A question

Question: What's better than fresh-picked grapes?



Answer: Not much







We hope you're enjoying your Tuesday afternoon as much as we are!

Spring 2012

I just realized that yesterday was the first day of spring, which explains a lot of what's happening around here.

The first signs of life in the garden come courtesy of the rhubarb.

Not to be outdone, our apricot tree is almost completely covered in blossoms.

Followed closely by the plum and cherry trees.

We had a long spell of unusually warm weather and now all of the fruit trees are ahead of schedule. They will be very unhappy when the frost of April and early May come.

The girls still enjoy hanging around in the garden area. Here's Hazel, and that's Greta on the left.

In the front yard, the miniature wild iris are blooming. Each plant is only about 2 inches tall.

Lachlan, Sadie and I have spent a lot of time working on the backyard lately. More pictures later, but I've been cutting out all the dead growth from last year. Late last week I uncovered the catmint, and it has nearly tripled in size with new growth since then.

I also have baby lamb's ear springing up everywhere!

On an unrelated note, thanks to everyone for the nice words about the magazine feature for my cards. I'm still smiling about it. Now to get discovered by an even bigger magazine! :)

Holiday 2012 recap: Garden Tool Co.

Today's Christmas gift recap is actually a gift I gave, not one that I received. Is it obnoxious to say that a gift I gave someone was totally awesome? Maybe. But in this day and age, when I come across a product available online that is of spectacular quality and is accompanied by OUTSTANDING customer service, I think I should toot its horn.

My mom spends countless hours outside every year tending to her garden (and to mine, when I'm lucky!) and she is always in need of high-quality gardening tools. This year I came across the Garden Tool Co. and had no problem picking out several of their tools for my mom for Christmas this year.

To start, I got her a DeWit 3-prong hand fork, a Sneeboer hand hoe and fork, and a Burgon and Ball shrub rake and I was absolutely blown away by their quality. The hand hoe and fork is particularly wicked looking, but will probably be invaluable as my mom works to break up the concrete-like dirt clods that she comes across on her property!

You can probably tell from the pictures that these are not your average garden tools that are designed to last one year (if even that long) and then get replaced the following year. These suckers are made to last.

And if that wasn't great enough, the customer service provided by this company was amazing. About an hour after I placed my order online, I received a personal email from Blake, the owner of the company, thanking me for my purchase and letting me know how much he appreciated my business. About 30 minutes later I received another email letting me know my items had been shipped.

The "About Us" section of their website says it all: "We have to earn your trust through the quality of the products we offer and the uncommon customer service you deserve.”

I can't wait for the next opportunity to buy more of their tools, and no doubt will be placing an order for myself in just another month or two as I get ready for this year's garden. If any of you are in need of some superior gardening tools for yourself or as a gift, please, please, please consider getting them from this company. You won't be disappointed!

Holiday 2012 recap: Blackbird Naturals

It seems almost silly to me to just now be talking about some cool things I got for Christmas this year, but I have been slightly overwhelmed with orders from my Etsy packaging shop for weeks now. All I can say is that ridiculous things happen when two different women in Denmark with very popular blogs get some of your products and then blog about them! But I digress...

I got several really awesome things for Christmas. I'll just tell you about a few of them that are particularly relevant to the general themes that appear on this here blog, because I figure that you might be particularly interested in hearing about them.

First up is this AWESOME package of vegetable seeds that I got from my friend, Kelly. It is made by Blackbird Naturals and I was giddy when I first unwrapped it, and then I almost passed out when I opened the box! If you've poked around my Etsy packaging shop, Paper and Present at all, you've probably figured out that I looooove pretty packaging. And if you've poked around this blog at all, you've probably figured out that I loooooove gardening. So this present was a definite home run with me.

It came in this really neat wood, slide-top box, which had me at hello!



And if that wasn't awesome enough, this is what I saw when I opened the box:



Beautiful, right?! Those little metal slide-top tins make my heart go pitter-patter every time I look at them. I'll never look at a plain paper envelope of seeds the same way again. I just love a company that goes the extra step to present their goods this way!

Included in my collection are 8 varieties of heirloom, organic, open pollinated vegetable seeds: arugula, chantenay carrot, chioggia beet, cherry tomato, English breakfast radish, lemon cucumber, orach spinach, and Siberian kale.



If you are a gardener yourself, you might be very interested in the seeds available at Blackbird Naturals. And if you aren't a gardener but know someone who is, their seed collections make spectacular gifts. Trust me! :D

Three birdhouses for Charlie

I live just outside the small town of Palisade, and every year in December they have an Olde Fashioned Christmas festival. They have gingerbread house competitions and other fun stuff, and they always have an outdoor market in the streets downtown. They set up wood burning stoves in the middle of the street and vendors offer free cups of hot chocolate and apple cider, and people are encouraged to dress in period costume from the late 1800s.

