it off again this year. But while I was in the garden this morning it hit me how our creator... call Him whatever is applicable to your particular faith, made us to constantly be creating (*please note here that I'm not taking any glory from God, I'm only referring to the work I'm doing with my hands. But I will add that it is my own personal belief that there is the power of creation in our free will). Moving the soil of our lives around, burying seeds and watching it grow.... creating something of beauty that is useful. Of course we can't forget that we n...

So, last week I started my garden (my second one ever!). I found out the hard way that working in the dirt wreaks havoc on natural nails. I am gardening with gloves on this year, but there are just some things (planting seeds and pulling weeds) that are impossible to do with gloves on. This year I made a commitment (wow, really?!? Isn't that a little dramatic? Nah!) to protect my nails until the garden is up and running. I searched last year, long after it was too late , for something to protect my nails and THIS YEAR I think I found it. Thanx to a new friend of mine, who also happens to be a nail technician, I've discovered OPI's Axxium. It is a soak-off sealer for gel nails that MAGICALLY works on polish without puckering or cracking the color below. And let me tell you, I have been through enough gel "polishes", sealers, etc. that ruined the hard work below them to believe that REAL gel topcoats that would work over regular nail polish were probably not in exis...

Ever wonder why homemade zucchini bread is so moist and yummy? Are you looking for a super moist cake recipe? I was throwing together a box cake mix and realized that I did not have the vegetable oil that the recipe called for. Remembering the snippet I read from the New McDougall's Cookbook regarding oil substitutions, and really not wanting to drive to the store, I quickly grabbed two small apples from the fridge. It took me about a minute to cored them, peel them and throw them into the Vitamix with 3 Tbsp of water to make applesauce. The recipe called for a half a cup of oil. I ended up with about 2/3 cup of organic, unsweetened applesauce... I added the whole 2/3 cup to the recipe. That little substitution was the difference between a good cake and a GREAT cake. I have NEVER had a more moist cake! The same principal applied a few weeks ago when I was preparing a meatloaf. After reading a blog post at PeerTrainer.com about hiding vegetables in everyday recipes to increase veg...

They had been planning since the early part of spring. Being transplanted in this place was seemingly more than they could bare. Oh, at first they thought they could make it work, possibly even thrive, but extreme circumstances drove them to their end. Were there others to share their fate? Being brought in second hand to mature just to be used, eaten up by this hungry world! A glimpse in either direction gave them their answer... death was all around them. It looked like it was inevitable. But wait! A spark of life! Others were moving into place and from the looks of things were planning a great escape. There was hope! To reach up and out might mean freedom. They discovered a new-found will to live. This feeling was something they couldn't even have dreamed just a few months back. All of a sudden others were inspiring a new hope of an abundant life where they could thrive and be fruitful.... This is a little story about the bell peppers that I planted when we started our first gar...

Wow... this garden is taking on a life of it's own. From weekend to weekend fruit and veggies seem to pop up out of nowhere! Quite frankly, I'm very shocked by how quickly we are getting a harvest. Had I really known how easy gardening was, I would have done it much sooner! But when I say easy, please understand that it does and did require gathing information on how to garden, but beyond that, the work is very minimal. I sent my husband out to the garden this morning to water for 15 or 20 minutes only to have him burst into the house about an hour later exclaiming, "We have pumpkins!" Apparently he was out there pulling weeds, cutting back over growth (with a tear that he had to lose a couple of buds) and playing farmer when he noticed there was a pumpkin in our one row patch. How fun is this!?! Well the first surprise led to the second and then the third..... Another Pumpkin! How the heck did we not see that during the week? The second pumpkin is HUGE! No wonder he ...

When we started this garden, we had no way of knowing how it would take off. Some of our crops didn't make it and others seemed to do very well with little effort, which is very surprising since we live in a desert climate. But we were able to relax and have fun with our garden once we took the time to prepare. I've said in past posts that Extreme Gardening by has been a valuable source for us. I would probably have stopped gardening all together if it hadn't been for this book. We lost just about EVERY crop that we transplanted (from Home Depot at about $3/pot), but every crop that we planted from seed has thrived. That was the first thing we noted... nothing beats 'from scratch' and nothing beats organic. The second thing that we have noticed is that once the prep work is completed (soil turned, organic compost added and the garden actually mapped out), the bulk of the work is pretty much done. We have been spending all of about 15 minutes every other day watering...

