Fall 2011 Vegetable Garden

Last week, during the peak of that lovely cold snap we had, I planted my fall vegetable garden.  It felt so great to be outside, enjoying the beautiful weather and having my hands in the soil.  And I love gardening with Penelope.


Gardening is such a big part of me, I wish I had more time for it, or made more time for it.  I figure I have the rest of my life to grow plants, I will only have one window of opportunity to grow Penelope.

I usually do more plants, but I felt the urge to give my regular garden a rest.  It dawned on me, that I have been non-stop planting in it, since it was built and I decided it needed a little break.

Or maybe I just needed a little break. 

I planted broccoli and spinach.  This picture above is spinach, the very first picture is of broccoli.    

Penelope is a freak about broccoli!  She could eat a pound of it a day, and I swear it is because this spring she was so excited about watching them grow and harvesting them with me.

This little bed, used to be my herb garden.  It had gotten so overgrown and untidy looking, that it was driving me crazy.  So I pulled them all out earlier in the summer and it has been empty. 

I really liked planting in my herb garden, because it is so close to the porch.  While I planted, Penelope drew with chalk on everything, except her table with chalkboard paint.  

I had paint left over from when I painted the wall in my kitchen with chalkboard paint, and decided to paint her little table.  I am in love with chalkboard paint now and I wander around my house, looking for more things to paint!

Here is my 10x30 veggie garden.  I thought it would be a good idea to cover it, in order to kill some of the weeds.  The weeds are just getting worse and worse every year, I hope this at least puts a dent into my battle with weeds.  I am not sure what this stuff is called, its some eco-mesh-garden stuff that I got it Ace.  I am sucker for anything that says "green" or "eco-friendly", who knows if it actually works.  

In the past I have used pine straw and newspaper. Next spring, I would love to put a nice, thick, layer of mushroom compost down and restore the nutrients to the soil.

Did you do a fall garden?  How does your garden grow?

By Best Kids Health Blog

29 South, The Best Restaurant in Fernandina Beach, FL

If you are ever in the Fernandina Beach area, you MUST stop what you are doing and go to 29 South restaurant.  The food is Ah.Mazing.  But it is also the kind of place where you feel like you are getting good Karma by supporting it. They get their food from their own garden out back, or from a selection of local, organic farmers.

Fernandina Beach, is a place that is near and dear to me and my husband's heart.  We just love the town, it is on our very short list of places we want to live, if we can ever escape the death grip Tallahassee holds on us (I love it here, don't get me wrong, but we want to move the beach one day).  We also got married there in 2009, when I was very pregnant with Penelope.

Recently, we stopped by for a night, on our way to Savannah, to get a quick, celebratory, anniversary lunch in.   We went last year for our anniversary as well, hopefully, we can make it a yearly tradition.

This is their backyard garden.  How cute is that sign?  I need one for my garden.  Recognize that dress?  It's from her 1st birthday party.  One of my favorite things about pillow case dresses, is that they turn into perfect tunics as your child grows.

Using cement blocks, as a border, is such an easy way to make a garden.

Here is a picture of us last year, before we went to 29 South for dinner.  This was our 1st wedding anniversary.

And here we are at our rehearsal dinner.  So much fun.  I can't freaking wait till my hair gets that length again. It's been a year since I chopped it off as short as my husbands, never again.

This is the Chef on our Rehearsal Dinner night.  I can't remember who got him to take a picture with us. I was highly embarrassed at the time, but in the end, I am glad we have this shot.

Do you have any great restaurants in your town that have their own garden and support local farmers?

This Moment: Coming Up Roses!

My knock out roses have been hard at work this month.  They just recently finished their beautiful show.  But I love my back yard, when one plant is finished is onto the next one.  Their is always something beuatiful going off.  My Conferdate Jasimne is at its peak right now.

So on this Earth Day, I am trying to stop and give thanks for the amazing the bounty of the Earth.

We have about 7 bushes that are about 5 feet tall.  When we planted them a few years ago, they were so tiny, but they have done so well in their sunny spot.  I can see them straight out my kitchen window and its wonderful.

And oh, my sweet little Penelope is very into flowers these days too.  She loves to rip them off the plant and give them to me or her Papa.  We are working on "looking with our eyes" or "smelling" or "touching gently". 

Happy Earth Day to you!  And Happy early Easter!

Spring Vegetable Garden Progress

Spring gardening is well underway in the Cornais backyard.   Peter actually took off the day from work today and mowed, edged, weeded, cut back our butterfly bushes and lantana and put pine straw down. It's a miracle, I know.

Our organic veggie garden is 10x30 foot and encased by cement blocks.  Making a garden out of cement blocks was a good workout, but it was such a no-brainer, no planning or cutting wood.   Just line em up, nice and straight.  It's is the lazy mans option of doing a raised bed.

On the left side, we have collard greens growing.  They did so wonderful this winter, except they weren't the tastiest greens ever.  I took this picture before we left for vacation and they have now gone to seed.  That means the center sprouts ups and flowers and it seeds itself for next year and when that happens the leaves are really bitter and no good to eat anymore.  So I will rip them out soon and compost them.  I will give that row a little compost love to refurbish the soil and get it ready for peppers, eggplants and squash.

The other two rows are two different kinds of tomatoes,  broccoli and two different kinds of parsley.  I get my plants from a local farm called Turkey Hill.

Then we planted some seeds.  I have never bothered with doing seedlings and transplanting.  I sort of view my garden as a huge experiment an have no expectations at all.  So when something does actually grow and work out, its thrilling!

We planted some carrot and sweat pea seeds and lots of zinnias.  I let Penelope shake several flower seed packages, wherever she pleased, so it will be interesting to see what turns up. It was such a nice day in the garden, my Dad was in town and helped us.  Good memories being made in the garden.

My pretty collards.  They were much more visually appealing than they were tasty. Oh well, it's all in good fun.  I love that Penelope is at an age where she can be out there with me and playing in the dirt, that is all that matters.

Here are some other cool gardening posts from some of my favorite blogs:

10 Unique Gardening Activities for Kids

How to Build a Raised Garden Bed

So tell me what's going on in your garden?