Garden love

Summer is over according to the calendar, but for me it ended on Labor Day Weekend when I brought in all the produce from the garden and put the my garden to sleep.  All of the plants (except for the pumpkin vine) were pulled out and tossed in the compost bin.

I wanted to become a gardener this summer, and I did.  Here's what I learned along the way:

There is no such thing as too many tomato plants, or too many tomatoes.  Well, there might be, but not at my house. Twelve plants kept us eating delicious tomatoes all summer long, and I've made several batches of marinara sauce with the surplus.  Next summer, I'll put in at least 12 plants, but I'll be sure to include more cherry and Roma varieties, and leave the beefsteaks out (those didn't perform well for me). 

Horn worms might be one of the most disgusting things on the planet. Seriously.  I was not prepared for horn worms or cucumber beetles (had a horrible infestation of those) but next year I will be ready!

Sharing a garden with children is a rewarding experience.  The Little Guy helped me plant the green beans from seed and water the plants, both kids helped put things in the compost bin, and Little Miss helped me harvest.  Of course, she occasionally picked still-green tomatoes off the vine and tossed them in the compost bin, but that's how it goes sometimes.  Sharing this experience with my kids this summer was amazing. It was a lot of fun to explore each day and see what was appearing or ripening, and enjoy--literally!--the fruits of our labors.

Zucchini grows fast.  Holy crap, does zucchini grow fast. I'll plant at least two zucchini next year, if only to be twice as fascinated by it's speedy growth rate.  Goodness knows I don't actually need any more zucchini than what I had this summer, but that's what neighbors are for, right?

The satisfaction that comes from eating produce I've grown is immeasurable. I've made tons of delicious cakes and beautiful cookies, but I don't think I've ever been so pleased as when my family started eating the cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden. Plus, it feels good to know where our food is coming from. 

Weeding is by far the most time-consuming task in the garden.  I only weeded a few times this summer, but those times lasted an entire weekend each.  It was brutal, and certainly not how I want to spend my precious summer weekends.  Spending hours harvesting or tending, I don't mind. But hours spent weeding is just not fun.  I don't want to spray weed-killer in the garden, so my solution for next year will be to spread layers of newspaper around my plants to discourage weeds. 

Fruits and veggies ripen on their own schedule, not mine.  This was a hard lesson to learn.  Tomatoes took too long, and cucumbers were too fast.  If only they would cooperate with me!  Garden produce can be so stubborn.  Next year, I'll be ready for those fast cucumbers and make some into pickles. As for the tomatoes, I suppose I just need to be more patient.

There is absolutely nothing on earth like a homegrown tomato.  It would be easy to say that homegrown tomatoes just taste better, but that doesn't even begin to describe the astounding difference in taste, texture, feel and smell between a store-bought and homegrown tomato.  Now that I've had the luxury of true tomatoes all summer, I'll dread going to the store for a 'fresh' tomato this winter. Homegrown tomatoes = heaven. Store-bought tomatoes = cardboard.  End of discussion.

Planning a garden is almost as fun as growing a garden. I've been planning this garden for years and while it was great to see it finally come to fruition, I have to admit that I started planning next year's garden back in June, before I had harvested anything.  By June, I could see what was doing well and what I had the space for next year.  Also, by then I had fallen so in love with gardening that I knew I had to do it again next summer, and the summer after that, and the summer after that. 

My plans for GARDEN 2012 are extensive. I hope to expand my repertoire from seven types of plants to 30, and plant two permanent perennial gardens to attract butterflies and bees. I want to put in a semi-permanent strawberry patch (most strawberry patches last for three years) and a permanent asparagus patch (those can last for over 20 years) as well as experiment with corn, squash, broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant and potatoes.  These plans will keep me going during the dark days of Midwest winter.

Isn't that amazing? In the course of a season I went from total garden newbie to full-blown garden fanatic.  From now on, the summer of 2011 will be referred to as "The Summer Amanda Finally Learned How to Garden."  Better yet, it should be known as "The Summer Amanda Fell in Love with Gardening." Because that's exactly what happened.

Tree time

Back in May, we planted six dwarf fruit trees in the backyard. It's been exciting to see them leaf out and grow this summer.  If all goes well, we should have fruit in 2-3 years. 

Here's the Little Guy next to a peach tree when it was planted:

And here are the peach trees now, over four months later:

Here, the Little Guy "poses" next to the Starkrimson Red Delicious apple tree. This tree, like most of the others, is now even with the top of the fence making it five feet high.  Five feet tall for a tree might seem small, but the dwarf-size is considered fully grown at eight feet. We're over halfway there!

