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Strawberry Surprises & Pixel the Hedgehog’s Reviews

June 6, 2010 By Laura 5 Comments

The last time I had checked the strawberry bed, there was 1 strawberry that I was sure would be good and ready the next day for pickin’, and I had my name all over it!!

But I didn’t actually get out there until 2 days later.

And lo and behold, there were several ready, and some were downright huge!

Not only were there a good many ready, it was obvious there would be a good many more ready in the next day or two also.

They always look so pretty among the green leaves, and dark rich soil, that I’m always feeling a little….reluctant, to pluck them off the stems. I remember having the same hesitations last year.

I know. I’m strange.

One more photo. One more angle.

Sometimes, one more day.

We did get to picking the first ones, and filling up this shallow dish. As a side note about the dish, it’s one that was always in my home that I grew up in. It’s blue, and is a Pyrex piece. I always thought it was a little odd, but always found it useful. Somehow, it made it’s way to my own home, once I was married. I have no idea how. I don’t recall taking it, and my mother was not the type that would come over with a dish of something delicious in hand. But somehow, it got here.

One of the times my mother was here, I took out the dish to use, and told her I didn’t know how it ended up here. She then told me something else I didn’t know: It was once her mother’s (my grandmother’s), and it used to have a handle that attached to the extended lip there, for when using with the oven or stove. Well, that explained the oddness about it.

It also took on more meaning in that moment.

I was determined to somehow show you all, how big this strawberry in particular was. Here it is next to a nickle. But…..my comparison photo somehow does not convey my intent.

So I tried another angle, looking down at it. It was a wide strawberry! But still, it was bigger than the photo looked.

I wished you all could be there, to just hold it in the palm of your hand for a moment, because that is how you would truly comprehend it’s size. It was the circumference, that was impressive. But there were many that were almost as big.

They were so nice to look at, we put them in a pretty bowl for like….a half an hour.

But then the kids wanted to eat some, and Michael wanted to cut one up and put it on his cereal.

I would LOVE to do more commercial photography. I have so much fun taking photos of stuff like this. It’s yet another reason I blog. So I have an excuse to take such photos, and have something to do with them. Can’t you see this shot in a commercial?

Or this one on the front of a cereal box?

Maybe I can work for Kellogg’s.

Do you think I’m good enough?

The kids were enjoying them just as they were. So fresh and juicy!! The bowl was emptying quickly, but since then, we have filled up that Pyrex 2 more times in the past few days, and some were even BIGGER!

I’ve had so many plans for our strawberries this year. I want to make some jam, and strawberry shortcake. But I wonder how I’ll have enough at one time. Maybe I can freeze and collect them until I have a good amount all at once? If they make it to the freezer.

It’s good for a hedgehog’s diet, to eat certain fresh fruits and vegetables, too. So we were SO excited to let Pixel try a strawberry!

She’s going to LOVE IT, right?

Not so much. She put her visor right down. We even tried cutting off little bits, since she wouldn’t take a bite.

WHAT?! We all just love them so much. Strawberries are so GOOD!

This couldn’t be true. She MUST love them too!

So we tried again the next day, and felt hopeful, for a moment…..

….but she turned away again. What in the heck. We’ll keep trying to introduce her to different things.

She has grown, hasn’t she? She doesn’t fit in a t.p. tube anymore.

I am still working on posts about our front yard transformation/gardening progress. It’s going to have to be a 2 or 3 parter, with what I have right now. I think you’ll love seeing how things are going, and what the plans are. The future plans include growing other fruit as well. But right now, strawberries (& tomatoes) are the only fruit we’re growing. Although we do have a wild raspberry bush out back.

Are you growing any fruit this year? What are you growing, and how is it going?

That’s a wrap with this post. It’s Sunday night as I type, and we did a lot this weekend. I’m tired! I promise the next blog post will not be about our strawberries. In fact, I believe the next will be in the Home Schooling section. But thanks for sharing in our amateur gardening excitement with us! We hope to hear from you.

Let’s have a great week!

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I Am Seeing RED!! | Strawberries

May 31, 2010 By Laura 6 Comments

It’s Monday evening, at the close of our long Memorial Day weekend. It’s a bit sad the weekend has gone by so fast, but we’ve got to be happy with all we got accomplished outside! I have been taking photos like crazy, and can’t wait to show you all what we got done, and what the drawn out plans are for our front yard transformation, into a garden wonderland! But for this post, I want to share with you the excitement over our strawberries!

