Weekend Fun

We had a fun weekend!

Saturday we spent the morning cleaning around the house and watching the Olympics.  Late in the afternoon we had a wedding to attend for someone Jason grew up with.  It really was a beautiful, outdoor wedding and the food was, hands-down, the best wedding food I have ever had.

It was on a farm and Amelia was convinced that there were cows in the barn.  All she wanted was too find the cows.  After the ceremony we saw something that made a certain little girl ecstatic:

Not cows, but three horses.  The gray/black one even ate grass out of her hand:

Family photo:

Today we watched some more Olympics and then went to my parent's house in the afternoon.  We had stew for dinner this week and it made me excited for when we start making hearty meals like that to freeze as we enter the winter months!
 

 

After dinner we had Blizzards from Dairy Queen and Amelia chose to eat hers in the garage down the stairwell that goes into the basement...

When we got home this evening our neighbors asked if we had seen the tomatoes popping up on our five plants.  We hadn't so we went to check it out.  While we were there we checked everything else and we have one nice zucchini!  The neighbors and us both have cantaloupes starting but theirs are just a bit more developed.

cantaloupe, zucchini, tomatoes

It was like Christmas out there this evening.  We were running from plant to plant showing each other everything we were finding.  Who knew that you really can grow a successful garden in a parking lot?

Garden Update

Last month we started our little garden in the parking lot.  We started everything from seeds and we now have some large plants in our garden!

The zucchini and tomato seeds we planted have grown much larger than we expected!

We have countless zucchini blossoms:

We are anxious for some zucchini to grow on this monstrous plant!

Our cantaloupe has also taken off:

It started flowering last week and we are anxious to see if we get any melons out of this!

We have a bald spot in our section of the garden which is misleading.

There is a little strip of either chives or green onions growing in there!

The neighbors' gardens have also flourished:

It really is nice being able to look outside and see all the flowers the neighbors planted.  I also like the prospect of some homegrown vegetables to eat!  Next year I think we will plant some flowers in with our vegetables so we have some more color to look at!

Our Garden

Last month we hastily threw together a garden.  Our landlord had the maintenance guy till the small strip of land between where we park our cars and the neighbors' fences.

The woman above us said she has had the idea for a few years and this is the first year they allowed it. Three units, including us, planted gardens.  Ours is by far the most pathetic and that's ok!  ;)  

We planted mid-June and planted only edibles - no flowers.  We don't have a lot of time to put into this garden.  In fact, to get it started Jason went out one afternoon, threw the contents of the eight seed packets we had into the ground and that was that.  It's hard to say what is what.  We're just out there watering it when we can and crossing our fingers!

We sometimes water with these re-purposed milk jugs but our neighbor has it worked out so that we have hose access now.  We got a sprayer attachment from my parents and I go out there in the evening, when the neighbors are out with their hose, and spray our garden a few times.  Usually Amelia, Joe and I go out in the afternoon as well.

Amelia helps me water floods our plants and Joey hangs out in a stroller.  It's a nice way to spend 15-20 minutes and I know she feels proud to be helping.  

We know that 5 of the 8 things we planted have sprouted.  We think we know what they are but all we can do is wait and see if we were right!  Next year we plan to be a bit more prepared for this and will hopefully have a more successful garden!  This year if we get one or two things we can eat I will be satisfied!