Baby Birds

We have three bird houses in the backyard (and 2 more waiting to be hung up), but where do the birds decide to build a nest?

Under the bench on our vegetable garden.

We had seen birds start to build nests in the birdhouses, but then they stopped and we didn't know where they went. That was until we started playing baseball in the backyard. A bird would fly out from under the garden shelf whenever we would get too close while playing baseball, so I decided to take a look through the tall grass/weeds (yes the lawn needs to be mowed). I didn't see anything, so I figured the bird was just hiding out there or eating some great bugs.

On Saturday, Big Daddy mowed the lawn and while we were out playing baseball in the backyard, the bird flew out again, but this time it sat in the fruit tree yelling at us. I decided to look again and there was a nest with three baby birds inside. (Now looking at the picture, I think there are four.)

Baby birds thinking there was food coming. I forgot they were there and clunked a pot down on the ledge and they started peeping for food.

Waiting to bring food back to the babies. It is fun to watch the bird sneak back into the nest, always choosing a different route and looking around to see if something is watching.

Garden visitor

As I was watering my garden this morning, I noticed this cute little garden visitor.

He was on one of my hydrangeas. I think he was a little camera shy since he kept moving away from me.

This visitor on our sunflower was too busy to be bothered by the camera.

My mom came to visit this weekend and she weeded my yard. Yeah! We also picked 8 lbs. of blueberries. The kids were thrilled that Nana came to visit. Littlebit kept saying, "I like Nana" after she left. Now they want to know when she is coming back.

We also went to a nursery and they had hydrangeas 40% off. I looked for the Big Daddy hydrangea that I spied last year and didn't see it until we left. Big Daddy went back and bought it for me while we waited in the car. My hero!

Garden Tour

While making dinner last night, I went out to the garden to pick some vegetables and I decided to take pictures of the garden for a garden tour. Now our garden is not outstanding by any means. There are no awards here or people coming through for regular garden tours. It is a work in progress though and we love it. We started with some lumpy, bumpy, weedy grass and dirt and turned it to a lumpy, bumpy, weedy grass and plants. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I'm pleased with what we have accomplished so far.

Here is the hanging basket that I made from a flat of annuals from Fred Meyer. It has grown more than I expected. A hanging basket at the market was $35. I bought two flats of 48 petunias each for under $30. I filled two hanging baskets, one window box, two pots and used the plants to fill in bare spots in the front and back yard. We created the window box to give our neighbor something pretty to look at out her kitchen window. Her window looked at the side of our house and now that we have extended our fence and built a shed, it looks at the roof of the shed. I thought I would be nice and give her some flowers to look at.

Daisies. I love them along the back fence. I need to plant some more. They are mixed in with chocolate cosmos and behind a dahlia and peony. I want some more so I can have a cutting garden.

Sage. This was actually in a pot until last summer. I can't believe how much it has grown. Big Daddy wondered what I was doing when I planted it in the ground, but it blends well with the other plants around it.

Our first peach from our tree. There are about 4 peaches and 1 plum that I can see. Last year we had quite a few plums, but this is the first time we have had peaches. We thought we had placed the tree perfectly, but some of the front branches have died and the others are leaning over into the neighbors yard. We either need to turn the tree or train it to lean into our yard.

Our one lonely tomato. This one is a Roma. We have four plants, but only have a few tomatoes. I'm hoping for a lot so I can make tomato sauce and freeze it.

Our Walla Walla sweet onions. Some are doing better than others. The ones we put in the planting bed look good. The ones in the ground outside the planting bed have not done anything.

Zucchini. Lots of flowers, but no zucchini yet.

Our radishes that I think we left in the garden too long. They are a little woody.

Mmmm... Broccoli. Lovey is excited for steamed broccoli with Parmesan cheese.

Sugar snap peas. The ones on the back of the trellis did better than those on the front of the trellis. It was too hot for the ones on the front of the trellis.

Basil. I'm thinking pesto. Yum.

Lettuce waiting to be harvested. We have so much lettuce between our garden and CSA that I ate 3 salads yesterday.

I've never had so many blueberries. Some are even ripe already, but unfortunately they don't taste very good.

This is my Lady in Red hydrangea that is blue. Hmmm... I think I need to amend the soil. I love blue hydrangeas, but this one is not supposed to be blue.

I love this hydrangea. This poor plant had a large beam crash through it a few months after it was planted, but it bounced back beautifully. Blue hydrangeas are my favorite and this one, Endless Summer, blooms on old and new wood and blooms all year. We had hydrangeas and calla lilies at our wedding. I don't have any luck growing calla lilies.
The mock orange. This one was doing really well and even had flowers this year, but slowly the leaves are turning brown. I don't know what is wrong with it. Ideas?

The tomato plant in the black pot is looking sad. I don't think it gets enough sun.

Well I hope you enjoyed the small tour of my garden. Big Daddy designed it. I just add the flowers I like.

Working in the garden

Yesterday we worked outside in the garden. (Okay, so I stayed inside and worked on birthday party things.) Littlebit and Lovey helped Daddy (or Big Daddy as I will call him from now on, since that is his Wii name and I think it is hilarious because he is only half an inch taller than me). They took a planter that we received from my in-laws and cut it down to make two smaller planters. This still did not hold all of the strawberries, so we (Big Daddy) moved the rest to a big cauldron that used to hold raspberries. We got rid of the raspberries because unfortunately they didn't produce much. Maybe they didn't like the cauldron.

Before...

After...

Secret Dream Jobs

I have to confess that as of this moment I have two secret dream jobs. The first is to be a farmer. What?! I know, you'd think growing up on a farm where I helped hay in the summer this would not be a secret dream of mine, but I love growing my own food and picking it just before dinner and we do quite well. The spinach crop is wonderful this year. The lettuce is not doing so well, but should improve with the weather and maybe some compost. (Yes, one of our Christmas presents this year was a composter.) The zucchini should yield a nice crop again and hopefully we'll get a pumpkin this year. The onions, shallots, broccoli, and carrots are growing slowly, but the peas and beans need help.The strawberries have pretty much taken over the second bed and three of the four pots of blueberries look fantastic. (Now if I can just keep a little boy from eating all of the fruit, we'd be golden.) We've acquired a new huckleberry bush and the 4 combo fruit tree has fruit! All of these wonderful things have just caused me to dream of owning acres of my own fields with lots of vegetables, but the truth of the matter is that I never will. I will always stick to my little backyard garden, even if we buy lots of land. Why because I am kind of lazy. Lazy as in, I would much rather sit and read a book all day (which I have been known to do). I also don't like to get dirty. I don't like the feel of being dirty, um, gloves please. Even then I feel dusty and dirty, so I guess being a farmer will have to be a dream. My second dream job is to be a fancy baker and own my own shop. Now I have taken cake classes, but they are not anything amazing. I just wish they were. I wish I had tons of time to practice baking desserts and making fancy cakes. I also wish that I had the money and storage space to buy all the fancy things for baking (like the cupcake cake pan I am drooling over at Williams Sonoma - I just may have to use my Christmas gift card to buy it). My problem is that I can't cook or bake without tasting and heaven knows I don't need anymore sweets, nor do my kids who seem to move in fast forward. So again I leave this as a secret dream and hobby for when there is a need or time. It feels nice to have dreams.