Re-use, Grow, Eat- Repeat

We got a late start to planting our veggie garden this year.  With all of the research of and preparation for RV living, I tried not to put energy into anything that would keep my focus on staying in this house.  I felt like rooting plants here and becoming attached to seeing them through to harvest might alter the flow of energy toward our life on the road- not to mention that we were just plain busy.  When the first house deal fell through, I was on a mission.  It was too late in the season to start seeds so I marched off to the market and picked up seedlings in peet pots.  So how to address the issue of rooting here and potentially missing the fruit?  Even after our recent tremendous clean-out, I was able to find five random plastic tubs in which to plant mobile veggies - a container garden.  I have had issues in the past being able to maintain moisture in containers in Texas.  It hasn’t been a problem this year, however.  I was inspired by this article in Mother Earth News and decided to try again. 

- Green beans in re-purposed cat litter bin*

- Green bell peppers in small, re-purposed concrete container*

- Cherry tomatoes in large, plastic pot that once housed a bush that was planted

- Some kind of tiny, bitter peppers in an old, plastic pot

- Cucumbers in an old, plastic pail*

 *holes made in the bottom for drainage by banging a large nail through in several places*

The pots are hiding a bit amongst the moon flowers whose seeds must have blown in from the one I had potted on the patio last year.  The kids get a kick out of the traveling moon flowers and it helps to bring meaning to books like The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle which is one of my kids’ favorites.  I don’t know if it has to do with starting seedlings rather than seeds, the smaller containers that contain the roots and encourage top growth, the occasional shade lent by the moonflowers, or some other variable entirely but all of our plants are burgeoning wildly.  We have eaten many peppers, tomatoes, and green beans already.  While last year we waited all season for one, lonely (yet outrageously delicious) cucumber, this year promises a record-breaking cuke yield.

The kids and I have already talked so much about re-purposing household items, companion planting, helpful insects, garden pests, plant reproduction, etc. that it has been absolutely worth planting and having this time even if we end up not being able to bring our buckets with us on the road.  The cukes are coming, though.  Mark my words.  I will not miss out on that delicious harvest.  The kids have been hoping to make pickles.  What better way than with our very own homegrown cucumbers?

 

Moonflower

We got some moonflower seeds from another Freecycler and they sprouted right up! We anxiously awaited the evening bloom of our first flower.

Of course, after all that waiting, the children fell asleep before the bloom popped. I took a zillion pictures but, as it turns out, they hang around for a little while in the morning!

The fragrance is beautiful!

 

 

Backyard Tour

So much time has been spent gardening and sprucing and I never seem to document it so here you go!

Here be the vegetable garden! Corn, bell peppers, bush beans, broccoli, sunflowers, garlic, onions, and zucchini were all started. About 6 zucchinis have been eaten in a number of ways and were great! Those plants have now died in the Texas sun. The corn started and we even had some little ears but, once again, heat burned them to a brown crisp. It turns out that the onions and the garlic were not planted at the appropriate time so they were also pulled.

We’ve eaten 3 green peppers from the garden. I’m hoping for zillions as this is a staple in our house. The plants have gotten much bigger and are flowering again so I’m hopeful.

The sunflowers went in at Sadie’s request. They were beautiful but did not follow what we had read about them- that their name comes from their flower following the sun throughout the day. Ours would rather peak over the fence into our neighbor’s window. When they passed, we cut them down (hearty, tree-like fellows!) and found where the seeds come from (inside the center of the flower). Not sure when to harvest them as both of our long past flowers had big shells but virtually no seed in side.

The next bush bean planting will be several more plants. They are delicious and we made a great stir fry with our first harvest of them. They, too, appear to be working on a second round.

This is the back left corner of our yard. The kids call it ‘the bird corner’ because this is where the bird feeders and bath are and, thus, where the multitudes of mourning doves and house sparrows eat, bathe, and socialize. We also dug a backyard pond which contains hornwort and anacharis (plants) for pond aeration and 3 feeder goldfish that have grown tremendously. There are other water plants that may do more next year than this.

