Update

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None of my pictures are working. I am hoping this isn’t permanent.

Anyway, life is normal. It is finally getting hot. My garden is growing. I ate my first radish today, the first produce out of my garden. I don’t like radishes. But it was still fun. Peter is very close to crawling. He tries…and goes backwards. Very frustrating for him, and I want him to crawl because I think I will have a happier baby. I’m not looking forward to him getting into everything.

This is Peter helping me garden

So lately, I’ve done two things to save money that I’m a little proud of. I started cloth diapers after talking to a lady in my ward who did them. I am only doing it to save money, and it isn’t horrible. I think the worst thing about them is getting started. There are way too many products out there. The second thing I did was cut my own hair. I have a long history of bad haircuts, and my hair was awful. Curly hair is hard to cut, and everyone’s curly hair is a little different.  So after much deliberation, I cut in some random layers. Now I love my hair.

Here’s a picture from a hike with my sister, Rissy. We went up the left fork of Maple Canyon for about a half mile. Carrying Peter, that was plenty long.

Central Utah Gardens

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The water conservation districts around here have all formed demonstration garden showcasing waterwise landscaping. I’ve been to the Weber Basin and Jordan Valley gardens, but had yet to go to the one now closest to my house. It is only a few years old. I’m used to new landscapes, and it felt very familiar to the Utah Botanical Center were I interned for a summer.

They had lots of good plants, irrigation demonstrations, kitchen gardens, signs and more. One of the coolest demonstrations they had was two mock houses. One was a traditional, non water-wise landscape; the other was better designed and more water efficient. I hope to transform many yards from the first to the second. Or something along the same lines. I’m a bit more of an eccentric designer. Some of the differences was more planting beds that had shape to them, less lawn, and tall fescue instead of kentucky bluegrass.

A traditional yard. Not too interesting.

This one looks much better. Why doesn't everyone do this?

They did have a good selection of plants on display, and better marked than I have seen before. The only downside was their plant list, readily available at the entrances to the garden, was organized by common name. Which doesn’t help if what I know as Jupiter’s Beard is something else entirely. It also keeps things like different types of geraniums all in different places. Jordan Valley did this too. It’s a good plant list, but not one I’ll use because of the difficulty in finding anything.

On my way out, I noticed a native plant garden that I completely missed. Good reason to go back. If you are in the area, I highly recommend going. Best garden I’ve seen this year.

The Garden

All I have left to plant is a couple of Geraniums in my patio garden. It’s been a nice little project, and I’m hoping for some produce later on in the season. I planted my vegetables in large planters. I’ve put way too many plants in each pot, but I’m not sure what I want just yet. I’ll pull out the extra later. I found a good deal on two Lamium plants. I’m not sure exactly what they are do to poor labeling at the garden center, but one has pink flowers and the other white. I’m hoping they will grow together now.

I fertilized a couple of days ago. I’ve found that in potted gardens fertilizing is crucial to have good plants. The potting soil just doesn’t hold onto nutrients the same as regular soil, and it is usually devoid of them to begin with. Previously, I’ve just used miracle-gro, but this year I tried a polymer-coated slow release fertilizer. The analysis was 18-6-8, much better than a balanced fertilize like 16-16-16. Plants don’t use equal amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, so a fertilizer like I have is better.

After using it, I realized I had just ruined any claim I could use to call my produce organic. Chemical fertilizers are on the list of things to not do. But they extremely convenient. My other alternatives would be compost or fish emulsifier. One needs to be incorporated, and the other stinks (literally, not figuratively). So chemical fertilizers won out this year, but I’ll still try and avoid other chemicals like nasty pesticides.

Camping

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We went on our first camping trip with Peter this past weekend. I decided to go up Hobble Creek canyon to Cherry campground because it was close, but mostly that’s where I found a campsite. So on Friday, we loaded up and headed out. It went very well too. Peter slept fine, we had fun roasting huge marshmallows and eating tin foil dinners. The next morning, we packed up and went on a hike.

The hike was the left fork of Day’s Canyon, and it left from the campground. I printed out the USGS map, but didn’t look at it. Turns out the trail involved crossing the stream 15 times! This wasn’t over bridges but wading right through or using an occasional log. I’m glad Joe was carrying Pete–we wouldn’t have made it far if I was. I get a bit scared crossing on logs. At the end of all the crossings was a beautiful meadow where we had lunch. Great hike for a hot day, just make sure you are wearing something that can get wet. We had our Chaco’s on, so it worked great.

Diamond Fork Hot Springs

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I went on a hike with my two wacky brothers a couple of weeks ago. We went up to the hot springs up Diamond Fork Canyon. It was a good hike to the springs, and then we had hot dogs for lunch and soaked in the hot springs. The pools we were at weren’t that hot, so Peter got to join us. He had lots of fun kicking and splashing in the water.

