The little rose bush that could

A few years ago I planted some rose bushes in front of the house. They are lined up along the entire front of the house with the same amount on each side of the front steps. I've never really done anything with them, especially after the first year or so, but they've done fairly well. Mom and Dad usually cut them back - usually with Jake's help - when they're here in the fall but after the 2nd summer I even stopped watering them on a regular basis. They've proven to be fairly hardy though. The reason I actually chose them was because they were advertised as being hard to kill.

Due to the way the sun comes over the house the right side of the front of the house gets way more sun than the left side. As a result the rose bush to the far right is the largest and they get progressively smaller as you look towards the left. The one on the farthest left side has been dubbed by Lincoln "The Little Rose Bush that Could".

Right side:

Last one on the left:

Knee high by the 4th of July

If there is one thing I've heard a million times growing up in Iowa it's that the corn should be "knee high by the 4th of July". Of course, Jake's corn that he planted the other day is a little behind since, well, we didn't plant it when we should have.

This morning I went out to check Jake's garden and there was one lone sprout coming up out of the ground. I was surprised he even had that since it has only been 2 days. It's in the general area of where he planted the corn so I'm guessing that's what it is. (Did I mention I let the 5-year old lay out the garden anyway he wanted? There is no rhyme or reason to it and certainly no rows.)

Today is June 1st. We'll definitely hit Jake's knees before the 4th of July. Maybe even Hannah's knees. I'll keep you posted.

An experiment in gardening

Last year Grandpa Snow let Jake take some of his extra bean seeds and plant them along the side of the driveway in the dirt/clay/sand. Not only did they grow, they grew so big that they had to replant them in Grandpa's garden.

I've never been successful with a garden and all I know about gardening is that it's a lot of work but this year Santa decided to let Jake attempt one on his own. Jake received a huge collection of seeds for Christmas and our neighbor up the street came down and dug up a patch for Jake's garden. He also dropped off a few broccoli and eggplant seedlings for Jake. Today Jake and Hannah planted his garden. Who knows if any of it will grow. He put a little bit of everything in and I'm sure none of it was planted at the right time, the right depth, or with the right spacing, but it's his garden and he's just excited to try. It will be interesting to see what comes of it. Especially since right now it consists of sweet corn, sweet peppers, sunflowers, pumpkins, watermelons, peanuts, carrots, tomatoes, sage, and lavender in addition to the aforementioned broccoli and eggplant. The good news is that we're not relying on the garden to feed the family this summer. But who knows, maybe Jake's style of totally random plantings will reap big rewards and we'll open our own farm stand.

Jake also plans on planting radishes and kohlrabi later this summer for when Grandpa is here in August. And, just a heads up to Mom, Jake informed me that Grandma Dena will be making us a pumpkin salad from his garden. Better start looking for recipes Mom.

Mother Nature rocks

When Hannah started kindergarten we planted an apple tree in our front yard. The plan was that every year on the first day of school we would take her picture in front of the tree and every year both she and tree would get bigger and taller.

We haven't done anything with the tree. We don't prune it. We don't fertilize it. We don't spray pesticides on it. We let nature take its course and just hope that the tree doesn't die before Hannah graduates from high school.

During the first few years the apple tree produced a sad little apple here or there. Even when they grow big they end up being sort of rotten and full of bugs. The tree is on the far side of our lawn away from the driveway and this year is the first year that I've really noticed a lot of apples on the tree. Big, bright, red apples. Lincoln went out and picked one this morning.

Check it out! There is something to be said for just letting Mother Nature do her thing.

Orchids

Yesterday someone at work gave me an incredibly beautiful orchid. Two of them actually. My plan was to take one to my mother-in-law as a gift and the other one home and turn it over to Jake in an attempt to keep it alive but then Lincoln reminded me that we're about to be gone for 10 days. Orchids are incredibly hard to keep alive as it is and I have a completely black thumb so I figured we'd enjoy it for the next few days and then mourn its passing upon our return from Iowa. Lincoln had other plans though. After dropping the kids and the 2nd orchid plant off at his mother's this morning he sent me the following email:

My mom said she would babysit your orchid until we get back, then you can kill it in person.

Now that's love. Thank you honey.