What I have been up to in my garden

As you can see from the last post of pictures the garden is really taking off!  I am excited about the way everything looks this year.  I love the lay out of my garden as well.  I already have green tomatoes on the vine, loads of peas, lettuce, arugula and sorrel that I have been eating.  I have been watching my zucchini plants like a hawk.  Last year I lost all my squash plants to vine borers and squash beetles.  This season I am determined to catch the little buggers before they can do any damage.  So far so good.  I have caught about 5 of the beetles and removed the leaves that they lay their eggs on.  It seems to be working because I have about a half dozen small zucchinis growing.
     I have been spending a lot of time working in the back yard as well.  I moved all the plants that had been place in the back beds.  With the addition of a bed near the chicken coop.  I just didn't like the way everything was laid out.  So I rearranged and added some new plants. I also laid a stone path way and patio space surrounding the entrance of the chicken coop.  And created a privacy screen using some old windows.  I spray painted a stencil of some clouds and mountains onto the back side of them.  I like the way it closes off that area and makes it feel complete.  I also seeded grass in the back yard.  It is coming up strong.  I can't wait till to see what it is going to look like when everything has grown in. 

Picture from the garden

Iris I rescued first bloom in two years

The Chicken coop, stone path and stenciled windows I made

tiny zucchinis

Peas

Structure the peas are growing on

First harvest

Grapes

Full side view of garden

Visions

Planted Zucchini

Surprise Tulip

A camilia  I rescued two years ago just bloomed for the first time!

The Dogwood is Blooming!

Miko in the sun

More Visions

Sculpture for peas, beans, and cucumbers

peas, beans, and cucumber arch

Raspberry Archway

Raspberry Archway

The past few years I have been building structures in my garden for my beans, cucumbers, and peas.  Last year I also added two grape vines and a raspberry to my garden.  Although in the past I have been using bamboo, which I collected from a friends back yard bamboo forest, this year I decided to make some more permanent structures using the crape myrtle branches.  Every year in Atlanta we have to cut the Crape Myrtle trees back.  I love these trees for there fast growing smooth barked limbs.  This year I was able to collect the branches from not only my own two crape myrtles, but also from three other trees.  So here are some picture of the structures I have built.  I can't wait to watch the plants wind their way around these structures.  

Archway entrance to the garden

 

 

 

Visions

Here is the first egg my chickens laid. 
I can't remember exactly when they started laying,
but it might have been early February.

This is what they lay now every couple of days.

This is Rosie a couple of weeks after I brought her home

This is what the ladies look like today.

On the edge

After a few eventful wintery month I am back.  I have been meaning to post, but just haven't been able to take the step between thinking about it and doing it.  Sorry for the long break.  I will try and post more regularly.  That being said...on to the post...

Atlanta is swooning with the blooms of the peach, pear, cherry, red bud, and magnolia.  Tiny leaves are unfurling left and right.  Something hopeful about all those new beginnings.  The simple cycles and natural patterns this spring are imbued with joy for me.  On the edge of new beginnings myself the buds remind me that the world holds beauty hidden under the ground or behind the sharp thick bark of an old peach tree.  Kept safe from the harshness of winter just waiting for the warmth to coax it out.  A metaphor for human emotion.  During the hardest trials sometime without knowing we shut down and harden off.  So as to not be torn apart by the ache.  However, just when you think that perhaps all is lost.  Slowly the warmth of new perspectives opens us up.  New buds of hope begin to blossom on the tendrils of our heart.  The thick layers we have erected to protect the tender parts start to fall away and before we realize what's truly happening our hearts are in full bloom. 

Lettuce and Arugula

Fully gripped by the stress caused by unemployment, injury, and general financial duress I was wandering around my garden when noticed that some seeds I had planted in the fall had sprouted in the warm spring weather.  A whole mess of tiny lettuce, arugula, and kale.  They were crowded and growing in a part of the garden I had wanted to use for other plants this spring.  So I carefully dug them all up and one by one replanted them.  After I did this I thought I should take a look at my compost pile.  Turning the pile over I saw something that sparked a great reverence in me for the simple and yet beautifully orchestrated patterns of the natural world.  What had been a year and half of kitchen scraps was now the richest deepest dark compost.  It was brilliant!  My brain of course knew that this is how composting works and this was not my first time to turn over a compost pile, but this time the simple fact that this is how everything works struck me so deeply.  I was overwhelmed with a feeling of joy and connection.  I am just a part of this grand chain that can turn my scraps back into dirt rich with nutrients to feed the new seedlings.  There are so many of these patterns and cycles at work that we are a part of, but yet tend to over look or forget about.  Just like the poem I felt compelled to tattoo on my body written by John O'donohue.

Kale and Red Onions

from the moment of your beginning through all days and climates of mood and dream, the music of your heart has never stopped. sending its rhythm along vein and bone, it has held you alive and present.

Garlic

Even when we forget.   When we are caught in the mire of our fears and doubts.   Under the surface everywhere there is a music...a rhythm...a cycle keeping us alive.   We are a part of a grand and complex tune.   

Oh to feel small and yet cradled by the very understanding that I am just a part.   A note on the bar of this endless composition.