I have often considered hawking my wares there. Afterall, what better fit for a celebration of an 1800s Christmas than cards printed on an 1800s printing press, right? But the last three years that we've been here for it, it is has been cold. And miserable. And snowing. So I decided to pass on it this year.

But then Saturday rolled around and the sun was out and it was a glorious day. Figures...

So while the husband was busy entertaining Lachlan, I went down to the market to see if there were any last-minute gifts I couldn't live without. I stopped at the booth run by the local alpaca farmers and bought a few things. And I couldn't resist the raspberry blueberry bread sold by a nearby bakery.

And as I was on my way to buy a wreath from the Boy Scouts, I stopped in my tracks when I saw the most awesome collection of wood birdhouses.

A sign posted on the display said that all the money was going to support a local kid named Charlie who has been selected to travel to Greece and Italy this coming summer as part of the People to People Ambassador program. I overhead the vendor explaining to another woman that he was Charlie's dad, and that he is a "collector" of "stuff" and that he has always built these birdhouses as a hobby. And when people started showing an interest in them, he decided to build some to help raise money for his son's upcoming trip.

I remember my days in 4-H and showing horses as a youth when we were always trying to raise money to go on a trip somewhere. So I'm a real sucker for that kind of thing. Plus these houses were so cool and EXACTLY the kind of rustic and unique birdhouses I've been searching for to add some character to our property.

As I was making my selection, the man came over and told me that it was getting late in the day so everything was 20% off. So I picked out three of the houses and then gave him $20 more than the original price of them. I thought he was going to start crying. I told him I remember being in his kid's position and how hard my parents worked to help me raise money for various things I was involved in. And these days there are so many kids NOT doing good things, that when I come across one who is, well, I want to make sure that I help support them any way I can.

So now Charlie is that much closer to a summer abroad, and I have three of the coolest birdhouses this side of the Mississippi. I'm not sure who got the better deal.

Calm...

I interrupt this moment of extreme computer frustration to show you these calming photos of some of my roses.









After waiting 3 weeks for them to even look at my computer, they decided it was a bad motherboard and sent it back to HP to fix. HP decided it was the hard drive and replaced it. Good thing I had backed up my files! I got it back and discovered that HP put on a different operating system than I had on it before (32 bit instead of 64 bit), and after hours and hours of trying to reinstall the correct operating system, I just gave up. Now I'm trying to reload all of my software and get all of my files transferred back to the computer, not to mention trying to redo all the customization I did before. Argh, argh, argh! Time to go smell the roses again.

Labor day

I hope you all are having a good Labor day. Mine has been pretty productive so far.

I took a car load of cardboard boxes to be recycled. And I do mean a car load. The back of my vehicle was completely full, as was the front seat and the part of the back seat not occupied by Lachlan.



It's great to be rid of all those boxes, but it's super fantastic to be rid of all the STUFF that used to be in those boxes out in the workshop. Yes, sir. Progress in that department has been good. (Thanks to my awesome baby sitter!)

Then my little helper and I headed out into the garden to survey the situation. Lachlan wondered when we are going to make more tomato sauce. He sure liked them 'maters the other day!



While he was entertaining himself with dirt and leaves, I was stuffing my face with raspberries. Mmmm, raspberries.



Now I'm headed back out to the workshop for the next round of organization. I've gotten rid of a lot of stuff and now I am entering the important phase of organizing what's left!

In response to your comments

I'm in the mood to tidy up some things around the house today. Sometimes the piles and unfinished projects really get to me. And I realized that there are a few comments from some of you that I haven't been able to respond to yet, so I thought I'd tackle those things today, too.

In response to Roz's question about the buried irrigation system in the garden, you can see some pictures of the system we used here. We got the supplies from a local ranch and farm supply store, but I think they would be readily available at any Home Depot or Lowes. The husband is unavailable at the moment so I can't get details on the dimensions of all the tubing we used, so I'll plan to do a more detailed post later. Dang. That's one thing still left unanswered!

In response to Holly's comment about canning and preserving tomatoes, I actually LOVE to do that sort of thing. Typically I spend all fall making jam; that's sort of my "thing". But canning tomatoes for some reason hasn't appealed to me in the past, maybe because I get too burned out after all the jam I make. I'd love to make salsa and preserve that, but the husband and I disagree on the finer points of making salsa, and because he likes eating it more than I do, I just let him make his own. I'm not making any jam this year because it's too difficult with a little one running around. Once that stuff starts boiling you can't leave it until it's in the water bath, and I figured it would be asking for trouble to try to make it while trying to chase Lachlan around the house. Next year...

