Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Aaah, Childhood

Childhood is about playing outside. It's about wearing a frilly dress with muddy shoes. It's about pretending. It's about fun. Too many kids don't experience childhood. I hope my children get to experience it. Every bit of it.

"Following the Leader"
I didn't want Rose playing outside since she had surgery to remove two teeth today, but I couldn't keep her inside for anything. She had fun playing with the big kids. Well, big relative to her! The oldest one, Danner, is only 5, and the other girls are both 3.

Pretty Dirty!
I love this one, even though it turned out really blurry.
Lacy's feet when she was ready to come in.
Little Mama Lacy, discovered my belly cast (from my pregnancy with Rose)



...Rose after surgery today


Today's my last blog post as a 20-something woman. For my birthday, Dave will be making me some garden boxes. I'm so excited! We're going to get garden soil delivered, and we will start planting in about a month or two. I may start some plants right away, like tomatoes and peppers, that will need a while to get big, that don't do well in our climate. Peas and lettuce will go next, in mid to late March. I'm planning to do peas and beans, cucumbers, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots and radishes, tomatoes, tomitillos and peppers, and possibly squash as well. My friend Emily has a 7 acres and she's going to do a lot of squash, so we might have her do the bulk of it at her house, and maybe just some pattypans for us here. I'm also thinking of doing some aromatics and I'm considering dedicating an entire garden box for herbs. Not sure what herbs I want to plant, though! Oh, we started our compost bin this week! And it's almost full! I'm going to have to have two going in order to keep up!

2 comments:

christine said...

Happy Birthday!

Jenni said...

I grew up in the PNW, and I can tell you how to keep tomatoes happy!
1--buy plants (or start seeds indoors). Get them at least 6" high before planting outside.
2--when transplanting, pinch off all leaves except the top pair. Bury all that bare step, leaving just 1/3 of the plant out of the soil (this will give it a better root base, and it will grow stronger/faster).
3--use tomato cages from the day you plant
4--place pieces of plywood, garbage can lids, etc across on top of the cages when it rains. tomatoes do not like having wet leaves, and if they are constantly rained on they will get the dreaded tomato blight (ie, they mold). The 'hats' will allow water into the ground, but protect the leaves.
My mom got this info from Marian Binetti who is a NW gardenign expert. She has columns in several newspapers--well worth lookign up!