In the Garden

Welcome to Hunter’s sand box.  Well, dirt box, really.  It’s in the corner of the yard behind the new grapefruit tree.  Just to the right of Hunter I planted a whole package of Morning Glory seeds.  Of course only one sprouted.

Hunter likes to play in the dirt and yesterday she was doing so happily while I walked around the yard pulling weeds and dead-heading flowers.  The Cosmos that re-seeded themselves from last year are really taking off:

And in a couple of weeks we are going to have a whole lot of tomatoes. 

Yesterday we enjoyed our first curved-neck yellow squash for dinner, and we’ve had a couple of arugula salads as well.  Arugula from your garden is way better than arugula from the store…

At one point during our time outside, Hunter comes running over to me yelling, “Momma! Momma! I have something for you!”  She stops in front of me, over-flowing with excitement, and says, “Put out your hand!”

Trusting fool that I am, I did.  And what did my two-year-old daughter drop into my hand?  A huge red and black fire ant.  Of course I jumped and danced and flung it off me…  all of which Hunter thought was highly diverting.

She then ran back to her dirt box and began looking for more ants.

We Have Citrus

 

In the last week we have been working on planting some citrus trees.  Here’s Hunter with our little Washington Naval Orange.  And yes, Hunter is not wearing any pants.

And here’s Hunter with our Oro Blanco Grapefruit…

We also planted a Haas Avocado and pulled every weed that has been prospering in our backyard since last September (about the time I decided I was too pregnant to bend over…).

Next week: flowers and vegetables!

My New Toy

Meet the EnviroCycle, my new composter.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some sort of recycling freak (all right, not too much of a recycling freak…), but I am infatuated with the idea of making my own compost.  The amount of organic waste we generate in our kitchen alone was enough of a motivator for me to try composting, and, originally, I was motivated by the stupidity of buying top soil for the garden.  Now that I’m into the whole process though, it occurs to me that one little EnviroCycle is not going to produce enough compost for the whole garden, but, well, it gives me something to do.

I haven’t actually made any compost yet, we’re still busy filling it with equal parts “green material” or kitchen waste like veggie cuttings, fruit peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc., and “brown material” like paper, shredded cardboard, and dead leaves.  The most helpful advice I’ve read about composting was that if the compost pile starts to smell, add more brown material, which is pretty much what I’ve been doing.  Of course, I read the bit about not adding fruit waste to avoid “flying pests” after I’d already been adding fruit waste, but, well, it isn’t that big of a deal.  (Yet, I’m sure.)

The EnviroCycle has a few interesting features.  First of all, it was inexpensive compared to other composters on the market.  It also has a self-contained easy-roll construction that keeps animals and kids (mostly) out of it.  You just open the door, add your materials, and give it a few spins every once in a while.  The base also serves as a reservoir for “compost tea”, the wet, nasty run-off from the composting process that is, by all accounts, a bad-ass fertilizer.  And when the composting process is completed the bin may be rolled off the base to the site you want the finished product dumped.

Am not sure how long the whole process is going to take, but, am quite enjoying myself.  It’s the little things, right?