Recycling is continuing to go great, with the family putting out by the curb no more than 1 trash bag per week (usually not full).

Our composter is complete, and I’m just waiting for the remainder of my tomatoes to rippen.  Then, I’ll be pulling those out to add to the new batch of compost.  Next, we’ll put down the finished compost in that area to prepare for our mid-Summer planting.

Thinking about waste, had me thinking about back to school shopping!  Being mindful that we’re halfway through Summer, the stores have already rolled out the red carpet for parents.

Here’s a few products of interest.  Check your local stores first, as some of these products don’t need to be purchased online! 

*Paper Mate EarthWrite Recycled Pencils – ‘Recycled’ includes the lead and eraser! Available at Office Depot

Or..  https://www.dixonusa.com/index.cfm/fuseaction=shop.product/prdIndex=64

*Crayons – https://www.dixonusa.com/index.cfm/fuseaction=shop.product/prdIndex=125

*Composition Notebooks – http://www.gaebler.com/EarthWise-100-Recycled-Composition-Notebook.htm

*Backpacks – http://www.terracycle.net/backpack.htm  or http://ecogear-products.com/ecozoo.html

(We evaluated the prior year’s backpack first.  Our daughter wants to reuse her cute messenger bag that she purchased from Target the year before.  It’s made of recycled materials, in a cute girly print and is still in good condition)

*School Lunches – http://www.snacktaxi.com/

(Don’t dismiss your local second hand shops!  I found a ‘Vera Bradley’ (I hear these things are $$$) for $2.99.  It’s an adorable medium sized bag with an animal (elephants, tigers, etc.) motiff, that our daughter can switch out with the one that she’s used the past 2 school years that is starting to have problems.

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” – William Blake

May-June brought heavy rains to our area.   The garden at the height of it, was over an ankle deep and stayed that way for several weeks.   This greatly effected my yield.  Still, I’m grateful to have a ‘harvest’ as modest as it is!  Peppers and tomatoes produced well.. and I still have several to pick throughout this next week.   We have a watermelon growing, a few cucumbers, green beans, strawberries.. this was a great experience, and we have a few ideas of ways to get through this Hurricane Season and protect my next crops from heavy rains!   The chief frustration was the several weeks, following the heavy rains, where I combated the onslaught of catapillars and grasshoppers invading every limb.   It took persistence in being present in the garden several hours a day, physically relocating these guys away.   The hard work paid off, as I maintained an organic garden for this first production.

Yep, that’s it.. a few rib bones!!  <high five> to our family for another excellent week of composting, recycling, reducing, and reusing!!  Are you up for the challenge?

New Spinach

Carrots sprouting

Lettuce looking sooo yummy! Hey, there's a random watermelon plant growing in there!

Dill

Green Beans

Green Peppers

Cucumber & Green Beans

Two adorable Zebra Finches adopted from a wonderful lady near us.   They are incredibly sweet and surprisingly very social with the family. 

Albert

Eleanor (right) and Albert (left)

all feelings that I have when I see my little family together.  It’s so wonderful to see my entire family curious, interested, and helpful in maintaining our little garden.  Whether it be watering plants, searching for crickets, plucking weeds and grass, planting seeds.. my husband’s gentle help and the inquisitive nature of my two children make me feel so full of love and appreciation for all of them.  They are so very special to me.. so thankful that my husband has a break from deployments this year.

Yay! Positive signs from carrot seeds planted last week

Lettuce really taking off in the pots

Pretty!

Tomatoe plants

Watermelon and Cantelope

Next to bloom..

Flowering Greek Oregano

Second row of beans

Marigolds

… in 3 minutes!  Nice!

