Gardening Update

Once again, my garden is huge and I have a ton of fresh fruits and veggies. I sure love it. I haven't given my garden the attention it really deserves, but having a baby right in the middle of the season was hard to juggle. That just makes me even more surprised to see how well it's doing!

 Green peppers, onions, jalapenos, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, cabbage, potatoes, corn, raspberries, herbs, and fruit trees...

 A few weeks ago it was over 100 for several days and it burned most of my peas. This is all I have left. I could of planted more, but again, I just had a baby.

 

I also planted those huge 6 foot sunflowers all over my yard. They are so beautiful!

If you live by me, feel free to come over (anytime!) to pick tomatoes or zucchini! I have a ton!

Sun Flowers!

 I planted a bunch of sun flowers all over the yard in the springtime. Most of them I have picked and I am starting to dry them out. The heads on these are HUGE! A couple of my neighbors said they've never been able to grow them so large before...Cool!

There are so many of them and about 5 others I need to cut down soon!

Dried Apples

 Our neighbors are huge gardeners around here. I LOVE it! We barter some of our produce to each other and give a bunch of it away. The neighbor across the street has peaches and pear trees.  I bottled a ton of pears and made pear sauce with it. YUM! One of my neighbors next door had a ton of extra apples. I made a bunch of canned applesauce and we decided to dry the rest of them. It took only a couple of hours and it was a fun project. All the kids were involved!

 One of my other neighbors made this dehydrater many, many years ago. We borrowed it to dehydrate the apples. It took about 20 hours and we ended up with 2 huge zip lock bags FULL of apples! YUM!

Sunsets and Gardens

 One of things I LOVED about Arizona are their magnificent sunsets. Truly breathtaking! When I moved to Utah I was wonderfully surprised that the sunsets here are fantastic as well...All three of these shots were taken just this week. I know a lot of scenic photos can get mundane and boring, but these shots are beautiful (and don't really give the sunset justice!) Our house is a little taller than anyone around us, so we can walk out on our deck and bask in the beauty of nature. 
The other shot is of my garden. I love, love love gardening. It was extremely hard in Arizona to grow anything. At my new location the soil and weather are terrific. (I do have a sloped garden, which has been hard to manage...)I've already harvested all my spinach and lettuce. I re-planted peas and more cabbage in that same location. I already have harvested several (huge) zucchini's, tomatoes, corn, peas and carrots. It been fun to head out in the garden with the boys and talk and eat out there. Just this afternoon Will and I were out there snacking as he told me about his first Cross Country practice. A wonderful experience. There is still more corn, peas, tomatoes, onions, tomatillos, pumpkins, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce out there still growing! YUM!

Tomato Paste/Sauce

My cousin, Clareesa, taught me this delicious recipe! She makes this unbelievable tomato paste from ingredients in her garden. It's perfect for any Italian or Mexican meal. Clareesa pours the cooled mixture into these freezer pouches, but I decided to bottle mine.
I picked all this out of her garden. Tomatoes, zucchini, onions, garlic and bell peppers. I then cut them up in large chunks and tossed them into a large pot. I stewed it all together for about 30 minutes. I drained about a cup of excess water out of the pot. I then poured it into my blender (my cousin has one of those handy hand blenders and so she didn't have to pour the mixture into the blender and then back into the pot!)

Next, I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin...really whatever you can find in your pantry. Even taco seasoning would be great! I made most of the bottles of sauce the same. Then I made a batch that had a bit more Mexican flare on it. I added more chili powder, and a  jalapeno pepper. It came out so good! Then, I made a batch a little bit more with an Italian style. I added more herbs. It too turned out great! I continued to cook the paste/sauce for another 30-60 minutes. ( you can take off more water off the top if want.) I poured the mixture into warmed bottles and placed them in a water bath for 30 minutes. Easy, and so worth it! One of my jars didn't seal properly and so we had spaghetti the next night. It was the best sauce ever. It tasted great. It was all fresh from the garden and I made it!

Overall, I bottled a dozen jars of this delicious sauce/paste. I left some in Santa Barbara with my mom and the rest I brought home for my family. I can't wait my garden is ready to harvest. I plan on making a few more batches soon!

Updates on the garden!

 My garden is coming right along nicely and I couldn't be more happy about it! We've had a ton of rain. The boys enjoy helping out in the garden too. I've had to replant the watermelon 3 times...something keeps eating that plant! UGH! Other than that...it's beautiful!

There is corn, watermelon, pumpkins, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, large tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke, carrots, cabbage and a herb garden! I have a ton of room in my backyard! I love it!

Spring is HERE!! (when it's not snowing!)

