kinderGARDEN Thursday: 2010 award winners part 1

* borrowed from Kim because I just love this photo! Can it be one of our button choices next year, please????

Today was the much anticipated reveal of who won awards during the kinderGARDEN contest series, sponsored and designed by Kim at The Inadvertent Farmer. If you haven't gone and read her blog yet, get your clicking finger on the link I provide every week and get over there! She is awesome and who wouldn't love to read stories about a camel named Gizmo? (I think that's why I fell in love with her blog.) Anyway, back to awards. To read who won what go here.

Matthew and I are super excited because when we got to the next to last award we read this:

"*Finally there is the person that was most involved...the best cheerleader! About a Bug posted almost every single week. She was sweet enough to go and comment on other's posts all the time, her enthusiasm made me smile. So the cheerleader award goes to About a Bug!"

Oh my goodness, what an honor! Once again Kim, thank you so much for this incredible opportunity to grow stuff with my child, that I would have passed on this summer, due to us moving. I'm so glad that your contest tempted me so much that I just had to find a way to make it work for us. I mean, isn't that the way of the true gardener? Garden against all odds? Anyway, I'm super excited to try new things with Matthew next year in the garden.

A huge congratulations to Kirsten, over at Thanks for the Lemonade for winning best overall! I've gotten to know her a little better because she allowed me to send her purple green beans. I just love her blog. She truly had the kinderGARDEN spirit. The award is well deserved.

Two more of my personal favorite blogs won awards. Faith over at faith buss has the most delightful children that have "shopped" their way into winning the best veggie award. Cathryn at The Farrm, which has a truly wonderful garden (no matter what she says), won best reuse/recycle for making a teepee from old sunflower stalks! Lastly, but not least, My Freezer is Full won for best flowers. Go check them out as they have some awesome flowers over there.

Lastly if you are still with me, the people's choice award is still hanging out there. It won't be us, because we didn't make the cut, but still feel free to go and vote! Kim has assured us that she'll do this again next year. So if you have a child around, grab them and join in the fun next year!

What we've been doing so far this week

I've been hearing that there is a pumpkin shortage this year. To be on the safe side, Matthew and I stocked up.

We've decorated for Halloween.



We've been using up the last of the delicious apples.


Fresh apple cake.

Rosy applesauce, cinnamon applesauce, and apple cheddar soup. We'll be sad to see the last of the apples go...but to tell you the truth, I'm getting tired of applesauce.

More late summer fun

Sweet summertime.

Childhood memories

The 6th time I've tried to upload photos today worked like a charm, so here is a part of what I was trying to post today.




We're just trying to soak up all the good weather and fun things here before we leave! (Note: I climbed that very same chain thing and swing set from K-5th at 2 different schools. Watching him play brings back many memories and emotions.)

It was an insect summer

The last 36 hours

Friday morning Matthew and I drove up to Phil's, to help him pack and run to Powell Gardens one more time.




Last time Matthew and I visited, I didn't realize that you could go up in the grain silo. This time we did and what a view from the top. I just love the way the quilt block garden look from the air.

I've never seen vanilla fuzzy caterpillars before. Normally they are brown, orange or a mix, but this year they are everywhere.


It makes me wish I had a lily pad garden.

Later that night we went to hear Funk Syndicate play. I love that band! Matthew danced the night away and earned some awesome beads from the lead singer.

Today we loaded up and came home. When I was almost home, the clouds got bad looking. See that blue-greenish strip in the middle? It was really blue-green in person. It looked like hail.



Literally 1 minute later the wind was blowing rain pretty much straight horizontal. I couldn't even see out the windshield. The world had become black water. Then it started hailing hard. I have never been so terrified with Matthew in the car. I was finally able to see a driveway and pull off about 3 miles out of town. Going even 10 MPH didn't feel safe. I finally got home, no visible hail damage, but boy was I shaking when I got there.

I pulled myself together and we went to Matthew's favorite babysitter's wedding tonight. Bailey is a very special girl to us. We hope that she has a wonderful marriage.

What have all of you done in the last 36 hours?

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday dear Phil, happy birthday to you. Your son sure enjoyed blowing out your birthday candle.

kinderGARDEN Thursday: week 24

Matthew has watched me garden for as long as he has been alive. This year I wasn't going to plant a garden, because I knew we were going to move right after we needed to have the seeds in the ground. When Kim, at The Inadvertent Farmer, announced the kinderGARDEN contest, I knew Matthew and I would have to find a way. So we decided to try growing a salsa garden, in containers, so they could move with us. We also settled on a few extras, like purple green beans. We hurried up and ordered seeds.

Matthew planted every pot.

Soon after we set all our pots out on the porch for sunshine. That's when we discovered our year old dog wanted to drag them around and the year old cat wanted to dig in them.

We covered them with chicken wire. It didn't help alot, but the hot sauce did. Once we moved, we thought the pots were safe, only to have them overrun with little caterpillars that were killing everything! Awww, the joys of gardening.

For Matthew's birthday, a very good friend came to visit. Matthew showed him every single plant and had him sniff every single plant. Matthew had pride in his garden.

I talked to my co-workers enough about our attempts, that they both wanted some purple green bean seeds. Matthew and I happily gave them seeds. Then a fellow kinderGARDENer said she wished she had some, so Matthew and I sent some to her and her son. That was really fun. I love spreading the joy of gardening.

In one of the kinderGARDEN posts we were encouraged to let our kids take the camera into the garden. I was brave and let an almost 3 year old boy take photos.


He did a very great job. He came up with interesting views. I've let him borrow the camera more often since then.

While waiting for things to grow, which happened very slowly, if at all this summer, we watered.


Sometimes we recycled the melted ice in coolers, instead of dumping it.


We watered alot with the hose.

But when that gets boring, there is always watering through the hollow handle of the watering can.

We got to pick purple green beans (which turn green when they are cooked), peppers, and finally a tomato!

Later in the summer we planted more seeds; turnips, carrots, and radishes. One carrot is growing, turnips are going like wildfire, and I think the radishes are finally sprouting. We may have a fall harvest after all.

We planted hollyhock and poppy seeds, along with irises, in the spring. We planted more hollyhocks and irises in August.

We picked apples.

We picked them several times and finally learned how to can all that goodness we picked!

We picked pears this week. We have more tomatoes, peppers, and purple green beans coming on. This has us begging for a little more time, before Mother Nature sends her fall frost.

It has been hard to condense the last 23 weeks into 1 post. It has been a wonderful experience for both of us. I wish that things had grown better, but the weather and caterpillars were against us. Thank you so much Kim for inspiring us to make gardening work this summer. As we prepare to move again, I can only look forward to doing all over again, in a new zone, next spring. I hope there is a kinderGARDEN contest part 2 next year!

For the last wrap-up posts of the season, go to The Inadvertent Farmer. Do check in next week to see who won.