Thursday, June 3, 2010

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 8

This week Matthew and I, while at the library, found this Eric Carle book, The Tiny Seed. We have been having fun reading it, even though he looks bored in the picture.

Really the only thing of note that Matthew and I have done in the garden this week, is transplant our 3 garlic plants into bigger pots. I took a picture of it, but it was so boring I deleted it. Matthew had fun scooping dirt and packing it down. Other then that we are waiting for things to happen, killing tiny caterpillars that are determined to kill our tomatoes, and watering in between.

When I went to check on our old house's flowers, I discovered the strawberry start I had with some iris, had totally disappeared. So now I'm kicking myself for not watering more. Well, I was a little busy.

My Granddad, who has been gone for over 25 yrs, planted fruit trees around his house and 2 have survived. One is this apple tree that is covered in small apples this year.

The other is a cherry tree that is surrounded by weeds. Being choked by a jungle of weeds is more what comes to my mind. As you can see in the last week or 2, a very strong wind blew the top down. What is special about this tree, is it's 30 years old and was planted for me, my Granddad's little Annie girl. As I'm sure you can guess, this sight saddens me.

But look how good those cherries will be anyway. After all, 30 is old for a sweet cherry, or a cherry tree at all. Anyone have a great cherry drying process?

A glimpse of our front porch with the boy.

This week, I wanted to highlight some of the creative gardening talent that lies around our new house. This is just the alley space of one of neighbors behind us. The front is fabulous, but I haven't worked up the courage to go take photos yet.

One of our next door neighbors has a fabulous yard. She has worked hard making it rich with flowers and veggies. Here is the view of her garden shed from our back yard. This garden is special because it's all volunteer from her compost heap. She had a man till the compost into the garden and hundreds came up. I was amazed! I can't wait to see what grows.

Since I slightly know her, I've gotten permission to take photos of her yard whenever. A plant on her porch.

She called Matthew and I over to look at something special in her fern today.

Baby finches. They were precious.

I like the way the hollyhocks and the red flowers play off each other.

Blooms from a catalpa tree. They smell so sweet and look so exotic.

A volunteer squash starting to grow.

Hope you enjoyed our neighborhood tour! See you next week.

Here is the link to The Inadvertent Farmer's week 8 post.

14 comments:

Angela said...

Thanks for the tour; I didn't know that catalpa trees bloomed so thanks for sharing that bit of information with photo :)

Auntie said...

Wowie. You live in a veritable garden of eden.

Sara said...

I have dried pie cherries before and was glad to find something to do with the multitude of them on a good year that doesnot involved a heap fof sugar. I left the cherries on the tree as long as I dared. For some reason the birds don't feast on the pie cherries the way they do on the sweet cherries. When the fruits were dark red and starting to fall off on their own, I picked, washed, towel dried them, pinched the seed out, and layered them on dehydrator trays. They shriveled and dried into delightfully sweet little morsels you have to be careful not to eat to many of. If we ever get any sun, they would sun dry quickly I think. Late frosts here, probably not a great cherry year...

The author said...

Thanks Sara! I was leaning towards using the dehydrator.

Cathryn said...

The bird nest was such a great find!!

Catalpa tree! I would live to see a wide view of it! Our favorite book "Laddie" by Gene Stratton-Porter has a Catalpa tree in the front yard of the home.
It is a great book to read aloud to the whole family.

We love volunteers--the only truly free lunch!

Mom said...

I love seeing the world through your eyes and the neighborhood tour was lovely!

The author said...

Thank you for the kind words Angela, Auntie and Mom. Cathryn, I will try and take a whole tree picture today.

Anonymous said...

You could start a new tree from the seeds. Is it a hybrid?

Jenny said...

When do we get to see pictures of the new house?

The author said...

I don't know if the tree is a hybrid, but I rather think not. It has many seed pods and I would think that it would grow baby trees in given a chance, but I've never tried. Are people wanting seeds saved for them?

As for pictures of the new house, I'll try to work on that!

Anonymous said...

I mean plant a new cherry tree from yours.

The author said...

Ohhh, well, I don't know about that tree either, but it'd be fun to try anyway wouldn't it!

faith buss said...

We moved here a year ago and had a baby a week later. Highly distracted as I was, I didn't notice any fruit bearing trees on our property. This year we discovered a plum, a peach and an apple tree! I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! So I've been reading up on it. Can't wait to harvest the fruit!

The author said...

faith buss, What fun! I wish I had lots of fruit trees. Someday... :)