In response to Linda's comment about the sad state of our workshop, all I can say is that it's actually worse than it appears in the photos! And to make matters worse, I'm the biggest offender. I have piles and piles and piles of letterpress stuff that I'm still trying to go through. I made a lot of progress when the babysitter was here on Tuesday afternoon, and she's coming again today and over the weekend. My goal is that by September 30 the shop will be as clean as the barn that Linda recently featured. (By the way, good luck to Linda's daughter in her upcoming three day eventing show!)

In response to Linda's other comment about the tomatoes, I do actually like to eat a cherry tomato or two right off the vine. Sadie likes that, too. She'll stuff her face with them! And I do love a good BLT (especially if it also includes avocado and has a particular emphasis on the "B" part!), but I have been known to pull the tomato out after just a few bites... I don't like them on any other kind of sandwich and I really don't like them on hamburgers! I'm weird, I know.

But it appears that at least one person in this family does like them!



Hope you all have a happy weekend!

Tomatoes: A confession

These are the tomatoes I just picked. They are not to be confused with the mound of 'maters I picked less than a week ago.



They came from just five tomato plants. I didn't even bother to pick the cherry tomatoes today because I still have a giant bowl full of them from last week. Isn't that ridiculous?

What's more ridiculous is that I don't really like tomatoes. Can you believe it? Oh, sure. I'll eat them green and battered and fried and smothered in ranch dressing. I'll eat them ripe and sliced and smothered in ranch dressing. I'll even stuff a few slices in my mouth if they're covered in mozzarella cheese and drizzled with a nice balsamic vinegar. But overall, they really don't do much for me.

But I still grow them every year.

Why?

Because they do so well here that it's almost like growing a weed, and therefore they satisfy that part of my personality that craves instant gratification and something for nothing.

Well, something for nothing except the time it takes to turn them into spaghetti sauce...

Bountiful harvest

Although it has been practically abandoned this year, my garden is cranking out the produce like crazy. The buried soaker hoses that the husband installed this year made ALL the difference. I just turn the water on once a week and let it run overnight. The plants have nice deep roots, and there are basically zero weeds.



Isn't the white eggplant awesome? I think it's called ghostbuster. It's really good battered and fried (what isn't?). And this is the third crop of green beans from the same plants. I had no idea that green beans could be this prolific. They just keep on keepin' on.



Despite losing several tomato plants to unknown causes, I still have an overload of 'maters. Looks like I'll be eating spaghetti with marinara sauce this weekend!

Claire Austin

My mother's day roses are finally growing and blooming, and wow are they gorgeous. They're even worth the colossal headache we went through to get them.

Let's just say that David Austin Roses doesn't have the best customer service in the world. Three of the roses ended up dying; I guess they didn't like sitting in the 90+ degree weather for several extra days because when the company finally shipped them (after numerous phone calls), they shipped them right before Memorial Day weekend so the boxes sat in the heat for the whole long weekend. Argh.

On top of that, I ended up with three tree roses. The husband had originally ordered three tree roses in a deep burgundy color to go with the 8 light pink shrub roses, but I was worried about the tree roses surviving a Colorado winter. So I asked the husband to call the company, and if the roses hadn't shipped yet (ha), to ask if we could swap the three tree roses out for another kind of rose. I looked through their print and online catalog and found the Claire Austin roses.



I love, love, love white roses, and these looked beautiful. They were listed only as shrub and climbing roses. I looked at the selection of tree roses and didn't see the Claire Austin rose. So I asked for three Claire Austin roses instead of the three tree roses. And what did I get? Three Claire Austin TREE roses! What?! Argh!



It took them awhile to grow and start blooming, but now they appear to be rather prolific bloomers. The flowers are incredibly beautiful, and the fragrance--described as "based on myrrh with dashes of meadowsweet, vanilla, and heliotrope"--is absolutely amazing.





I'm not quite sure what to do to ensure that they survive our winter; the blooming portion of the rose is about 3 feet off the ground, so it's not easy to just mound mulch over it. Do any of you have experience with winterizing tree roses? I'd love to hear your advice and suggestions! I will be so, so sad if these don't survive our winter!

Squash bugs: 8,234; Melissa: 0

I give up. My days of trying to grow squash are officially over. I've been too busy to try to keep the population of squash bugs under control, and it seems like they have been, well... they've been "busy," too!



And the chickens, which were bought last year for the specific purpose of eating squash bugs, have decided that there are better things to eat than squash bugs. They've been warned that they'd better start laying some golden eggs instead, or there might just be a stew pot with their name on it!

In other news, my computer is on the verge of eating itself. Until I get it fixed, I'm limping along using my old computer, which was replaced  a year ago because it was on the verge of eating itself... So if I disappear for a few days, you can assume that a) I've been carried away by squash bugs or b) my computer finally ate itself and I'm out shopping for a new one.