This is the front left corner of the backyard and the final product of the digging of the doggie doo composter (an absolute bear of a job to dig in Texas clay soil- just ask Chris). It is working well. No more plastic bags of poop going in the garbage (2 big dogs make a lot of poop). No smell (I was worried as the heat came that we would become the fragrant home). No bugs. It will make a world of difference next year for our perennial beds which are sorely in need of some nutrients. To the right is an herb garden that we made inside of a tire that the kids and I removed from the drainage area and rolled home. The herbs are all potted because they are pervasive and there is potential for the chemicals from the rubber to leach into their roots should they be directly potted in the tire. Here we have cilantro (killed from the heat while we were in Disney and replaced by thyme (you can never have too much of that , sweet marjoram, and basil.

This tire (recovered the same day from the drainage area) sits to the left of the in-ground composter and houses lemon balm, peppermint, and curled parsley.

Standing by the gate (at the herb tires/composter), this is the view of the sideyard to the bird corner.

These are two patio/pool shots. There are perennial beds all around the pool which will require more watering (we were cutting back) because they are definitely not as beautiful as last year. There is also a shallow box in the far back right corner with 6 strawberry plants (the kids were eating one every few days but I’ve read that they yield very little the first year) and 2 early girl tomato plants (a tremendous amount of tomatoes were eaten while we were in Disney either by caterpillars, rats, or both. We managed to eat one- delicious- and have two more now almost ready for harvest. Elijah says he will not eat tomatoes from a store ever again. They’re disgusting! Agreed.

 

Seedy Kids

Since our wonderous tomato turnout last summer, Elijah will not eat tomatoes from the grocery store. I can’t blame him! He tells me they are much juicier and shweeter right off the vine. Here he seeds his cherry tomato plants to start on the sill before we plant them out with the Early Girls.

 

Compilation Post

These are some of the most fun posts to do because they are so representative of our life- busy, random, fun, adventurous… Recently someone asked me, “do you guys ever sit still?!” There are two perspectives on this. I thought about all of the amazing things that we do, conversations we have, places we go. I blog our unschooling life because there is learning and adventure in all things. We recognize this and thrive on every moment. On the other hand, we also have a lot more time than a family whose children are enrolled in a traditional school program. This does leave us with lots of “down” time. That is, time that we’re not out and about. Even when we’re hanging around the house, though, it seems we can never be kept “down.” You’ve seen what laying low looks like in previous posts- cuddling with books, playing video games, watching TV, etc. Here are some other activities that crop up while we’re low.

Recently there has been some excitement and curiosity about time. The kids requested some in-depth information on telling time so we pulled out the wooden clock puzzle, a dry-erase placemat with analog and digital clocks on it, and Elijah’s room clock and got down to it.

Sadie decides to create her own version of the cover of The Secret Garden. Here she is copying the title and ISBN number on her drawing.

Elijah continues to be thrilled by numbers. He loves to give us verbal math quizzes and can often be found with his calculator working out equations.

Sadie makes Wall-E and EVA out of miscellaneous gatherings from the invention box. (An aside- I highly recommend keeping and invention box. Ours houses anything interesting that might otherwise go to garbage or recycling, a pair of scissors, glue stick, and various types of tape. The kids use it everyday.).

The belt broke on the vacuum cleaner. It happens just infrequently enough for me to forget how to replace it. Elijah helped me to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

We’ve had those little beads that you put on the plastic shapes and then iron to make suncatchers (there’s a long-winded explanation for something that probably has a very simple name) for a very long time. They finally got taken out and both kids made hearts. Sadie’s was an eclectic mix of all colors of beads. Elijah’s was… pink. All pink. Nothing but pink.

Sadie dictated a story to me which she requested I write on a a dry-erase board for her to copy onto her illustrations. The introduction tired her out so she’s put it away to finish it at another time. It’s about a little girl who finds a puppy.

What to do when you’ve got a hankering for something and it just won’t go away? Make it! Elijah has been wanting yogurt and granola for some time and finally couldn’t take it anymore. He rolled up his sleeves and made his own granola. Mmmmmm!. Here’s the recipe. He used dried coconut and crushed walnuts as the extra ingredients.