See my link to learn how to build one at your home, if you have access to a barrel or drum that has not been used for storage of contaniments, etc.  http://ourvictorygarden.wordpress.com/rainwater-collection/

Lone Strawberry protected by an old orange bag

 Lots of great things happening.  Yellow flowers on ALL of the tomatoe plants.. 1 lone strawberry forming.. strong stalks on the peppers, cucumber, and green bean plants, lettuce coming along.. and signs of the seeds sprouting soon on lavender, dill, lemon balm.. peppermint thriving and growing.  The guys anxiously check the watermelon and cantelope on the other side of the house – nothing yet but we’re all hopeful!!

Flowering Tomatoe Plants

Cucumbers, Beans, and Marigolds

Thriving Peppermint

Spinach (right bunch has already been picked from.. couldn't help it!)

Caught this little guy today drinking the water droplets off of my lettuce

Scaley, our pond gator, sunning himself this morning

Liz Claiborne tank & American Eagle slingbag

We have one additional row of beans planted in the fenced garden.

In the newly tilled garden, we sowed a row of Watermelon seeds and a hill of Cantelope seeds.

As an experiment, we used our deepest and largest terra cotta pot and planted carrots!  

We’ll do a little more planting tomorrow.. Of course, his favorite part is helping with the watering, which will be even more fun once our rain barrel is installed (and full!)

Reusing the gorgeous butterfly and bird gift bags from our daughter’s birthday.   Today’s ‘gift’ for Teacher Appreciation Week was to be seed packets.  We thought it would be neat to give each teacher wildflowers that we grew from seeds in biodegradeable pots w/a  plant marker that said ‘From Caitie’.  (She has two teachers for her classroom.. ) 

The mystery seed doing really well!

Lettuces sprouting in all containers and almost ready to be thinned out

A tree is planted for every book printed!  (www.ecolibris.net)

Praise for “SAMMY & SUE GO GREEN TOO!“

“Go Green Too! was selected as the 2009 Book of the Year by New York Reads Together which is a program of New York Women’s Agenda (www.nywa.org). It is a city-wide book discussion based on the reading of one book, selected every year by this prestigious organization. The concept of New York Reads Together is simple—get everyone reading one book, and then empower New York’s families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, schools, educators, intellectuals, book clubs, congregations, and community groups to hold discussions with one another and express their thoughts about the book and its subject matters.” <– Sammyandsue.com

Endorsements:  http://www.sammyandsuellc.com/endorsements.phphttp://www.sammyandsue.com/

Either Spinach or Broccoli!

Mystery Seed! Can’t recall what I planted in this terra cotta container!

Lavender Rose bud

Tomatoe Plants

Strawberries

Spinach - The row seems to be doubling in size nightly!

Cucumber

Peppermint

Watermelon

In the ground today..

• Lemon Balm seeds
• Peppermint plant
• Lavendar seeds 
• Dill / Fernleaf seeds
• Chives / Garlic seeds

What’s sprouting?

• Watermelon 
• Green Beans
• Cucumber
• Lettuce & Spinach  (terra cotta planters)

New photos on the following pages:

‘What’s in Bloom’, ‘Nature Preservation’, as well as a few more of my favorite recipes on the ‘Essential Recipe’ page.

Tomorrow we get started on tilling the garden in the neglected landscaped area.. in between daughter’s game and daddy studying for an exam.   He has a study group coming over on Sunday (cookout afterwards), so it would be great if we can get the soil prepped and seeds planted before they come!  We’ll be extending it out slightly to account for the existing tree that will be staying.  Daddy picked corn, cantelope, carrots, and cukes for that area.. all good choices and his favorites!   We also have more Watermelon, Spinach, and Lettuce to sow which will hopefully keep us in supply being a week behind the ‘crops’ in the fenced garden.

*I also have another row of garden beans to sow in the fenced garden, now that the first row has come up nicely!  I’ll be removing one of my stepping stones to make room for it!

Rain water barrel should be delivered next week!  That will go next to the newly tilled area and connect into the gutter downspout neighboring that garden.  It’s been a dry week out here, so hopefully by the time we get it installed – we’ll get our first rain for May!

