Sunday Photos: This Year’s Garden Plans

Spring has arrived in some parts of the US while other parts are still, not-so patiently waiting. Last week we had fun looking back at what we harvested last year. This week we are looking forward and sharing our garden plans.

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Oh, I  (Sincerely, Emily) always seem to have a lot of plans, but as you know, there was a big wrench put in my plans so far this year. My friends have planted peppers and tomatoes for me and I will get the okra seed in the ground in the next week. That is about it for my garden plans. If things had gone according to “plan” I would be adding tomatillos to my garden this year. I have wanted to plant them for the past few years, but it just didn’t happen. That plan will wait until Spring 2014.  Right now I have peppers and tomatoes already forming.  I am glad to have things growing out there.

Cubanella pepper 4-19-2013

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Tanglewood Farm is always abuzz with plans; some come to fruition, some shrivel up and die like a cast bug. Heh.

So far this year my biggest plans have been to try to pick up where I left off last spring. The weather last year was so atrocious that I admit I threw in the towel early. Okay, I planted a lots of things, and I admit I got to harvest a handful of tomatoes and some greens, but it was just such a bummer, especially after I had ordered and planted (and paid for) 80+ new berry bushes, including raspberries, dewberries, blackberries and gooseberries. By the end of the summer, regardless of watering, everything was crisp and brown to the roots.

So this year I have reordered most of the plants that died last year and I am starting afresh! I am also putting a lot of the young (wimpy) bareroot plants that I’ve ordered in pots until they are a little more established and until the ground is a little more planting-friendly. Right now we are soggy and sloshy from the house gardens to the back orchard (which, actually, is currently two feet under water!) so planting will have to wait, but planning… planning is always going on here at the farm!

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It’s killing me, but I think this year is probably a no-corn year.  I’m working on my rotation, and finding that without corn I have almost too much space, which I think will be filled with beans– boring, but practical (all the practical stuff is boring). Follow my gardening fits and starts at MyFolia.com/gardener/Xan!

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Are you planting something new this spring?

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Sunday photos: Last Year’s Harvest

As we get ready for the new growing season, it’s fun to look back at what you grew last year!

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Probably my (Alexandra) last year in my big garden has me thinking about what I’ll want to grow that I really use. Tomatoes, of course, but what about carrots (cheap to buy) and tomatillos (also have way more than I need).

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I (Chiot’s Run) was just thinking about this yesterday as well, looking through my old photos of delicious vegetables, dreaming of the wonderful bounty my larger gardens will produce this year. Here were some of my favorites from last year:

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I (Sincerely, Emily) loved all the peppers that came from last years garden, but there was one particular vegetable that  I was the most thrilled about growing last year. The allusive zucchini (courgette.) For several years I had tried and tried, and struggled and struggled to grow zucchini. Last year was a HUGE success.

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What did you grow last year?

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Photos full of memories (2)

With my outdoor and active life still “on hold” I am finding all sorts of different things to do. The other day I was paging through some photo albums and found some older photos in them that were fun to see.

I grew up with cats and so did my dad. One of the photos I found was of my dad in one of his cars. What I didn’t notice until later was there is a cat in the car with him. I believe the photo is from the 50′s, the car is much older than that, but I have no idea what kind of car it is or the year.

This photo is one of my all-time favorites. I was almost 5 years old in the photo.

I’m having fun looking through the old photos. I’m also glad that I can take a digital photo of them to share with family and preserve them for generations to come.

You can see a few other old photos that I posted back in November here.

Are you preserving some of your old photos? How are you doing it?

Sincerely, Emily

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Sunday Photos: Close ups

Sometimes when you crop a photo for a close up, wonderful things can happen.

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I (Sincerely, Emily) love the world of digital photography, and I love being able to crop photos to come in close to really be able to show what I want or crop out things I won’t want to be part of the photo. Sometimes when I crop a photo neat things pop out and the detail is amazing.

This is a super close up of a piece of quiche.

I love the pattern on the dried outer shell of the loofah’s that a grew a few years ago. I am so glad I took some photos of them before I peeled them all.

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I’m (Alexandra) not crazy about fairy gardens, but I have to say, I love getting my eyes down at seedling level and pretend I’m in a tiny forest.

Do you enjoy the detail in close-up photos?

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Sunday photos: Determined to be spring!

Cold, snow, and frozen ground. It’s spring in the northern tier states!

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This is my (Alexandra) robin friend from many years ago. I used to call him the “god of the garden” because he was so clearly in charge. His cousin was kicking around last week, extremely confused that it was so cold.

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I  (Sincerely, Emily) grew up in Minnesota and Wisconsin and even though we heat up in March down here in South Texas, I still think about March and Spring Break as a time of snow storms. There were many a Spring Break when we would be flying down to Florida to visit Gramps and we would be driving to the airport in a snow storm or unable to make connecting flights because of a snow storm and be stuck in the airport (usually Chicago) for a day or two.

Robins are still a sign of Spring for me, but now instead of waiting for them to arrive up north, I watch them come through my yard in large flocks as they migrate north for the summer. I missed the robins this year, but I stepped out onto the front porch the other day and the oak tree what waking up to Spring. The sage in the backyard is also waking up for Spring and is sending up buds that will flower very soon. The bluebonnets are blooming everywhere That is Spring in South Texas.

What signs of spring are you seeing?

