Literally

i just wanted to remember some of Mackenzie's Magical Childhood Moments...

I asked her to put the sunscreen away under the sink in the bathroom

when she was about 2 years old...

... and so she did :)

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I had just bought a new birdbath for the garden in March of this year.

As i was bringing in groceries one morning i realized the birdbath was empty. i asked mackenzie to get a cup from the kitchen and fill it up a few times to replenish the birdbath.

As i came around the corner i saw this:

when i inquired about the soap bubbles in the birdbath, mackenzie explained,

"the birds need soap when taking a bath!" :)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider...

So if Tobacco-Horned Worms weren't weird enough to discover in our yard......

kyle was outside enjoying his smoke break after dinner when he poked his head through the garage door beckoning me, "MALAKA! HURRY! HURRY! COME QUICK! BRING KIERA! HURRY UP!" So of course i HURRIED out the door to the outside of the house. i'm pretty sure i gasped and possibly slightly peed my pants when i came around the corner to find the BLACK TARANTULA sitting next to my plants! UGH! TARANTULA! i'm not completely creeped out by bugs... but the larger they are they creepier they are.... eww.. he was just creepy... and kyle thought so also, my BIG STRONG MUSCLE MAN kyle... ya that guy that didn't hesitate when our neighbor took the bucket from him and captured the beast himself. kyle was relieved ;) so the with the collaboration of the neighborhood kids (who all thought the tarantula was super cool) the lucky guy was set free in the hills behind our houses.... not my choice, but then again i would have had to get close to him to end his life... so a free spider he was... and unfortuntely the rain did not wash him out...

Attack of the Squash

So i was wrong about the "Tomato Hornworm." When i found another one a couple of days ago i noticed that it had a red horn not a brown horn. After some more researched i discovered that my dear friends were "Tobacco Hornworms." They both dine on the same plants it's just that the Tobacco Hornworm is more common in the southern part of the state and the Tomato Hornworm in the northern part of the state. Either way i have been nursing my poor tomato plant back to life. We will probably harvest our first tomato this weekend! Here is what she looks like after recovery :) Notice the whole top half of the plant has almost no foliage.

Our corn in super fun and we can already see where the husks have formed. You can see how tall out tallest stalk is next to Mackenzie. In the other picture she is feeling our first pepper. Of course she will not eat them, but likes to explore all the daily garden discoveries.

Kiera just picks all the leaves cuz she sees me pruning. She's picking what i think might be basil. She likes to play in the soil too :) But now i only allow her to wear a diaper when gardening because her clothes were getting to many permanent soil stains.

Our squash is on the verge of dominating the neighborhood. i am fearful that i am going to come out one morning to find the whole side of the yard buried in squash plants. Someone soon is going to have to be transplanted!

Our roses went on a blooming spree all at once which made the itty bitty rose garden super duper pretty! Here is one from Mackenzie's rose bush.

Garden Tidbits

The earth laughs in flowers.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view. ~H. Fred Ale

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. ~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

...we have tomatoes, onions, peas, green beans (8 sprouts this week), a few radishes, i think some carrot seeds finally found a happy place, watermelon plants wanting to bloom if the dogs would stop trampling them, 5 pumpkin sprouts, an eager grape vine, 1 flourishing raspberry plant, 1 trying to survive raspberry plant, squash or zucchini plant, herbs and SUPER TALL SUNFLOWERS of a sorts of colors.

We brought back a few plants from grandma's garden in iowa hoping to keep her with us all the time. 1 of the 3 Black Eyed Susans seems to have settled down and sprouted some new leaves. We also brought back a pianese plant that originated 90 years ago in kyle's great grandparents farm. i'm still not sure if it's gunna make it, but we haven't given up yet!

Gardens are a form of autobiography. ~Sydney Eddison

Malaka's Lengthy History of Gardening

With this being my first real blog, i had not intended for it to be so lengthy. But i realized there is a lot of history to my gardening. :) Perhaps with all of these years, successful or not, under my belt, i can be referred to as a "gardener" and not someone that just plays in the mud!

My earliest and really only childhood recollection of vegetable gardening was when my mom planted pumpkin seeds in a dirt planter along our driveway. I don't know how old i was, but i still remember feeling the rough leaves of the plant and how the long vines sprawled themselves this way and that way. Good stuff and apparently that memory planted a seed in me that keeps on growing like a stubborn weed! Ha-ha! Oh yes... we also had 2 avacado trees that kept the squirrels well feed an eventually became mulch.

I have been gardening from the very beginning. I remembered that i tried to plant a vegetable garden, while living at home with my parents, in a little plot of dried up dirt that I shared with the dog (gross, i know) between an outdoor bathroom and a guest house that served as a storage house. Of course I was pleased with my ability to grow 3 carrots and 2 radishes.

