Garden goodies.

Here's just a sample of some of the awesome vegetables that have been coming from our garden lately.

Garden and Recycle Update

So it seems that I do not have a green thumb for broccoli. After nurturing four broccoli plants, only two of them produced anything before flowering, and even those would've offered *maybe* two bites each. Pretty sad. So out they went. And in came green beans. Gotta love green beans. My zucchinis are looking really great. Tomato plants are ultra happy. I have to keep a watchful eye on Mateo who likes to pull the green ones off and declare them "apples." We recently lost our first bell pepper to little fingers, too.

And in other news, our "recycling center" is now set up in the garage.
Here I can recycle glass, plastics #3-7, cardboard, and paper. We'll be taking our bins about once or twice a month to Ecology Action of Texas. In the kitchen I have a recycle bin for aluminum and plastics #1 and 2. These are picked up each week along with our regular trash. Once again I'm still waiting on the rain barrel and composter. Our neighborhood does have a weekly "organic matter" recycling pickup, so I've been meaning to see if that includes composting kitchen scraps or not. I'd still rather have homemade compost for our yard and garden versus buying it each year. Soon, hopefully.

Growing garden.

The garden has been growing nicely. We're still having issues with pill bugs eating the strawberries. I have a shallow dish of beer among the strawberry plants that seems to help, but those guys just wait for me to forget to refill it.

The onions are looking great. We should be set with onions for a good while once they're harvested and dried. I need to build a drying rack for them.

The tomatoes are staying strong despite the odd freezes we've had. We also have some peppers growing. I have high hopes for lots of salsa this summer - can't get any more homemade than that! My herbs are all doing well. I planted more basil. I seem to use that frequently. I use my cilantro all the time. I doubt I'll end up using my lavender though. The carrots are looking nice, too, even though I didn't have the heart to thin them. I don't like playing God. :)

The flowers in our yard are all abloom. I still wish I could keep a fern alive. Every few years or so I give it another shot. Well, I failed again this year. Sorry, fern. I'll keep watering you just in case.

First harvest.

Rafi and I ate our first harvest today - a single strawberry. It was juicy and delicious. Mateo wouldn't eat his share. We have a handful more growing though!

Wascally Wabbits

I. Hate. Rabbits. No longer are they cute little fuzzy bunnies who like to play in our yard. Nope. They are now little garden devouring bastards who must be stopped by any means necessary. This weekend we discovered they had eaten three strawberry plants, two broccolies, two cabbages, my cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, all of my thyme, and completely uprooted and ate my lettuce. My tomato plant is now just a leafless stalk, too.


So in response to this, we have constructed what we hope to be a bunny-proof fence. I've heard fake snakes can help so maybe I'll look for one of those this week. Supposedly fox urine, mothballs, and human hair work, too, but I think I'll save those for my last resort. Then again, maybe electrifying the new fence would be best. ;-)

Organically growing...

Our backyard has a new addition - an organic vegetable garden. A friend introduced me to "square foot gardening," and we're taking on the challenge. Square foot gardening, though it looks quaint and cute, actually has high yields and takes up very little space. Gone are the aisles in between row plants that waste space and water! Gone are hours of backbreaking hoeing and weeding (since there are no weeds in the now nonexistent aisles)! Gone are the pesticides and fertilizers we used to eat along with the fruits of our labor!

First I cleared the ground.


Then Rafi made the frame out of cedar. He put on some pretty brackets, too.


Then we filled it with a special mix of soil and peat moss from Natural Gardener in South Austin.


Here's a toast to new beginnings and lots to eat!