The Jungle in my Backyard

Remember this?

My nice, neat garden with nice, neat looking plants.

Look how cute and tiny they are! Awwwwwwwwwww..

NOW look at them! What the heck? I think those other pictures were taken about 2 weeks ago! Is that even possible??

The cucumber and zucchini plants are threatening to take over the entire garden. And my life. Help!!

What you can't see in this picture are the pepper plants that are growing UNDER the huge zucchini leaves! I was warned that zucchini plants were treacherous to grow in your garden because of their tendency to overtake all available space, but I thought one plant would be ok. Apparently not! I don't even see any baby zucchini yet, either :( It's also shading the beets and carrots.

Speaking of beets and carrots.. how are you supposed to know when they are 'done?' I was thinking that I can pull them up when I start to see them above the surface. Is that true? Maybe I made that up.. I can't wait for the beets, though. YUM!

I'm watching you..

Updates!

Phew! It's been a busy summer so far! So busy that I haven't blogged in over a month and I haven't gone running in 2 weeks! (whoops.......... there goes my training schedule!)

I actually had (and still have?) pain in my left calf. It only hurts when I press on it though, is that good or bad?? I thought staying off of it would improve how it felt, and it has, but it hasn't gone completely away.

It didn't stop me from running my very first 10k a few weeks ago, though! I ran in A Most Excellent Race which supported The Achievement Center's Camp Cheerful. What a great cause! Annnnnnnnnnnnd I finished the race in .... 51:49!!!! YESSS how awesome is that!!! Wow was I excited :) B signed up to walk the 5k and I was so proud of him for running part of it!!

Since the race I only ran 4 miles, though. Part of it is due to the calf pain, but the other part is because of this damned heat wave!! What's that all about?? It is waayyy too hot if you're not planning on running at the butt-crack of dawn to beat the heat. Even running in the evening is rough because it takes so long to cool down outside! Sooo I've been doing other things like.. uh.. well not working out, that's for sure!

Here's a photo montage of what you missed...

Wow! Look how huge the plants have gotten since the last picture I posted! Crazy! (It actually looks even CRAZIER now!)

B and I went with a couple friends to CMA's Summer Solstice party. It was a blast! ANNNDDD Dim and Dem Sum was serving FREE tacos. YUM.

MMMM smoothie, I love you.

Hydrangeas are so cool. I love how the color of the blossoms depend on the acidity of the soil. Pretty neat! Not sure how to change it, though.

Baby roma tomatoes! I can't wait to eat you, nom nom nom.

B helped me to organize our spice cabinet! Look how freaking cute those jars are! Hmm.. I'm a little low on garlic powder.. I must remedy that!

Mmmm smooooooooooothie..

I love our roses! They smell AMAZING!

Close up of my beauties.

I think these are gerbera daisies? Something like that. They rock my world.

And there you have it! A quick look into the world of Julie. I'd like to promise that I will be a good blogger and keep up with the posts, but summer is just crazy! AHHH.

B and I are actually going to Chicago on Thursday for the Pitchfork Music Festival. I'm so excited! Although, I'm not sure what I'm more excited for.. the festival or CHICAGO STYLE HOT DOGS AND PIZZA!!! nom nom nom.

Alrighty, I gotta get to work! Have an awesome day!

Veggie Garden!!

Ta-da!

After months and months of waiting around and planning, we finally completed our veggie garden!! It took a lot of work and effort, but hopefully that will pay off when we get to harvest the goods!

We planted 8 tomato plants (YUM!), 1 zucchini plant, 1 pickling cucumber plant (this was actually an accident, I'm not going to attempt pickling), 1 normal cucumber plant (so far they look the same to me..), and 3 bell pepper plants (RIP red bell pepper plant.. I will be replacing you this weekend)

In addition to those plants, I also planted some seeds: carrots, lima beans, beets, and green onions. I have a small spot left that I'm not sure what to do with. Maybe more beets or lima beans! Or hot peppers? Or lettuce? HMM.