Outstanding in the Field: The Farm, Part II

I almost cried when I saw the farm that hosted the Outstanding in the Field event we went to. Divide Creek Farm is outside of the small town of Silt, up in the mountains. When we turned off the road onto the farm property, I never would have guessed that there was a farm on the other side of all of those trees. We drove through the woods and over a small, red covered bridge, past a tee pee set up in the woods, and around the corner to one of the most immaculately kept properties I've ever seen.

Clara, the farmer, has three (maybe four?) greenhouses that are on rails. There are 3 sections of land for each greenhouse, and she rolls them back and forth over crops throughout the year, depending on what needs protection.

She had lots of squash inside and outside of the greenhouses. I am kicking myself for not asking her how she controls squash bugs. I am losing the battle with mine this year.



She grows lots of onions, including walla walla onions. I haven't tried that variety before, so they are on the list for next year. Cucumbers grow on trellises in the greenhouse behind the onions.



She grows artichokes! I have wanted to try growing them but didn't think they'd do very well here because our growing season is a little on the short side. I guess I was wrong! (Or I guess maybe I need a mobile greenhouse!)



The tomatoes grow on a single string that is tightly strung between the ground and the ceiling of the greenhouse, and I imagine that Clara must spend the better part of her day pruning these things to keep them looking this good. I tried growing my tomatoes on a trellis like that one year and just couldn't keep up with the pruning necessary to make it work. This year I haven't pruned my tomatoes at all and they are out of control.



When one crop is done she rips it out and prepares the soil for the next crop. I think she said that she'll be starting carrots in this area in August and will be harvesting them throughout the winter.



This really made me jealous. She uses an airstream trailer that has been turned into a mobile cooler to take her produce to the farmers' market. Talk about green with envy!! A bunch of beautiful strawberries grow in rows behind the trailer.



You can find out more about Clara on the farm's website, and she also has a blog.

And yes, I spent yesterday morning weeding my garden and trying to make my tiny patch of dirt look half as good as Clara's! :)

Outstanding in the Field: The Farm, Part I

Last night the husband and I went to an Outstanding in the Field event in Silt, CO, about 1.5 hours from where we live. If you ever get a chance to go to one of these, do it. Don't let the (cough) price scare you off. The experience is TOTALLY worth it if you can afford it.

The dinner was held at Divide Creek Farm. Have you ever been to a place that is so perfect and so amazing that when you get home you want to bulldoze everything you have and start over from scratch? This farm is that kind of place.

The farmer is Clara Coleman. I heard last night that her father had a farm in Maine, but it wasn't until I looked on her farm's website this morning that I realized that her father is the Eliot Coleman. I have his book!!

Every square inch of the farm is beautiful--from the rolling greenhouses, to the trellised tomatoes and cucumbers, to the numerous barns and sheds. Everything is beautifully constructed, with amazing attention to the tiniest detail. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

The absolutely stunning office, with an indoor, 2-story rock climbing wall for Clara's sons.



Clara's chicken house puts mine to shame!









(Yes, that's an outdoor sauna, shower and hot tub!)

A small schefflera (you meet the nicest people in blogland)

Ever since I was little I would imagine what it would be like to be an ant or other small critter in a forest of moss and small plants. Maybe that explains my fascination with terrariums, bonsai, and tiny gardens. I've had a few terrariums over the years, but I've never had a bonsai. Until now. And the story of how I came to possess my first bonsai is proof that we live in a small, small world full of very nice people.



I first "met" Roz through my blog about a year ago. I did a post about the honey bear acorn squash I grew from seed from Territorial Seed Company, and the company posted my post on their blog or facebook page. Roz, who lives in Hawaii, saw that post and then came to my blog. It turned out that we had a lot of interests (chickens, horses, gardening) in common, so she became a frequent visitor.

Then for Christmas she ordered a set of my letterpress mountain cards to give to her sister who--GET THIS--lives just about 30 minutes from my house! Then this past April she came to Colorado to visit her sister.

We originally planned to meet in person, and she was going to come to my house and meet Sadie and Lachlan and the presses and my three lovely chickens. But then a family member had a medical emergency and our visit didn't work out quite as planned. But Roz still came by the house for a brief visit, where she presented me with several awesome goodies she hand-carried from Hawaii, including this completely awesome bonsai schefflera. And when I say it's awesome, I mean it. It's growing out of a chunk of lava rock! How cool is that?!?



I keep it on the windowsill in my bedroom so I can see it every morning. It fulfills my fascination with small plants and is a constant reminder that there are some really, truly nice people out there in blogland. So thanks, Roz, for a wonderful gift and for your blogland friendship! :)