 My compost is completed!It's so awesome! (Thanks Rosco and Lindsay for helping find he 4th pallet!!) There are two doors in the front. THANKS to Scott for building it for me! I LOVE IT! And we've already been adding "brown" and "green" stuff to it!!

 Papa and Will build a huge sifter. There are a ton of small rocks in the yard and its been difficult to garden and landscape the yard. This will defiantly help! Thanks boys!!

We have 3 fruit trees (apple, plum and apricot) and they are turning into beautiful spring trees! Blossoms everywhere! LOVE it!!

My garden is also starting to sprout and the plants inside are

doing great also!

Phase 3 complete!!

 Oh man, this been hard to start a garden! We turned the soil before we rented a tiller and thank goodness we did! We kept finding huge roots that would take us 3-4 hours to pull out. I HATE ROOTS is putting it nicely. We all worked super hard in the garden and thank goodness its root free!!

 On Saturday we rented the tiller and it was a beautiful day! A perfect gardening day! Scott helped out so much! He was wonderful! So were all the boys. Everyone of them did something to help. Great team work!

We planted a bunch of seeds and some onion plants. I can't wait for a few weeks and see our labors! We only planted about half of our garden, the hardy veggies. A few more weeks we'll plant some more!

Phase 2 complete!!

Well, almost. Scott helped me to build a compost container out of wooden pallets. I am still needing a 4th one for the front door part of the container. (It will be sawed in half and attached separately. Then, each part of the door will have a hook and eye.)

We already started filling it up with the "brown" stuff. We had a FHE lesson on gardening and composting. It helped the children to understand what goes in and why were making one.

Phase 1...Complete

Phase one of gardening is complete. We planted several starters in egg cartons last week. We got rid of most of the wood in our backyard. The boys helped to move a bunch of rocks and larger sticks for the planting area. We turned over most of the soil and we will get a rota tiller out there within a couple of days. (If it doesn't snow or rain a ton!) I mapped out how the garden will be formed and the boys all choose different fruits and veggies they want in the garden. I can't wait! The soil is wonderful! I know this year the garden will flourish and thrive! I love gardening. I love being outside working it. I'll keep you posted on phase two...Coming soon!

Updates

There are so many things I need to update you all on.....So here it goes.

Garden update: Lettuce, peas and corn came up and the birds ate it all away....:( Strawberry plants are now dead. Onions doing ok out there. My 2 tomato plants are great! Lots of buds. I have a ton of cantaloupe, watermelon and pumpkin. Today when Scott comes home I'm putting up the 30% shade cloth to help put my little plants.

Gavin update: He had his last day of preschool and did really well there. Next week Gavin, Brigham and myself are off to Santa Barbara for a week of fun with Nana! He talks about seeing his Nana and Papa several times a day and is so excited to go visit them.

Scott update: He just completed another rotation! YEAH! That means he has only TWO more to go. The rotation he just started on Monday is a family doctor's office 5 minutes away from our house! He really enjoys it there and love that it doesn't take him forever to get home!

Baby boy #6: He doesn't seem to be as active as the other boys, but is defiantly getting bigger! We like the names Preston and Camden. Middle names we like are Joseph or Grant (family names). Any thoughts??

Food Storage: Going pretty dang well. I don't have anything from the cannery or those massively large containers of food, but I have been buying and saving extra in all the different food groups. Our shelves are stocked up! Scott keeps telling me not to go the store anymore, we're literally running out of room!

Gardening part II

Gardening part II! Here are some more pictures of the work Scott and I have been doing all week long.

This is what it looked like before I began. Hard, hard dirt with a thick layer of tiny little rocks. it's suppose to be pretty for the landscape but I HATE them! They get into you shoe and into my house. You can hear them in my vacuum cleaner and you can't run out to the car and get something barefoot. You have to wear shoes!

After I racked the area I had to water it a bit and then I started turning over the soil. I did this 4 times before moving onto the next step. I was very surprised to see how beautiful the soil was. I didn't even have to use gypsum!

Scott helped me stake out the area. Each row must be 3' and each bed is 2.5'.

All the kids came out on Friday and helped in their own special way!

Scott is cutting some PVC piping to make covers for some of the rows. We will need to add a 30% white shade cloth to some of the areas when it starts getting too hot. (fruit will not mature if it's warmer than 95 degrees!) I also need to hang string down to help the plants grow upward.

YEAH! That part is finally complete. It was a log day. Plating will be tomorrow!

On Saturday I added the pre-plant and the weekly feed. After mixing it into the soil it was ready for some seeds and plants! I have a cherry tomato, a tomato, red pepper, green pepper, yellow pepper, carrots, lettuce, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, corn, pumpkin, and watermelon!

I sure hope this works! :)