Where has the time gone....

Can anyone tell me what this plant is? I bought it last year and this year it has decided to show me some beautiful flowers. Love the color contrast!

Quinoa is growing very nice.  Still need to research how to harvest them but I think I still have time. 

My plum tree has lots of fruit on it.  Not ready just yet but look how beautiful they are.

My first pati pan is growing very nice! These are my oldest daughter LOVES these!

Strawberries are finally ready to be picked.  We have had 2 so far...one day I might have strawberry jelly....

I picked up this bleeding heart for half price because it wasn't looking too good.  Well I must of given it lots of love because after all the neglect it went through it still had enough energy to give me a flower or two. Love these!

This creeping thyme gave me pretty little purple flowers.  I just love how beautiful this plant is. 

I'm so sorry I have not been posting much lately.  All 4 of my daughters were in soccer and I was basically living at the soccer field.  Now only 3 are in soccer but all 4 are in swimming lessons. At least I can walk up to the swim lessons. I honestly feel like a taxi at times. I have managed to get out and water the garden each morning.  We have been eating lots of salads and the kids have been having fun snacking on the snap peas. 

Also I wanted to say Happy Belated Fathers Day! This is my first Fathers Day since my dad has passed and I decided to ignore my sadness and concentrate my goodness on my husband. Probably not for the best of me but oh well.  My oldest daughter picked out some all natural organic Cologne from Whole Foods, my middle daughter picked a bacon dark chocolate bar from Whole Foods (was delish!) and the twins decided to get him a toaster oven.  He has wanted one ever since we started living together but I didn't find a need for one. We luckily found an almost brand new one from Goodwill for only $9.99.  We made him breakfast in bed with a dozen roses picked from our garden.  We had a soccer tournament so for most the day we were at games.  But he was able to have dinner with his dad and the kids later that night and I stayed home with Emma because she was sick.  So I made it through the day without thinking about my dad and how sad that he wasn't here.  If I had a therapist they would not like this at all.  Good think I'm too cheap to have one. lol

Soon I will have lots of cucumbers and squash to deal with.  Anything I cannot use I usually give to my neighbors some of which are elderly.  I am lucky enough to have 7 neighbors very close to me and many of them garden just as much as I do.  As they say "Sharing is caring!"

Rain drops keep falling on my garden...

When I typed that title I sang  "Rain drops are falling on my head" which is one of my favorite songs. I thought you would enjoy some pictures I just took out in my garden.  We have had sunshine all week and it was nice to get a little shower.  Some may not like rain but I welcome it because it means I don't have to water the garden tomorrow which saves me some money. Anyways I thought you would enjoy these pictures so...enjoy!

Hosta

Another larger Hosta

Chard

LOVE the color contrast. Chard is my favorite for many reasons.

Broccoli

Flowered Bok Choy

And more Chard!

Anyone want to guess whats growing in my neglected compost pile? I see two items!

There are two more items growing in here too. Any guesses?



$50 a week and hamming it up!

Life has been hectic for me for the last 2 weeks and I forgot to share my food finds with you last week. Sorry for that! Soccer started for my girls and this means I'm usually at soccer practice 4 days a week and at games each weekend. Its just crazy!

Marks NW Fresh Produce

$1.99 Cantaloupe
$4.99 Garlic Stems (something new to try!)
3/$1 Red Bell Peppers
.99 cents per lb Fuji Apples
.99 cents per lb Pears
.50 cents per lb Red Onion
.79 cents per lb Carrot
.99 cents per lb Tomatoes
Total=$15.00

Winco

$4.48 2lb block of Cheddar Cheese
$1.52 White Rice (.45 cents per lb)
 $10.08 Cooks Ham (paid less than $1 per lb for 11 lbs of ham. Was marked down)
$2.91 Whole Wheat Macaroni Noodles (.98 cents per lb)
Total=$18.93

Whole Foods
$1.99 Organic Crushed Tomato with Basil
$1.49 Sunshine Dairy Half n Half
Total=3.48

GRAND TOTAL=$37.41
Which means I still have $12.59 left!

I wasn't planning on buying that much ham but once again I couldn't turn down a good deal.  Cook's sliced ham sells for over $3 per pound when bought by the slice.  I saw this large piece marked down from $15 to $10 which saved me a ton of money in the long run.  I will package it into smaller sizes and use this for many meals in the next couple of months.  I love ham but it's way too expensive and this is a special treat for us. 

My chard is ready to be eaten so we will be harvesting this all week long. I'm so excited! Just look how beautiful it is. 

I see lots and lots of salads in my near future as well.  Bok Choy will need to be used this week as well! Love love love having my own garden!

So what about you?  Is your garden giving you lots to eat yet?  Share!

Salads in my near future

The weather has been amazing in Oregon this week.  As you can see my girls took advantage of the hot weather.  While I was hanging clothes on the line the twins filled their sand turtle with water.  And as you can see they found some mud. Oh to be 6 again.

My pumpkins finally decided to come out and play!!! I should have a ton of pumpkins this year.  My girls will be happy because this means pumpkin muffins all year long. Woot woot!

Also the pea's and beans decided to come out and play as well.  The peas should grow up the chicken wire very nicely.  I'm hoping the Scarlett beans grow up the arbor and show me lots of red flowers.  Should be beautiful!

I picked up this cute bird feeder a couple of years ago at Goodwill.  It is so old that it started to fall apart.  So today I hammered it back to life and made it a home on my new fence in the garden above the flowers.  The sunflowers should grow nicely on both sides of it.  Can't wait till everything fills in.

