Friendship Participants

So much of gardening can be accomplished alone. Many find solace in the quiet of time spent outdoors taking time to commune with one self and God; to mull over things over that just need to be mulled. It is a great treasure to be found in these days of busyness and electronic din. Sometimes, however, it's a great place to have a visit that wouldn't happen otherwise. A garden can be a place of memory making with friends and, in our garden, dogs.

Here's Carol and Lilly who visited today.
Carol is Jen's mom. Can you believe it!
She doesn't look old enough!
And Lilly - this was her first visit to the garden.
And though she would like everyone to believe
she has a hearing problem, she did come back when called.

It was a beautiful visit.

Attack of the Cabbage Worms!

I think we both felt quite sad to have to bring some foreign substance into our garden in order to produce a bountiful harvest. We have discovered cabbage worms, grubs, flies, teeny tiny worms attacking the little tender seedlings (Jen refers to them as our Babies). So you can imagine that we HAD to do something. The stats are that if these beasts are left to their own devises, they consume 80% of the crops planted. That just can't happen. We topped two of the beds with BT. We will be watching over them closely as we continue to plant seeds and plant a few tester seedlings. We prayed for the blessings of God's hand as we continue to be faithful with what He has given us. We asked for wisdom to be guided and learn just what should be done. We gave thanks for the beautiful place and the wonderful opportunity to grow food for our families and others. There's the good and the bad - we see both to be opportunities for personal growth throughout this life.

For more information on BT (Bacillus thuringiensis) that we used to thwart these evil doers, see the following websites:
http://www.freeplants.com/bt-organic-insecticide.htm
http://gardening.about.com/od/gardenproblems/a/OrganicPesticid.htm
http://www.epa.gov/oppbppd1/biopesticides/pips/regofbtcrops.htm

Farmer Steve

Here's Farmer Steve in his gorgeous orchard. He's worked extra hard at planting due to the fact that it takes a pick axe to get through the hard ground and rocks. Fruit trees were planted last year, raspberries, blueberries and marion berries have been added this year. Just beyond the orchard, caught up in the clouds of the day is Mount Baker, which makes for an awesome background. This peaceful setting, amazing site and wonderful structures are all the work of Steve's vision and understanding of what is needed to do things well. He is a blessing to all who work at the Friendship Garden.

Oh, and by the way - the name of the garden and the sign are Steve's handy work as well. What a guy!

Kathy & Jen

It may not be our very best photo, however it is rare that we have a picture together! This is Kathy (on the left) and Jen (on the right). Our friendship has grown so beautifully over the past year or so. It amazes both of us how God gives us an understanding of one another ~ our hearts desires, our treasures, our love of family and God. Each day seems to bring a new lesson, a new kiss from our Lord, who is constantly providing us amazing love and grace as we walk through this life. And it is so much FUN to do the day with someone who "gets" you!

Bella's First Radish

Here's the very first radish of the Friendship Garden 2010 grown by our very own Bella!

Bella offered Grampy Steve the first one.


He wanted to share it,


but she was more interested in growing and harvesting than eating!
Grampy Steve said it tasted delicious!

Good going Farmer Bella!

Dirt Prep

Yesterday we spent time preparing another bed for planting. We are choosing to put our cabbage, broccoli, spinach and chard in this bed, as the one next to it is having a cabbage worm issue. We need to do a little more investigating and hold a few more discussions so we can come to a consensus on how we want to deal with this issue. For now, we'll plant the other bed up. The troubled bed will be dealt with just in time to plant tomatoes. Yippy! We have a wide variety of tomatoes we began from see this year. Our plan is to make and can salsa!

Jen did a wonderful job setting up the new spot for the squash. Here she planted the 8-Ball and the Pattypan that we began from seeds. Don't they look so healthy and happy? Jen too!

Here we have our own Vanna White showing off our lovely Lemon Cucumbers transplanted into the end of one of the beds. As they mature, they will train up onto the fencing and produce a wonderful crop without overtaking the entire bed.

Friends of the Gardeners

So there is never a dull moment with the Three Musketeers! Buddy, Cash and Grace all seem to love the garden - inside and out of the fence. However, they don't necessarily love each other! Cash is so big and loves to play, where King Buddy and Queen Grace would rather lay on the warm dirt beds and watch over the Kingdoms!
So much for the Dogs Life being hard!

First Potatoes Peek Out

Jen did such a great job burying the Golden Fingerling Potatoes. We chose to use an entire bed for them as they proved to be very popular from last year's harvest.

So discovering their sweet leaves reaching towards the sky
today was so very exciting! We just had to share this picture! Here's looking forward to yummy dinners!

Pea Planting Day!

The snap peas have been a little bit of a challenge. Once we planted the seeds, and they sprouted, field mice discovered how much of a delicacies they were and left a pile of the hulls for our offerings. Not Funny!!!

So, snap peas were sprouted and over 300 seedlings grew big enough to thwart the mice. What a blessing to remove all the pea starts from Kathy's house and settle them into their final resting place in the garden.

They sure looked happy.

She made the vow that if the mice eat these, that's it. We'll give up!