How our Garden Grows

Pin It Now! Our organic vegetable garden is thriving! We've never been successful at maintaining a garden, but this year we are doing pretty well. Here's some pictures of the of strawberry plant - with an actual strawberry growing! - and our apple tree that's about to bloom.

Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration.
~Lou Erickson

Michelle Obama's Garden

Pin It Now! Organic gardening, great, right? Well, not if you're in the pesticide industry. Below is from Democracy Now!

Pro-Pesticide Group Criticizes First Lady’s Organic Garden

And First Lady Michelle Obama is coming under criticism from a pro-pesticide industry group for deciding to plant an organic garden at the White House. The Mid America CropLife Association recently wrote to the First Lady to urge her to consider using pesticides, or what they call "crop protection products.” One official with the pro-pesticide group said, “While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made [us] shudder.” Mid America CropLife represents agribusinesses like Monsanto, Dow AgroSciences and DuPont.

Monsanto is the company that invented the chemical Agent Orange used during the Vietnam war. Currently, they (contractually) sell farmers genetically modified seeds that can't be replanted every year, requiring farmers to re-purchase each year. In the past, farmers save their seeds and replant. Now, farmers aren't able to pay the exorbent, and growing, price of seeds yearly, causing small farms to shut down, allowing industrialized farming to thrive.

If organic farming is the natural way, shouldn't organic produce just be called "produce" and make the pesticide-laden stuff take the burden of an adjective? ~Ymber Delecto

The Garden

Pin It Now! It has been unusually sunny here and we have been loving spending the past few days outside in the sun and at the dog park. Finley especially loves to sunbathe! If he isn't outside in the sun, he sits and cries at the door until he can go out and soak up the rays. We've also been able to do a little bit of much needed yard work.

Neil planted a cute little veggie garden in our yard today. Yesterday, while I was in class, he took advantage of the sunny weather and dug up a small area of our yard and fenced it off in hopes for sunshine today to plant. Today he brought home some butter leaf lettuce, red cabbage, Walla Walla sweet onions, tomatoes and strawberries and planted them. I love when my husband is bored! The dogs and I all enjoyed sitting outside watching him do the hard work and working on our tans.




The garden before. Yep, just dirt.

Our garden is very small, but so is our yard. He's really packing it full of plants though. We'll see how it turns out.



The garden after! So pretty!! I can't wait to have fresh veggies for dinner.
My two little ones sunbathing in the lawn chair. Aren't they the cutest?!