Success and Failure

First the success! Check out these awesome strawberries! All red and delicious. We haven't actually eaten any yet. We're waiting until they get a bit bigger but they look awesome.

And check out the tomatoes! There are dozens of them that are still green. These are the only ones that are red now but soon we'll have more than we know what to do with. If you need any tomatoes in a few weeks, just holla.

So now the failure. Our cantaloupes were coming along so well when we noticed that the larger one was attacked. We covered it with a crate but even still this happened:

The plant was dying anyway so looks like we didn't have any luck with that plant. Everything else is growing so well though.

And last I'll leave you with this creepy little dude. I think the creepiest part is that he's looking right at the camera.

It's a blooming miracle!

I have never grown a single thing in my life but back in May I decided to test my thumb for greenness and plant some seeds. It seemed to go very slowly but finally things started to bloom and now we're actually fruiting!

As you can see, the Topsy Turvy things have gotten out of control. You can barely see the one on the top right!

The strawberry vines are almost to the floor and the lowest part of that planter is probably around 5' high.

We planted 3 types of tomato and in all the transplanting to bigger containers, we've sort of mixed them up. So here are some pictures of some tomatoes that are fruting. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out soon what kind they are. (I finally had a reason to learn how to use the manual focus on my camera!)

I can't remember if I posted about the planter that Steven made for me. We wanted something that we could move but big enough to grow some things. It's actually not big enough to grow what we squeezed in there but both the zucchini plants (right) and the cantaloupe (left) seem to be doing well.

The planter is made out of a pallet Steven upcycled which was another restriction on its size. He did a great job. The plants have been growing so much that they're actually pushing the walls of the planter apart but it's still holding.

It's a jungle in there!

I was most excited about these cantaloupe! Obviously Steven and I have no idea what we're doing so it's exciting that everything seems to be thriving. Can't wait to eat them.

These are the green peppers which were a struggle. I almost threw away the seeds that were planted because they took forever to sprout. I was watering dirt for months and months before a little bit of green poked out. Now they're so grown up.

It seems like a miracle to me that you can throw some seeds in some dirt and leave them outside and water them every once in a while and that equals green stuff and food. Even though we haven't gotten to eat anything yet, I'm already thinking about what to plant next year. I'm going to have Steven build me a whole bunch of planters!

June Failure

Wow. Not many posts in the month of June. Sorry for any of you who check regularly to see if we've updated. We're going to start our one fan. You know who you are.

Not much has been going on. We've had some quiet weekends at home mostly and during the week we just routinely go to work, come home and eat dinner, watch some TV and work on various things around the house.

I do however want to update you all on our "garden". Remember a few weeks ago when I planted seeds. Well here's what they looked like then:

And here's what they look like now:

I took these pics a few days ago too in preparation for this post so they're actually a little bigger now. They are growing like crazy. The ones still in the egg cartons are the stubborn green peppers. We've got a few teeny tiny sprouts but they were planted at the same time as the rest and are nowhere near matching in size.

Also, I just noticed in the above picture that you can see a bit of my toes. Notice how the big toe has a purple dot on it. That's not a speck on the lens or anything. That's a bruise that I got on both "thumb toes" during our backpacking trip over Memorial Day Weekend. I'll spare you all the close of pics of my bruised toes. At least my toes don't hurt anymore but the evidence of a 22 mile round trip hike still exists.

Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures of our 2 day long camping trip with Steven's brother and sister but if her blog is open to the public, we're featured on Steven's sister's blog.

Last but not least, I've been working a lot on some sewing projects. I made one blouse from a 1970s pattern. I guess I was not all that happy with the results since I haven't even bothered to take pictures of me in it or wear it at all really. Oh well, it was good practice on making a collared shirt. Maybe I'll take some pics this weekend.

But I did make something I'm proud of and with this heat going on, I've already worn it multiple times.

It's actually a little too big but is very comfortable. It's supposed to have a zipper down the side but I was easily able to put it on over my head so I left it out. It has elastic in the back to help the back stay up but I should have put a smaller strip of elastic and stretched it more so that it actually does something. The way it is, it just kind of rests on my back and isn't tight. Oh well. I liked this pattern a lot so I'll make more and work out the kinks.

I have my sister Dana to thank for this top. She gave sewing a try and it wasn't for her so she stopped mid-project. That was a few years ago so I took it over last weekend and am happy with the results. I'll have to owe her a top. Maybe I'll make her one with the kinks worked out.

Steven and I are planning on going to see the Rose Bowl fireworks this year. Apparently it's the biggest show in all of So. Cal and it's only a mile and a half from our house. We're not sure if we'll bike there or walk there. Both of us don't like the idea of leaving our bikes unattended for any long amount of time. We'll let you know how it is and maybe you can join us next year...or even this year!

Spring is here!

In the spirit of Spring, Steven and I decided to do some gardening. It isn't much but since we don't really know what we're doing, we're starting off small.

Steven's been preoccupied with the grass. He built aerating shoes so that he can "stomp the yard".

No, not this kind of stomping the yard...

More like this:

The result are holes for seeding.

The grass looks pretty lush in this picture but if you look at it from above you'll see how sparse the grass is. You're basically getting the comb-over view here.

We also got some hanging planters. This one has strawberries growing.

And I've started some seeds for different types of tomato to hang as well.

In addition to the hammock we already had (which by the way, Steven got me a hammock stand for my birthday!), we also got a hammock chair. Here you can see the hanging hammock chair in this picture, with the hanging planter up in the tree.