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garden 2014 // weeks 6 & 7

I know I haven’t been posting very much lately but I have a legitimate reason: my laptop is broken and is currently being repaired. Zane somehow managed to destroy the power jack, so now the battery won’t charge. I never realized how much I relied on having my own computer, until I didn’t have one. Thankfully, Damian is kind enough to let me use his desktop to edit photos and write posts, though I have to battle the tween for time to do so. These past couple weeks of gardening have been a serious lesson in humility for me. It’s not that I was ever really bragging, but looking back through my first month or so of garden posts one might assume that everything was coming up roses (or tomatoes, so to speak) and that perhaps I was just a naturally talented gardener. But, then things got real. First there was the blossom end rot, now…the blight . Oh, the horrible blight!!! My poor tomato plants are losing many of their lower (and some middle) leaves, and I am so scared that the plants will die before the fruit ripens. Stupid nature! Why must everything be a competition? I just want to grow a very humble garden — can’t you just leave me be? Obviously, the answer is no. Besides that, everything is doing great. We even have little cucumbers — so cute! — and we harvested some summer squash this week, too. Zane is so excited every time we go out there to see what might be ready. Despite the hassles it’s totally worth it because his joy trumps blight any day of the week.

garden 2014 // weeks seven & eight 1
garden 2014 // weeks seven & eight 2
squash collage
garden 2014 // weeks seven & eight 3
garden 2014 // weeks six & seven 4
garden 2014 // weeks six & seven 3

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30 // 52

30 // 52 // Lillia
30 // 52 // Zane

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This morning (Saturday), you asked your dad why he was still at home. As he aptly noted you are obviously in full-on summer vacation mode — you don’t even know what day of the week it is! You’ve spent a ton of time at the pool, and also you’ve been planning on doing some sort of summer shape-up by jogging around the block. We discussed how little kids stay in shape without difficulty, but that it is harder the older you get to stay active. Although I sometimes miss your younger years, I think it is pretty neat that we can talk about all kinds of interesting things now that you are older. I hope you keep talking to me as you enter your later tween years. I’m always here if you want to chat, and I promise I will try to be a good listener.

Zane: Your new backpack arrived this week and you were so excited to try it on. I have to admit that seeing you wearing it kind of depresses me but I’ll get over it (eventually). I’m so glad that you are excited about preschool, and I know you will have a blast. You’ve been helping me do all kinds of things around the house this week: we’ve made bread; watered and tended our garden; picked berries; and we even made our very first pie! I love having you as my little shadow.

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29 // 52

29 // 52 // Lillia
29 // 52 // Zane

“A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Lillia: This week you had a sleepover at Nanny & Papa’s house. Earlier in the week we were driving in the car and I asked you if you missed Papa, since it had been quite a long time since you saw him. You said, “Of course! I ALWAYS miss Papa!” I think it is really special that you are so close to Papa. He worries that when you become a teenager you won’t be interested in spending time with him anymore, but I can’t imagine that would ever happen. You have a very unique relationship, and he loves you very, very much; we all do.

Zane: When we were at the pool the other day there was a little girl, a little younger than you, swimming all by herself with floaties. Her grandmother let you try them on to see if they might work for you, too. At first you were really nervous so you held your body perfectly still and when I told you to try and move your arms you said, “I’m afraid I’m going to sink.” Once I reassured you that you were not going to sink, you were pretty thrilled with the whole experience. The next day we got you a pair of your own, and now you’re unstoppable in the pool. Freedom!

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garden 2014 // week 6

I mis-labeled last week’s garden update, which should have been weeks 4 & 5, so now we’re on the sixth week! The garden is still blooming at full capacity, but there have also been a few setbacks. I will chalk this up to my being a total newbie at gardening. The first problem I’m having is something called blossom end rot , and it is just a horrid as it sounds. Zane first noticed it when he picked one of our butternut squashes prematurely. It looked really shriveled and gross, and the end was all rotten. I thought, oh, well, it was dead anyway. But, after a closer inspection of the other baby squashes, I noticed that several of them had the same problem! I Googled “end of butternut squash rotten” and found out that this is actually a common problem, and is caused by a lack of calcium. The roots could have trouble uptaking the calcium in the soil if there is a dramatic change in watering patterns (which could definitely have happened while we were on vacation and it was SO hot here in New Hampshire), or if the soil was not enriched enough to begin with (which could definitely have happened when I had to move my garden beds, thus disturbing my soil layers). Regardless of the cause of the problem, the solution seems to be a foliar spray, which I purchased from Amazon and had overnighted. I removed all the rotten fruits and bathed the heck out of the roots in a foul-smelling mixture of liquid seaweed and water. The good news is that the rest of the new fruits actually look fine. In fact, we have a fully ripe zucchini that we are going to eat tonight in one of my favorite dishes (see recipe at the end of the post). The second problem I’m having is also quite common, and that is sunburned leaves. I think I did a little too much watering of the leaves during the middle of the day (should have just concentrated on the soil) and now some of my leaves have little burn marks. Well, live and learn! The third problem is that two of my pepper plants are not doing well at all (read: practically dead). I think my aggressive removal of the blossoms, in the hopes that I could get the plants to grow larger, was a big mistake. I gave the peppers the seaweed treatment, too, in the hopes it might bring them back to life.

garden 2014 // week six 1
garden 2014 // week six 2
garden 2014 // week six 3
garden 2014 // week six 4
garden 2014 // week six 6
bean collage
garden 2014 // week six 7
garden 2014 // week six 8

Our dinner tonight, based on the recipe
“Tuscan Style Pasta with Chickpeas, Zucchini and Rosemary”
from Vegan Planet , by Robin Robertson

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small or 1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch thick half-moons
2 garlic cloves, minced, or about a tablespoon of jarred, minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
One 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
One 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
1 pound of rotini, or similar

Directions:
Cook the pasta, drain, and set aside. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the zucchini in the olive oil until slightly softened. Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds, then stir in the rosemary, tomatoes, chickpeas, and seasoning and cook for about 10 minutes to blend the flavors . Combine with pasta, and enjoy!

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