As some of you, who have been following us for some time now, know, our strawberry bed was just planted last spring. We planted Everbearing, and June Bearing. So while we got a small handful of strawberries, there was really never enough at any given time, to really do anything with. But THIS year, they are more established, and maybe we don’t know what we’re talking about….(and as new gardeners, there’s a good chance of that….)…..but it looks like we’re in for an amazing strawberry season!

To start, once our plants broke through the straw mulch with their green leaves, and we raked most of the mulch off, things just started growing like mad! To see how much things change, day to day, is nothing short of full-scale excitement, in my simple little world here!

Check it out……

I took a photo of these strawberries on the late afternoon of Friday the 28th. These are the Everbearing, that are producing fruit right now, of course.

This is the same strawberries this evening, Sunday the 31st. I have to admit, it wasn’t a big surprise, that just smacked me in the head out of nowhere. I watched it grow from a tint of pink, to a richer and richer red, with about 100 visits to my gardens in those 3 days. RiiiiiighT. I have nothing else to do. I only have 4 kids, who live in my house ; ), who want to eat all of the time (like meals 3x a day? Is that normal?), love to dirty the clothes they where, not to mention themselves, etc. What else could I possibly have to do? Nada!

As to not look too pathetic, you need to know I wasn’t watching just that strawberry. They are all over the place!

Honestly, it’s a jungle in there! I am sure the occasional neighbor driving by, is wondering what in carnation I am doing, bending over so extremely with my big-bum to the street, as I peek under all of the leaves and into the strawberry forest.

The more I look, the more I find! They seem to be multiplying like, like, like…. rabbits! Or…. Catholics! lol. (Just a little joke there. I can joke about that if I AM a Catholic, right?) (I think so. Errr…I’m pretty sure. I mean, I’m fine with it.)

Here’s another! And I’m telling you, there are lots that are just GIGANTIC! Or, you know, HUGE.

Ok…it’s our first year, and maybe we are overly-impressed. BIG, anyway.

Look at this baby! It’s the only one that is THIS juicy red. I think it’s going to be red for pickin’, like, tomorrow! Whatever would we do with ONE strawberry? I say, whoever finds it ready first, gets to have it!

I am sure someone visits the gardens frequently.

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Pansies, Verbenas & Berries | Photography

May 19, 2010 By Laura 7 Comments

I wanted to share with you some fun photography I did of my yard pansies, verbenas and berries.

Yesterday morning, I found myself up wicked early. And not at the computer, in my bathrobe, with coffee. But up, dressed, and outside with my camera, taking photos around my yard. (With coffee.) I had to wonder what in the heck was going on with me lately. I have never-ever been one to get up early, unless I absolutely-no-way-out-of-it-have-to. This morning, I was not only up at the crack of dawn, but after a night where I had laid in bed during the night, for at least 3 hours, wide awake! I thought for sure I’d be sleeping like a rock, come morning. But no. I was more than up-and-at’em. I am becoming more and more convinced, that this means I am indeed ‘approaching elderly’.

Doesn’t this sleep- pattern mimic the old folks? I always hear many of these dear old ones talk about how they “just couldn’t sleep all night”. And on the occasion that ‘I’ have had to be up and out early to be somewhere, old folks are everywhere. Why? They are retired! They have no kids to get off to give breakfast to and get off to school! It puzzles me. Ok, maybe there is a handful with a doctor appointment that morning. ; ) But not THAT many. I want to go up to them and say, “WHAT, on God’s green earth, are you doing up this early? Don’t you know, you can do anything you want with your time now! Why aren’t you sleeping in?!”

Later in the afternoon, I was telling some friends about this new mystery of myself and sleep. One girlfriend replied, “Maybe the spirit was a-movin’ ya.”. Another said, “I think you have a condition called Spring Fever. No worries though, I hear it cures itself. ;)”. A third friend just came right out and said it: “I was going to say…..your age!”. We all need a friend who will tell us the truth, no matter what. Don’t we?

