The Fruits (or veggies) of our labor...

Here's a reminder of how it started:

 

and now a month and a half later:

So far so good on our garden. Our 3 tomato plants are large with lots of blossoms

 

 and so far about 20 or so green tomatoes.

Our banana pepper is small, but has produce this guy! Now I need to figure out what to cook with it!

The jalapenos are still small as well, but one little pepper is coming along.

I'm not super hopeful on the squash, but we'll see. 

Still not quite as magnificent as my Grandma Fielding garden was growing up or my Mom's garden, but we're trying!

Another try at a green thumb...

While perusing slickdeals.net on Friday morning I saw a post that Home Depot was having a "Spring Black Friday (weekend)" sale. This included 50% off all of their veggie and herb plants. So I headed over and picked out some tomatoes, peppers, squash and onions.

Once home I still had to clear the garden on last seasons VERY dead tomato plants, turn the soil and get it prepped.

Here's the result, I hoping for a more successful garden this year... we'll see!

Will it grow...

For the last few years sometime near the end of February or early March we have a FHE lesson on faith and then begin planting some seeds that will hopefully make there way into our garden as Spring comes. This year was no exception. Hopefully this year we get a better yield!

Family time...

This past week I got to go and spend some time with my family. N8 with the help of Kim and some other friends watched the kids. It was strange to go without them, but it was what was best. With two nieces graduating from high school, I went to stay with my mom so my dad could attend. My mom is doing really well and getting stronger everyday. Hopefully this will help since she will begin chemotherapy soon.

While I was there, my assigned project was to organize my parents mission pictures and create a slideshow. My mom and I got right to work. Unfortunately, we were using a VERY SLOW computer. This made the process very slow, but it did get done!!! It was great getting to sit with my mom and go through all of their mission pictures and create the slideshow. They have have a 35 minute slideshow set to music of their last 18 months as missionaries. We made copies for each of us kids, now I need to sit down with N8 and the kids and watch it and tell them about all the neat things Grandpa & Grandma did while serving.

Here are some of my favorites (it's hard to narrow it down):

They are both more than happy to talk to any senior couple thinking about serving a mission. They tell it like it is-the good and the bad. If you know of someone interested, they'd even put in word for them to go to their mission-The West Indies. Their mission is acquiring Barbados and need a new couple there and are always wanting more senior missionaries to help in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

On Saturday both of my brothers and one of my sisters families came and we grilled and visited. I hadn't seen then since New Years. It was fun to visit and some of the kids enjoyed cooling off outside in some water!

On Sunday my mom felt well enough to attend sacrament meeting. This meant I got to go to the ward I grew up going to. It's had a lot changes over the years. Lot of people I grew up knowing have moved out and the boundaries have changed a lot so there were also people I knew from the stake growing up. It was fun to see everyone so excited to see my mom!

While I was away N8 stayed busy. The first 3 days he went to work while Bud was as school. Kim was gracious enough to watch Emma and Mo. N8 got the kids signed up for swimming lessons, went to the school open house, the park, worked outside in the yard & garden, went on a hike, helped cook at the ward Memorial Day breakfast and I'm sure a lot more!

I was a LONG drive home. A drive that usually takes us 7 hours took about 10 due to terrible traffic. Now there are only 2 more days of school and we have the entire summer to play, plan, craft, clean, swim, and sleep!

Craft: Teacher Gifts

It's that's time of year. School is wrapping up and I needed an great idea for the wonderful teachers that have put up with my children this year. I looked at Skip to my Lou and almost used the "plant picks". Then through all of my craft blog pursuing I found another idea that I just fell in love with. The unfortunate thing is-I CANNOT figure out where I found it!!! I've just spent the last hour and a half searching online trying to figure out where I got this cute idea. If anyone sees this and knows--please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!!

I got the round part of the tag at the unknown blog and then added the box around with the to and from.

I found the water bottles at Target and then made vinyl with the teachers name. I put a piece of tissue paper inside and slid a handful of single use drink packets inside! Super easy and fun. Hopefully it's something that the teachers will find useful!

As an added bonus here's our latest picks from our garden-strawberries & one little carrot.

We have a few little green tomatoes, so hopefully we'll start seeing more!

I'm editing to add the blog address where I found the image. Thank you Verity it was posted on Sugardoodle's 10 random pages and is on "A Bushel and a Peck of FUN!"

Our flower bed makeover...

When we moved into our home just over 6 years ago, curb appeal was NOT something that got us to buy! The yard was dead and there was a lone rose bush in our side bed and a dead evergreen under the front window. We planted a few things, but nothing that we loved. We replaced edging, but also didn't love it. Once we started watering we noticed something coming up. First I thought it was some sort of flower, then we began to think it was corn, after a lot of growth we realized that it was bamboo. So, we decided to embrace the bamboo. It required a lot of cutting back and digging out as it grew and spread and grew some more.

Finally, a few weeks ago, we decided to get rid of the bamboo. It had done it's time and we were ready to try something else. So N8 started digging~

Me and the kids started bagging up the bamboo and all of it roots (it's more like a large bulb system!)~

After it was cleared we talked about what we wanted and finally decided on a "dry stream" look with plants on either side. Some of the plants are edibles and some or purely decorative. While N8 had everything dug up he found our local resource for free manure. There is a local burro rescue with loads of free manure. He took over 5 gallon buckets and filled them up. He also replaced all of the poly pipe so and each plant gets it's own little watering bubbler!

N8 did a fabulous job. Now we get to wait and see if it all continues to grow! Neither of us are known for having a green thumb, but we're making our best effort. We are getting some growth in our garden. Here's Emma with our first radish:

We must have some munchers in the garden since there were some bug holes on one side, but we cut that off and N8 and I each got a bite. I haven't convinced the kids that they like radishes yet!!

How does our garden grow...

About 2 1/2 weeks ago for FHE we had a lesson of faith and then planted some seeds. We've done something like this in the past, but this time the seeds were going to be put into our garden. Here's what we started with:

We planted a wide variety for us: cucumbers, cantaloupe, pumpkin, squash, beans, bell pepper & jalapeno,
This is what they looked like this morning:

The beans were really ready to be out of their little peat pots and into the ground. So I added some more soil and a bag of manure to our little garden:

And started planting! The both peppers aren't ready so they're still waiting and I also planted some radish and carrot seeds. We're still debating making another little box so we have more space for tomatoes, peppers and whatever else we decide to try. But for now this is it:

We'll see if they last. I only planted about 1/2 of the starts we had. We just don't have that much space. Plus neither N8 or I really have a green thumb and chances are things are going to die! My Grandma was an awesome gardener and my mom for sure inherited that from her. Unfortunately I didn't! But we're hoping that this is our year for more success. We know we can do tomatoes and peppers, but we're ready to branch out.

Any gardens started out there? or plans for those still buried under snow?