Modern Farming II

The past few weeks have been warm and sunny, giving our garden plenty of energy to grow.  It's funny that Mattias and I love working on the yard together, something we didn't know about each other.  After 16 years together, it amazes me that there are things left unknown.  But this is our first time living in a house together after all.  There's nothing like heading into the yard after putting the kids to bed, and working side by side in silence, meditating on the days events or our plans for the future.  The simple act of cleaning and maintaining a yard clears your thoughts, but also builds teamwork in a quiet and satisfying way.  

The small 5ft plot in the back has abundant lettuce, arugula, beets, and swiss chard.  The yellow squash in the back is exploding, and hopefully we'll have green and red onions.

Mattias' shade garden is doing well now that we've put down a layer of mulch.

We also started a small herb garden on the side of the yard: catnip, chives, oregano, and mint.

Our front yard has a good number of veggies already.  Sweet peas, green beans, and up next is tomatoes.

Mattias' first major building project was building me this raised planting bed.  Right now we have 3 tomoatoes, 2 eggplants, and 3 peppers.  It even comes with loops so I can tent the bed and grow veggies in the winter.  You California folks will never understand my enthusiasm for winter veggies.

The best part?  Having Linus pluck fresh veggies and eat (at least try) them for dinner.

And don't forget we're growing children here, too!  Magnus is so close to crawling, he is so wiggly and is never content with staying in one place for too long.  He's even taken to watching his storbror Linus play with his toys.

Linus has also grown into a rowdy little boy.  His potty training is coming along great, now that we reward him with stickers and Matchbox cars.  Farmor Kerstin got him a potty watch that sings at intervals to remind him to use the potty.  Success at last!