Oh such happy little seeds in their indoor mini green house!  The humidity did say 96% before I opened the zipper and let enough out so I could get a picture without the camera and the thermometer screen fogging up!  These little seeds should be sprouting in no time in these conditions!

32 C (90 F) and 72% humidity! (96% before I opened up for a photo)

Starting out 2012!

This year I am going to try to blog my gardening year as it happens ... rather than posting a year at a glimpse in photos, once it is all over!

Today was the start... the kids and I started our seeds today.  I have a few more to do yet tomorrow, but today we got in our tomatoes started. (minus the yellow pears.  We love our yellow pears and I thought I has seeds left, but alas, I was out and didn't order any.  I hope I can get some this weekend at Seed Saturday!) Also peppers, summer savory, thai and sweet basil, Em planted some Asters and Zinnias, and Luke planted a watermelon. Tomorrow I have to start my broccoli, celery, and a couple other things I can't remember right now.

Two very eager seed starting helpers!

The newly planted seeds chilling in their little green house.  It is filling with humidity, so hopefully these little guys pop up soon!!

Oh, also, I went and checked out the yard for the first time... I cannot believe it, but I have green oregano out there! I am sooo excited. And some unknown spring bulbs popping up. ;)

Oregano in March!!! And there is enough to actually use a little. Love!

Unknown bulbs popping through.  I have a lot of bulbs planted, so I don't know yet what these are.  Oh! And do you see the little lady bug checking things out!  I think it is still a bit cold for him though.  Maybe the bulbs pushed him out of his slumber spot.

A photo glimpse at 2011

 

Spring bulbs poking through my tree bed in May.

 A view of the planted garden in early June with out watermelon growing house!

Some very early cucumbers!  These were started in the house and then planted in the straw bales.  This is mid June!

My newest planter box which houses our corn.

Cherries in July!

mmmmm.... these made some delicious jelly!!  First time there is enough to pick!  Too many berries in my backyard now for the birds to get them all!

My little girl checking out some squash on our Square bales!

 Making some rain on a HOT September day!  But a nice view of the growth in the back of the yard.

 Our first watermelon!!!! OK, it is small but it was delicious!

 

Canning time!  Putting up some tomatoes with my trusty side kicks. :)

Last Summer - 2010 - Our yard has come a long way!

We had not the best growing season last year, but for the most part, my yard and garden still looked pretty good!  These pics show how things looked one year ago!

The plants I starts from seed in the house.  I think I started seeds and of February last year. This picture was June, shortly before plants were moved out.

 

 Bringing them in at night became a little cumbersome! Yeah, I had a couple pretty big tomatoes!

Hubs had some help this year tilling the garden!  You can see the bales around the edge which were used for our first year of straw bale gardening!  We had great results and will talk more about that as I get the 2011 bales ready in a couple weeks!

 Planting the tomatoes the first week of June.

A cucumber and watermelon that were just planted alongside some marigolds to attract the bees!

Conditioned bales ready to be planted!

The Garden worked and ready for planting and the strawberry and raspberry patches.

The children hitting the strawberries mid June for the first big picking!

A shot of the yard in mid July to show the tree growth!Notice in the bottom right corner, that is the first year of my herb garden!  I tossed a couple veggies in there too - there is a beautiful head of cauliflower ready to pick (click to make the photo big!)!

A picture of our current rain barrel system for collecting water to keep the plants happy!

Our composters with some extra stuff in the middle waiting to go in!

End of August, the garden and the bales.  It was a cold summer and that area where the garden looks bare, yeah, that is my cucumber patch!

 

Our first potato harvest from the bales!  We were very pleased!!

Fall Cleanup.  Hubs working the garden with piles of clippings ready to return to the top of the garden to spend the fall and spring composting.  Notice all that awesome partially composted straw from the bales getting tossed in the dirt!

 

A little Autum color!

My little girl picking through the "mountain strawberries" in October!  They produce until the snow buries them!

2009 - a few pics of the yard in the background of some kiddo pics!

Sharing a big red juicy tomato from the garden!

 Some Delilahs in the flower box up by the house.

 First potatoes of the season from one plant.

 The trees at the back are growing and filling in.

 This was in the spring; you can see the cherry and apple trees in bloom!

 We had hail that year in August and about half my apples got damaged.  I picked the bruised ones and made apple juice out of them.

2008 my son turned 2 and my daughter was born...

So there were more pics of the kids than the yard!  But the yard really began to fill in and I did manage to find a couple from that summer!

I had lots of help that summer!  My littlest helper in the carrier is only about a week old! 

I often found this three foot tall, two legged critter roaming my garden and grazing on the veggies!

 He was also found roaming the tree and shrub bed, smelling the flowers!

 And running wildly about the grass!

A few pics and progress from 2007

Early in the summer of 2007, we put in some more big structures - the garden shed and the deck.  Hubs likes to do it up right too, so he designed this deck with a curved corner!  See the black pipe in the background?  That was his "steamer" he build to steam his wood so he could bend it to make the curved railing!  And in the far background is my beautiful cottage style garden shed.

 My very first "sour" cherries.  These are also called pie cherries as they are the type you make pie filling and cherry juice with. Mmmmm Tasty!

 My second year of vegetable gardening!

 From left to right - strawberries, raspberries, and saskatoons!  Tomatoes in the background and in the foreground is the corner of my veggies garden where the cucumbers are!

 My amazing tomato box!  My greatest success!

 Prepping for the sod at the end of August.

 

 Rolling sod into the night!