Relaxing While Working in the Garden & A Cute Idea for Soap

Things are going to be a little different around here this summer.  You see, when we came back from Ohio we left our oldest son there to work for the summer (he’s done this for 3 summers now) and then Zachary, my second born, has went to Sierra Vista to work for the summer on the military base. 

Gardening Help

What do you do when you gardener leaves?  You get desperate and start learning how to garden yourself.  I’ve been reading a book called Small Plot, High Yield Gardening:  How to Grow Like a Pro, Save Money, and Eat Well by Turning Your Back (or Front or Side) Yard Into an Organic Produce Garden.  This book is very informative and I’ve learned a lot from it.  I have other gardening books but this one covers more than just sitting up your garden.  It goes into a lot more depth.

Did you know Parsley is a biennial?

For example, parsley is a biennial.  What this means is when you leave it in your garden through the winter and it comes back the 2nd year, it doesn’t put on any new leaves but just flowers.  I saw that in our garden.  We have one that was planted from seed this year which had no flowers but the one that came back from last year started flowering and that’s when you can collect its seeds.  

Getting Your Kids to Help in the Garden

Serenity (age 13) doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of interest in the outdoors, so I’ve enlisted her help in clearing the garden paths of grass so that we can put some other type of walkway down.  She wasn’t too thrilled about being out there at first but after only a day she’s caught up in it.  She seems to like having some type of goal and has now adopted this project as hers.  She gets out there, swings the pick to loosen up the roots and then goes to work with a shovel.  When she gets tired, she’s allowed to quit because I know it’s hard work!  I’m just trying to encourage her and let her work up to more time in the garden by doing baby steps.

Of course, she likes to work when I’m there and that’s fine with me.  We work together or I’ll work getting the weeds out of the garden while she attacks digs up the grass.

You go, girl!

Fresh Basil Makes a Nice Addition to Pizza

We made a Pizza Margherita this week using fresh basil from the garden.  It was enjoyed by everyone even though it’s not a pizza you put a gazillion toppings on.

Landscaping with Zuchinni

I decided to try landscaping with a zucchini plant so I placed this pitiful looking zuchinni start into our ore car that sits in the front yard.  It survived and it’s actually looking pretty good.  Flowers can be expensive to buy every year and we seem to have trouble keeping them alive so landscaping with vegetables might be the way to go.  We’re trying it anyways. 

Everyone else’s zucchini plants are probably quite large by now but mine will get there – eventually!

See… I have one little zucchini coming right along. 🙂

Soap Bars for Your Guests – A quick and easy way to given them some pizazz

One of my latest book purchases is Mary Jane’s Outpost.  Some women’s feminism creeps into the writing here and there but it really is a fun book that has some cute ideas.  Here’s one that’s suggested in the book. 

Cut a regular size bar of soap into a smaller one for your guests and tie with strips of cloth.  I had to try it because:

1. it was easy and I knew I couldn’t mess it up 

2. I like the idea of guests having an unused bar of soap to wash with

3.  it looked homey and attractive

What do you think?

Wishing you a good week. 

Joining up with