Fruits of our Labor (Day)

Obviously I don’t blog very often. My last entry was Memorial Day when we planted tomato plants and hung a flag (see below).

Well the summer is coming to a close and much has happened in between.

Our backyard underwent a huge transformation that has resulted in much more useable space for the kids’ pool and other outdoor fun. An added benefit of this project was that my mowing time has been reduced by at least one half hour and I no longer have to try and fit all the grass trimmings in the green waste bin. For more details you can visit Cynthia’s blog entry on the subject.

I thought I would post a little update on those Memorial Day tomato plants. We seem to grow tomatoes OK, but this year we have a bumper crop. This is likely due to fact that the garden boxes are now regularly watered thanks to the drip irrigation system that now waters all trees, bushes, and flowers.

See life with three kids tends to offer plenty of distractions from watering the garden. There are soccer games, weekend camping trips, holidays and vacations, summer dinner parties, church activities, Scouts, and the list goes on and on to keep us preoccupied. As a result, our backyard has survived mainly due to sprinkler overspray and the draining of the kids’ pool.

So with a regular watering our tomato plants have exploded. Last night we needed a couple extra tomatoes for dinner. Well 10 minutes later Nathan, Ilene, and Hallie returned with TWO BOWLS full of ripe tomatoes.

I have spent many Saturdays pruning back these beasts and still they have managed to overrun the planter boxes and threaten the lawn beyond the mulch barrier. My attempts at propping them up with twine and steel rods seems to have been to no avail. At this rate we will be making spaghetti sauce soon to stick in the freezer to enjoy later this winter.













On another front, it must be time for school pictures. Living in Southern California meant beach camping nearly every Labor Day weekend. The result of so much sun for me was often a huge cold sore just in time for school pictures. So in honor of all of those make-up pictures days several weeks from now I have one of the largest cold sores in recent memory. Of the joy!