I then tried again to explore my green thumb when we lived in Arizona, the DESERT. I eagerly planted my seeds but more than once lost my gardening battle to 115 degree summers and some dirt burrowing bees. And no, there are no pictures because i don't think anything even ever sprouted. HA!

So when we lived with my brothers I once again found the only dirt worth planting in... a small circle in the middle of their cement patio amoungst some already exisitng lillies. Kienan was just 2 years old which made the whole experience even better for me. The picture shows him planting our first and last crop.

We did manage to grow a few pea pods and again the infamous radishes. But between the dogs trampling thru it on high speed chases and my time being consumed by new baby in the house, Mackenzie, it all shriveled up and that was that.

But i am persistent and when we moved to the apartment i wasn't going to let a 5' x 8' covered balcony stop me from growing a garden. So i purchased the window boxes and the soil and the seeds and the new watering can and hauled up those 3 flights of stairs. I now had 2 cuties to share this with. i wanted kienan and mackenzie to get dirty and be curious and make mud and eat dirt and experience the wonders of a seed. We did plant radishes again so they could witness this miracle, however i invested in flowers this time thinking the balcony would be a perfect home.

We painted our own pots and got really dirty! The day was great! The kids were in it as much as i was. I mean what kid wouldn't enjoy dirt and water?

I was particularly pleased how the red flowers brightened up our mini balcony.

SUCCESS! I had finally created a garden and even better i did it with my kids!!!! Unfortunately, our balcony garden perished quickly from the Santa Clarita afternoon sun of about 100 degrees. UGH!

Sooooooooo, we moved into OUR HOUSE!!! i had garden plans brewing before the house was even finished being built. This was going to be IT! The garden i had always wanted for so many years! Well, of course the first spring, which was last year, was more than crammed packed with life (new home, new company, pregnant, husband traveling for 3 months). But i would not let a dirt backyard stop me! A truck tire would be more than adequate for a pumpkin plant. :) Yes, i went to my dad's yard and my brother loaded up an old tire into the back of my truck. We bought pumpkin seeds, soil, another new watering can and of course, THE WORMS! I had high hopes that when my mother-in-law came to visit in the fall she could hand pick our home grown pumpkins with her grandchildren!

We did good. They carefully planted their seeds.

We saved a family of earthworms from Wal-Mart and examined and played with them. They seemed to really like their new home because our seedlings flourished!

They sprouted and grew and grew and so did our corn and tomatoes!

And, my belly also grew with little Kiera June inside... and the thought of walking hurt, especially alllll the way out into our hot, dry backyard. i just couldn't do it. So, my infrequent waterings eventually killed it all. Fortunately, the tomato plants were alive long enough for the kids to enjoy. I would send them out with a bowl to collect our small crop and it would always come back still empty since the kids would eat the tomatoes right off the plant!

So here i am again excited about Spring. My husband has built me my very own vegetable garden. There is a fence to keep our dogs out and stepping stones for little feet. Kyle even hung a sun in MY GARDEN! IT'S ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!! About 3 weeks ago i rummaged through my packets of seeds and because i had so many i really didn't want to go buy more seeds. I figured even though the packets said 2005 it would be fine. The kids and i planted corn, carrots, onions, peas, peppers, tomatoes, and a cucumber plant. Kienan brought home a sprouted zucchini plant from school that we added. Well, to date only the peas sprouted. They will eventually climb the trellis. My tomatoes and pepper plants are doin' great. The zucchini and cucumber plant already died. :( In the meantime, Kyle installed automatic sprinklers that water twice a day. I am taking the girls to the nursery tomorrow to buy seed packets that read 2008 and we will plant again!

This afternoon i decided to pull some have eaten Gerber daises and plant herbs: spearmint (thought it would be fun for the kids to smell), basil and oregano. We also have a space along the wall where we planted 2 raspberry plants, a blueberry plant, and a grape vine. I am happy to say that the berries are doing fabulous and i'm not sure about the grape vine quite yet. Next to those i just planted some watermelon seeds. Not even 5 minutes later Sasha found the new cleared spot to be a perfect resting place... hmmmm

And finally my SUNFLOWER GARDEN. If you know me, you know I LOVE SUNFLOWERS (my bridesmaids carried sunflowers down the aisle). This is the first year that i have ever planted them. We are keeping track of their measurement by standing Mackenzie next to them. I figure she won't grow as fast as them and she'll be amazed when they end up being taller than her :)

So i'll keep you posted on our Crop Inventory and see what we grow this year. If you come visit we will share!