Today, while browsing the Target aisles, I came across hanging baskets that could accomodate several plants.  It *clicked for me that we had brought from Virginia a wrought iron planter from our colonial home which beared a white handrail across the front step.  Unable to find the brackets, I was so glad that the slots at the bottom of the planter sit perfectly across my fencing!  No zip strips or other fandangled modification!  My 6 inch pots (all by the way biodegradable! variety purchased on clearance for 50 cents each at World Market!!) fit perfectly in place and were adjusted to sit upright.  I know how added ’air’ space to my pots and am considering other ways (by use of zip strips as a possibility!) of securing a few more smaller planters to the posts (thinking of using those small ones  for various cooking herbs, chamomile, lavender, etc.)  That would maximize my ground space for our vegetables and fruits!

Yay!  Husband agreed.. it’s a great use of space and will zip strip the smaller planters for additional herbs!

This will be fanastic, leaving only my larger terra cotta planters outside of the garden fencing..

The entire family did a fantastic job of recycling or composting everything possible.  There’s only a scant amount of garbage on the bottom of our liner (mostly chicken bones from Sunday that I would otherwise put in the  compost if we did not back to an area with many nocturnal critters!)   So far, so good they have not tampered with the composter and let’s keep it that way!  I never thought our little suburban family could do it!  See my link to create your own composter for your home and tips on what can and can not be recycled.. and remember, many household discards can be donated!

Homemade Organic Fungicide/Insecticide/Fertilizer

2 oz. of liquid seaweed (kelp)
2 tbsp. baking soda
1 tsp. liquid hand dish washing soap
1 quart (litre) water

Mix the ingredients above and spray on your Roses, or other plants,
once a week.

Explanation
Liquid seaweed provides nutrients to keep the plant healthy
Baking Soda changes the leaf surface PH to Alkaline. Fungal
Molds need an Acidic base to grow
Soap helps the solution stick to the surface and acts as a mild
insecticide

Credit:  http://www.gardenwatersaver.com/15.html

Look what's sprouted!

Sharing some photos of some of the sprouting of seeds.. plus rows of transplanted spinach and broccoli seedlings really showing signs of growing.. !

Sweet Basil

Cucumbers sprouting

One of the transplanted Spinach seedlings taking off!

Transplanted Broccoli seedings taking off..

Tomorrow I’ll be harvesting from my ‘test’ planter of Mesclin Salad Mix!  If you’ve been to the house, you likely saw it!  It’s come a long way in the past 2 months despite it’s hurdles. This was my ‘oops’ planting and I sowed too many seeds, too closely together.  Adding insult to injury – I never thinned the seedlings and it’s first week was overwatered due to heavy rains while I was out.  Still, I have about 2 cups of very tasty lettuces!  With blueberries already on hand in the freezer, I think I’ll make a simple blueberry vinaigrette, to sweeten our dinner tomorrow night!  Not a huge yield.. but each family member will have a 1/2 cup each of greens fresh from our family garden..  with many more to come!

HOMEMADE BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE

1/2 cup fresh blueberries
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon onion
2 tablespoons good vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 – 4 tablespoons good olive oil

In a blender, whiz the berries, garlic, onion, vinegar and sugar until berries are liquified. Drizzle the olive oil through the top while the blender is running until the desired consistency and mouth feel are achieved. Serve drizzled over lettuce greens with fresh blueberries, peach slices and blue cheese crumbles.

Credit: http://kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com/2008/08/homemade-blueberry-vinaigrette.html

• Spinach
• Lettuces
• Broccoli
• Green Beans
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Green Peppers
• Green Onion
• Greek Oregano 
• Italian Parsley
• Sweet Basil
• Edible Flowers
• Berries
• Cantelope
• Wildflowers for indoor decorating
• *One hopeful Watermelon at my husband’s request

What we’re using…

• Organic Choice Garden Soil
• Organic Plant Food
• Homemade Pesticide solutions http://www.essortment.com/all/homemadeorgani_renu.htm
• Marigolds
• Composted Soil

What I’m working on..

