This is the story of our adventures -- every day and extraordinary; our dreams -- tiny and grand; our gardens -- ornamental and sustaining; this is the story of our journey.  We are a family of four living a mindful, simple life here in Los Angeles County.  We are green, conscious, and forward thinking.  We keep an eye on the past because some of the best things have already been done and bear repeating.  Walk and talk with us, have a glass of wine, taste a peach or a tomato, blow some bubbles and watch them drift up over the canyon ridge.  Enjoy!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Role Reversals, Funky Formulas, Summer Salutations, and Piles of Peas

This morning Gregg stewed up some of his awesome veggie laden pasta sauce
while I repaired the Radio Flyer.

When the repair was done and the wagon righted, I noticed these lovely maple leaf shadows:



The wagon usually sits on the patio and holds an assortment of outside toys -- the Yobaby practice boards, the hula hoops, bug tormenting, I mean collecting, jars and magnifying glass, garden tools, fairy accessories, sidewalk chalk...
As I was collecting the items to put them back in the wagon, I noticed this jar full of... um... formula?  Alex is forever concocting magical mixtures.  This one appears to be combination of the husks of malted barley Gregg milled for his beer brew and ashes from the BBCook.  Oh, and water.  



I realized as I went to dump the jar that the ingredients would actually be GOOD compost material so I took it inside and dumped the goo in the compost bowl.   I realize that some readers may think taking pictures of the compost bowl is, um, bizarre?  but I'm proud of my compost!

This is probably NOT what you envisioned when I said "piles of peas":
These are my POLE peas, that did not climb up the poles.  Instead they laid themselves down in a big lazy pile behind the pumpkin pandemonium.  I keep thinking of the neat rows and pretty tipis and trellises I see on the "other" garden blogs, as I survey this madness:



In this photo, if you look closely, you'll see pumpkins, peas, and a volunteer tomato.  All tangled and twisted together. 

That's the blackberry, back there.
Here is the butternut squash, with intruding ivy and groping grapes.
But, the proof is in the proverbial pudding, right?



Oh, I forgot the summer salutations!  Here they are:











And Daddy preparing for more brewing:

2 comments:

Kinda Like a Chef said...

I can't wait till we can come back up to your house!! That pasta sauce looks sooooooooooooo good!!!

I LOVE your gardens and all their craziness! Your gardens are what inspired me to to start planting in all the nooks and crannies I could find in my limited space! And now I have tons of peas and tomatoes and hopefully one day I'll have cukes! :) Even my green bean looks like it might give me one more little green bean yield (read-1-2 green beans!)

Lindsey J said...

I love your compost bowl...

Wow, don't take that out of context...

Seriously though, you grow some nice stuff there! Very green & lovely. And the blondes are super cute too :)