Tomatoes and Compost

Last night our garden finally started yielding some tomatoes (other than the cherry size ones on the little tomato plant we have growing on the deck, which has been giving us tiny tomatoes for 2 weeks now). I was able to harvest one 'Cuore di Bue', one 'Stripped Stuffer' and one 'Old German' so far.

Our Marigolds have been growing like crazy in the garden as well. 

One side of my compost bin was ready, so I emptied it out yesterday and spread it out to cure some more under our peach tree. I love that we are slowly moving to being more sustainable, this is the first time I was able to harvest a large amount of compost that originated from our food scraps and yard and garden waste, and will now in turn feed our plants that will feed us.

Antonio's Nightstand

This year for Antonio's birthday I decided to give him a nightstand. But instead of just buying one, we decided to design and then build him one that he can hang on the wall up on the top bunk of his bed.

So I started out with a simple sketch, and then bought a piece of 1"x 6" x 6' pine.

The plain, uncut board was waiting for him with a bow on top in the living room among his other presents. He didn't know what to make of it when he saw it. Then he realized that it was somehow his present. His first guess was a diving board. When he found out that the wood was for him and I to make a nightstand together he got really excited.

 We made all the cuts, and put it together, using my Kreg Jig to make some of the joins as pocket holes.

Then we stained and sealed the wood, and finally hung it on the wall next to the top bunk of his bed.

Peaches

Our peach tree is growing nicely. The few peaches I left on the tree for is to taste are starting to ripen. 

Harvesting Broccoli Stems and Leaves

This morning we harvested  a few of our broccoli plants for their stems and their leaves, as we need their space for summer plants. I'm still leaving a few that are starting to form heads on them, in hopes that they can finish forming before warmer weather settles in. So we are going to use the stems to make  broccoli slaw to go along with the London Broil that I am going to grill for Julia's birthday.We will save the leaves to make broccoli collard greens.

Harvesting Radishes

This past Thursday we made our first real harvest at our new homestead in Philadelphia. We finally have some radishes coming in, so we had the kids go in the garden and check for radishes that were started to pop up out of the ground. They were very excited. Their friend, our neighbor heard us in the garden, so we invited her over to pick a radish to take with her as well.

Protecting from Cold Temps

Last night we had temperatures drop down into the mid to upper 30's. So last night before going upstairs I gave all the beds and potted plants a good soaking to help them handle the cold temps, and then brought out a few of our moving blankets to cover up the tomatoes that we were a bit more worried wouldn't handle the colder temps.

Kids in the Garden

This past week, we transplanted all of our tomatoes we had started in the basement in the winter. 13 different heirloom varieties. The kids all had fun helping, although we did have one casualty, our Marglobe tomato was accidentally snapped in half (I guess that is a risk when you have 2 year old garden helpers...).

The kids have also started their raised bed that I had built for them. Antonio transplanted his "Pizza Garden" and Julia Belén her flowers that she has been growing from seed in the basement. They were so happy to be out in the garden, I hope I can keep this spark of joy alive for them to cultivate for even their children as well.