Mishaps

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So, Joe and I went Frisbee golfing one evening. There’s a course not too far from our house I discovered on a walk with Peter. When we got there, it was a little windy. Now the advice for the day…Don’t go frizbee golfing when it’s windy. We were okay until hole 5, although our disks tended to fly quite far and in the wrong direction if you through it up to far. Joe throws his with his muscular power, and it flies away to a think a new record distance for him, although not towards the hole. He went to go find it, and I throw mine. I threw it into some bushes, but at least not over the fence. Upon further investigation, I threw it right in the middle of this monstrous wild rose bush.

So I go to get it, trying to bypass the thorns, and the boggy mess surrounding it.  I stumbled into the boggy mess, and instead of getting my show muddy…I ended up stepping in a big hole and fell up to my chest in mud and water. It was cold, and wet, and gross. I also scratched up my arms due to the roses and getting out. But I did get out. And Joe got my frisbee. Some other people finally found his, very far from where he was looking. We stopped playing, and I walked home.

Here’s how I looked:

Another funny story:  I went to do some hand dishes, and got distracted. I come back, who knows when later, and there was soap a foot a half high and water spilling onto the counter and floor. I felt very I Love Lucyish.

Final thing: Peter finally figured out he could roll from his tummy to back. Strange little kid, glad he’s figured it out.

Invasive Species

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A post at garden rant got me thinking today. And then I went and read another article that they pointed me to. The whole subject is weeds again. Those horrid things that we would all like to get rid of…or do we?

In my weeds class, we spent an entire lecture going over the definition of a weed. There is no easy answer. My favorite is a plant in an unwanted place. It’s one you want to get rid of. But do we really want to get rid of all our weeds? The post pointed out that many weeds provide the benefits of plants in places that would otherwise be bare–like a dandelion in a sidewalk crack. That is a good thing, really. And I’ve always been a fan of things like clover in lawn. It fixates nitrogen, and can reduce the need for the tremendous amount of fertilizer we like to put on our lawns. It forms a nice, symbiotic relationship with the grass.

But I thought they were drawing the line a little too far going on to say that tamarisk is a good plant. It’s drying up our stream beds, and replacing other, better species. I know there is an endangered bird nesting in them. But there were nesting trees before tamarisk–ones that didn’t dry up the stream beds, and create a monoculture of a single plant.

Where do I draw my line? If a plant helps biodiversity, it’s good. So a dandelion in a sidewalk crack–good. The hordes of maples planted as street trees–not so good. Invasive, like purple loosestrife that take over acres of previously biodiverse wetland–horrible. We need as many plants as we can get, but they should help encourage a nice, biodiverse ecosystem. Biodiversity means everything works better, it survives better, and it looks better.

We need diverse plantings in our yards if we keep replacing wildland with them too. So try not to fill up your yard just with Kentucky bluegrass.

Garden Centers

Recently, I went to a wonderful garden center up in Willard, Utah, Willard Bay Gardens. It’s really not close to where I live, but it is close to where my in-laws do. This is on the fruit way, a highway filled with fruit stands. Great place to go when peaches are in season. I had seen the owner of the garden center give presentations on perennials, and he knew his stuff. My expectations were pretty high, and it was a nice place to go.

They did have a large selection of perennials, the largest out of any garden center I have been to. Plus they were sold in four inch pots. I see perennials sold in gallon pots a lot of times. It really doesn’t may a difference if they are in gallon pots or four inch containers, and you usually save money buying them in four inch. They were a bit on the pricey side (4-6 dollars for a plant), but I think completely worth it, due to the high selection and good quality plants. I bought three coral bells, and had a hard time choosing my three plants out of 10 or more varieties available.

I’ve recently moved areas, and I find that it’s quite hard to get used to the selection of garden centers in the area. My community is larger than my last one, so there’s more to choose from. But here are a couple of tips I’ve found out over the years:

  • Good garden centers have staff that can answer your questions well–and they won’t always direct you to their product.
  • Big box nurseries often have good plants from local growers. But they can also have non-adapted plants from who knows where. Just be careful, but often the prices are better and its easier.
  • They are all a little different, and depending on what you need one might be better than another.
  • It’s worth traveling to go to a good store.
  • If you can’t find a plant you want–ask. Many times, they will be able to order it in.
  • And saying that, go knowing what you want. Don’t just go because your garden looks bare.

I’m planning on getting to know all the garden centers around me, but it’ll take awhile. That’s fine though–their a joy to visit.

Someday

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Someday I will no longer waste my time on useless things because my day is not working out quite right.

Someday I will actually have clients, and my buisness will be succesful.

Someday my little son will not be afraid of all vacuums and I will be able to clean properly.

Someday I will be content with who I am, and who I am will be better than what I am now.

Someday my husband will have a regular, well paying job.

Someday we will have two cars.

Someday we will have a house with a garden.

But now…

I have the best little son ever.

I am learning how to be a better person.

My dear husband works hard, and is miraculously going to school to have a great career.

I still can do yoga, and keep my house pretty clean, and read books, and go to bed before everyone else usually does.

I have a small garden that takes only a little time.

The weather is very nice, and I can take long walks around a neighborhood I love.

I am just where I want to be.

Walks

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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.