Laughing in the bathtub

Brady still loves bath time and thinks it's just great to get wet and make a watery mess. He's become quite the splasher, forcing mom and dad to take cover when he goes wild. Here's a short video of the laughter and splashing.

The garden begins

Well here's how the garden looked last night. I've had some requests for pictures and I aim to please, so here you go! The nearest box has spinach, lettuce and swiss chard in that upper left corner, zucchini in the middle and then tomatoes and peppers lining the right side.
The back box has peppers and tomatoes and cucumbers and that's it. The rest of it is reserved for cantaloupe and yellow squash.
The nearest box was primarily planted on 4/21 and is already growing like gangbusters.
Here's a closeup of the peppers and tomatoes in the nearest box.

And here's a closeup of the spinach, lettuce and swiss chard. Time for salad!

And yes, it's all crammed into that little space per the instructions of Square Foot Gardening. I have faith it will turn out well and of course, I will keep everybody updated.

On a positive note, I also have several pots with herbs, strawberries, cherry tomatoes and a jalapeno pepper. the first strawberry is beautiful and red and ready to be picked. And we had fresh basil in our spaphetti sauce the other night. Delish!

The Hairston's

A little late, but you get pictures anyway. A couple of weekends ago we traveled to Columbia, MO for baseball. While baseball wasn't fun (rain outs, losses), we had a great time seeing the Hairston clan. Casey and Neisha used to be our neighbors in Manhattan. They have since added to their family in the form of Harper, 3, and Reid who is 1. Brady and I spent a lot of time at their house since it rained the entire weekend.

They have a play room off the kitchen that is fantastic. Makes me want one! Brady and Reid playing - they got along pretty well. No drama or big fights, so that was good.
Harper is adorable. So cute. And Brady loved to get in the tent and play.

They have a slide and I have decided we will need one of these for our house - it's a must when you're stuck inside. Brady loved it and went down that thing all weekend long.

More playing.

Harper & Brady enjoying the swing and slide. Why didn't they make stuff this cool when I was a kid?

It was a great weekend and despite the near-flooding we had a great time. We're so blessed to have great friends like Casey and Neisha.

And on a side note, I went to a Thirty-One designs party with Neisha and I now have a new obsession. Don't worry - I think I'm actually going to break down and have a party for this company as I found out my friend Michaela is a consultant. They've got some really cute stuff. so I'll be trying to introduce all of you to it as well!

Watering Can

The kid does love to play in the water. This is my favorite picture right now.
Anything to get his hands on some water!

Brady helps to garden

So we have been spending a lot of time outside lately. Brady LOVES to be outside and still throws quite the tantrum when we make him go inside. Alas, I'd rather have an "outside" kid as opposed to an "inside" kid.

He's been sooooo helpful with the gardening lately. He would like to help more, but I've discovered that water is a good distraction for him!

Let's see how far I can put my arm into the watering can.

We even bought him his own stuff. He's got his own little watering can, shovel, bucket, rake, hoe and shovel.

Garden!

So, here's a picture of our 2 square foot gardens. This picture is dated--I've got stuff planted and growing now. But this was the start of it. Two 4 foot by 4 foot containers ready for some vegetable growing!

The containers sit on a ledge behind our garage that gets a lot of sun during the day. I'll post updates as we go, but this is the beginning. The squares are marked off into one foot sections.

I'm growing tomatoes, peppers, cantaloupe, squash, zucchini, lettuce, spinach and swiss chard. I also have some containers that have herbs in them along with another tomato plants and strawberries. Oh, and I have 3 little strawberries already growing. Not red yet, but getting there.

Happy Growing!

Book Review - Square Foot Gardening

So, the most recent book I completed was Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Oh my gosh, loved this book. In fact, loved it so much that we have our own square foot garden at the house now.
The whole square foot garden concept is pretty neat, especially if you like to garden but don't have the big, flat area to do it in. I'll spare you all the details (after all, I know you can read!) but the gist is that you build squares, no larger than 4 x 4, and plant your garden in these square containers. You don't have to plant in a single row and actually, single-row planting is wasteful and inefficient. You put in the Mel's Mix (compost, vermiculite & peat moss) and Voila! You grow glorious, beautiful plants.

I do think it's a really good idea. Especially if you want to eat food that you grow yourself. Stay tuned for details on our own square foot garden!