From The Patch

Thoughtful Friday, May 18 2012

"Gardening is not a rational act."
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."  
~Margaret Atwood

A couple of years ago we started a little vegetable garden right out front, with the main goal of getting Ben interested in where his food came from and getting him to eat his veggies.  And then, as they say, the bug bit me.  The second year, we added a 12' bed, and a 32' x 4' bed, as well as several containers.  This year (the third year), we've added four new raised beds, and still have one more to build.  All told, we'll have almost 600sq feet of veggie garden space.  

It's addicting, that's for darn sure.  I find myself dreaming of new spaces, new plants, and new whatever.  And now, well.... now I'm finding I'm addicted to landscaping - I simply cannot WAIT to make the yard look fantastic.  On the plans?  A waterwheel, full landscaping all around the yard, a pergola with a swing (and hooks for the hammock!), a pergola with a gate, window boxes, framework for climing vines, a craftsman-style fence with a climbing hydrangea, a fire pit, a cob oven and a brick oven, a greenhouse.... yeah.  I just can't help it!  And no, I'm not interested in an intervention.

At least Ben and I get some serious quality time.  Since Janene has so much on her plate with the store, I spend most of my days with the kids so that she can work (and I work all night...).  But Ben LOVES the yard, and is talking incessently about the plans (including his "tree house").

Gardening is not a rational act - and at the end of the day, we do all pretty much smell like dirt...

 

Do you garden?  Are you a veggie gardener, a flower gardener, or both?

What's Happening On The Homestead, May 2012

Since it has been a while since we blogged - and since so many of you comment about how you love seeing what we're up to - here's a brief overview of what's happening on the homestead... I have several posts in here that will be written with more information, so this really is just a quick overview. :)

We're working to expand our veggie garden with the goal of eating out of it all summer, and putting up enough to get us through the winter. All told, we'll have almost 600sq feet of veggie garden space once it's all in place. To accomplish this, Ben and I have been building additional raised beds; we have four of the five new beds built, with three of those in and at least somewhat planted. The fourth is huge (almost 4 yards of dirt!) and isn't seated yet, and the fifth we haven't started at all - it will be 24' x 4'! These projects have been wonderful, both for the soul as well as for Ben and I - he has helped with every little project, including planting! He has his "own" bed that he (mostly) gets to plant whatever he wants in, and he is picking the most RANDOM things - it's quite fun to see what catches his eye.

We've been blessed by a friend with some fruit trees, so we have the starts of an orchard (2 pear, one of which is grafted with 5 varieties; one Italian Prune, 3 apple, one of with is grafted as well, and one existing pie cherry tree). The raspberry patch is starting to explode, and soon we're hoping to expand with some heirloom raspberries from Janene's grandmother's house. The blueberry plants are all still in pots (which may be how they stay one more year), but we have two grape plants to go on a new pergola (not yet built) that are already in the ground.

We WERE hoping to add chickens and bees this year, but that was a "little" ambitious, so we'll see if we might make that happen next year. We did manage to get some strawberries to experiment with; we're trying a Topsy Turvy Strawberry Planter - it holds 15 plants, and thus far seems to be working nicely. We'll see how it goes. :)

Ben is finishing up his first year at preschool, and BOY has he made huge progress this year! We're so incredibly excited to see what next year brings, with kindergarten....

Savannah is now 8 months old; she's started to crawl, and she's also already working on walking (with our help, of course - she's still not even standing up on her own...). She's the happiest little one ever, and she spends all her time playing and exploring her world and smiling a smile will melt many hearts in the future. Definitely time to invest in a shotgun.... ;)

Our Mother's Day 2012

This year, Mother's Day for us fell onto a very strange weekend.  You see, Janene's uncle (Esther's brother) recently passed away, and Saturday May 12, 2012 was his funeral.  In order to attend the services, we visited Esther's home and stayed for the weekend, which allowed us to be with Janene's mom for Mother's Day (instead of working at the store), which was a wonderful change.  

Wes Johnson, Sr.