So back to the photos I was out in the yard taking. These gorgeous dark pink flowers are some of my verbenas. I have some planted in the ‘window box’, that is actually sitting on a foundation wall, under the ledge of my front deck. Upon the sight of little flower buds in my pots, boxes and gardens, I get little butterflies of excitement inside. I love to watch them slowly open up, or happen-upon the surprise of sudden full blooms.

In the same flower box, in between the verbenas, I have planted shasta daisies. I am not all that familiar with them yet, so I’m not sure if the little nubbies I see on them are almost buds? But if they are, I’m excited. There is also some white verbenas in there somewhere, but for some reason or another, they aren’t blooming yet.

Over at my bench seat in the front near the garden beds, I have a few pots, that contain some of the leftover pansies and verbenas, after I had filled my box, and other bigger pots on steps and such. The white verbenas are in bloom here. The verbenas, by the way, will grow to spill and hang long over the edges of it’s containers. I look forward to them covering my heinous foundation wall under the deck. (Big plans for that coming up soon, to permanently take care of that! Very exciting project we’ll be sharing here.)

I really enjoyed, not only photographing the things I have grown around my yard, but processing them with textures. Have you notice the textures on the photos? Photographing whatever I am inspired to, and processing them any way I want, is often almost way more fun than I can take. ; ) Especially without the pressure of time lines and deadlines, for clients, that often comes with the photos I take.

Here is a bloomed bunch of white verbenas.

I forget the name of the variety of these smaller pansies, but if anyone remembers, feel free to enlighten me. : ) If no one does, I can always look at the pot tag I saved out there somewhere near the pots. (And I might have to.) But I sure do love their colors.

Let’s just get this out of the way: Yes, the lawn weeds we have out front need mowing. It’s not looking like it is going to happen for at least another week. But anyway, this is our strawberry bed.

I have a confession to make, regarding the strawberries, and all of the planted flowers you’ve seen here: Somewhere early t0 mid April, I was getting the gardening-bug so bad. I was just itching to get out there and get dirty. We were having beautiful spring days, and I was convinced it was here to stay! So I planted flowers all over the place, and raked most of the straw off the strawberry beds, since I could see green leaves popping up through. All of this, despite the warnings that it was way too early for planting, etc., since there was still a good chance of frost, which could destroy it all. The recommendation for planting is Memorial Day weekend. Mother’s Day at the earliest. But I’m a true gambler. (O.k., not really, but I like how that makes me sound gutsy and tough.)

Well, I’ll tell you where that risk got me: Out in the pitch dark cold, at about 11:30 at night, on 3 different occasions, covering the beds and plants with large sheets of plastic, because a weather-check before bed said temperatures would dip that night, and frost was likely.

That should teach me, come next year. But I can’t guarantee it.

Thankfully, everything survived, and we should be home free. Although technically, Memorial Day is not until this coming weekend. But look how the strawberry plants are growing like crazy!! We are anticipating an abundance of strawberries this season. Last year, the beds were new, and the strawberry plants were just planted. But this year, they are more established, so we should have more strawberries than we know what to do with. But we’ll figure it out. In fact, I look forward to it!!

Strawberry jam…… strawberry shortcake…….. chocolate covered strawberries…… strawberries in our cereal….strawberries right off the vine……strawberries for our kind neighbors…..(Yeah, just the kind ones. Not the chipmunk-killing-outdoor-cat-owner ones.)

If there was one thing I was noticing while I was out this morning, taking these photos, it was that….I was noticing everything! The moist dew in the air, the clean and fresh air, and the scents of new growing life coming and drifting away, the silence……WOW….the silence. I think the quiet, was why I could notice so much! This Mama of 4 (home schooled) kids, is not used to such quiet. I had all kinds of complete thoughts, running through my head. Weird.

Quiet early early hours of the day have been so foreign to me. I guess I never knew what I was missing. Come to find out, it’s rather nice! Perhaps I’ll watercolor paint a little more often, with these extra hours in a day, too.

Yeah, maybe this old lady could really get used to this early morning thing.

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Garden Vegetable Photos

August 29, 2009 By Laura 3 Comments

Just a handful of our garden vegetable photos, to share with you, today!

vegetable garden photos

Look how CUTE!!

These turned red rapidly after this photo.

Look at all of the tomatoes in there!! YAHOOO!

A treat, right off the vine!

‘Last Saturday’s lil’, lil’ harvest.

