Category: Life

Walks

2 Comments

Here are some pictures of Peter before going on walks. It shows the variance in weather we’ve be having.

Cold Day

Way Fun Sunglasses from Grandpa

Walk

So Joe suprised me for mother’s day and made me a neckalce. I was expecting anything much, and it made me tremendously happy. He’s started school now, and all is going well. Peter fell and hit his head pretty hard–I think the first of many bruises. Still not trying to crawl, but I’m okay with that. He doesn’t get into things.

I started my garden, and wrote about it at my gardening blog. This week, Joe and I have been married two year! It’s been a busy two years too. We’re going out for sushi tomorrow…yum.

And Peter started to clap his hands. It’s very cute. We went out for the evening, and he was with his Aunt Riss. We came back and he was clapping his hands. Kudos to Riss for accidentally teaching him. He loves to, and does it all the time.

Peter

3 Comments

Peter is growing up. He’s over six month’s old now and gets smarter every day. He can sit up by himself  and is starting to hate doing anything but sitting. He rolls from his back to tummy. (But not the other way. I thought that was supposed to be easier, but he just doesn’t get it.) He absolutely loves solids and is eating three meals a day. His favorite thing is jumping in his jumper and having lots of people’s attention. He is as big as some 1 year olds–22 lbs, 29 inches! I love the little guy, and his continually emerging personality. 

Not Yet!

We went on our first spring hike, and I’m out of shape. It was a good thing we took a short hike to Battle Creek falls. It is my favorite hike, at least the one I’ve been on the most. Peter enjoyed it too. My grandparents live just down the street, but they had left for a trip to Israel that morning. Bad timing for a visit. Somebody did drop off some muffins on their doorstep-we thought it was a good idea to go ahead and eat them.


I also have my first garden coaching and design client! I need to do some more advertising–but I think one at a time is all I can take with Peter. It’s been a lot of fun, and I think I could do it the rest of my life. Check out my site that has been redesigned, and my blog that I actually add to.

Thanksgiving Point Gardens

I grew up around Thanksgiving Point, and actually had a season pass to their gardens one summer. This spring, I went back during the annual tulip festival with my husband. The day we went, it was very rainy. I saw three other groups out, and one bride taking pictures, who I felt very sorry for. Our umbrellas kept us out of the rain, and it was nice to go when the gardens was empty.

Now, a little background before I go into my description of the gardens. I went to school in horticulture, and worked at the Utah Botanical Center one summer. Good horticultural practices and sustainability are ingrained into me. When I go to a garden I don’t just go to see pretty flowers. I want to see interesting ideas, good gardening practices, and a bit of sustainability. Thanksgiving Point is a bunch of really gorgeous gardens. But no ideas, and lots of problems.

I did thoroughly enjoy my trip, but I also spent the entire time wondering why they couldn’t do things a little differently.

Here’s a picture of the prettyness:

Okay, now for a problem. Here is a hedge. I’m not a big fan of hedges, and this one is awful. They’ve planted yew and privet. They have grown into each other now and are quite hideous. The hedge is not flared out towards the bottom, and its resulted in a lot of die back.

I found this grove of aspen quite nice. Aspens are planted too often in places they don’t belong. They sucker, and can die back easily. Don’t put them near a lawn, and not in a little kidney-bean shaped bed in the middle of grass. This is done frequently when I live. Here, they have a naturalized garden. Suckers aren’t a problem. A disease tree can easily be taken out. The aspens can be enjoyed without the headache.

One last note on sustainability. The garden have lots of lawn, and its mostly perennial ryegrass. Utah is dry, and ryegrass takes a lot of water and other maintenance. (It’s one of the highest maintenance turfgrasses in our area). Not a sustainable choice at all. I would have liked to see ideally, not so much lawn, and at least a better choice of lawn.

The $64 Tomato

3 Comments

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden

I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, and I finally got around to it. I found it absolutely delightful. It’s not a how-to-garden kind of book, but rather a memoir about the author’s experience with his kitchen garden. Any garden advice you do glean from it isn’t bad–he’s done his research–and in some ways I find it more useful to see what someone has done, rather than have someone tell me how to do things.