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Sunday Photos: 2-legged Friends

Last week we shared some photos of our 4-legged friends. This week is a whole ‘nother animal! 2-legged friends.

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When I (Sincerely, Emily) was thinking about two-legged friends, I was mainly thinking of chickens and ducks. but I have neither of those. At times we have a revolving door of visitors (humans) in and out of our house. The only two-legged friend around our home right now is my husband.

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What two-legged friends do you share your life with?

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Sunday photos: line and edge

The edges of things lead your eye down the garden path, or along the hall, or into your child’s eyes.

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A line that leads along a fence…

or into the sky!

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The edge of this building. The line of the boards. Leads my (Sincerely, Emily)  eye into imagination. What was the building used for? How old is it?

The edge of the canning jar, an older one with a big deep edge. This particular jar came from an estate sale. Oh, how I would love to know what it has held.

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Where does your eye lead you?

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Sunday Photos: Texture

If you really stop, take a deep breath and look around – you will see texture everywhere.

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I love taking photos and I love the different textures that I can capture. I particularly love texture in nature. The bark on trees, moss, leaves, old fences. I really like all the textures found outside in the gardens too.

What do you think this is?

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Under the snow, the beauty of sunlight on the path is waiting! -Xan

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Do you notice the texture of things around you?

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Sunday Photos: Grateful

Everyday there is something to be thankful for. Take a deep breath and just look around you.

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American Thanksgiving has come and gone, but I (Sincerely, Emily) do not think that is the only time that we need to pause and reflect on what we are thankful for. Everyday I look around me and can list many things I am thankful for. This is especially helpful when I am just plain having a bad day. I have been wishing for rain for many days, many weeks, many months. I know the saying, “be careful what you wish for” and I have to be really careful about wishing for rain in Texas because usually when it rains, it pours Texas-Style to the tune of 8″ + at a time. When it does rain “Texas-style” it comes down hard and fast giving the ground no opportunity to soak it up. What does that all mean? It means, that I live in Texas and we live in drought, with occasional flooding.

A few weeks ago my wish came true. We were blessed with rain. Three inches according to my rain gauge over a period of 24+ hours. For the most part it came down nice and slow, allowing the ground to accept it and start soaking it up. What a dream come true. The rain barrels are overflowing and the plants and trees are smiling. I am grateful.

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Two weeks ago my former junior coaching student and friend Dee had her second child, and is potting training the first. She’s not getting much sleep. My virtual friend Jo is in the throes of early tweendom. I just spent the afternoon with my grown children (24 and 27). As I told Jo and Dee,  new parenting and toddlerhood and the dread tweens is like childbirth– there’s an amazing person at the end of all the pain.

What are you thankful for today?

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Photos full of memories

In October I went up to Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit my mom and family. The plan was to help my parents put their gardens to bed for the winter, but instead I managed to overdo it before I even left home, rendering my back useless to the garden work plan.

Emily (the young monkey!) – Hollywood, FL

My mom and I always seem to have enough to do whether it is at their home in Minnesota or over at the lake in Wisconsin. I was able to help do a few garden projects and we did manage to transplant a few rhubarb plants over at the cabin. I had a chance to spent a fun night with my second cousin and I also spent some time with my brother and my two nieces. Go Go Go. Never a moment of rest! But that is why I go; to help out and have some fun along the way (if time permits.)

My brother at the lake

Over the past 7 years, my mom and I have been going through boxes and shelves, sorting and deciding what to do with all the “stuff.” Every time we came up any sort of photo or slide, we labelled the box and put it with the rest of the photos on one shelf. We knew that would be a big project, but wanted to stay focused on other “things” first.

Because I was unable to do much of anything, we spent time going through photos and slides. The first box I grabbed was a lot of fun. It was a mix of many years and full of photos I haven’t looked at in a long long time. As I went through the box I took some quick photos of a few to put them on the computer. It has been so much fun to email them to my brother or friends that are in those photos. We are all getting some good mileage out of them.

My Gramps had a Trading Post and gas station in Wisconsin. It was fun to come across some photos from that time. He also sold alumicraft boats and motors, LP gas, concrete statues and birdbaths. I can still remember the bog cow trough filled with water where he would set up the boat motors so he could run them, work on them and also show customers. He also traded a lot when people wanted a bit of gas for their car. His trading post of packed full of treasures. He hung a lot of them from the ceiling because the floors and every nook and cranny already had something in it. The front window was filled with fishing lures – again hung. I vividly remember a ventriloquist doll that hung from the ceiling.

Out front, sitting between the gas pumps was a totem pole. When we sold the station and house we took the totem pole down and moved it to our cabin where it still stands. My mom and I restored it twice since then and it is time to work on it again… next summer.

Mom and I had a chance to set up the old slide viewing rack and go through several boxes of slides. What fun that was. Sailing slides, travel, lake slides, slides from when my brother and I were babies and growing up. Slides of trips my grandparents took to Cuba and Puerto Rico and Mexico too. Lots and lots of slides. I brought many of them back to Texas with me in hopes of getting them converted to a digital image on a little converter that I have. It just takes time, but I hope to work on them little by little so we can all enjoy them for years to come.

Do you look through old photos every now and then?

Sincerely, Emily

P.S. As we gear up for the holiday season, the contributors at NDIN are hosting a series of giveaways. Be sure to check out Miranda’s post yesterday to see what she is offering and be sure read all the posts over the next few weeks to see what else we have in store for our faithful readers.

You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.

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