Everything is filling nicely.  We went through our first batch of lettuce and now are working on our second.  In the place of the first batch of lettuce I planted some spinach. My runner beans are starting to reach for the metal art work I have placed in the center of each bed.  Scarlett beans should give me lots of red flowers. 

I found this cute little sun at Goodwill today for $1.99.  The colors are so beautiful and I knew it would be perfect in the garden.  It's made from a coconut shell and some other dried plant and then it was painted. 

This is my first year growing rainbow chard and i'm loving it.  The colors are just amazing! Should be able to eat our first round of chard this week.  Yummy!

It's also the first year I am growing my own boc choy.  I just love how beautiful these plants are.

Here is  the second round of lettuce getting ready to be eaten.  The seeds were for green lettuce but as you can see a different variety must of snuck in.  Love it!

Strawberries are starting to bloom which means I will have jelly soon.  Well that is if my girls don't eat them all.

My zucchini is looking so beautiful.  Just look at all that fuzz.  Plants are amazingly beautiful.

And look who decided to have babies.  Man I love nature.

I have been way too buzy to share my $50 a week photo with you.  Soccer season started this week and I have been a taxi all week.  Between school, training for my race (which is Saturday!) and soccer....ive been going crazy.  But soon school will be out and I won't have to train anymore leaving me plenty of time  to do gardening, biking, etc.  Oh shoot. Gotta go take the girls to soccer now....have a great evening!

$50 a week

Marks NW Fresh Produce

.99 cents per lb 4 Pears
.99 cents per lb 5 Apples
.99 cents per lb 5 Navel Oranges
2/$1    2 Red Bell Peppers
$1.50 1 bunch of Leeks
.79 cents per lb 1 large Carrot
TOTAL=$10.00

New Season's Market

$1.27 Organic Celery (.99 cents per lb sale)
$2.99 Organic 5lb Potatoes
$2.06 Organic Raisins ($2.79 per lb)
$2.29 1 Dozen Large Brown Eggs (veg fed free range)
$2.79 Hormone Free Gallon Milk
TOTAL=$11.05

Whole Foods

$1.99 Organic Crushed Tomato With Basil
$3.49 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
$4.99 5lb bag of white rice
$3.99 12 pack Green Mission Toilet Paper (trying a new brand)
$1.49 Hormone Free Half N Half Sunshine Dairy
$3.99 Cheddar Cheese 1lb
TOTAL=$19.94

GRAND TOTAL=$40.99 
Left over $9.01 for the rest of the week.  As you can see there is no meat pictured once again and that is because I'm still using up meat from my freezer that I had bought on sale a while back.  We eat about half a pound per meal for a family of 6. Then about 2 days a week we eat vegetarian.  This is a huge money saver.  Instead of making a meal around a meat, I make meat go around our meals. For example we eat locally made sausage in rice often, I cook ground beef in pasta sauce, etc.  We really are not big meat eaters so this works for us. 

Extras

Whole Foods is having some really good sales this month.  Here is a few things I picked up that were not in my food budget.

Andalou Naturals
Full Volume Style Spray
Lavender & Biotin
71% organic & fair trade
Sale for $7.49 8.2 fl oz
I have been on the hunt for a hair spray for about 2 years now.  My friend Beth at Whole Foods showed me this new line they just put out called Andalou.  Since she has never tried it I will report back to her how well it works. I am SOOOO in love with the smell of this stuff.  And honestly my hair needs to be tamed. I have so many crazy tiny hairs with minds of their own.  This brand was the cheapest and had more in the bottle than any of the other brands.  I will let you know how it works out later in a review.

Every Man Jack
2 in 1 daily shampoo
For all hair types
Citrus
No parabens, sodium lauryl sulfate, perfumes, dyes and no animal testing.
Sale for $5.99 16.9 fl oz
I decided that it time to buy my husband his own shampoo because I think he has been using the bar of soap instead of my stuff.  I don't think he likes the foofy smell of all of my stuff and would rather use the bar which is fine with me.  All our bars of soap are handmade and all natural so it really cannot do any harm to his hair.  But one smell of this and I was in love with it.  He will not take time to use conditioner so this 2 in 1 is perfect.  This one bottle should last him for a year or so because my husband has short hair.  I can't wait to smell his hair because there is nothing better than a good smelling man!

Mrs Meyers
Basil and Honeysuckle Spray
16 fl oz
$1.79 ($2.79 sale price & I had a $1 off coupon)
My kitchen has been smelling lately and I think its because of all the fresh fruit n stuff my kids eat and leave their sticky hand prints everywhere.  I'm really not sure what it is but its driving me nuts.  I use Mrs Meyers liquid dish soap on regular basis and I'm in love with the smell of their basil line.  The honeysuckle is new to me but wow did it make my kitchen smell so good.  I love their products so much.

Earthworm Drain Cleaner
Power of enzymes
No chemical residue
Environmentally friendly
Safe to use around kids & pets
$1.99 on sale (reg price $5.49)
I have 4 daughters so you can imagine how many times our drains have been clogged.  I usually use a snake to clean the tub drain but I honestly almost throw up each time I use the snake. Yuck! I'm hoping this is the answer to my problem.  I will try it out and do a review on it.

I have not been able to get to the garden except to water my starts.  My neighbors have these tree's that bloom once a year and I cannot even be outside while they are blooming. My allergies are that bad.  Last year I had a sinus infection due to me gardening when they were blooming. I hate those trees! So as you can see I have not been doing much lately except be a hermit.  Maybe this weekend......