About two months ago I began preparing my backyard for my very first garden. While I was so excited to start this new adventure (adventure, really?), one of its consequences broke more than my heart. I managed to break every last nail until I realized that I should just keep them short until all of the hard work was done...(sniff). Some have said, "just wear gloves." Well, easier said than done. Try getting ahold of a stubborn weed at the root wearing gloves! No, I was just resolved to short stubby nails... until now!!! They're coming back... hello luva! Realizing that all the hard work in the garden is done for the time being, I decided to pull out my Konad nail art and play. Yes, the pic shows short nails, but I assure you that they are quite long compared to the length I've been sporting lately. I'm just so happy to have pretty nails again. If someone can point me in the direction of a miracle treatment for cuticles, that would be just super. I found that the g...

The first zucchini!!! This is the very first vegetable I ever grew in my organic garden. This beauty was exactly a foot long and was 4 inches in diameter. This one zucchini fed my whole family and was so incredibly yummy. When I pulled it from the garden, it didn't have a mar on it and looked better than ANY zucchini I have ever seen. I also pulled an 8 inch summer squash that was also very yummy. Not a single pesticide was used! There was nothing added to the soil aside from organic compost. I simply planted the seeds and watered. This gardening bit is really an addictive thing and even more exciting now that I actually get to eat from it! What the heck am I going to do when everything finishes growing and I REALLY have a harvest. Deuteronomy 14:22-23 "You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, or your win...

So in my blog post, It's Official , I have a HUGE caption on the plant pictured there as ZUCCHINI. Yah , turns out that is NOT zucchini. What I planted was actually summer squash. And beautiful they are (check out the pic... no really, check it out)! And they are just about ready to eat. Oh, I did plant zucchini as well, but they are not growing as quickly as the summer squash. I will be plucking the first batch by next week. I'm so excited!!! And in the meantime, I will be nurturing the corn, watermelon, cantaloupe and cucumbers! Here are the updated pix. Be sure to click on the pics for a closer view. I originally planted spinach next to where the actual zucchini are planted and the leaves got so large, it blocked the sun and I lost the spinach. So that will be my project this weekend AFTER I pick up some gardening gloves. Now that my nails have started growing again, well, I'm just not willing to sacrifice. I hope everyone enjoys the update. I'm thinking that I...

It's official... I am a gardener! hahahaha! I feel like I need a badge or something. That might be the little girl in me who never got to be a girl scout. If I start selling cookies, then I think we might need an intervention. But in the meantime, here's the updated photos on the garden. Just awesome!!! I left to go on a little mini vacation for four days and when I returned... tah-dah! The leaves on all the squash are just about bigger than my hands. Wow! And last but not least, the watermelon!!! I have said it in the past, and I will say it again, I NEED to keep a log of everything that I'm planting and how long it's taking for things to sprout. It might be helpful to know what worked and what didn't.

It just amazes me what we can do and don't even have a clue. I never thought of myself as having a green thumb. Never really cared about plant life one way or another. I mean, I've received the traditional "house warming" house plant a time or two and killed every one. Then one day I bought a $3.00 fern at my local grocery store and decided that I was going to try and keep it alive. Boy did I ever. That thing grew and grew to the point that I had to transplant the sucker every other month because it would keep outgrowing the pot. My husband used to make jokes that he'd wake up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare that it's long shoots grew their way down the hall and wrapped themselves around his neck. I also remember that nothing could kill this fern. I only watered it, maybe, once a month and would forget to bring it inside the house during pretty intense weather. I think at some point I did not want to care for it anymore.... it was SO MUCH work to care...

For about a month now, I have been trying to convert to a naturalistic diet. One that consists of organic meats and raw, organic veggies. You wouldn't believe that would be hard to find in a world where our resources are endless... but it is. This transition has not been an easy one. From time to time, after purchasing produce, I have found myself wondering, "Where did this come from really?" Last week I visited the Queen Creek Olive Mill (My new favorite place). As I walked toward the entrance, I noticed a gorgeous, but quaint, little garden on my left. I couldn't take my eyes off of it! Inspiration hit me. I was finally going to start my garden (and I knew my husband would help... and so did he)! Well, here is my weekend project; the garden. After weeding, tilling, placing pavers and adding compost, I planted the following "crops": mint, basil, dill, strawberries, yellow and red peppers, romain lettuce and onions. Tomorrow I will plant leeks, green pep...