Unfortunately, Janene ended up sick (the entire clan was down the full week prior, with the flu) so while it was a nice day, it was a low key day.  We visited Hunter Farms, a local nursery and supply shop down in Union - they have some of the BEST ice cream down there....  

From there, we took a little visit out to Uncle Wes' farm in the Skokomish Valley.  It was a spectacularly beautiful day, and the drive through the countryside was as beautiful as it gets.  All in all, I believe it wasn't the day Janene had hoped for (being sick and all), but it was still a pleasant and low key mother's day.  

 

How was YOUR mother's day, and what did you do to celebrate mom?

Happy Mother's Day!

Painted by Janene for her mother for a past Mother's Day gift.

For all the mother's out there, as well as the grandmother's and soon-to-be's, today is YOUR day to sit back and bask in the adoration of all your fans. :) And while EVERY day should be "mother's day" (and in some ways it is!), it's wonderful to have a day set aside to remind us all how special mom's are.

So celebrate with us the special woman (or women!) in your life, those angels who have wiped noses, cleaned scrapes, mended broken bones and broken hearts. Those who have had to be strong when no one else could; who have shared joys and sorrows, laughter and tears; who have showed tough love when necessary, and who have held hands through tough situations.

Motherhood is no breeze, so we solute you - the strong, the funny, the tough, and the brave.

Thank you, for your sacrifices, and for a job well done. And today, enjoy your day. We hope you'll come to see us (online or in the store) - but if not, we hope your day is perfect and is everything you hope for and need!

The Year Thus Far (2012)

Wow. I honestly cannot believe it is already May 2012! This year has been even more crazy than last, if that is even possible. Before we start into the blogs again, here's a brief synopsis of what has happened this year thus far, and what you can (hopefully) expect for the rest of the year! :)

To start, we were able to attend two gift shows (both here in Seattle) in January, and we have some AWESOME new lines, and some fantastic new products coming in all year long. Falloween and Christmas are VERY exciting, and we're adding a kitchen section with some truly beautiful products. We endured a wonderfully huge snowstorm that shut the shop down for a few days (and gave us some seriously fun time with Ben outside), and attended the funeral of Janene's brother-in-law, who unexpectedly passed (41 yrs old) due to a major heart attack. We also attended the funeral of Janene's uncle who passed away due to age, and have been enthralled to watch Ben and Savannah grow and mature, and watch Ben enjoy his first year at school.

We were listed as a product source in Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and contacted by This Old House and Women's World Magazine, as well as two TV shows (looks like we're catching on!) The store is looking absolutely fantastic, we have a constant stream of new and beautiful product, the gals are doing great and are getting trained up in all kinds of new stuff.

We have a Pinterest page to go along with our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blog; check us out at http://www.pinterest.com/theweedpatch.

We are on the edge of releasing the new website, which will make it much easier for you to find what you're looking for, communicate with us, and overall be easier to use. Soon after that, we'll be releasing a new magazine-style blog site that will replace our current blog.

We're super excited about all the new stuff - from website to product - and we know you'll love it all too! All in all, this year has already proven to be insane - but it's also looking to be simply amazing. We hope you'll join us in Making Your House a Home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that your Thanksgiving is filled with fun, love, and laughter this year!  The holidays (ALL of them) are such a great time to spend with friends and family.  Take some time and remember what's important!

Click here to watch Ben say Happy Thanksgiving on our YouTube channel,
or watch the embedded version above!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Introducing Savannah Grace Tindall...

Among the last outings as a family of three...

I really wanted to blog tonight.  I had so many things to share with you - new video for our YouTube channel showcasing a bunch of the new fall and halloween; Ben's first day at school (and riding the bus!); other new product arrivals; some killer reasons to "like" us on our Facebook page (yeah, if you haven't done that yet - NOW would be a REALLY good time, as we've got some great new stuff coming down the pipe over there..) .... 