Remember that Girls Night Out event I went to at Spring Bluff Nursery?  I used my 50% off coupon to get the Skyline honeylocust tree I had my eye on, and they installed it two weeks ago.  While it looks close to the house, the tree is actually 19 feet away and is sort of in what could be considered the central part of the yard (without being smack in the middle of the backyard).   It's as tall as the second story of the house, which makes me really happy. In a few years, this tree should provide some nice shade for the backyard and the house without interfering with the fruit trees or my perimeter garden.  

This tree joins the honeylocust the Big Guy won for me in the spring.  I think that as far as shade trees go, we're good in the back yard.  Perhaps years from now, when my gardening days are over, a third shade tree can be planted, but for now I'm quite happy with the two honeylocust trees.  May they grow strong and quick to shade our house and portions of our backyard!

I'm not done with fruit trees, though.  As I've mentioned before, I'll plant two more dwarf apple trees in the spring: Honeycrisp and Winesap.  In three years I hope to be swimming in apples.  I can hardly wait!

Honey honey

Did you know that September is National Honey Month?  I'm a big fan of honey, buying local and bees, so this is right up my alley. Honey is my preferred topping for toast, and since I'm also a big fan of toast, I go through a lot of honey.

This summer I was able to get my hands on several kinds of local honey.  I purchased this honey, from Lorence's Honey Bee Haven of Aurora, at Soup to Nuts in Geneva.  I'm almost to the end of the one pound jar, and believe it or not, I plowed through that in less than two months. THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE HONEY.

Next up is honey from the Cook-DuPage Beekeeping Association. This is a recent purchase so it's not open yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

Finally, I have a jar and bottle from my favorite beekeeper Dr. Ed Bell of Belfry Bees Honey. I purchased both at the West Galena farmers market here in Aurora.  Note to self: stop by there tomorrow and pick up some more!

This 2.5 pounds of honey is enough to last me through February, I hope.  And the great thing about honey is that it never goes bad, so stocking up can really pay off.  Since the Big Guy won't let me have a beehive, I consider myself very fortunate to have so many suppliers of local honey in the area. 

Celebrate National Honey Month by trying honey on toast or using it to sweeten up your favorite recipes. Find a local honey supplier here.  Happy honey-ing!

Manda Monday--Pinterest

Have you heard of Pinterest?  It's a great (free!) online program that works like a virtual bulletin board. Whenever you see something amazing online, whether it's an image, product, recipe or whatever, you can 'pin it' onto your board for future reference.  The location of the original info is saved, so if you pin a recipe for example, the picture and your comment stay on your board along with the web address for easy reference later.

The lovely Dora from Waubonsee Community College introduced me to Pinterest--"you'll love it!" she said-- and now I'm obsessed!  Any spare moment I have lately has been devoted to finding and pinning all the great ideas on the web that I want to save and refer to later.   You can make as many bulletin boards and pin as many things as you like. You can follow other people's boards for ideas, and people can follow your boards as well.

The Little Guy's birthday is next month and we're having a dinosaur-theme party. I've been using Pinterest to keep track of all the cool dino-party ideas I'm finding online:

I have boards for Halloween, kids' activities and crafts, recipes I want to try and more.  You can follow me on Pinterest here and see what I'm up to. 

Are you on Pinterest?  If you find lots of inspiration and cool ideas online that you want to save, then this application could be quite useful for you.  Happy pinning!

Found functional space

Sometimes, space is at a premium, and functional space is even harder to find. Sometimes, you have to create your own space.  Space with function.  Space with a purpose.   Last week, we did just that.

On the second floor we had a stretch of bare wall space between the kids' bedrooms and the bathroom.  That space was begging for a function so I gave it one: it's now the hoodie capital of the house. 

The Big Guy hung six hooks: three sports ball hooks for the Little Guy and three flowers for Little Miss. They are at the perfect height for little hands to grab a jacket and go.

My hope is that even though this area is not by an outside door, the kids' hoodies and tote bags will make their way here at the end of each day.  That way, when we are rushing out the door in the morning, tote bags and jackets are right there.  The kids can find what they need, grab and go. 

It is also my hope that this will help teach responsibility and underscore the importance of putting things back where they belong.  It's a very important space!

For now, the map is there just for kicks.  But later, once I allow them to venture out on their own and maybe even cross the street without me, they'll check this map to plan their trip.  Because the world is a very big space.