Cade having a great time playing in the dirt!
Alayna watering the green bean seeds we just planted. Do you like our green bean tepee? You can also see that I still have quite a bit of weeding to get done!
Our Topsy-Turvy Strawberry Planter
~Progress with the potted plants~
Its the end of March and I'm **so ready** for spring! We've been having a lot of rain recently (completely normal for late winter/early spring in Portland), but in the small breaks between rain showers, I've started to do a little "spring cleaning" in the garden. Its always such a chore to clear away the old dead leaves, pine cones, stray branches and, of course, the weeds! But its also neat to see what you find under all of the debris. Above is a little pansy that Gavin gave me as a mother's day present last spring. It almost died shortly after I planted it, but it slowly came back to life. I assumed it was an annual and wouldn't come back, but what a nice surprise I had as I cleared away the leaves and found this pretty purple flower!
I started seeds a couple of weeks ago in an egg carton and within about 2 weeks I needed to transplant them into something larger. I had hoped to time it right to be able to transplant into the garden, but since its not the right time yet, I just moved them into some bigger pots. I stuck my tomato cage in the pot with the peas as they are already trying to climb! Maybe I'll just put these on the porch and direct seed some more for the garden. That way we'll have twice the peas and an earlier crop. I'm looking forward to moving them as they are already taking over my kitchen!
This is my new setup this year. Last year I had such a hard time starting the seeds and I couldn't understand why. I watered them every day and gave them as much light as one gets on our gray Portland days. This year I decided to add a flourescent light and that has made all the difference! Its hard to see the seedlings in this picture, but I have basil in the terra cotta pot, marigolds (which I learned are a great natural pest deterent) in the square plastics and zinnias and snapdragons in the yogurt containers.
As summer comes to an end, the garden is definitely changing. The yellow squash and zucchini are still producing, but my focus will definitely be changing to the "greens" over the next couple of months. Above, I planted this Mesclun mix (Gourmet Greens Mixture) and it looks ready for some pretty salads.
The basil plant never got super huge, but it has given me a modest amount of leaves that I've enjoyed cooking with.
A couple of weeks ago, I planted some more Sugar Snap Peas for a fall harvest. Alayna and Gavin both loved picking and eating them right off the vine!
I was very pleased with my tomatoes! This was my first shot at growing them. I hoped to get maybe a half dozen red tomatoes and I got way more than I bargained for. I've picked at least 20 red tomatoes and as you can see, there's still more on the bush!
My Sage (top, closest to fence) and Oregano are taking over my herb garden area! 
I planted some Spinach in this little spot and cut out one of those plastic containers that plants are sold in. I did this so that I wouldn't forget where I planted the seeds. I did this with my Greens Mix and then removed the plastic marker when the sprouts were large enough to see and I'd know not to step on them. However, these seeds don't seem to be taking. There are a couple tiny sprouts (if you squint, maybe you can see them) but I'm thinking those might be weeds! I'm wondering if the mulch I covered the soil with is too big for the sprouts to come through. Anyway, I re-planted a few more seeds today in hopes that I'll have some Spinach for salads and cooking.
This is a tiny Kale sprout. I planted this at the same time as the Spinach....it seems to be faring a bit better. I planted four Kale seeds in about a one foot cube area and three of them sprouted.
The corn is just about ready for harvest. Even the little plants got a tiny ear of corn on them. Probably won't have many kernels, I'm guessing....we'll see....I'm looking forward to using the stalks as Halloween decorations for the front of the house!
Here's some yellow crookneck squash......it got a late start, but its been producing very well recently.
.....and some more squash!
Zucchini ready for harvest
The green beans are pretty much done. It looks pretty ugly, but I just haven't gotten a chance to cut all of the dead vines out.
Gardening with a two-year-old certainly has its challenges. The main one is letting her "help" without completely ruining the plants. I was a bit sad when Alayna picked this little pepper, but I know she was only trying to help mommy. I ended up cutting it up and putting it in a pasta salad. It was pretty good..... a bit bitter, so maybe it was better that it was eaten while it was small.
Can you spot the corn? (hint: there are two ears!)
I didn't have much hope for my green and red bell pepper plants. With the unusually cool weather we had this year I didn't think I'd actually have any. But, the past week has been unseasonably hot and I just noticed these small peppers growing. It seems funny to me because the entire plant isn't much more than a foot tall. If the peppers grow to full size, it'll look very lopsided. Its hard to tell size in the picture, but both peppers (I have one per plant at the moment) are slightly smaller than a ping pong ball.
The corn is really starting to grow now.....well at least the stalk is. I haven't seen any corn yet, but Gavin has been oohing and aahing over the stalk that is shooting into the air. Its weird how they are not growing uniformly. The one is quite taller than the others. Not sure if that one is just getting more water or has a little better soil around it or what. Kind of weird! Oh, and that bushy plant next to the corn is my yellow squash. It, too, is off to a slow start, but I finally saw one small squash growing just the other day. Last year I had so much squash we didn't know what to do with it all. Its just been a rough year for produce!