Hello from Northern California

Good Morning!

I have been reading Mel's book since the 90s and applied some of the basics to my gardening but never really dove in full force, lol. This year, we have quite a few simple beds built (I am going to put pictures in the picture forum in a few minutes) and will be filling them over the next couple of weeks. We live in Redding, California, home of the HOT HOT HOT dry spring/summer/fall so we have a lovely looong growing season here with some challenges brought on by the heat.

I am a mom of 6. My 3, his 2 and our 1 on the way. I have always been a stay at home mom and always had a garden for the kids to graze in. Usually just herbs, grapes, the obligatory squash plant, etc. I have dabbled in part time jobs, attended college for a year and ran my own herbal body care business with an emphasis in soap and perfume and also sold handmade waldorf style toys online while before my first three all went to school to help make ends meet. Now that I have so many and a new crop of little ones, I have taken a step back on business and just make goodies for family, friends and the holidays.

My gardening style is rather fanciful and fun, his gardening style is rather methodical and well (some might say overly....) planned out. I tease him about it... he humours my fancy it works. He likes odd and creative varieties, I like fun stuff for the kids and flowers. So, this year, we will have it all. I am slightly worried about the work required to do it all as I will be having our son in May... but so long as we have the watering figured out and the kids to help, it should be fine.

Anyhow.. that is a little about me Nice to meet you all!

Selena

You are a regular "Yours, Mine, & Ours'", I have not seen the new one, I'm too big a fan of the original-true version. We have 4 kids, they belong to both of us, when I claim them, and 2 grandkids-those are the best kind, if I had know how fun they were I would have had them first.

Gardening with kiddos is fun, if you are interested in more tips there are a few threads here about that, and a blog I follow is having a summer event full of ideas for gardening with kids, like building sunflower houses and bean and pea tunnels, pm me for that link if you want to read what they are doing. That will start in a few weeks.

Let us know how we can help you, one way is to find your region on the regional forums on the mail forum page, you'll find more local help, but ask any of us, if we don't know we will try to find out. We love pictures so post many.

Gardening with kids.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t1345-sfg-with-kids

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2569-how-do-you-get-kids-to-eat-their-veggies

Thanks for the warm welcome, Valerie I have so many books on gardening with kids... I admit I am a bit of a gardening book junkie. I have also been combing the forums... I missed a couple of weeks as I got rather sick but looks like everyone is starting to get all geared up and excited for this year's season. I have a lot of catching up to do Good thing the kids are all at school and I deep cleaned the kitchen yesterday in preparation for dinner company, lol. I can goof off in the forums for a while Thanks for the links. I am going to take a look at your blog in a few minutes... I love the lizard eating the butterfly.. just don't tell my girls, they would be horrified... though I think one of them might help the lizard out

I have a little plan of my own for the kids... we have some old fencing and I found a link to this beautiful trellis/walkway here
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3082/3232777187_a6708209e3.jpg
I have been dreaming of this since I first saw it... sigh... not sure why it struck me so hard... perhaps because it's simple, easy, and just lovely And shade... did I mention it's hot here in the summer? lol...

and I must do it I am planning on putting scarlet runner beans, jack be little pumpkins and um.... some sort of climbing flower over it. Or I may just get lazy and do gourds since they tend to go so far so easily themselves We'll see what hops into my basket at the garden center when I buy seeds, lol.

love your signature quote nothing like directing the honey in the garden

Thanks for visitng my blog, I need to update it, but I'm on the tower computer as my laptop is not wanting to get online, and I cannot get pictures off of my phone on to this one. I took that picture of the Lizard with my iPhone, can you believe it. He lives in my Morning Glories, I put a house in ther for him last year. I took an old terra cotta pot, busted a hole in one side, turned it upside down and put a rock on top. I'm just not paying $20 for a toad/lizzard house. I'll be putting more houses for toads and lizards in my SFG this year, with a few tuna cans that will hold water for them to drink so I can help keep the bugs down, I hope.

Love that walk way!!!

It is hard not to go overboard in gardening sections... $20 toad houses or a free broken pot from your shed My favorite place to browse garden ornaments is Joann Fabrics, lol... they have such fun stuff! But I usually end up just saying "OH! That is cute" and walking on... I have a few things... a cement mushroom, a "so many weeds, so little thyme" for my herb bed, a couple dolphin copper stakes that I have to keep up now because of the little ones (they make good spears, you know, EEEK! lol) and some decorative stones. I do someday want a beautiful gazing ball and would love to get my tree climber to bring me some tree slices for tables and chairs for the kids...

I can hear the frogs ribbit-ing at night here right now... Not sure if this is toad territory. The kids scrounge under all the rocks and usually find red racer snakes every couple of weeks... they properly terrorize them so then hightail it out of here for a few weeks at a time.. but there are always more I can't believe that picture came from your phone! Isn't it amazing what technology can do? Sometimes I feel like my grandpa (up hill, both ways, in the snow... at the beach in southern California, my heinie!) when I look around at all the ways technology has advanced in the 20 years since I was a teenager!

I have 4 little plastic rocks that say, are you ready "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme"-teeehhhee, I could not resist getting a set.

FarmerValerie wrote:I have 4 little plastic rocks that say, are you ready "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, & Thyme"-teeehhhee, I could not resist getting a set.

roflol... yeah... I have 3 of these... they didn't have the sage one... but I am thinking about painting my own this year... If I grab a bucket of river stones from the landscaping place when we get our soil I will have plenty of rocks to work with and can do them while the kids are at school... I am SOOO not a painter but I figure I can write letters maybe? Or maybe that is what a paint pen is for, eh?

I also have a laughing buddha with children statue and a rock that has a celtic knot impression for a water bowl for birds... Maybe I will put that in the garden for the bug eaters to drink from, lol. I think that's it... I used to have rocks with sayings on them but they were a casualty of the move from Washington... My ex forgot to grab them and throw them in the moving van... sigh... someday I will get those again. I had some beautiful big rocks with long inspirational sayings on them...

Welcome aboard, again, Selena. Glad you found your seeds.

I am more akin to your husband from the sounds of things...so forgive me my shortcomings....

Obviously, SFG in it's concept really plays into your hubby's hands. With all that space and all those mouths to feed, it just makes perfect sense.

Hope to see you around often.

Don't let BYBG fool you, he's a true gentleman!

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Welcome aboard, again, Selena. Glad you found your seeds.

I am more akin to your husband from the sounds of things...so forgive me my shortcomings....

Obviously, SFG in it's concept really plays into your hubby's hands. With all that space and all those mouths to feed, it just makes perfect sense.

Hope to see you around often.

they say opposites attract, and we are both I don't count it a shortcoming, but I certainly count it an area for appropriate teasing... I have threatened him with midnight covert flower planting ops but he doesn't seem to feel the stress of the threat... He ain't scared of me

I am thoroughly, completely excited about the garden Even with the rigid plan (hahaha) So long as I get my flowers in the front, he can have the back yard

And honestly... I will have to do most of the work, so the SFG is just the most intelligent way to go. Small area, easy watering, easy weeding, I can send the kids to the "third box in the back" for something when I need it and everyone will be fed and happy. So long as the watering is done properly, LOL!

thank you for your welcome!