One basket of cilantro fresh in from the garden, into the dehydrator, ready for this year's salsa!
I left plenty of stalks for the coriandor, and next year's crop.
I'm sure I'll utilize my upcomming herb spiral at least some, but cilantro is one of the things that we allow to be pretty natural around the farm. We literally throw the seeds all over Dave's tropical bed, and they grow whereever they land. It's nice to have because by thte time they are ready to harvest, the tropicals are ready to take off.
Our driveway is impassible at the moment- there's a sea of plants for the Master Gardener Plant sale. We have to support our plant buying habits!
Everyone in the family is involved- oldest to youngest. (Hmmm- there's one short person missing...he must be off fetching something.)
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The dianthus from lovemyhouse is blooming its little head off.
These hyathenths and lilies from PollyK are looking nice and healthy!
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These penstemon from goldfinch1 survived the drought and are flourishing this spring!
I bought these irises from Dee last fall- I think I ordered one of 30 different varieties. Every one of them survived and are all springing to life now. This one is the largest (Mary Fransis),
and this one is about to bloom (Autumn Wine)
My yarrow continues to bloom. I really need to get out there and dry the flowers....
We're eating fresh salads of lettuce, chickweed, brocolli (although that is now starting to bolt), chard, and spinach, sugar snap peas and green onions every day out of our very productive Hugel bed.I did sucessive planting, so there is more lettuce to come before the heat hits, and the carrots and parsley will be harvested soon.
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My Semp bed is looking fab! I'm loving all of the color this spring, and watching all of the little babies sprout! I did loose 2 varieties, but not too bad considering. The two came from ValleyLynn.
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There's a flurry of activity all of the time around here as we scramble to get projects done before the heat hits. Like everyone else, I suppose, we have more projects in mind than time! We'd never complain, though- it's everyone's favorite time of year!
Meanwhile, when you can catch me indoors (and not sleeping), I have aprons coming, the comfrey/mint soap is done and needs to be put in the store, and I have hand salve and "boo-boo goo" salve to finish up and put into the store. Oh, and there's that casserole cover pattern that I almost have perfected. Busy, busy!
Hetty (Dutchlady1) headed up a super sweet baby shower in celebration of our sixth little farmer due in June. Part one was a monetary gift which anonymous people all pitched in to buy us a tree and whatever we needed for our new little bundle.
Part 2 arrived on Thursday- a sign to go with our tree which was made by Sharon.
I had to make a trip 8 hours east for 4 days, which pushed us behind of what we thought our normally hectic spring schedule would be. All that to say that we haven't bought trees yet!
However, we have decided to go with a set of 3 fig trees. Due to the drought, we are very wary of planting more landscape trees (we've lost our set of 2 front yard trees twice already!), but our orchard is well watered, and things have been surviving out there much better than our house hill top, so we think that's the best survival chances! Plus, it will be super fun to eat the fruits for years and years and remember our sweet ATP family!
Here's our wonderful sign- What a lovely thought, and Sharon did a fantastic job with it!
It is currently proudly on display in our kitchen!
Additionally, Baby will need a new mattress, since Little Man will be taking his with him to his toddler bed. I ordered it last week thanks to you all! I'll be going through my baby clothes to figure out what else I need next week (if all goes well). I think I'm going to need to up my cloth diaper stash, as it's looking a little thin and worn, and I've always wanted to try those snuggle blankets with hopes of a little more sleep this time around! Little Man and Baby were born in totally different seasons, so I won't be able to reuse clothes until they are around 2. Ironically, this has happened with all 4 of my older children as well!
Since our gift wasn't signed by individuals, I can only thank you all as a group. It means so much to us to have our ATP family welcome our children into the world in such a loving and welcoming way. You are all very special to us!
Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.
I'll keep you posted!
Well, now that the word is out that we're looking forward to Little Boy Blue this summer, you'll understand one of the reasons that we've scaled back for the year! We decided not to do the farmer's market at all, and just focus on feeding us for the year.
There's the second reason- you all heard about the horrible heat and drought that we suffered last year. The barn workers say that they hear 3-4 trees/huge branches fall per day! We estimate that we likely lost 1/3- 1/2 of our trees. Despite all of our waterings, we lost over half of everything that was planted last year (not counting the vegetables, but it was one of our worst veggie years ever). If the plant wasn't very well established, most of them just couldn't handle the weather. We had planted 4 replacement trees in the orchard, and none of them made it, the replacement landscape maples in the front didn't make it. It was just a deiscouraging year for TX gardeners, especially for those of us who were trying to (finally) get their landscaping established.
Since they are predicting a similar year this year, and seeing as how I'll be in the last weeks of pregnancy, we are just going to focus on hardscaping stuff for this spring. My plan is to add some garden art, a birdbath or two, build a "wall" around the air conditioners, and maybe an arbor if we can manage the time. ( I do try not to overwhelm Dave, honestly!)
I have all of my baby seedlings up and growing for the plant sale, I've ordered a very few things from the co-ops, and we'll get the veggies in. I think that's it for the year. If this year really is like last year, I don't want to start a battle that I just won't be able to continue all summer, seeing as how my arms will be full!
Of course, I always reserve the right to change my mind....Don't all addicts say that they are going to cut back this year?!?!!?
My seed order finally came in the mail yesterday, so I'm off to plant! I'm adding in things for Team Annual this year, and I'm very excited to get them all started today! Some is for me, and the rest is for the Master Gardener plant sale in the spring (got to earn plant money to support my habit!)
I also made yummy mint soap. It is made with the healing properties of comfrey (which also produces the natural coloring). Everyone who walked in the house that day commented about how good it smelled! It will be cured and ready to go in 3 weeks!
The spring business is picking up!
