Sunshine... How We Love Thee and Oh How We Need Thee!

Our garden is starting to look like a garden again, and this makes me very happy! Due to the cold weather we were having, the seeds we planted a while back all went dormant just after they sprouted. They just sat there for weeks waiting for the sun to show up. Judging by the sudden appearance of shorts and flip flops this week, I'd say we were all ready and waiting for those warm, golden rays.


Our mason bee haven

Our mason bees were waiting too. Now they're happily buzzing about our garden, going in and out of their house, and building their little mud nests. I'll have to convince Michael to write a post explaining all about the interesting factoids he recently learned about mason bees.... I can't possibly relay the information with the level of clarity and accuracy that he can.


This is the box that the chickens got
into. Almost time to start thinning
those radishes in the front.
 

Unfortunately the chickens dug up our sunflower sprouts and a portion of our lettuce/arugula/spinach patch. We've since covered just about everything with bird netting and are hoping this will do the trick.

The lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels that we started indoors spent several days basking in the sun this week. Once we were convinced that they had successfully acclimated to the outdoor temperatures, we planted a whole bed of the brassicas and two rows of lettuce beside our asparagus patch.



I know it sounds a little morbid, but
these potato trenches kind of look
like baby graves.

I dug several trenches in one of our backyard beds and planted four varieties of seed potatoes. Three of the varieties were from "fresh" seed potatoes that Michael picked up at the feed store. I planted one row of Yukon Gold from what we had left from last year's harvest. It's a sort of experiment to see if there's any difference between the "fresh" stuff and our own leftovers.






Thanks to our investment in that handy, dandy Jiffy Greenhouse, we ended up with way more plant starts than we needed. We're going to try selling what we have left to our neighbors. But, Michael and I have to agree on a price first....

-Trisa



Dreaming of Goats, Again.

Almost exactly two years ago, we fell in love with the idea
of goats during our cheese-making adventure at Monteillet.

Yesterday, I was in the side yard working diligently to keep the chickens contained when a neighbor stopped by with an "unusual question."

She wanted to know if we'd ever thought about getting goats. At the moment the question was asked, I didn't know that this was a neighbor. It was the first time we had met, so I guess in that sense, it was a curious sort of question.

Anyone who knows us well knows how much we'd love to have goats.

I said, "As a matter of fact, we have considered getting goats. But, unfortunately it's not allowed within city limits."

She went on to talk about how she's thinking about fighting the city on the matter and how some guy fought Seattle and won, so maybe something like this could happen in Lynnwood too.


Our baby ducklings back in 2009

I told her how much we would love to have goats, but that I wasn't sure that we were ready to fight for it. The funny thing about all of this is that I actually had the thought the other day that we could probably get away with having a few goats.... after, all we had chickens before they were legal....

As we talked, we soon discovered that we had quite a number of things in common with this neighbor.


Our ducks weren't meant for a life in
the suburbs. Our survivors, Bonnie
and Wi-Fi, exchanged their
kiddy pool for a life of
luxury at Lake Ballinger.

Her family had chickens long before they were legal too.
And they had ducks too, just like we used to.

Before she left, we exchanged contact information. I'm not sure if we'll join her fight, but sooner or later we'll get our goats!

Now, I'm missing our ducks and dreaming of goats.

The Great Debate

I would love to do something like this in our front yard someday!
I can just see our nieces and nephews running around
 this awesome maze.

Yesterday, Michael and I ventured to Mount Vernon with our good friend Jeffrey for an incredible day at the tulip fields. Captivated by the blankets of color, I began to imagine new possibilities for our garden.

And then it happened: the great, seemingly endless debate about how to plant our garden beds. This debate has been going on for several years now, and Michael keeps winning.

While wandering the beautiful display gardens at Rozengaard, poor Jeff had to endure our bickering.

I love, love, LOVE how our garden beds become full of life and color in the spring and summer. But, I'm not so fond of the dead, lifeless, brown beds during the winter.

I've been trying to convince Michael that there's a way to plant that will satisfy my need for year-long color. He argues that planting anything other than our fruits and vegetables will only reduce our crop production.

I'm not convinced.

What do you think?