McLeonard (Erin Leonard) has a new blog!!!

David here - guest blogger - sharing a new exciting blog to follow.

Our good friend Erin has started a blog to share her "Little Things". You know, the little things in life that make you smile, but don't really think about. Follow her blog and share your "Little Things". They will surly make you smile:-)

http://noticethelittlethings.wordpress.com/

Guest Blogger signing out ->

what now?

that was the subject of my latest email to my gardening support group, Sara & Jenny :) Some of my starts were hitting the roof of their little green house, so I had to remove the lids. I knew they need to be transplanted, but how/when/where?

I took a stab and used solo cups for the squash and put the lettuce in actual pots. Note to self-just put lettuce straight outside next year, this is too much work! ha!

the labeled cups

getting the supplies and cups ready

voila!

the finished produc is now in the window sill upstairs and in the basement. the plants are taking over the house!

this picture is upside down for some reason...ugh! But, it is my lettuce starts getting some fresh air. Apparently some gardening guru types call this "hardening" of the plants.I also finished the compost bin:

holes drilled

brown matter (i.e. leaves I stole from the Sterleys yard)

some dirt

our scraps

mixed together and sprayed down.

I just hope it can withstand the rains from last night! I might realize the place I am storing it isn't going to work with the weather. oh well...trial & error, trial & error

what a difference a week makes

I really wish Jack & Reagan lived here to share in the excitement of our super-fast growing garden :) I seriously get so excited...David not so much - but he will be when he is eating it! ha!

Check out last week's post for a picture from only one week ago. WOW! Pretty much every single seed has sprouted aside from a few peppers and cilantro. They may not all survive, but if they do I will be sharing the starts with my parents and the Grace Garden.

The raised garden should ship Monday (we heart Costco) and then hopefully soon we can get it all prepped!

Today I will taking the larger starts and putting them into single containers and even getting the lettuce ready to get outside. Yay!

come away with me...

...in the night


We had a great time at Norah Jones on Saturday night! It was a fun date night. We started at ZING for dinner and then onto the show. She performed a great mix of old and new.

We even ran into some familiar faces :) Lins, Kendall and Pauley also enjoyed the show!

little dudes

Look who showed up to the party!! LETTUCE!

aren't they cute?

gettin' dirtier

Sara invited Jenny, Kelli and I over to plant some seed on Tuesday. Let me also mention that Kelli has taken master gardner classes and Sara could probably teach them. I was definitely a student, but it was fun to learn! Sara made it easy by buying all of our supplies, we brought our own seeds and then just divided it up. I can't wait to start my garden like this every year, how fun!

The finished product: two trays of starts. I think there are 72 spots all together... p.s. check out the full fruit and veggie bowl filled up by this week's farm fresh delivery, mmmmm

A little sideways, but without the lid

The cheat sheet they give you to track what you planted.

As you might be able to read, I am attempting to grow tomatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplant, a few varieties of peppers, lettuce and some herbs.

I also finally purchased my compost goodies.

This is the container that I will keep under the sink. Not bad for the first night. As you can see we had some pearl potatoes, avacado, lime and lettuce :)

gettin' dirty

I love new challenges, and most recently have tried to make our home/lives a little "greener" small step by small step. I like to call them "small, but mighty, changes" to feel a little better about our slow progress!

we recycle (doesn't everyone now?) but more items than ever before, we don't use paper towel to spray cleaner on the counters (but still use it in other ways), we also are now eating more local and organic through Farm Fresh Delivery. We have truly been inspired by our friends to do more - and a big shout out to sara & grant who have been able to show us (and not in that annoying, pushy way! ) that small changes are easy.

So...onto the next challenge: drumroll please!

Gardening & Composting! I grew up with a garden so that isn't that much of a stretch (plus my backyard could use something! anything!) but the composting is. My friend Jenny sent me an awesome article about how to do it in a rubbermaid tub. Well, I can do that! David flat out said "no" (which is funny if you know our Farm Fresh decision making history)...but then came home and pointed out that my salad "scraps" could be composted. haha. Love him.

It actually appears quite easy and I have been guiltily (word?) throwing out scraps since we have so much more now using Farm Fresh. Oh by the way, did you know people still peel carrots? yep, don't have to get the baby ones-ha! I would have never had carrot peel to compost without Farm Fresh.

Hopefully this is what it will look like once we start:

A wise gardener told me that compost is considered "gardner's gold" and will make a huge difference in our garden. yay!

I am getting together this week to plant to some seeds with friends and can't wait to see what we can grow! Now we just have to build a box garden since our ground is pure clay and rock.

I love a challenge and hope this is easier than it sounds right now...and we can eat our beautiful bounty all summer!

yum....

welcome

A big WELCOME to the blog world, Jenny & Matt...

I knew you'd get on the bandwagon eventually :)