ANOTHER Post About the Garden

I just can't help it!  I just want everyone to see my vegetable garden all the time!  Ask my local friends.  Every time they come by I make them take a tour of the garden. 

 I blogged about it ten days ago and it has grown so much!

 I go out every morning to water and I'm just giddy by the time I'm done.  Then when Dave gets home we must walk around talking about it.

 My tomatoes... tomatoes I started from seed remember...are doing awesome!!   Its so insane to me that I almost pulled them out because they looked so rough for awhile.  

 We have lots of blossoms!  And little tomatoes starting to emerge!!  Can you believe it???  HOT DOG!!!!

 Our beans are growing well!

 BAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

 THE PEAS!  There are little tiny pea pods now!  Can you believe I grew this??  Oh man its like magic!  Next year I won't say such stupid things... but this being our first year..... I'm going to give myself a pass to say dumb stuff.  

 The pepper plant that almost perished in our bad weather is doing amazingly well!  Its the only pepper plant with blossoms forming!

 Keeping Nate from pulling the carrots its a serious gardening job.

 The cucumbers seem healthy.

 We have a constant supply of spinach now.  Our lettuce could be eaten soon too!

 The zucchini plants are growing!

  Everything happening in the yard is so rewarding!  Our magic grass blanket really has successfully fixed our mud-pit issue!  Dave has even started mowing the new grass!  We have plans to start fixing the other area in our backyard which needs a little rehab.  

We feel like Martha freaking Stewart or something.  

Better

 Things in our yard are really looking up.... then again there is a chance of hail almost all week.  So I'll share before that happens.

 My front bed is doing really well.  I have little 'amigo mix' cocks combs in the front and come pretty red and pink Coleus behind our dwarfs.  I'm really happy with this.  The moon flower is just poking up.  It may-not be doing well, but I've never grown one so I don't have anything to compare it with.  

The hanging baskets in the front yard are doing well.  Although I may let one die since a bird has laid eggs in there and I'm afraid to flood the little nest set in the dirt with the two little eggs.

 I bought a couple of Roma plants thinking I would need to replace a couple in the garden, but our tomatoes are bouncing back so I've planted the Roma in the front yard.  They have a little tiny tomato already.  I need to put some bird netting over them asap.  

In the backyard....

 My cosmos are going kinda slow.

 The zucchini are doing well.  Considering it took three weeks for the sprouts to finally appear they are going quickly now.  I'll get the hang of this.

 The raised bed is doing very well.  

 The tomatoes are well

 I am very surprised and pleased.  

 The peas make me happy.

 The lettuce is looking good!  I don't think anyone is snacking on it.

 The spinach is well also.... although something really enjoys chomping on the spinach leaves. 

 My basil which I thought was DEAD after those days of wind and rain has obviously bounced back!  Amazing! 

 Love the bleeding heart.  I thought it would be larger by now, but maybe after it blooms? 

 The hanging baskets in the back are doing great.  There are dozens of mantis in the four baskets in the backyard.  I know it will take awhile but I get nervous about spotting a dozen big green mantis on my back porch one day...

 The grass blanket has worked amazingly well!  The grass is tall enough to mow. Once the blanket and grid are totally gone we will fill in any holes with the patch stuff that we like.  Our grass woes have disappeared.  It wasn't cheap, but it wasn't too much work and it didn't take as long as I thought it would.  We are really happy.    We still pull dandelions daily.... and have a patch of sad grass near one of the gates, but our mud pit is gone.  PTL

 Our raspberry bush appears healthy.  We bought two, but Bonnie stomped on one.  

 Our neighbors have raspberries and we have a free bush growing... so we have two again!

 Our blueberry bushes are happy!  Growing well.  This makes me so geeked!

While I was snapping pics of the raspberries and blueberries the stomp-er passed by... this reminded me of a big foot sighting photo ;) 

Last Saturday our neighborhood had its annual rummage sale.  We had stuff to sell and made a healthy few hundred bucks!  We also cruised the neighborhood for some great stuff too....Nathan scored a Zurg!  

Anyhow,  while at a sale down the street a few blocks Dave got to talking with the owner who asked where we lived.  She commented that is was great to see all of the work we have been doing. It kinda made our week.  

License to Cuss

 Last week Rapid City Public Library had its Summer Reading Program kickoff party.  There was a band singing You Are My Sunshine, pudding cups, a rock education station, a raccoon craft, and a woman helping kids make 'Living Necklaces'.  We made our bean in a baggie tied around your neck... and I noted that her name-tag said she was a 'Master Gardener'  Since checking on parts of my garden makes me nearly start crying I jokingly said "Nate she is a master gardener we need her to come over"  Which struck up a conversation about my gardening woes.  She asked if it was the hail, I told her it was the wind.  She said did you swear? I said no I almost cried.  She said I should definitely just cuss because it won't lead to a headache and a stuffy nose.  She told me I doing well for my first South Dakota attempt, and advised I do exactly what my mother told me to do..... when I didn't listen.  So now I'm following her swearing advice, and I'll be saving large cans for next year to avoid this headache.   

My tomatoes aren't dead.  But they aren't looking that hot.  They are alive, but I'm not sure what their fate will be.  Their stems are strong now, we continue to have high winds on occasion, but they aren't as delicate.... they just don't look too good.   The master said that's okay.... 

Otherwise, we've replaced the green peppers that the wind snapped.... my spinach is growing large, but someone is snacking on it.... my peas are doing well, the carrots are growing, the beans and cucumbers continue to grow..... 

 The zucchini plants finally came up!  I was beginning to wonder.

 My Cosmos are coming up.... Mom do I need to thin these?

 The grass in our large bald spot is coming up through the blanket thing.  Its really miraculous.... the dogs still spend a ton of time romping and laying and probably peeing on it, but a majority of the grass is doing very well!  Praise the Lord!

My bleeding heart is blooming!

Occasionally I say nice things in the garden... but I am totally allowed to cuss from now on.

Success is Sweet

Wednesday I caught wind of a Food Network show, The Great Food Truck Race that would be in Rapid City this weekend.  I got a little geeked..... liked all the trucks on Facebook and told the boys we were going to try all five and they would have to be good sports!  

 Downtown we were waiting when The Aloha Plate and The Slide Show trucks arrived.  

 It took them awhile to get going, then we split up to both wait in lines.  

 The Aloha Plate served up a lettuce wrap.  It said it was 'steak' but it seemed like ground beef or cube steak???   But delish anyhow. 

 The line for The Slide Show truck took longer.  

 Nathan was complaining about how hungry he was.  But by the time the bbq buffalo burger was served he was so starved he ate it all.  Which was strange since he usually had a hard time with steak.  I had a bite.  It was really good too.

 My friend Miranda had nailed down the location of two of the other trucks at the farmers market so we headed there next.  

The Tikka Tikka Taco truck was serving up Chicken Wrapid City Tacos.  Really good tacos man!  They had a kinda curry flavor and were amazing!!

 The Philly's Finest Sambonies truck was also at the farmers market.  

 They were serving up a grilled chicken sandwich.  I wasn't sure if it was canned chicken??? It was edible. 

 Back in another part of Downtown the Bowled and the Beautiful truck was serving up Bison Chili bowls with tortilla chips.

It was tasty and the chips were really good.  

Was it worth the driving around, standing in line and 12+ bucks a pop...YES.  So much fun!  It felt like a food scavenger hunt.  Could I pick a favorite?? I don't think so.  It would probably be between the slider and the tacos.  

But the afternoon was a tasty success!