Building a raised garden bed from scratch was pretty fun, but a lot of work. After building the frame, we needed DIRT! I ordered 2 yards of a garden bed mix which had topsoil, sand and leaf humus.





The challenge was getting this



into this



She didn't help, but she looks cute, so we weren't mad.



We started shoveling the dirt directly into the garden with snow shovels. Hey, we're still basically new homeowners. We aren't expected to have real shovels, right?



Halfway through, we decided it might be a good idea to test out the wheel barrow that the previous owners left. Sure, it was a little rusty, and sat outside the whole time we've lived her, but I was sure it would still work.

But then this happened



Then this



Oh well.. we finished it by hand and it turned out great!



Cute little tomato plants!



More tomato plants



And zucchini, cucumber and bell pepper plants!



This was actually last Sunday. The plants are getting much bigger! I saw a tiny flower emerging on one of the tomato plants. MMM

Blank Slate

Hopefully soon this awesome raised garden bed that B built for me will be filled with dirt and ready for VEGGIE PLANTS! Right now all I can do is imagine what I'm going to plant inside of its borders. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, green onions, peppers, cucumbers, basil, more tomatoes, carrots, radishes, mmmmm, potatoes! turnips! asparagus! AHH! Think of all the possibilities!! I can't wait! :)

End of Week 1!

Phew, I made it! I completed one week of training! After coming to a grinding halt after my 4 mile run on Wednesday, I recuperated with a lot of stretching and a yoga class on Saturday morning. I was able to run 3 miles on Friday and 5 on Sunday. WOOOO! Wow, 15 miles this week!

My legs are still somewhat sore, but I went to yoga tonight and it seems to have helped out. I can definitely tell that I am becoming more flexible and comfortable in the poses. AND I was able to do the wheel pose in class on Saturday! I tried to a few weeks ago and wasn't able to lift myself up off the ground, but now I can bwahaha. Ok, maybe it's not that exciting to you, but it is to me!

I used my new mat again today and still wasn't too pleased with it. I didn't slide around nearly as much as the first time when I did hot yoga, but it was still slippery. I'm thinking it will become stickier the more I use it. If not, it's going to be very frustrating! I'd rather not drop another $30 on a new mat.

SOOOOO B and I FINALLY built our raised garden bed that will house our veggie garden! I'm so excited! It's 12ft long, 4ft wide and 1ft high which is a pretty good sized garden. We're going to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, and I'm not sure what else. So many options! Lettuce? Carrots? Radishes? What kinds of veggies do you like to plant in your garden?

Last year we had 4 cherry tomato plants and 4 basil plants which were HUGE. We had so much basil we made salads out of it instead of using lettuce. Tasty! I can't wait to expand the garden this year.

In addition to the garden, I also planted a bunch of different herbs in small pots. They've been growing since Easter weekend and are finally showing some height! Let's see.. I planted tarragon, basil, thyme, oregano, rosemary, chives, parsley and cilantro. YUM. I can't wait until I can cook with them! MMM I've been dreaming of fresh pesto, tomato-basil salads, and roasted chicken with freshly picked herbs. Delicious.

More pictures to come, but here's a sneak peak at what the herbs looked like 2 weeks ago. Sorry that they look washed out!

MMMM get in my belleh'! The oregano is taking over the pot!

Tulips!

B and I moved into our house last summer. I decided that the yard was lacking in the flower department, so in the fall I planted some tulip bulbs. I wasn't even sure if they would come up, but check them out! The bag of bulbs I bought was only $10 for 40 bulbs which is fairly cheap for tulips, but they turned really out well!

First there were these awesome solid red tulips and red and yellow striped tulips. The striped ones were HUGE. Sorry, I don't have any photos of them open.. whoops!

After those blooms died out, these came up..

The blossoms aren't as big as the red ones, but they are much much taller.

Ahh I love gardening! I also planted some blue poppy anemones which are finally starting to bloom!

I can't wait to plant some impatiens and our veggie garden!