Photo-A-Day Challenge: Day #12: Macro

Our first monarch caterpillar - big and fat and devouring our monstrous milkweed! Our butterfly garden expanded this year - I cleared out a sunny spot in the front yard and filled it with lantana, coneflowers, a butterfly bush, brown-eyed susan, and milkweed. This year, I put in 12 milkweed plants and have never seen such healthy, mammoth milkweed. And finally the fruits of my labor have paid off! Munch away, mister caterpillar!

Photo-A-Day Challenge: Day #4, #5, #6

Day #4: "Fresh" - cucumbers and tomatoes from Gran and Grandpa's garden for Sunday dinner.

Day #5: "Early" - this may look like a stack of drums covered in shiny things... but really it was a cake that the girls had assembled and decorated. All before 7:30 in the morning... My brain used to be that active upon waking up. I seem to be slowing down...

Day #6: "This means a lot to me" - The actual fence itself, now with the additional boards on the inside, really just means that the chickens will no longer be visiting the neighbor's yard (the yard without the dog and the neighbor who kindly returns them). But this project, along with many others, went something like this: I call my Dad and say "Hey Dad! I need to do ____ ", to which he replies, 100% of the time, "Great! How can I help?". For this project, he came right over, looked at what my plan was and headed to Home Depot for supplies so that I wouldn't have to interrupt the girls' rest time. I love to build and I get so much satisfaction from doing projects. But sometimes the company along the way is just as rewarding. Thanks, Dad!

Photo-A-Day Challenge: Day #29: Perspective

It's the little things in life that matter. Without a doubt. There is my perspective, my mental view. My wee front-yard garden? Growing, blooming, beautiful. I love to look at it. I love the flowers in the bathroom everyday from it. It makes me happy. And at the end of the day, isn't it nice to feel happy?

Then:

And now:

How Our Garden Grows

I am so enjoying our yard these days. The green-ness of spring certainly doesn't hurt, but between the children, the dog, the chickens, and the plants - there is just a lot to enjoy out there right now. It's been fun watching the girls' yard discoveries grow and change- as tiny tots, we spent a lot of time on the deck... it was easy to barricade the stairs and the girls could move from the house to the deck independently. We had toys, a water table, and a baby pool in the summer out there! Next came the front yard - a lot to see with neighbors coming and going, easy short walks up and down the street, and the tree swing that was their second bday present. Over the past year, the back yard has become part of their territory - they can go up and down the deck stairs alone and are comfortable playing out there while I'm in the kitchen, watching out the window. 

Here's the latest addition to the back yard - I found this table/chairs while poking around with my mom at one of the awesome consignment shops in North Lawrence:

Our lettuce and carrots are sprouting, protected by my DIY chicken-proof cage:

We added a fairy garden to the deck. Create. A. Fairy. Garden. Do it. My mom put one together at her house, and it was a huge hit. So she made another one. Then we made one here. And started a newer, bigger one in the front yard yesterday. I love peeking at it and seeing how things have been moved... I love listening to the girls narrate why this bird needs to sit here or that stone should go over there. 

The herb pots continue to multiply - my monster sage returns bigger and better every year and we added stevia to the mix this year along with all of the basil that we started indoors from seed. The girls are often walking around munching on a green leaf...

I love a yard with "nooks and crannies". We have plenty of open green space - some of the green is grass, some weeds. We don't spray the yard, we don't dig dandelions - it is what it is. John keeps it mowed and trimmed and perfect, in my opinion. :) But a fairy garden nook here, a chicken coop cranny there, paths between to run up and down... I love how our garden grows.

Wordless Wednesday: Sprout, little seeds, sprout!

Caterpillars!!!

If you came here looking for a recipe, I disappoint yet again. If you came here looking for caterpillars... you got 'em!

Honestly, I don't know who is more excited: Abby, Elise, or me. Last year we had swallowtail butterflies take over our dill and parsley, leaving us with beautiful caterpillars. We didn't catch any last year, so we missed out on the caterpillar-chrysalis-butterfly transformation. This year, we packed the small planting area around the light post in front with butterfly plants: tropical milkweed and lantana. I have been keeping those blooming beauties alive all summer and the monarch butterflies found us! We have at least a dozen caterpillars out there and the girls picked 3 to bring inside. We set up a nice little box with freshly cut milkweed and some sticks and, as I type, the first of the three is hanging beautifully preparing to move into the chrysalis stage.

