Last weekend, we took advantage of the nice weather and got to work: harvesting seeds, picking veggies, taking down the old fence posts, and forming one more raised bed in the back part of the lot that had been behind the old fence.
On the left are some lettuce seed stalks. I bundled these together along with the sunflower stalks (picture on right), covered these bundles with netting and hung them on our back porch to collect the seeds.
Our pepper plants are finally producing. Anyone know of anything good to make with lots and lots of peppers? David made pickled peppers last year with my family's huge lot of peppers...I'm craving more of a pepper relish...any good recipe suggestions?
Of course, we have our weekly haul of tons of tomatoes (we've canned over 40 jars of sauce so far!). And last, but not least - I collected basil seeds in the brown lunch bag.
Meanwhile, David got to work on the old fence posts - he used a pruning saw to cut these down.
We then used the same steps that we had with the other raised beds. We put down cardboard, formed the keyhole bed, and filled in with soil, cover crop seeds, and finally covered all of it with straw.
we think it turned out really nice!
This is the view from the back corner of our lot.
The view from the front.
The view from the middle of the lot.
View from our second floor window.
Before and After: The top left picture was taken last summer. The bottom left picture was taken at the beginning of this summer and the picture on the right was taken this past weekend.
We are really happy with how it is shaping up!
I believe the alpaca below is Ooh La La. All of the alpacas were really curious about us and most of them came right over to visit. Ooh La La was especially friendly.
Aren't they amazing?! The little fawn colored one isn't even a week old yet!
and I saved my favorite for last. Meet Godiva! She's got a memorable face and incredibly soft fleece. I plan on spinning her fleece into some gorgeous yarn.
The pattern is by Jared Flood called Turn A Square, which I found on Ravelry. I was hoping that the hat would be a surprise, but when I asked David for color recommendations at the yarn store, it just was easier to tell him that I was making him a hat. I think it looks great on him! Seeing as how he hasn't taken it off today, I think he really likes it, too! :)
Speaking of color - 
here are some other new additions to the garden. We are adding an aster and a creamy yellow rose bush. 
The plants were on sale and I couldn't resist them when we bought the trees today.
As it turns out - felting is simple and way too much fun. After skeptically dropping 14" long slippers into the hot water, I was practically squealing with delight when five minutes later - I pulled out normal sized slippers; it was magical and reminded me of Shrinky Dinks!
Last weekend, we took advantage of the nice weather and got to work: harvesting seeds, picking veggies, taking down the old fence posts, and forming one more raised bed in the back part of the lot that had been behind the old fence.
We then used the same steps that we had with the other raised beds. We put down cardboard, formed the keyhole bed, and filled in with soil, cover crop seeds, and finally covered all of it with straw.
we think it turned out really nice!
This is the view from the back corner of our lot.
The view from the front.
The view from the middle of the lot.
View from our second floor window.
Before and After: The top left picture was taken last summer. The bottom left picture was taken at the beginning of this summer and the picture on the right was taken this past weekend.
We are really happy with how it is shaping up!
