To God be the Glory! My garden.

Unlike the sower in Jesus' parable of the soils, I have to carefully planted my seeds and seedlings to bear fruit.  This year looks great, I think I'll be in for another fantastic harvest.  Here are the flowering blossoms.

Squash

Tomatoes

Beans

Cucumber

Chard and Kale

Lil' guy and his new friend tiger.

"Don't you dare take away my new comfy bed."

I knew my dead cat would find a way to haunt the royal wedding

The queen of absolutely everything would have never missed such an event. 

I still miss my sweetie. 

BTW when they sang God Save the Queen, they were singing to my dearly departed cat.

Harvest of Plenty

A hot summer and plenty of tending gave forth an abundance in crops...and it's only the end of July.  I'm turning into one of those neighbors where I ask do you want this...do you want that....I can hardly keep up with the harvest.  Pretty soon I'll have to start leaving vegatables in neighbor's unlocked cars.

The Garden.  It's a growin'.

I've had lots of cucumbers this summer.  My best crop yet! 

Swiss Chard growing tall.  Does anyone have any recipes they'd like to give me?

My cherry and grape tomatoes are doing great.  No blight so far (knock knock).

Spices and lettuce soaking up the sun.

Lil' guy soakin' up the sun.

Monday Garden Blogging - things are blooming!

Things are growing well at the God_gurrlll gardens.  I've even starting harvesting my lettuce and herbs.  I've been rocking the fresh herb cooking.

These were the cucumber plants that were struggling a month ago.  The garden lady at teh Agway suggested that I fertilize them and like magic they revitalized!!!  I'm wondering if there might be a fertilizer that would revitalize churches.  There's certainly lots of manure to go round.  ahem.

Tomatoes are about to sprout.  I like how artistic this picture looks.  The stem in the foreground and the blossoms in soft focus in the back. 

Another artsy picture of a pepper in bloom with arugula in the background.

I harvested this after I took the picture.  Wow was this lettuce delicious.  MMMMMM

Lil' guy has taken to napping on top of the entertainment center.  He's telling me to stop taking his picture so he can some sleep.  This could be a picture for LOL cats don't you think.  Feel free to add a caption in comments.

Garden Blogging Update - First Day of Summer

Yeah!!!!  It is the first day of summer and the garden is doing great.  Hopefully it will keep up through the season.  We've had a hot spell in the last week and the garden loved it.  With daily watering, a bit of fertilizer and lots of love here is how my garden is growing thus far.The Cucumbers are struggling, I started them inside and when I planted them, they were "shocked by the outside environment, especially the heat wave.  I thought they were goners but then I fertilized them and they seemed to have revitalized. 

I am very pleased with the tomato plants.  A friend gave me six seedlings and I've added four of my own.  Hopefully this will yield a good crop. 

The lettuce should be ready to harvest in a week.  Yummy!

A marigold getting ready to bloom.

Teh green onions.  Very happy with their development.

Hot peppers.

Cosmos.

Carrots

Herbs and Lettuce.

The herb Basil up close and personal.

Swiss Chard

Lil' guy in repose with disembodied hand and dresser.

The Return of Garden Blogging

Here is where I planted all my seed.  Oops, that sounded dirty didn't it?  ;)

Lots of tomatoes planted this year.  Last year all my mater's died cuz of the great blight of 2009.  It was enough to make me want to emigrate from the US to seek greener pastures across the pond.

Hot peppers anyone?  It is my goal to make salsa from my garden.

Gotta have me some cucumbers!

Lil' guy sez, "Dude...do you have to go to the garden again?  Stay home and play with me."

Feline Caused Sleep Deprivation

Beloved partner and I had a lovely Christmas which included spoiling our newest member of the family Little Guy. By far is favorite toy was the catnip mouse that beloved found in the local pet store

Come here little boy, would you like some kitty drugs.

Little guy played with the mouse with such glee. Then he discovered how to play fetch with the mouse. I'd throw the mouse into the kitchen, he'd chase after it, put it in his mouth and run back to me. Then I'd tell him what a good boy he was petting him and fawning over him. Then I'd throw it again, he'd bring it back to me, I'd give him attention etc. After a half an hour of doing this, Little Guy and I got tired and went to bed.

