Things are growing well, and planting, watering, weeding, and fertilizing have really taken all my house time (not to mention picking up after the four of us!).

"Josie's little garden" began life as a bare patch in the lawn where Josie planted a few old pea seeds in, oh, February. One sprouted and has been joined by a red pepper, carrots, spinach, and radishes. At least it's not just dirt like the other bald patches in the yard! She waters it, tends it faithfully, and brings offerings of roly-polie-olies and worms whenever she finds them. Oh, and she's not just growing peas, they're 'sweet baby peas', since that's the kind her baby brother eats.

I took this shot of the 'big family garden' over the weekend, and things are already twice as big. We've got cantaloupe and zucchini against the brick wall, and a trellis for them to grow up. Lettuce/spinach, peas, onions, and beans in rows, then tomatoes/peppers, carrots, corn, potatoes, rhubarb, pumpkins, and watermelon. Josie and I still go out and hoe every day to keep the weeds down, but she's already enjoying the peas.

In other news, it seems that we've moved to our summer quarters in the basement, since it's been at least ninety (or felt like it!) every day for the past week, and that pattern doesn't seem to be breaking anytime soon. We've thought about a swamp cooler, but we all sleep with our doors shut, so that doesn't seem to make that much sense, and with radiant heat an a/c would be mucho expensive to install. We'll see how it goes...

Oh, and happy birthday to me on Thursday!




The "big family garden"