what's growing on?

phew, it's been awhile. i feel like we have been mia for months. lots going on and with those longer days and warm spells, we've been recharging our batteries and on the move. so, where have we been? outside of course. every spare minute...mowing grass, playing, keeping the plants happy, growing a baby and filling up our yard with tons of organic goodies.

we got our organic blueberry bushes from backyard berry plants, thanks to keith uridel and his fam, and mrs. chanticleer and ms. aurora, as we so affectionately call our early variety and late variety high bush plants, are abiding in our front yard as we speak. the early variety, chanticleer, already has some berries on there and we can't wait to do some taste testing. kudos to backyard berry plants and keith. he is a great guy to deal with, super helpful, honest and packs up some great organic berry plants along with brambles. and they just had a mention in mother earth news this issue. not bad for a family farm in indiana. we need more of these guys.

the new fruit trees are in the ground and doing alright. we lost one of the apricots, but i can honestly say that i think that it was shipped out in that condition. it looks sad and will luckily be replaced in the fall with another. other than that, the new plum whip and the other apricot whip are doing fine. good news on the ole mrs. rosa front. our older, only about 4 years old, santa rosa plum tree set a great amount of fruit this year. we are happy to say that it looks like we'll be getting more than one plum this year.

as far as the rest of the yard goes, we have tons of greens growing on (mizuna, spinach, collards, kale, chard and mesclun), the tomato plants are in and looking good, the snap peas grew a foot since last week and we are already munching on some young ones, and we have green, well purple, green beans growing all over the place along with some kentucky wonders just poking their heads out. oh, almost forgot the cucs...thanks to a friend we have some lemon cucs and we couldn't resist the pickling cucs that we grew last year, so they will be taking up residence next to our outdoor shower this year. they loved it! those were the best cucs that we have ever had and thanks to our bathing habits, they were as happy as could be climbing up the side of our shower while getting a good daily drink. we are also trying to do some trellising cucs in hanging baskets. worth a try and nothing to lose. we have some great sunny spots that could be utilized and so we shall give it a shot. off the ground, means less fungus and plenty of sun, so why not? it's all about trying to find that balance and it could be found anywhere, even in our backyard.

hard to believe that it is june already, and it feels so good to be barefoot, dirty and weeding and planting already. there will be more to plant, more to eat and more to do as the next few weeks roll on, but for now we are loving this time of awakening. there have been challenges and on the other hand, there have been gains, so it is ALL GOOD. we are battling the neighborhood cats and their choice of our gardens as their toilets, but we can fix it with a few more wire fences, and we also have a 3 foot tall garden monkey, aka our daughter, who loves to remove soil from the gardens at all costs, water everything in site and give the plant hugs, but thanks to some one and a half foot tall picket fences, from the local hardware store, we have successfully kept the little monkey out of the gardens for over a week. gotta love her affection for our food though. she thinks that all plants are babies and that they need hugs and water to grow. i think that she is on to something.

well, that's where the fam is for now. in the yard with grass stained toes, dirt under the nails, naked at times (the garden monkey, not us) and roaming around in the ole camper when the waves are calling or the sun is shining.

get out and roam! and don't forget to grow and glow.