I highly encourage those of you in this area to plant a little butterfly garden next year. The cost is extremely low - we put in 6 milkweed plants and 6 lantana. The monarchs love the lantana, so that draws them in, and then the milkweed is essential for the caterpillars. Abby and Elise hold the caterpillars, they talk to them, and they are so excited to see the "beautiful butterfly". Nature is amazing. And these simple little projects teach our children about nature... and life cycles... and care for living things... and curiosity... and they provide endless conversations that bring up new questions and new ideas. Isn't it wonderful?

For those of you that live near us, KU has a fabulous Monarch Watch program. Check out this link for information about their open house, which is a great opportunity to see butterflies in action! In the past, they have often had caterpillars and/or chrysalis to send home with kids.

And I just checked the caterpillar. Still hanging, no chrysalis. It's totally going to happen as soon as I go to bed...

The first harvest

Our lack of full-sun is a bit of a problem, but when I passed the tomato plants at the nursery last week, I couldn't resist. We have one in a pot on the back deck... one in a pot in the front... and one in the whiskey barrel with some verbena and petunias. Unconventional? Yes. Still providing us with fresh, LOCAL, food? YES!

We live in a community that has such great ways to get our hands on local food. The Downtown Lawrence Farmer's Market is our favorite Saturday morning outing. We love the fruit/veggie options, the local musician jam sessions, Anthony's Beehive honey sticks, and the chance to talk with others who also look forward to these weekend gatherings. The girls are always eager to head down to the market! And the power that food has when our little ladies know where it comes from - they are so excited to eat nearly anything!

And once again, I'm back to my oh-so-frequent soapbox: the importance of what we feed our children. I think this topic is worth visiting and re-visiting time and time again because it's never too late to make some changes and there are always new and different tastes to offer. Thoughts for today...

Eat Local! (very local...)

I've posted previously about blackberry picking. We went strawberry picking to kick-off our first day of summer this year. And faithful readers have seen multiple recipes that include local ingredients... many of which are backyard-local. I grew up with gardens - flowers, shrubs, apple trees, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, raspberries, water gardens... My parents continue to provide us with home-away-from-home backyard gardens - all of the above, but now with strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, peas, beans, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, rhubarb, radishes, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes... We planted tomatoes and peppers our first summer in this house and, while we obtained a great neighborhood with big trees which was a must, we also have too much shade for full-blown gardens. If we didn't have the luxury of Gran and Grandpa's garden, we'd certainly be saving for some tree-trimming!

Yesterday, Lawrence had a "Food Garden Tour" - a free, self-guided tour of local gardens, both commercial and residential. It was a great opportunity to see what other families are doing and it was impressive to see the food-production that husbands and wives, moms and dads are maintaining. Abby and Elise loved exploring the gardens, seeing the chickens, and talking with the kids. And I loved that they were getting yet one more exposure to where food comes from.

The girls are in the process of their annual garden-feast: it starts with rhubarb, strawberries, spinach, and sugar snap peas. The raspberries are starting. Blackberries will be next. Followed by sweet peppers. And the quantity of tomatoes that they will consume is downright amazing.

Let's talk for a minute about the sugar snap peas, because they are such a perfect example of where I'm going with this. I found some at The Merc about a month ago - fresh organic sweet peas are hard to come by and rather expensive, so the girls haven't had many opportunities to eat them. I tried several times and, given the ones that I bought, no one was sold. Then spring arrived. The pea plants began sprouting... growing...blooming. Abby and Elise have been eating them by the handful from the garden. They are hands-on, they are fresh, they are real... they are perfect. 

Think about it: eating local means you get the freshest food, you eliminate gas-usage from travel/shipping/buying, your children learn where their food comes from, and you can graze barefoot in a swimsuit... or half of a swimsuit, for that matter. Just think about it.