We have been working on attracting a food dehydrator for some time now and just got one from a Freecycler! The kids love dried strawberries but not the retail price so now we can make our own. Dried apples have also proved to be a yummy snack. They both helped to thinly slice the fruit and lay the pieces onto the shelves. Elijah then proceeded to explain the process of dehydration to Sadie.

It all started with a Barbie book from the libary about… women’s suffrage? You’ve come a long way, Barbie. It spurred quite a lengthy conversation about Susan B. Anthony’s efforts in gaining the right of women to vote which led to recognition of the seal adopted by the movement- Sacagawea and her baby. Sadie ran to her room and pulled out this coin. Why was this picture used by the movement? Who was Sacagawea? Wikipedia, here we come. I was pressed to read every last bit, stopping periodically upon request to expand on or explain different parts. I encourage you to check out the link- fascinating! (Another aside- just because your child is not huddled around the book/computer does NOT mean he/she is not interested and listening attentively. Elijah played Wii once we had finished reading the book. He continued to comment, ask questions and respond appropriately to Sadie’s questions about Sacagawea, Lewis & Clark, etc. while being seemingly engrossed in his video game. His brain is definitely better at multi-tasking than mine!).

We have recently discovered the power of having one’s own light saber.  The power is great, Young Grasshopper.

Spring is rapidly approaching here in Texas. We’re doing some pruning required for our flowering tree and shrubs so they’ll be their best when they bloom. Here the kids prune the crepe myrtle according to the directions in The Guide to Texas Gardening- my back pocket manual.

Elijah has been disappearing lately to be found in front of the magnet board constructing words and sentences using the Leap word builder and magnetic poetry words.

Tiny seeds and tiny pots. They planted alyssum, love-in-the-mist, lavender, and marigolds. We’re feeling spring!

 

Home Adventures

I’m catching up. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and we’ve been very busy in and out of the house. Here are some random photos of our home adventures.

Even though we’re not using the pool, it’s still filtering and needs to be maintained. Elijah loves to help with projects. Here he is hosing down the pool filters.

The chrysanthemums have passed so the kids trimmed them down. It’s a big job since they occupy a big portion of the front garden.

From the EcoArt book that Sadie got from the library and has used to create many fine projects comes bird cakes- a mix of meat drippings, natural peanut butter, bird seed, and corn flour (I think that’s it…). We pressed the mix into applesauce cups with a cardboard base and string run through to hang. 

The birds devoured it!

A few jars from the cupboard that we keep for containers and projects- all the same size, filled 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and full with water, then colored (just for fun). These sat on the dining room table for a week with children creating tunes and analyzing tones during mealtimes.

Sadie is drawn away from recipes and toward creating her own meals and treats. On this evening, she made a soup with several different spices (quite a bit of cayenne), onion, carrot, and chrysanthemum flowers. Chris and I ate it as our soup before dinner. It was quite good!

Star Wars Legos remains fascinating as we continue to discover new tricks and characters.

Sadie is always drawing something. When she and Elijah get together, the process is involved and the results quite amazing!

 

The Harvest

You may remember our first attempt at a suburban vegetable garden. We grew 9 varieties of vegetable from seed, built a box with 9 square feet, and planted. Everything flourished and things were looking beautiful… for a while. Turns out you’re not supposed to plant EVERY SINGLE seedling that sprouts within one square foot space. Who knew? Not me! We had carrots (yes, planted in a 6-inch deep box- another faux pas altogether) wound around each other under the ground and tons of beautiful plants that would not/could not bear fruit because of their inordinately close proximity to their neighbors. Oops. A friend of mine told me the solution was to chalk this year up to a learning experience. I just couldn’t scrap the whole thing so, painfully, I tore out everything except the tomatoes (for which the children yearned). I spread the millions upon millions of tomato plants out throughout the 9 square feet and fertilized and hoped. It took a long time but here we are with more little tomatoes than we know what to do with and a little more vegetable gardening knowledge to take with us for next year.

The kids pick tomato snacks everyday from the outrageously proliferative plants. YUM! Next year- salad!

 

How Does Our Garden Grow?

With mezclun, squash, zucchini, carrots, potatoes (the ones Sadie holds in her hands made some yummy french fries), onions, tomatoes, peppers…..