My Mother's Garden

My parents have taken their annual trip to Japan to see their grandchildren. As they are like many people I know, they run out of time to get everything done around the house and yard before leaving. Sound familiar? As this was the case again for this trip, Mom asked me if I would be willing to go out and harvest some stuff from her garden "so that the birds won't get all of it." So I drove out last night and harvested some items.

rutabaga, carrots, butternut squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, raspberries, zucchini and a LOT of basil

So it would appear that I will be canning tomatoes, making pickles and pesto, and most likely a LOT of zucchini bread.  This is why I say a LOT of zucchini bread:

The fork is for perspective, it is a full size dinner fork.

My Excuses for Not Posting Sooner, aka An Exercise in Hyperbole

This was a note sent to a dear friend, which outlines how things have been going as of late.


Hello, beautiful friend!

As usual, time is flying by.  I feel like everything has gone off the rails, and I don’t know what I can or need to do to get everything back on track.  Bet you know what that feels like.

Here’s a round-up of what is going on in the life of the crazy girl in Minneapolis….
Weeds have taken over the back yard, and I am worried that they will never leave, even if I pull them out.

The lawn hasn’t been mown in two weeks, and is now a strange combination of tall green weeds and brown dormant grass.


The garden is good – tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers are all doing well, the herbs are ridiculous. The bunnies have finally left the kale alone, so maybe I will be able to harvest that.


The laundry keeps piling up.  I swear that I will start going naked just so I don’t have to wash any more clothes!  And there are only two of us!!!!!! And it never seems to be fully put away. There are piles everywhere!


The dog-fur tumbleweeds and dust bunnies have taken over the living room and bedroom.

There is mail all over the dining room table – and most of it is not mine, but the majority of it is junk.

For some reason, the dishes in the kitchen have yet to figure out how to open the dishwasher and jump in. I have been trying to teach them this for 6 years.  Boy, are they dumb! So they just keep piling up and making more little dirty dishes.


The bathroom is in desperate need of a good thorough cleaning. DESPERATE NEED.

All the floors need to be swept and mopped, and the rug in the living room has enough fur on it to make another dog.


The hedges need to be trimmed again – and again and again and again.  Troublesome things.

The garage needs to be cleaned and straightened, but there is a motorcycle right in the middle blocking EVERYTHING, and has been for two years.


Both cars need to be washed and vacuumed out.  Ick.

I still have not put away the suitcase from the last round of tradeshow travels.  But it has only been 21days.


Oh, and it is HOT outside.

Does any of that sound familiar?  I’ll bet it does.

Missing you and your lovely family.  I need some friend time.  And I have a present for your lovely daughter for her birthday.  Here’s hoping that we can hook up soon, as you are WAY more important that anything that I have on my list!  I hope you are having a wonderful day, and will have a wonderful weekend, too!

XOXOXO

Sonya

Vegetable Garden - aka Bunny Salad Bar

bunny paradise

This is the first year that I have decided to grow more vegetables in the back garden.  I moved the herbs, except the thyme and chives, to pots to grow so that I would have room for veggies.  I planted more tomatoes (with the hope of canning them or making salsa, or both!) and more peppers, too.  And this year, two of the three lovely trellis will have beans and cucumbers!  The middle one will have the pretty sweet peas that my husband insists upon (nitrogen fixer - yep, I married a biologist!).  Along with those, I have garlic, onions and some little lettuce mixes, and kale!  Yay kale!

It's funny - this seems to be the year of the pots.  In addition to the herbs in pots, I started some strawberries in pots, too.  Those cute little ones with the openings on the side that you can put the stringers into as they grow.  The plants have lots of little green berries ripening.  I hope that I can beat the birds to them!

All of this growing stuff leads to troubles with bunnies. They seem to believe that I planted all of this JUST FOR THEM!  And they graze and nibble with impunity - IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!  Oh, if I could run faster we could have a wonderful herb-y bunny stew.

The trouble is, I am frustrated and angry when they eat my food, but my big, soft heart thinks they are really cute.  I can't win!

Rainy Blessings

Oh, life is good in the garden! We have been receiving some nice rain over the course of the last couple days.  And we have been fortunate enough to not have any of the severe storms and possible tornadoes that they were predicting. 

Now the weeds will be easier to pull out of the ground in anticipation of planting the more sensitive plants. Even though this spring has been extremely mild, I am not going to put things like tomatoes and peppers into the garden until after Mother's Day, or maybe even mid-May, as that is our latest frost date. They are doing well inside the house, and should be ready to go into their garden home by then. Call me chicken for not taking the chance, or call me a true Minnesotan, I just don't want the plants that I nurtured so long to be damaged by my own foolishness.

The Golden Hour

I normally do not consider myself to be much of a wimp. My brother and I came from sturdy Swedish peoples, who eventually made Minnesota home. We are tough and hardworking. We are loyal. We don't talk a lot about our feelings. We don't complain about the work of the day, we get it done and move on to the next task.

Apparently, this description applies to everyone but me.  I want to whine about mowing the lawn last night. The bugs were really bad! The lawnmower made me smell like exhaust. I was sore last night, and stiff this morning when I got up. I sneezed - A LOT! And I got sweaty.

And I loved every single second of it.

This isn't my golden hour, but it sure is pretty.
Image Credit Flickr User Axel-D

I mowed long, straight lines in the grass. I mulched up old leaves from last fall. I noticed the places that I will need to give a little extra attention to - a little more water from the rain barrel, or a bit of over-seeding to bring it back up to snuff. The wonderful sweet smell of freshly cut grass. The droning noise of the mower which seems to ease my monkey-brain into dropping the stresses of the day, a meditation of sorts. And knowing that I can indulge myself when it is done - a tall, cool drink in the golden hour, enjoying the silence of my lovely backyard. Planning my garden.