Garden Update and the Beach

Everything is growing! You'd never guess it's February by the looks of the garden. We have sprouts in the raised bed, buds on the Maples and even the fruit trees are starting to flower...weird! But that is the way of the world it seems. Everything is a bit more extreme. Extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme snow. (my sister lives in RI and they got 24" of snow) thanks to Nemo!

So here are some pretty new pics of our raised bed: 

 Aren't these the sweetest, tiniest tomatoes ever? Just love them! We check them every day and are so proud!

 This is the 'Momma Tomato': my 8 year old named it! He is dying for her to start to turn red!

 We have some radishes that are getting fat at the bottom...cool!

 Lovely lettuce...coming in nicely!

 This is a snowball tree (don't know the actual name for it).  It is in full bloom and quite beautiful!

 These are some quick little birdies. They come in droves to the feeders and love the purple Beauty Berries and Barbados Cherries.

 Love these...they are my happy porch flowers where I drink my coffee in the am!

 and the Sedum is starting to bloom too!

The garden is lovely this time of year and we spend most of our time outdoors! Yesterday it was crazy windy and overcast a bit...so we took the kids to the beach! Love beach days like this.

Look at those clouds.

Man-o-War everywhere.

We found some beach art!

 

We had a blast.  Found tons of sea glass and beach pottery while exploring the rocks and shells!

Hope everyone had a great weekend too!
Casey

Fun in the Garden

It's January. January and it's 81 degrees today. Man.
Welcome to Florida winter...my husband calls it Swinter. (thank you, Phineas and Ferb)

Don't get me wrong- it is stunningly lovely out today. My littlest munchkin and I went to go check on our garden. We planted seeds and some potted things last weekend...and we wanted to show you all the progress!

This is our cat Jaffe. She is 20 years old- not sure how ancient that is in cat years...but she has been with me pre-husband...pre-children...pre-marriage.  Let's just say we have been together a LONG time!

Let's take a peek at the raised garden bed:

This year we planted some lettuce...marigolds all around the garden- and sprinkled in some herbs here and there.

These are Brusselsprouts. Not sure if they will actually grow this far south...but fingers crossed. I thought it would be really neat for the kids to see how they grow.  Both the boys help wash, cut and prepare them when we cook them. And they actually EAT them too! (I make them with cranberries or dried cherry bits- and almonds...yummm) So this will be GREAT if they grow!
oh...and behind the brusselsprouts are radishes.

 Look at all of them.  The boys will help thin out when it's time! We mixed in some flowers too- as they boys like to see bugs and things...figured it was a good way to get bees to visit the garden.

 We planted 3 varieties of tomatoes. We eat them right off the vine- sooo good.

I have never used boxwood basil- but it's quite tasty.  We had some quinoa a few nights back and I threw in a handful of the boxwood...good stuff!

I believe some of these are bush beans.  They did great last year- and the boys eat those right off the plant too. Not sure what those tiny seeds are in the foreground. I tried to keep the planting orderly...but they boys were super excited.  I am afraid our garden might have a few surprises this year! hehehe

Kitty stopping for a scrub.  She follows us all around the yard. Keeping an eye on things I suppose!

There she is again- next to the butterfly bush. It was bursting with purple not so long ago.

This is a new little area we grouped together, I sit out on a chair and read my kindle while the boys run and play.

Lastly, some oregano we dug out of the garden and potted. Mmmmm.

 Tage painting out on the patio...he loves his new easel!

That's it. Our yard in a nut shell! 

Thanks for visiting!

Flowers in the Garden

It's Sunday- and a beautiful sunny day here in south Florida.  I went out and took some pictures of our blooming sunflowers and zinnias! They are gorgeous!!!

We got a mixed pack of Sunflowers- some have multiple blooms on one stem- and the colors are awesome! 

 And the Zinnia's we got as a free pack from Moonlight Micro Farm  I let the boys just sprinkle them about in the garden box- and see what came up....we are happy!!!
 

 They are sooooo bright and colorful!

Whoa!

 These are so sweet and small- they are tucked in under the towering flowers! We find lots of lizards in our garden box! And the boys are always adding worms they find from around the yard.

 See the munchkins in the back...they were playing with little plastic butterflies- pollinating flowers!

That's the garden for now- maybe later I will run out and take some picks of the Royal Poinciana Tree that is in full bloom out in the front yard! 

Hope you all are out enjoying your Sunday!
~Casey

Gravy from the Garden

Happy Friday!
It is a gloomy day here in South Florida- the clouds are just hanging with grey.  But we need the rain! I have been watering the garden almost every day- as we just planted some new veggies. 

cucumbers

dill

crazy lettuce

 Sweet corn, purple kale, lots of strawberries, cherry tomatoes...and some sunflowers the boys wanted to randomly plant! Should be an interesting next few months!

more crazy lettuce

our lovely tomatoes

sweet corn- so tiny still

strawberries

 The strawberries are going to have a hard time growing to full size- as my littlest kiddo keeps picking the baby red one's off and popping them in his mouth. We have to work on our patience!







fruits of our labor:
This is some homemade pasta 'gravy'- as I was taught by my very Italian friend, was the only correct way to call that red stuff you slather all over pasta....who knew it wasn't called sauce???

gravy cooking down

So- yes...this is the 'gravy' I made a few nights ago, mostly from our backyard garden! We have some lovely heirloom tomatoes, basil, parsley, oregano...and i added my store bought onions and garlic (I am planning on doing garlic in the box at some point- apparently it's pretty easy to grow) and I made meatballs.  My kids LOVE meatballs.  So I make little Dutch meatballs to make them happy!

finished gravy- yum

 Not to shabby- if I do say so myself! My kiddos are even starting to like a little red pepper flakes mixed in! yea!!! We scarfed this batch down in 1 night and lunch the next day.

We are truly loving the back yard garden experience.

~Casey