Summer

Flowers from our garden :)

I'm in love with Summer.  Our house is constantly filled with fresh air from the open windows (I know it's not 'in vogue' to have a swamp cooler instead of AC, but I seriously love it), I don't have to drive in snow, and we get to grow our garden.  It's pretty much perfect.

This summer has been so full, but not with much to blog about.  My pattern business, Sweetbriar Sisters, has taken off- which has been so exciting. But I am keeping my word and only blogging about it on my craft blog.   My health has been pretty bad (you know you're really sick when you wear a 1' hole through your sheets from being in bed so much... and then you buy another set only to do it again... I seriously need to find an industrial strength sheet company...) but seriously, what's new about that?  So no blogging there.  That pretty much leaves gardening.  We do actually have some pretty exciting news about our garden.

It didn't completely suck this year.

Our raised beds in the back yard

I know, I know.  Pretty exciting.  You've got to understand, Doug and I love to garden.  But despite our enthusiasm, our garden plants usually stay about the exact size as when we bought them.  Or die.  In the Spring, people look at my cart full of pumpkin plants at the store and say, 'Wow- you much have a huge yard to grow that many!'  And then I laugh.  Because, let's be honest, 3 of those pumpkin plants are gonna die, and the last one won't grow bigger than 1 foot long.

But this year was different!  This is Doug's 2nd year growing a plot in the community garden out by his office and we've learned a ton from the farmers there.  We learned about soil and fertilizers and ground covers and so much more.  And with all that knowledge, 2013's pumpkin plant got all the way to 3 feet long! :)   (for those of you unfamiliar with pumpkin plants, it should get to like 20'.  But we'll take what we can get!)

Cut Flower Garden!!! (check out that 3 foot pumpkin plant on the bottom!)

Ok, so we stink at growing pumpkins.  And corn.  And peppers.... But our tomato plants did alright.  And I continued with my cut flower garden, which wasn't too bad (nothing like stopping by a friend's house with a bouquet of flowers from your garden!).  And for some strange reason, even though we don't get much out of it, we still just really love gardening.  Maybe by the time we're retired I'll actually be able to grow a full sized pumpkin. :)

Tomatoes from our garden!

Pasta sauce made from the tomatoes from our garden!  It's pretty much Heaven on a plate