The videos are taking too long to deal with tonight (hey, with a new baby on the way - hopefully NOW - I've gotta get SOME sleep!), the pics of Ben appear to all have been taken on my parent's camera as we were apparently too busy just trying to get him out the door and onto the bus to think about it, I don't have pics yet of the new products ....

But I still wanted to blog.  So I started going through photos from recent months, and I came across these beauties - and then I realized that ... WAIT!  This was one of our last outings as a family of three - and it happened on July 24th!  Geez.  When life gets crazy busy, I guess life gets crazy busy.  Not that we haven't done stuff since then - actually, we've done a TON - but apparently none of it warrented photos, so how boring is that?

If I recall correctly, we were on our way in to the store on 7/24/2011, with Ben in tow.  He had been going with us a LOT those days, and we were really trying to get some down time in with him, so (without telling Janene) I drove us off the beaten path down to a small beach in Edmonds.  Ben recognized this beach, since we had been there before and saw a TRAIN there, so he was pretty dang excited.  We got out of the car and walked up and over the tracks and down to the beach, where Janene plopped herself on a log and Ben and I started the time wading out into the water.  Yep, I don't seem to have pictures of that (although I could have sworn I took some...oh well).  We explored all over, and I finally had to reel him in because I (foolishly) had no shoes on (I had worn my hiking boots that day) and boy - that beach is all rock and no sand, and it's SHARP!

Not nearly ready to be finished, Ben grabbed Janene and said it was time for an adventure - so they went for it (she was better prepared than I, despite no warning...  go figure?). As they waded through the surf, I was able to shoot some pictures - among them some of the only we have of Janene pregnant with the new one, so that was probably good...

I think that every time we've been out somewhere, I have a picture of her bending down to show Ben something tiny.  At the beach it's usually a crab or something; in the forest it's a caterpillar or something else interesting - she is quite in tune with her surroundings, much to Ben's delight.

I don't remember much about the rest of the day, but in looking back I sure am glad that we took that little detour.  Sometime's that the best thing that can happen in a day, you know?

PLEASE vote for us! :)

Hi All!

Every year, here in Washington, there's a little contest called "Best in Western Washington" put on by one of the TV networks.  That time is again here, and we'd love your support!  Please click the link below and vote for us, and let's see if we can make a big splash!

Click this image to vote for us, and thank you in advance!

In other brief news, the blogs may continue to be a bit sporadic this week - Janene's due date for our newest little gift was yesterday the 10th of September, and we're waiting (and praying) that she goes into labor VERY soon (like...tonight?)  We'd appreciate your prayers on that too, and a bit more patience on the blogging as we wait and enjoy this life milestone! :)  And ... yes - it's a girl. :)

~Chris

What's in the Garden (part 2)?

As promised so long ago, here's an overview (part 2) of what's in our veggie garden this year.  As I mentioned in a previous post long ago, we have an awful lot of plants in the garden this year.  Here's a list (part 2) of most of what we planted.  

 

 

 

• Eggplant:
  • Millionaire (1)
• Corn:
  • Bodacious (4)
  • Luscious (4)
  • Peaches & Cream (2)
  • Obsession (2)
• Squash:
  • Crookneck Goldstar (5)
  • Black Jack Zuchinni (1)
  • Spaghetti (1)
  • Fall Gourd Mix (1)
  • Golden Zebra (2)
• Pumpkins:
  • Knucklehead (1)
  • Lumina* (9)
  • Sugar Pie* (9)
  • Jack Be Little* (9)
  • Magic Lantern (1)
• Radishes
  • Watermelon (all from seed, waiting to see what survives)
  • D'Avignon (all from seed, waiting to see what survives)
• Carrots:
  • Atomic Red
  • Petite Sweet
  • Nana
• Herbs:
  • Basil, Genova (1)
  • Basil, Rubin (1)
  • Basil, Sweet (2 plants, 2 seeded)
  • Basil, Italian Large Leaf (1)
• Onions & Leeks:
  • Mexican Sweet Yellow (6)
  • Mexican Sweet White (6)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What's in YOUR garden right now?