How My Garden Grows

I had a really fun time growing a garden this year. I tried a few vegetables last year, but I learned that I planted them in the wrong place (the backyard). I decided this year to plant a few in the front yard (south-facing) to see if they would live. I transplanted the tulips and whatever flowers were in the front to the backyard (as well as put in irises that were given to me).

Here’s the progression of my front yard.

l to r: the hanging flowers (which don’t belong to me; they are my next door neighbor’s, but I like that it appears as though they belong to me), a peony plant with peas behind it (that will grow up that trellis), the hose, the space I planted peas, a gaillardia, the space I will plant a tomato plant (see window—I got two tomato plants from my old boss Lis, uh… she isn’t old, er, she’s just not my boss anymore), and another peony plant.

In this shot you can see that the left peony plant is smaller (I killed it off a little, so my peas had more sun). The beans have popped out and I planted zucchini plants in place of the gaillardia plant (it was too loppy and ugly for it’s own good). You can also see that I planted “Little Red” next to the big peony plant and “Baby Yellow” in the pot on the porch. Little Red and Baby Yellow are the names of the tomato plants I got from Lis. The little green pot is a tomato I started from a seed.

Here it is from the side.

And they grew! (The green pot was exchanged for a red bucket, which I placed in the spot where the peas were—that is the tomato plant I started… I should’ve given it a name. For the sake of this blog post, let’s call it Tom.)

And again, from the side.

Before we dig in a little deeper to see the progression of the various veggies, let’s take a look at the backyard.

Peas pass the peas

If you paid attention to the photos above, you already saw some progression, but here we have the wee little pea plants. Or is it wea little pee… ah, nevermind.

I had to keep trying to teach them to latch on to the trellis. And as you can see…

they did! (Well… 2 of the 8 plants did. Still… a success!) Here’s my first harvest…

I got about 5 of those pods! I know… amazing abundance.

Beans, beans, the musical fruit
I got about a dozen of these pods.

And they were delicious.


Zucchini?
When I first told my next-door neighbor (the one who owns the hanging flowers) that I was going to plant zucchini, she got excited, as any next-door neighbor would. Usually people try to sneak their over-abundant zucchini supply onto their neighbors’ porches, stealthily in the dark of the night. Usually…

These are the plants and here is proof that they blossomed.

Really pretty blossoms… that kept falling off after they were done blooming. I was giving up hope of even getting ONE zucchini. But, lo and behold…

ONE zucchini!!


If you carrot all
I forgot to mention the little row of carrots I planted...

They were the forgotten child. I mean, I watered them, etc., but pretty much… no love or progress photos. I forgot to even mention them in the previous front-yard explanations.


Switched at birth
Watch the progress of Little Red and see if you notice the same thing I noticed.

That one might actually be Baby Yellow… not sure… which goes to prove my point… or explain my story even better. Anyway, continue looking at Little Red…

Me: “Man! Little Red sure did get really yellow and stay that way… but, its name is Little RED, so I’m sure it’ll turn… I’ll just keep waiting.”

Now let’s view Baby Yellow’s progress. Here we are posing together. Look how tall it is!

Hmm… what’s this I see…?

Red? But… Baby Yell…ow…?

By this time I had uncovered the mystery… they were switched at birth!! I actually planted Baby Yellow in the strip of soil in front (it is a pear tomato plant, hence the interesting pear shape—I had never heard of them before) and I planted Little Red in the pot on the porch (grape tomatoes).

And it has been very exciting to harvest them! Here’s my first batch (it was this 1 red tomato that tipped me off that something was amiss).

They call me Tom
This may be the most rewarding plant of all… well, I don’t know if I can really say that… but it has been really exciting to see this tomato plant get so big and strong… from just an itty-bitty seed. I haven’t harvested anything from it yet.

That last shot was taken indoors… as I had moved my plants inside for a couple reasons the past couple of days. One reason was due to the threatening frost, and another to the fact that the HOA maintenance guys came around and pressure sprayed our paneling to prep it for painting. They moved the plants out of the way (the ones in pots) which really annoyed me, yet I’m glad they were thoughtful enough to move them instead of spray them. I called the HOA contact over maintenance and explained my frustrations about the situation and asked them why they couldn’t have notified us and we could’ve moved our own plants. I mean, she didn’t realize that I had NAMES for them! When the painter moved Little Red (which was leaning up against the corner of the townhouse* for support), Little Red bent and weakened. Anyway, the frustration was more due to the surprise of it all… and a little bit about the feeling of one’s property (the plants) being violated. (Although technically my property was on “common property” which isn’t “my” property.) Anywho… the painters dropped off a note yesterday to say they were going to paint today. I really appreciated the notice and it gave me time to decide what I wanted to do. I decided to harvest everything left in my front bed and move the pots to the backyard until the painting is done.

And this is what I harvested…

Look at those teeny-tiny carrot buds. Wow… something grew! I wondered if anything was happening under those green stems. And I picked everything from Baby Yellow. I hope they turn a little more yellow. And… my zucchini. I’m proud of my zucchini. No, I will not be leaving it on your porch. I will eat it all by myself like the little red hen. Maybe with the little red hen. Sounds yummy.

And I’m sorry to end the post with this image, but look what I found growing!

I saw it the other day when the painters first moved around my plants. On that day it was small and round like a tomato and I tried to pick it up. When I touched it, it felt all soft and it was stuck, and then I realized it must be a mushroom. I don’t know why I just left it there, but I did. I think I was sort of disgusted that I touched it. And then, a few days later… WOAH! Holy Mushroom, Batman! It’s going to take over the world!

Ughh… it just creeps me out looking at it. (Yes, I killed it this time… well, I picked it, and I think I’ll fry it up with some of those green tomatoes. Only kidding.)


