Why? Why do I kill plants?

One of the mini-goals that I set for myself in 2013 was to keep a house plant alive.  Sort of as a pretest to myself for gardening this year.  If you will remember, I tried to garden last year and pretty much failed.  Brad keeps saying I can blame "The Drought" and blame him for not helping, but I really think I am cursed when it comes to growing plants.  And its such a shame, since they are my favorite things to eat.  I have read a few books all about families who grow their food for the year in their own yards and these people amaze me (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Quarter Acre Farm).  I could totally eat the food they eat and be perfectly happy, I just suck at growing stuff.  

So, it delighted me when all the fun design blogs and modern home furnishing stores were pushing succulents this year.  I mean, they are related to cactuses and cactuses have got to be hard to kill, right?  Plus, I just think they all have such a unique look to them.  I had a gift card to Campbell's from my loving brother and the adorable hanging pot from Valentine's Day, so I set out to meet my mini-goal.  Once at Campbells, it was very hard to choose a plant.  They were just adorable and tiny and they each seemed to have a personality.  Weird, I know.  So instead I picked 4.  I put one in the hanging planter and three in this cute little bowl.  And I was in love.  I have been giving them a little water every week or week and a half.  They seemed happy.  Then today, I noticed that the tiny guy in the front was looking all wilty and squishy and weird so I kind of played around with him and he just mushed right off of his roots. Casualty number one, and just a few weeks in.  I really don't want to lose the rest of my new friends so I have been doing a little research and the problem is either over-watering (I kinda doubt that one) or improper drainage.  So I think I will look for a new home for the remaining 2 friends and resume eating cereal out of this bowl.  Maybe put him in more direct sunlight as well.  Fingers crossed that I can salvage the other 2.  The one in the hanging pot in the bathroom seems to be ok so far, but I probably just jinxed him...

Garden inspiration (via what else? Pinterest.)

Isn't that just a perfect garden?  This is how I would like for my garden to look...eventually.  Maybe when I am a little bit better at gardening.  Like, when stuff actually grows and I don't kill it.  I planted things about a month ago.  Maybe a little less.  Things like tomatoes, jalapenos, Brussels sprouts, rainbow chard, zucchini, carrots, lettuce, spinach, kale, peas, sweet peppers, basil and cilantro.  Some of the things that I planted as plants are looking ok, but the things I tried to start from seed are disappointing me.  I have friends who are already eating salads from their gardens, and they didn't plant much earlier than I did.  Its the curse of my black thumb.  But I won't give up.  I will plant another garden this week if I have to.  On a happier, plant-related note, my mom and I spent some time with the strawberry patch today and it is doing very well.  Lots and lots of little green strawberries that will be ready to pick in the next few days or so.

Picture and recipe here

And also related to food, Willa and I made these muffins the other day.  She is a big fan of cracking the eggs when we bake together.  The muffins were very tasty and incredibly easy, with common ingredients that you probably already have in the pantry.  They don't require you to grow anything from a seed...Can you tell that I am a little frustrated with my own lack of gardening abilities?!?

Growing things again

Willa and I started off the planting this spring!  I am so horribly bad at growing things, for a number of reasons.  Mostly, I forget to water them.  And sometimes its not so much forgetting, as just being kind of lazy.  My hopes for our new home, and all its space to grow things, is that I will improve each year.  Last year's garden was small, and not everything worked out, but it was an ok start.  We had lots of basil and lettuce and squash.  I thought maybe this year we would plant more garden space, but when I got really honest with myself, I realized that I better take another stab at my little garden.  So after today, my little plot of garden soil is planted.  Tomatoes, basil, Brussels sprouts, bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, carrots, kale and peas.  We'll see how it goes.  I'd like to do a few more tomato plants and some cucumbers, maybe a few more types of herbs but first I want to make sure that what I planted today lives.  No sense in killing even more veggies.  Willa picked out the pretty pink flowers that we potted.  She is quite good with plants.  Maybe my plant-killing-genes skipped a generation...

In unrelated news, today was Easter (pictures to follow).  The church service at Southpointe Christian was beautiful.  Powerful sermon, great music.  If you don't know, Brad plays drums with the music team at our church.  Willa was very well behaved, which hasn't happened since she was a tiny infant who couldn't walk or talk.  Maybe I have unrealistic expectations for her, but I don't take her to the nursery, nor do I bring along all kinds of toys and distractions.  I expect that she should be able to sit, fairly quietly and draw or look at a book, or maybe even listen.  I'll give her credit for trying, but some weeks she is just a bit more challenging in church than I would like.  Last week was one of those weeks.  Right after the first round of songs (when it was quiet) she asked me loudly if I needed to go to the bathroom.  Kind of embarrassing.  Then, as the communion tray was being passed (also a relatively quiet time) she asked me if the communion wine was "the kind of beer that daddy likes?"  Hmmm.  Thanks Willa.  And that is why we generally sit in the very back row.