Does the tomato really cost $64? So, he itemizes his garden expenses, subtracts the value of the other produce based on produce stand prices, and assigns the reaming value to his brandywine tomatoes. If you didn’t need an electric fence for deer, the value would go down tremendously.

Moved

2 Comments

I am now living in Springville. Joe is working for a security system company doing tech support. Peter has cut his first tooth, and is wearing 12 month clothes. It’s been quite busy recently.

Funny thing about living in Springville. I went to church, expecting not to know anyone, and I ended up in the same ward as my high school science teacher. She is one of the best teachers I have ever had: I took multiple classes from her, worked as her TA, and she was the advisor for science club of which I was president. (I’m a science geek if you didn’t know that about me). She is also one of the reasons I choose to go into horticulture, which is why I went to USU and why I met my husband. It’s fun how life works out like that.

Garden Questions

I’ve worked at my local extension office for the past several years as a part-time intern/educator. I just finished up teaching a free community education class, and a large part of that class is answering people’s questions.

First, I would like to say that one of the reason’s I like Extension, is the opportunity it allows to answer questions. I feel I am helpful to others, it helps me be a lot smarter and learn more about gardening, and I get to apply all the knowledge I have to real life situations.

With all that said, I know I often give less than great answers. Over the years, I’ve started to learn how to say “I don’t know” when I really don’t know. Other times I do know but my knowledge improves or changes.  I’ve also found that I can give a pretty good guess at some things, without any real knowledge of it. So, how do you get the best answer, the one based on evidence, experience and actual knowledge?

I think the best way to get a good answer is to allow the person answering the question time to research it. I know my best answers tend to be messages that I respond to or ones that I tell the person I’ll get back with them. I don’t think anyone can answer every question of the top of their heads. At my gardening class I need to give spur of the moment answers. I’m a little nervous and not as sharp as I might be otherwise. (I think anyone in front of a group as experienced the situation of being unable to access the knowledge that you know is inside of you somewhere). But give me five minutes with my books and a computer, and you’ll get the answer you are after.

Other ways to get the best answer include asking for additional information or sources. That way you know the person isn’t just making up something weird, but it’s based on real research or otherwise good sources. I would be much happier to give you a factsheet on codling moths than try to explain all control methods myself.

Finally, feel free to ask multiple people in different positions. The Extension service is a great tool, but often they don’t have the experience that someone who has done landscaping for 30 years might have. Garden centers tend to have better knowledge of availability because they are selling the products, but sometimes offer wife’s tells instead of good advice. Everyone has strengths and weakness, so ask around and compare answers.

Moving

2 Comments

So Joe is going to Rocky Mountain University. We should be moving to that area in the next few weeks. It’s nice to finally know what we are doing. I’ll miss Logan I think, but I’m also excited to move on with life.

We’ve been having a lot of fun together. Joe has been hired by my parents to finish their basement. My mom is very excited to get it done after 15 years, and Joe likes the work. Peter seems to have slowed down his rapid growing a bit. I’m happy about that–he’s already 20 lbs. I’ve been giving him some rice cereal –he has a huge appetite and it helps me keep up with him. He likes it a lot too.

I was just thinking of all the things I will miss about Logan:

  • Numerous hiking trails–still so many I have yet to try! But I did make it to the top of Logan Peak
  • Family–it’s fun having brothers/sisters and in-laws close
  • Extremely close temple–a two minute drive is great

That’s about it. I didn’t make that many attachments. Too cold in the winter, traffic is horrible, and way too many red air days.

Gardening Class

Leave a comment

Its time for the annual Cache County Extension four part free gardening class. This year, due to the popular demand of my old boss, I will again be the magnificent presenter.

Here’s the link for more info: 🙂 The dates and times are right, Tuesday in March at 6:00. But it won’t last until 9:00 (who wants to sit around for 3 hours? and I have a baby that still needs to eat Mommy’s milk and go to bed at a decent hour.)  I’m also switching the second and third weeks.

So feel free to come if you are around. I hope it will be good because if not, its is all my fault.