• Planting of deterents that will keep ‘bad’ insects and bugs away, as well as plants that will encourage ‘good’ insects to call my garden home.. Great tips found on the below web link!

*Sheridan Nurseries Gardening Tips on Companion Planting –

http://www.sheridannurseries.com/GardenSite/subGARDENTIP25mainframe.htm

Selecting edible flowers to add to our produce, as well as color for the garden area:

http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

Getting my husband on board with constructing a few ’Upside Down Buckets’

http://www.minifarmhomestead.com/gardening/tomato.htm

Seeds sowed and Seedlings Transplanted

Terra Cotta planters now house seeds for Spinach and Lettuce

Greek Oregano

Green Peppers with cage in place when they're larger

Tomatoe Plants with cage in place

Have to include a close up of these fragrant roses!

• Dinner Reinvention
• Composting
• Love It! …  <– a new addition of my favorite places, products, and thrift finds.
• Green Tips That Worked For Me!

Others:

• What’s in Bloom?  – seasonal photos of flora from our garden
• Nature Preservation – photos from our backyard

The deck on our back porch has 4 existing benches.   This should be a great help in replanting or working with my containers!!

Crossing fingers that the movement and reflection from these butterflies, helps to keep the birds away!!

The gate and fence is secured in place.   He added in a garden quality soil to fill in the area where the sod was pulled from.  Stepping stones were added, in hopes that will give me versatility depending on where I plant everything!   He went ahead and freshly mulched the back area.  Because our area is home to many varities of birds, I’m adding in shiny movement in hopes of discouraging birds that may be attracted to the garden.   The fencing gives us the option of adding mesh if needed, if we have an issue with critters.  (Of course, that doesn’t help those that will be willing to climb over it!) Surrounding the garden, I have a few flowering bushes and 2 rose bushes (one that is in bloom now!) .  It back to the pond and has benches, and is in view of the dining room window where we can look out.  I thought it would be nice to be able to see the garden from the dining room, and have a better appreciation of our efforts to bring fresh vegetables to the table..

The area is tilled up.  He removed Saint Augustine from the area to use as sod in another area.  Leftover pieces of grass and soil will be tossed in the composter.  We used wrought iron (non permanent) fencing, purchased from Home Depot.  This type of fencing is available for purchase in sections, to allow for room to grow or reconfiguration.  We also liked that we were able to purchase a gate, as well as have the option of expanding.  Because we are renting, this type of gating is not permanent and can be taken down when we move. 

In the meantime, my son helped me with watering everything and moving our containers to the backyard to prepare for planting! 

We currently have tomatoe, green pepper, green onion, spinach, broccoli, lettuces, Italian Parsley, Sweet Basil, Greek Oregano.  To add color, the kids choose wildflowers for planters that will be staggered. 

In an attempt to reduce insects, we have marigolds and will stagger the basil on both sides of the garden.

I’ve also read online about Thai Lemon Grass, and may try that out to see if it helps any with mosquitos!! (Especially, since we back to a pond and preservation!)

Welcome to Our Victory Garden. 

A revival of ‘Victory Gardens’ in America roots back to the era of World War I and World War II.

During a time when our country needed to reduce stresses on food supply, it also brought an increase in community and civil morale.  

In current times, there are several reasons why the revival is steadily becoming mainstream:

• Awareness of our environment, source of the foods that we eat, and desire to reduce pollution and fuel by keeping as many products as possible ‘locally’ grown.
• Cost effectiveness, as food prices increase, during times of a recession.
• Health benefits of consuming foods that are not laden with chemicals and other toxins, as well as encouragement to cook more unprocessed  and nutrient quality foods.
• As a fun, family oriented activity where all members can participate.
• Working in a garden is a stress reducing activity

For all of the above reasons, our little family has decided to expand our ‘container gardening’ and  grow even more healthful produce.  Join us as we share in our experience, creating and maintaining our own… Victory Garden!