Loads of Vitamin C

We recently harvested the last of the 2011 inaugural garden.  They were some mighty tasty carrots.  Kinda funny shaped, but delish.

Carbon and nitrogen decomposing stuff, just for turning 31?!? Yes, please!

I have always thought that birthdays are just too short.  I mean, its a big deal that you were born, right??? And there are 365 days in a year?  Why not take at least a week to celebrate your birthday?  Maybe not every minute of the whole week, but I do like to plan a few special things for myself during my birthday week.  The very beginning of my celebration was a gift from Brad of a new bike!  I won't elaborate on it too much, as I don't have pictures of it yet, but will soon.  Then came the bummer...I got sick and couldn't go on my big bike ride with Katie that we had planned weeks ago.  We were going to take the MoPac trail to Eagle (and beyond) but I got the crappy summer cold that was floating around.  So did Willa.  So, I spent the weekend working and sleeping and not riding my new bike.  On Tuesday, we had a little get together at our house, as my cousin Debbie was in town for the night on business from Denver.  It was a very nice time, complete with lots of pizza, desserts, and wine.  Thursday, the actual day of my birth, we enjoyed the farmer's market at Fallbrooke, and then dinner and drinks at Toast, which is quickly becoming my new favorite place to eat/drink/have coffee and muffins.  They have a fantastic veggie burger.  And fried pickles.  And Summer Shandy.  We get to cap off the birthday week tomorrow night with a pool party and BBQ with friends.  Willa wants to try the diving board for the first time!  Many, many thanks to those of you who participated in Allison's Birthday Week.  It was very enjoyable.  I am now well into my 30's.  Eek. 
You may be wondering why a post about my birthday started off with a picture of Willa standing next to a really cool looking tumbling composter.  You are so observant!!  That was my other gift from Willa and Brad.  I was not expecting it at all, but really did need one!  I have a little research to do on the proper proportions of the compostables, but I am looking forward to enriching my garden soil.  When we first moved into our new house, I ordered a small counter top composter from OXO, and I love it for collecting my cooking/kitchen scraps.  Now I have a place where I can dump it!  Thank you, Brad and Willa!  I know it just kills Brad to buy gifts that he doesn't think are "fun."

Tasty treats...from the yard!

Thought I had a picture handy of the raised bed garden that we planted right after we moved in to the mini-farm, but can't seem to find it.  So, here is a picture of the first thing we were able to "harvest".  And when I say harvest, I mean that I picked them while Willa destroyed parts of the plants in an effort to...help?  We can't take any credit for the strawberry patch, as it was already planted and in full production mode when we moved in.  It was so much fun to go out and grab a few berries and rinse them and eat them while they were still warm from the sun.  Hopefully next year we can take advantage of the full season and maybe I can even attempt to make something with my strawberries, even if its just to slice them up in some strawberry lemonade.  Man, that sounds really good right now.  Today was a scorcher. 

As for the garden, we decided to try out a few things as neither Brad nor I had ever had our own garden.  Historically, I have been really bad with green, growing things.  I have killed some really beautiful plants in my day, but I think the fact that Willa is still alive and healthy and growing has given me some confidence in my ability to have a garden.  Working in the yard, and picking veggies straight from our own dirt is something that I want Willa to associate with her childhood when she is older.  Our garden is not big, I think its measurements are something like 5x10 maybe?  We built a nice box, dug it into the ground a bit, and brought over wagon loads of soil from the old garden.  Then we bought some organic seeds.  Corn, spinach, leaf lettuce, carrots, kale, tomato plants, basil, and zucchini squash.  So far, everything is looking good!  We put up a nice little chicken wire fence but some sort of evil creature still managed to eat all my spinach.  I may try to replant it and set up some sort of surveillance system to catch the rascal.  We have used lots of the basil, it happens to be tied for first place for my favorite herb (along with cilantro).  Willa and I even sampled the leaf lettuce, even though its still small.  Can't wait for the first tomatoes to be ready!  Then, all I will need is a mozzarella plant and I can eat caprese salad every day and be happy as a clam!  Fingers crossed for my little garden.  If it goes well, I plan to build at least 2 more identical beds for next spring and try lots more plants.