Garden Notes:
:: Lots of you have been asking about my straw hat. I found it my local farm & feed store. Oh yes, that's right - high farm fashion (but not nearly as fashionable as these). And, by the way, if you're looking for a way to embarass your own tween, I'd recommend buying as much of your wardrobe as can be bought at the feed store, and then wearing it everywhere. (He's a good sport to tolerate this Mama...and crazily-bearded Papa.)
:: Buying a shade tent (I got this one) for the garden might have been my (self-declared) Greatest Idea Ever. When my little helpers need a break from the full sun that the garden loves, the tent is nearby for a little rest. It's usually full of books, blankets...and popcorn. Sometimes a sleeping baby. Not often.
:: I'm feeling grateful that for some reason I cannot remember now, three babies ago, I bought a white Moby wrap. On these hot, hot days, I'm grateful for the lightness it brings to a whole lot of fabric wrapped around my body.
:: Note to self: Um, you might want to try spacing out the lettuce plantings just a little bit more next year, girl. (Salad for breakfast, lunch and dinner! This week and next!)
:: I had a dream this week about Colorado Potato Beetles. More specifically, the larvae. It wasn't very nice. But I do think my obsession/vigilance with them means I'm keeping them at bay.
:: The jersey strips I had so much fun making from old t-shirts for the recent chair redo? They're also finding a home in the garden to hold the tomato plants against their designated fences. All sixty five of them. I planted sixty five tomoto plants. Oh My. But if there's one thing the Soule Family depends upon for survival, it would be tomato products - pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and salsa. And Ketchup. Harper just cuts right to the chase and calls the plants Ketchup Plants. Except his "k's" come out as "ch" and so it's really like Chechup. Which is awesome.
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With great hope, but low expectations (given our spring arrival), I started our garden here this year - our first garden on this land (turned over for us by last winter's pigs), and the biggest garden of my own that I've ever tended.
I am love, love, loving it these days. Loving the food that comes out of it and onto our table. Loving the meditative life reminder and practice that we can only pull one weed at a time, thin one carrot at a time, and breathe one breathe at a time. But most of all....oh-so-loving the garden visitors: A baby sighing in her sleep on my chest; a toddler at my feet talking about what he's going to eat with his ketchup; a girl who knows as much as I do about the plants (or more); two boys who visit to pull a weed (just one) and ask what's for dinner; a wandering chicken; the honeybees from afar; a farming neighbor who offers advice (solicted or not) about what I've got going on; and sometimes - if I'm lucky - my husband at the end of the row, on his hands and knees, testing out that new hip, and squashing potato bugs.
Oh yeah, the garden is where it's at.
How's your garden growing these days?