We’ve gathered a small bowlful of Everbearing strawberries, too. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised with our first year of gardening! We planted these itty-bitty plants in all of the beds, tended to them with a little bit of love and care, and they grew! And produced! It has definitely encouraged us to keep on gardening, and expand our plans. It’s been a downright exciting experience, and has reaped very fulfilling rewards. ; )

Next up in The Homestead, we’ll be heading inside the house for awhile. Hope you can join us!

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Front Yard Gardens – Progress Update

August 25, 2009 By Laura 8 Comments

Everything we planted in our front yard gardens, is really growing! We wanted to give you a progress update.

In our last post, we shared with you the very beginnings of our front yard transformation. We planned out 3 gardens, built 3 garden beds, had loam delivered, filled the beds with the loam, and got our strawberry plants planted all in mid-May.

At the end of May, after the threat of frost had past, we planted all of the vegetable and flower plants in the beds. I did not take photos of the extensive work we did that day along the way, because frankly, I was covered in earth and sweat, and wasn’t about to touch my camera. : )

Here’s a photo of our front yard now, with the 3 garden beds. I think it’s a dramatic improvement to the ‘blahness’ it was, already! Don’t you? We even have some green weed/crabgrass growing in our dirt where the driveway was extended! Since we don’t have plans to plant grass anytime soon, we’ll take anything green! In the long run here, we’ll likely be putting in more gardens, little walkways, maybe a small tree or 2 ….who knows what. So planting grass at this point is not wise, when it mostly will be getting dug right up, soon enough.

front yard gardens Here’s a view from this angle, taken in mid-July. I’m going to take you from garden to garden here and show you what we’ve got. All of these photos coming up were taken in mid-July.

First on the far left, while acing our house with your back to the street, is our strawberry bed. This is the garden that was done first, a couple of weeks before the others, because we could do that with the strawberries. So I had done a couple of posts on how the plants and strawberries were coming along. Rather then re-hash all of that, and re-post all of those photos, I’m just going to link you to those 2 posts. They will open in their own window, so don’t worry about losing your spot here if you want to take a quick peek.

Strawberry Fields Forever

We Picked Our First Strawberry

Being the first year, the plants needed to get established, so we weren’t expecting an abundance of berries this year. But we have high hopes, jam recipes, and many desserts on our agenda for next year!

This is the second garden from the left, next to the strawberry garden. Or, the middle garden. : )

Aside from the flower, which I will get to a little later on, we have growing 4 varieties of tomatoes: Beefsteaks, Better Boys, Early Girls, and Cherries. We also have cucumbers in this bed.

Just a couple now-outdated tomato photos. More to come.

front yard gardens

In our last bed here, 3rd from the left, closest to the drive-way, we have growing summer squash, zucchini, and green peppers. Plus the flowers. I had read how helpful having certain flowers in your vegetable gardens were, to their growth and production. They attract certain bees that help pollinate, as well as other certain insects that are good for the garden and good for keeping other harmfuls away.

I know that sounded a little vague, but I just didn’t want to get into the full explanation right now. Besides, I’m not sure I can remember it ALL at the moment. But I can tell you, that everything I knew at the time, and therefore did, seemed to have done exactly what it should , and it all worked! So that’s got to count for something. lol

Here’s one of our first baby squashes. I learned real quick that I can’t be all in the squash leaves, working around, with bare arms! I got a rashes all over my arms almost instantly, and I was going nuts. Not sure if that happens to everyone, or if I’m just sensitive? But….I was more careful from there on out. Kind of like my jalapeno chopping incident, but I’ll spare you the story on that. For now. (But eventually, these dramatic complaints need to come out. So…be forewarned. : )

On the corners of some of the beds, I had planted cosmos, that have really grown beautifully. We let them grow tall, and they are not only lovely, but really beneficial to the garden.

Pretty, huh? We have this color, and white ones as well.

Mid-August….

These photos are now from mid-August, and things were looking great!

Look at all of the tomatoes growing!…

Here is one more shot of the middle garden, with the white Cosmos.

So as I said, the second half of this this post was mid-August. A week later, so much had changed, and there were so many new surprises! So up next, will be yet another garden post, to share with you how things developed from here. I have discovered a new love of garden photography. Shocking?? Probably not.

But soon, we’ll be heading inside the house for a bit, to show you a couple of new things that we’ve been doing in there. I can’t wait to show you!!

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