Adventures in vegetable gardening (pt 3 of 3)

The garden is still producing, namely cantaloupe and bell peppers. Here's a recap of the bounty we received and some plans for the future.

Week 4 (04/16/12)

Week 6 (05/01/12)

My little garden helper picks our first two mature squash of the season!

Week 9 (05/18/12)

Harvested most of the lettuce. The leaves were becoming bitter, so I pulled up 2/3 of it to make more room for the encroaching cantaloupe.

Cantaloupe runners are spilling over into the yard. Do your thing, melons. Do your thing!

The bell pepper plants are budding.

And the squash will be goners soon. I didn't treat them for powdery mildew in time. I was unsure on what kind of spray to use, especially since I wanted to avoid chemicals. Someone told me baking soda and water would help, but I never tried it. Still, we harvested nearly 30 squash and zucchini before we lost the plants; not bad!

Short carrots could've been left in the ground a week longer, but my daughter and I were anxious to pick them.

Fruit tree: Mr. Mac Satsuma
Just in the nick of time, we planted a citrus tree before the summer heat hit.

The tree is pretty small right now, but will eventually have a canopy of 10 ft, which may eventually cause problems with adequate sunlight over the raised bed. But, that's several years from now, so I may change things by then anyway!

Future plans for our "backyard farm"

See the random places I planted squash and cantaloupe? I just couldn't bear to just compost them when I thinned the plants, so I gave the seedlings a shot in unamended soil alongside the house and in bare patches in the lawn. They didn't really produce, but at least I gave them a chance. In the future, I'd like to amend the soil along the house to plant lettuce (I think they were overexposed in the full sun.)

Next season, I'd love to remove the dead tree in the corner and make room for two more raised beds to plant some veggies on rotation. Maybe add another fruit tree and invest in some blueberry shrubs along the fence. A girl can dream!

My more short-term goal is to replace the failing squash plants with tomatoes for the remainder of the summer.

Read the archives:
Part 1
Part 2

A Practical Christmas

If you're mindful about your purchases and can see the possibilities in re-purposing existing decor, beautiful holiday decorating can be very affordable. Please step inside my home for this Christmas photo tour!

First, my simple entry transformation...a green wreath on the door with silver ball ornaments and berries has lasting appeal on the cheap. More silver berries are added to the shelf with candle lanterns, creating a new look with existing pieces.

In the living room, the tree is undoubtedly the focal point, setting the color scheme for the rest of the decor. This year, I went with traditional red and green with a bit of plum and peacock blue thrown into the mix. Simply switching out a few decorative pillows and adding a red fleece throw reveals new potential upon the canvas of neutral furniture. I filled a hurricane vase with flawed ornaments, hiding the chips or scratches by stacking them just so (no one would ever know!). I'm also a big fan of candles to warm up the room--choose vivid colors to tie them into the room.

I love berries; can you tell? An indoor wreath brightens up my kitchen as well as a bowl of seasonal fruit. I accented a regular vase of willows with red and gold berries to make it festive.

And last, this is probably the simplest and subtlest of all: miniature ornaments tied to ribbon and strung from the windows. They nearly fade into the background, but I think these little white ornaments and white ribbons evoke the feeling of falling snow.

What are your ideas for transitioning your existing decor to welcome the holidays?