06 Saturday Aug 2016
Posted in Garden, Odyssey Orchards, school gardens, Teaching
It has been over a year and a half since my last post. This site has been sitting on a bookshelf, so to speak, collecting dust. Sitting there while I created lesson plans, graded papers, met with parents, and managed a classroom of 25 fourth graders. Sitting there while my garden withered. No time. But, times change…. Continue reading
02 Saturday Aug 2014
Posted in Garden, Odyssey Orchards, Teaching, Why I Garden
Late one afternoon I finally got to picking the dried black beans. As soon as I reached up to remove the first pods my daughter squealed and asked, “Are these different ones!? Don’t tell me what they look like!” She ran off holding a single dried pod like it was a present all wrapped up in pretty paper. Continue reading
24 Saturday May 2014
Tags
garden, gardening, gardening with children, gardening with kids, school gardens, summer garden, sustainable food, sustainable living
It is amazing what can happen in the garden in just a few short weeks. There must be fairies visiting my beds every night sprinkling their magic dust over the plants. Continue reading
05 Wednesday Feb 2014
Tags
Altadena Community Garden, garden, gardening, gardening with children, gardening with kids, photography, Wordless Wednesday
Posted by Jessica Y | Filed under Garden, Why I Garden, Wordless Wednesday
18 Saturday Jan 2014
Posted in Altadena, Garden, Why I Garden
Tags
Altadena Community Garden, garden, gardening, gardening with children, gardening with kids, sustainable food, sustainable living, winter garden
In my backyard garden I put up small fences around many of the garden boxes to keep out the feral cats and the raccoons. Inadvertently, they are now (more or less) keeping out a third destroyer of vegetable garden delights – my almost three-year-old. His motivations are heartwarming. He is not digging for grubs, tearing out anything in his way. He is not looking for a good bathroom. He is actually looking for a tasty snack.
23 Wednesday Oct 2013
With the start of school a few months ago, my daughter in Kindergarten and my son to preschool, I got swept up in a new routine, new communities, new anxieties….The garden waited. I mustered up enough time just to get the essentials done. Pull out the tired summer crops. Start cole crops. Dig in goat manure. Call on the garlic order that had not arrived. Plant peas. Things settled down just in the nick of time for the big push. Turning soil. Planting the garlic. Transplanting the cole crops. Sowing a second round of peas, carrots, and lettuce. Just in time.
15 Sunday Sep 2013
Posted in Garden
This morning was the first time in a long while that I have spent any extended time in the garden. Life has gotten a bit hectic since my oldest started Kindergarten and my youngest started preschool. Just when I thought I would have a few hours to myself a few mornings a week, my oldest was home sick for four days. We had big plans for today, possibly a trip to the beach or an adventure downtown. But, I woke up this morning with that tugging feeling that pulled me toward the garden. I really wanted to plant this weekend. I am hoping for sweet pea blossoms by December. So, instead, I worked in the garden and we will swim at grandma’s house later.
19 Friday Jul 2013
I feel like I have ventured into new gardening territory, a land where things grow big, really, really big. The plot at the community garden is literally bursting at the seams. The bean vines are all tangled up with the squash vine, which is all tangled up with the cucumbers that are growing into the zucchini. Seriously. Some things are so big they have far surpassed any spacing suggestions that would have kept them out of the way of other plants. Continue reading
06 Saturday Jul 2013
Posted in Garden, Wordless Wednesday
Ah, summer! It has squarely landed here in Southern California and we are finally enjoying the garden vegetables in our daily cooking. We recently got back from a two week vacation on the east coast and the garden really starting hopping while we were away. So much is going on in the garden and I can’t really stay on top of it.
If you are a regular reader you may have noticed I have not been posting as often. I just can’t seem to find the time to write or keep my eyes open when I do have some time. Continue reading
18 Saturday May 2013
As I sit down to write this post, my eyes dart up at the time. I have exactly 20 minutes left. Exactly 2 hours and 20 minutes ago I left my two children with a trusted babysitter. In exactly 19 minutes I have to pack up and drive home. Today is the first day of “my time,” as I have it marked in my calendar, a few hours one morning a week, every week until the end of August. This was a deliberate creation, something I needed, time to be something other than “mommy.” Time for me to get immersed in my other selves: gardener, blogger, someone who would enjoy a massage or a quiet walk all on her own. I did contemplate getting the car washed, but then decided that falls into the same category as grocery shopping and other such errands, not things that were intended for these three precious hours.