Then at 1:00 am in the morning, in a nocturnal fit that only catnip can cause, Little Guy decided he wanted to play fetch. So he got little mousy in his mouth, jumped on the bed and dropped it on my face, waking me out of a sound sleep. I woke with a yelp, waking up beloved partner. She asked what was wrong as I looked all around me. I found Little Guy was inches from my nose, pointing at his toy and meowing.

I told him I wasn't going to play and I put his toy on the floor. He grabbed his toy and jumped on the bed with it and meowed. I put it on the floor, he got it and jumped on the bed. I decided to keep it on the bed. He decided to bat it around the bed. etc. etc. And so it went for the rest of the night into the morning.

Aaaaaah the joys of kitteh parenthood.

Throw it again mommy, throw it again!!!!!

A message from Little Guy

Mommy, I demands you get off teh spacehook and play with meh!

Little Guy

We've added a new member to the family. For blogging purposes his name is Little Guy. We decided to adopt an older cat (he's three) because they are the most difficult to adopt out. When we met him at the shelter, he came right up to the us and couldn't take his eyes off of us. In a lot of ways he picked us rather than we him.

When I finally got to meet him, the first question I asked was, "What is your Christology? How do you define salvation?" Everyone, my partner, the adoption counselor and Little Guy looked at me like, "huh?" Hey, I need help with my sermons!

Little guy is still adjusting to our household. Sometimes he's very affectionate, a lot of the time he wants to be left alone. He loves to play with the feather toy and any yarn he can get his paws on.

Whaddaya mean I gots to read all these.

In Memoriam

The Queen of Absolutely Everything

May 1990 - November 29, 2008

Today my wonderful cat the queen of absolutely everything has passed from this life to the next. I was the last person she saw as she took her last breath. I sang her "You are my Sunshine" as the vet gave her drugs to go to sleep softly.

I miss her so much, she has made me so happy. She's been through everything with me, marriage, divorce, coming out, girlfriends, finding a partner, a career in finance, a career in ministry, chaplaincy (she hated it when I'd leave in the middle of the night, her ears would flip down every time the beeper went off), parish ministry (she's helped me with all my sermons and was eager to critique). A move across the country etc. etc.

I like to imagine her in heaven now, trying to tell God what to do and then hunkering down on his lap and letting him scratch her ears. She's in a better place now where there is no pain, she is whole and running in her happy scamper towards a beautiful garden.

Monday Morning Garden Blogging

I've decided to add what I hope to be a weekly feature on my blog of the progress of my garden. I live in an apartment building and they have plots in the back of our complex that we can plant our gardens in. It is a challenge to say the least. The soil is depleted of all its nutrients and is acidic because of the pine trees surrounding the plots. Last year was a dud as far as my gardening went, a couple of cucumbers, a few tomatoes and a bumper crop of beans. This year I did raised beds of miracle grow soil and placed plastic around some of the crops to keep the water in and the weeds out. I amended the soil with lyme in the late spring and am using a fertilizer that is low in nitrogen. I also fertilize sparingly to protect the environment.

My Garden Plot, my sanctuary, my comfort and my joy.

The tomato plants I started from seeds. I have a plastic milk carton irrigation system but I haven't had to use it because we've been blessed with so much rain. We don't use hoses in our plots, just a sprinkling can and lots of walking back and forth to the spigot.

This is the store bought tomato plant. Most of my tomatoes are grown from seeds but I wanted fresh tomato plants 10 minutes ago yesterday, so I bought a plant with blooms already on it.

Welcome to the world little tomato, I am so glad you are here!!! Can't wait to eat you, yum yum!


Here's the cucumber plants. Last year the cucumbers got a fungus that ruined the crop. Hopefully with special care and a watchful eye I can prevent the same problem this year.


A little pepper plant growing protected by black mulch. This is my first year using a wooden chip mulch in the vegetable garden. When I owned a house I used my grass clippings for mulch in the vegetable garden, however living in an apartment complex that uses way too much chemical in its grass, I am changing my ways.



Here's the bean plants, they don't appear to be doing too well. I have not put mulch around them yet. Wondering if I should put down the plastic or the black wood chips?



Here's the lettuce and the gladiolas. I ran out of lettuce seeds mid planting and a parishioner of mine gave me some bulbs so I decided to plant them in the same plot. Perhaps I'll get some sort of creepy flowering salad hybrid.


My garden blog is not complete without a picture of my cat. She likes to think she is the queen of absolutely everything.