The lasagna's cooking!

I promised photos of my tiny lasagna garden, so here is one -- the summer squash in the back now has one little squash on it, and you can see the hot banana peppers that my DBF has been laying claim to.

It is a very small garden, and it's had hits and misses. The lettuce was slow to get going and I am afraid that the Mississippi June sun is going to roast it. I wish I had put out some pink eye purple hull peas. No cukes on the cucumber plants yet, but I have high hopes - the plants have lots of yellow flowers. Honestly, I think I would plant squash and cucumbers even without getting veggies in the bargain -- they are pretty with their tropical-looking leaves and yellow-to-orange blooms. There's also a few zinnias thrown in -- some of them given away as seeds from our alderman-at-large during election season.

I want to widen the garden next year and put a few more plants in. I would say I'd add tomatoes but I am thinking about getting one of those topsy-turvy tomato hangers next year. Maybe I can add some turnips for fall and winter. I've never grown those, but I did have good luck with broccoli and onions one winter in northeast Mississippi.

I've been enjoying watching the progress in the tiny garden this summer, and my 11-year-old is quite impressed that "everything's sprouting!" Now if I can just get him to eat the veggies those plants produce ...

Team in Training-click to make a donation

I have been a slacker in my running -- I haven't hit the road in my Adidas in over a week -- but my friend Armanda Manuel isn't slacking! She is training to run a marathon in San Francisco as part of the Team in Training, raising money to fight blood cancers. Make a donation at http://pages.teamintraining.org/ms/rnrsa09/amanuel -- $5, $10, $20, anything will help.

She's up to 10 miles now, and 26.2 miles is her goal.

Speaking of running, the Renaissance Half Marathon is a week away in Ridgeland, and already, more than 1,500 runners and walkers have signed up to participate. Just writing about this has me inspired to at least do the 4 miles a day/5 days a week my doctor recommended.

Long time no hear from!

Hello, and it's been a while. Somehow a few days of not posting turned into a few months. All is well my way, but all is also busy — there were some papers to write for graduate school, houseguests in April, Easter, moving my oldest, a University of Southern Mississippi student, home for the summer, my 18-year-old's graduation and everyone being home for the summer. This summer, I am the only one still in school, but I am working in some fun by helping with my daughter's tennis team and plan to help with Vacation Bible School at church.

I started that Lasagna Garden. It started out organic but I have cheated with the addition of Expert Plant Food, found at the local Wal-Mart. I have some plants growing but I think I have to keep building up the organic content to make for a better patch of soil next year. But I do have blossoms on the squash, cucumber and hot banana pepper plants.

Out front, I added some Sonset Lantana, Radtko double knock-out roses and purple easy wave petunias, along with some mint in a pot. To me, there are few things as good as iced tea with crushed mint on a hot day. I'll take pictures as soon as the rain stops.