Our garden is coming along. Last weekend some of the plants were outgrowing their little peat pots, so we purchased some larger ones to transfer them into. Things were looking good. We moved them to our windowsill so that they could get some sunshine and stay warm for what was (hopefully) the last frost of the season. Disaster struck though, when some of them decided that they just weren’t going to make it any longer. They bent in half at their base and withered from there. I have a feeling they weren’t receiving enough water, but it might have been the cold that hurt them. Either way, we sadly mourned the passing of some of our plants.

Secretly though, we were rather pleased. Our motto has become something of “Survival of the Fittest, Baby!” Knowing that we have more plants than we do room in our back patio, we haven’t been too upset by the attrition rate. This way we don’t actually have to decide which plants to toss.

Regardless of the cold or lack of water, the zucchinis and sugar snap peas have thrived. Not a single plant has died and they are huge! So, we decided to risk planting them early and put them outside yesterday. Acutally, we planted them early because I found it nearly impossible to hold Scott back any longer. Hopefully, they will continue to do well in the cold and outdoors. The rest of the plants though are tucked safely away in our window sill, waiting to grow a bit bigger and stronger.

These are the sugar snap peas. We planted them right along the fence so they have something to grow up next to.

I bought this hanging bag for strawberries. I love the concept of the hanging bag, but they don’t seem to work out so well practically; already eight of my ten plants have died. That’s a pretty high mortality rate—even for me!

We did plant some parsley outside in this container we found. The nextdoor neighbors left it behind when they moved out, so we figured it was safe to use.

We got really creative with our planting containers. These cilantro are planted in our upside down Christmas Tree stand. Scott figured it would probably work okay. We’ll see…

The rosemary is looking good…

Somehow, the zucchini, which looked so gigantic inside, looks so small when outside in the middle of the dirt. I hope they grow into their new home.

Back up in the windowsill, the peppers are looking good and growing strong.

We’re down to four cherry tomatoe plants now. I hope these grow really well, because cherry tomatoes are some of my favorites and they are so expensive here in Ohio!

We also have four regular slicing tomatoe plants. I’m not really sure that we need quite so many tomatoes, but we’ll see what happens…

Considering it’s only been two weeks, I think our plants are coming along quite nicely. If only it could continue…my thumb is growing a bit greener…

Life in OH-IO, Our growing garden | 7 Comments »

After reading this blog entry I decided I needed a new project. It just so happens that I have lots of friends who are having babies and lots of showers to attend. Plus, fabric was on sale at JoAnn’s. So I made some burb cloths—super exciting I know. Here’s some pictures of the first ones I completed.

I changed a couple of things from the directions found on the blog. I used a rotary blade and ruler to cut out the fabric (it is much faster that way) and I rounded the corners using my rotary blade and a pyrex dish (also much faster). Rather than just doing a straight edge around all the cloths, I used my new machine to give it a slightly fancier stich. Overall, I think they are pretty cute!

Lonica Stuff | 3 Comments »

Yesterday was a day of big news, whether for good or bad. Here’s the recap:

1) I officially hate snow days. I know that this is a 180 degree turn from before, before, before, and before, but I officially don’t like them now. Apparently, the Ohio State Board of Education decided that all charter schools have to make up their snow days before they can break for summer. I was informed of this at a staff meeting just yesterday. The whole thing is completely pointless and makes me rather angry. Acutally, it makes me very angry.

2) Scott found out that he got hired for a summer clerkship. This is a rather big deal because first year law students often find it difficult to find useful employment for their first summer. The job is good because he will get lost of valuable experience and be able to make a more informed decision about what he wants to do for the rest of his life. I have to admit that I’m a bit bummed though, that we won’t be traveling to England for OSU’s study abroad program.

By the time bed-time rolled around we were exhausted, physically and emotionally. It was a busy day!

Law School, Proof of the Existence of Four Seasons | 7 Comments »

I love my calling. Our ward is large enough to have three nurseries and my calling is to run around to every nursery and sing with the little kids. I have a bag of “tricks” that I take with me to entertain the kids while we sing and a blanket we all sit on. It’s always a bit awkward while they just sit there and stare at you, the youngest ones in particular. It’s so rewarding though once they start to learn the songs and join in the singing. It always amazes me how easily influenced those youngsters are. They pick up on so much when you think they are just sitting there completely ignoring me. Here’s a few funny stories I’ve encountered over the past week:

Story 1: I was driving home from work this week when one my nursery kids father’s flagged me over. I rolled down the window and he told me that when their little boy had woken up in the morning they asked him what he had dreamed about during the night. He replied, “Sister Rowley.” They thought he was a bit young to be dreaming about women—especially older women, but you know, I am that inspiring!

Story 2: During the closing prayer of sacrament today you could hear a little voice singing “Fwinkle, Fwinkle wittle star.” (“The Star Song” is one of everyone’s favorites and I always get great enthusiasm from the youngsters with I pull out my stars—and it’s not just because they all want the blue star or the pink one that matches their Sunday dress.) Anyway, the mother quickly shushed the singer. But the singer wanted none of that; she said, “But I’m singing my song” and then proceeded to continue on with “Fwinkle, Fwinkle wittle star.” Needless to say, Scott was shaking with laughter.