*I found out at the HOA meeting I just attended that our condos are not really condos by the city laws. They’re townhouses. And they’re going to repaint the main sign to show that.

Not-a-Virtual Route

I just read in the Herald Journal about a woman who is running the length of Utah... for real. And in only 18 days. She's running a marathon a day.

Gently Down the Stream

Just thought I'd let you know what's on my mind....

I have another blog. I think that makes six, but let's just start at the beginning so I can be sure.

My very first blogging activities began due to a movie club. Does that blog still exist, Cardine? If so, post the link for old time's sake. I think I was an author on it once, but have lost the link as well as most of my memories about the blog. I do remember that my blogging name was Burnsie. I know that I am not Burnsie, but that Burnsie is Burnsie. I mean that NOBODY'S Burnsie*. But it worked for a while. I can't remember when or why I changed to Sarah.

The movie blog was enjoyable, but I think I got overwhelmed by the idea of watching so many movies (about 2 a month, wasn't it?). At some point I also joined a food/recipe blog. Perhaps it is only available to authors to view. I was given author privileges, and yet, it appears I never posted anything. Apologies to Wendy who invited me.

And my family has a newsletter blog (for family member viewing only). My siblings and I used to write e-mails to my mom (who would send us reminders to submit our monthly news), but then I came up with the debatably** wonderful idea that we all just post our news to a blog at least once a month. We must still need the reminders, because we don't seem to post very regularly. Sometimes I think it would be a good idea to go back to the e-mail method. What do you family members think?

These next two blogs are not technically my own blogs either. I am an author-who-never-posts-on-purpose on a horseshoe pitching blog with my papa, as well as on a child care curriculum ideas blog with my co-worker. Steph, it looks like it's time to update it! These two blogs are wide open and pleading for public viewing.

Yesterday I created my second personal blog (if Facebook doesn't count). It fulfilled the requirements of my first assignment in my graphic design class this semester: creating an art/design blog for posting of projects and process of those projects. You may be thinking, "don't you already do that on this blog?" The answer: yes, I do, thanks for noticing. And now I'll be posting my art/design stuff on my sketchbook blog.

I guess it's seven. Or eight if Facebook really does count. I haven't been spending much time on Facebook these days... or been doing much blogging. Well, I'm an avid reader of blogs, to tell the truth. Google Reader makes that possible and enjoyable for me to keep up with those whom I'm blog-stalking, er, I mean... following. Yea, Google!

One reason I haven't spent very much time is because I no longer have the internet*** at my house. Well, I never DID have it at my house. I was riding on someone else's open connection since I moved there. Sometimes one, sometimes another.**** But, now I've been forced to come clean and go straight. But I really haven't had a change of heart. I really ought to just get my own connection, but I can't stand thinking of the money I'd be forking out. Perhaps after I finish my fund-raising for Switzerland, I'll start fund-raising for an internet connection. By the way, I am currently accepting anonymous donations for Switzerland.

I look forward to studying abroad, and I am also excited about studying domestic this semester. Here's a quick (is any of this quick?) overview of my classes. I am taking two "real" classes as well as a seminar and institute. I'm taking a web-design class, which is the exciting part. Note: I have been advised not to allow any of my websites to be commissions; I am following the advice, to allow my creative juice to flow, so don't ask. Speaking of creative, what do you think of this website? There's not much on it, but it's a lot of fun, don't you think? (At least, once you get past the sick-o ones.)

I'm also taking an Art History class. Apparently the teacher who was originally scheduled to teach the class, and who ordered the book which I already bought, has moved to California. And the new teacher ordered a new book. So I get to take my old book back, hope for a refund, and buy the new book. So much for being on top of things before school started. That's the last time I come prepared!

Except for tomorrow, I'm prepared to take my Ensign to institute. (Shouldn't it be Institute?) The class is Teachings of the Living Prophets. I'm looking forward to it, because (a) I generally feel the Spirit at Institute, (b) my friend Kim is in that class-she's the one who told me about it, (c) Kim told me the teacher Sister Whitesides is awesome, and I'm looking forward to being around someone who is awesome, who is a woman, who is learned in the gospel, and (d) when I go to Institute, I'll be leaving work for the day.

My work schedule is pretty crazy. I'm not coming and going over-abundantly, that's not the problem. The problem (which is wonderful, and not a problem either) is that I am working full time. I went full time at the beginning of the summer. I guess I'm just a little anxious about burning out with school starting back up again. Seriously, for the large portion of the day/evening, I'm either at work or in class. I'm not complaining... just sharing. :D

And something else I'd like to share with you is that I'm going to run a half-marathon this Saturday! I'm really excited about it, because I've been training for it for a couple months and I really feel ready to run. Ready, ready, ready, ready, ready to run. All I'm ready to do is have some fun. What's all this talk about... ***** Something occurred to me the other day: I need to start caring about what I eat, again. I haven't been very concerned about calorie intake lately, because I've been using them up so readily. But, I'm not going to be able to run long distances very often during the weekdays anymore, so it's time... again... to make good choices. It's always been time for good choices. And it will always be time for good choices.

On a parting note, stay tuned for a post about my garden.




* If you don't know what I'm babbling about with that Burnsie comment, please make note in the comments section, then make plans to visit me in Logan. We need to rectify the situation.

** Debatably is apparently not a word.

*** I know that the correct spelling is Internet with a capital I. I just don't like how it looks. It seems too brake all the the rules of english.******

**** Bonus points if you know which video that line is from.

***** love? No, but a funny story... that I don't know how it ends, yet. I'll fill you in if you'd like.

****** I did that on purpose.