Story 3: On my way out of sacrament meeting today, one mother pulled me aside and told me that her daughter was being a “terrible two” the other day. The mother had asked her daughter, “Can you be better or should I just give you away?” After thinking it over, the terrible-two-year-old replied, “Give me away.” The mom asked, “But, who would I give you to?” To which her daughter confidently replied, “Sister Rowley.”

Story 4: “Sister Rowley” can be hard for little kids to say. They always seem to stumble over the “R” in Rowley or the “wl” sound. Every Sunday on my way out of nursery the leaders usually say something like, “Can you say, ‘Thank you Sister Rowley’?” All the kids will usually pause briefly on their way to the toys or snack to wave or say “bye.” Today, one youngster said, “Bye Mr. Rowley, see you next week.” I’m not really sure where she got that one from…

Life in OH-IO | 7 Comments »

I blame the beginnings of my green thumb on this…

For some reason the book just really struck me and I decided that I needed my own garden. My family had just moved into a new house and I thought that I should be able to have a small part of our large backyard for my “secret garden”. So, I worked up the courage to ask my mother for “a small plot of land” just as Mary did in the novel. Little did I know that this rather antiquated inquiry would traumatize me for life.

It wasn’t the negative response that was so devastating; it was the flat out mockery that I’ve experienced ever since. My family likes to tease and this was food for fodder to them. I’ll admit I have a tendency to take fictional works of literature a bit too seriously. I’ll even admit that my English accent might have just been off a bit when I asked for a small garden. But, honestly! Is it that foolish to want to garden in Arizona?

Apparently, it is. Unfortunately, nothing much tends to grow in Arizona—especially in the summer. So I sucked it up, down played the hurt feelings resulting from such familial abuse and moved on with life.

Up until the time my family went visit Victoria, Canada. We went to Butchart Gardens in July–July–and everything was just as lush as could be.

To my floral-starved eyes this place was absolutely incredible. I immediately purchased a package of wild flower seeds so I could sow my own wonderland of beauty back at home.

And then my feet landed in Phoenix once again and I realized that nothing this gorgeous actually grows in the dusty wasteland of Arizona.

Things went downhill from there. It seemed that every green thing I touched withered and died. It became such a problem that my family mocks me at every turn about my inability to grow anything.

Yet, there’s still that inner part of me that wants to succeed at growing something and prove everyone wrong. Just plain wrong. So, when Scott suddenly exclaimed, “Herbs!” and made a beeline for the garden section of Wal-Mart last Saturday, I was more than happy to follow.

In fact, I was very excited to follow. Scott pulled out a few packages of herbs, while I started grasping at all the lovely seed packets in sight. I decided that my past problems were two fold: 1) I always tried to grow something in Arizona beforehand, 2) I always tried to grow flowers before—vegetables in Ohio would surely be different.

We headed home with our seeds and peat pots, all ready to get our hands dirty. We spent the afternoon, between Conference, carefully watering and planting our seeds.

Things turned into a bit of a competition. I was allocated to a small space in the container for my “frivolous” vegetables. Scott’s “useful” herbs and peppers, like tarragon (who actually uses tarragon?) were vastly superior to my little tomatoes! Clearly, I had to defend my turf—literally—before things got too bad. You can actually see, in the picture above, the line Scott drew that I couldn’t cross with my seeds.

I finished planting my seeds and was rather proud of my little pots. Of course, I had to call my neighbor, Scott Bean (not to be confused with my husband, Scott) over to appreciate all my efforts (and prove to him that we really do eat healthy things like broccoli).

His first response was, “Lonica, you do realize there isn’t going to be room in the backyard for all those plants…” Nonplussed I calmly explained, “But, surely some of them will die. I don’t think they will all make it to the backyard,” and mumbled something about putting the herbs in pots. See, I had gardening experience; I know that plants die under my tutelage. Still, it hurt just a bit—deep down in my inner gardening core. Is it too much to for someone to think I might have a green thumb? It doesn’t have to be a vivid Kelly green, maybe just a shade mint…

Now, our little seedlings have been growing for about 4 days. And I have to say, that so far my “inferior” vegetables seem to be winning the race. Here’s some photographic evidence :

My broccoli are doing far better than any others…

Here’s Scott’s side of the “garden”… Zero sprouts…well, maybe there’s one, shy one.

Here’s my side… I count… one, two, three, four, five, six, seven…twenty-two sprouts. Hmmm… 22-0. I’d say it looks like my little veggies are hanging in there. Of course, I have yet to actually transplant, water, fertilize, or thin them. We’ll have to see how it goes. For now, I have big hopes for our front patio…

I’m thinking some daylilies and columbines would look good here. What’s that? You agree? Good, because I already have the bulbs down in my basement ready to be planted… For better or worse, I haven’t completely given up on flowers yet.

Life in OH-IO, Our growing garden | 4 Comments »