Flower Farm!

We went to buy flowers to plant recently at a local nursery and it ended up being so beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures! It was like a playground for Ella too-she was in flower heaven! I love having a little girly-girl!

Final 2009 Garden Update

Well the first Annual Heiliger Garden project was a success! Chris definitely led the project and did almost all the work but Ella and I were good waterers and pickers and eaters :-) We'd definitely do some things differently next year but we'll certainly do it again!
A couple days ago we did one of what I think will be our last "harvests" of the year since it's starting to get cold.

Here's a broccoli plant! We started these from seeds back in April and just picked the first ones this week!!!



Our fall harvest has switched from lots of tomatoes and zuchinni to our crazy, mishapen pumpkin, butternut squash (which I LOVE), peppers, and broccoli! It's SO much fun to pick things out of your back yard and cook them up for dinner!

*So we'll remember, here are things to do differently next year
-grow more basil
-less random herbs and vegetables (bc they either didn't grow and if they did we didn't eat them)
-zuchinni sounds good but we don't really like it enough to have more than 1 plant-they grow back when you pick them
-not as many tomatoes (we had about 6 this year) and more heirloom, colored varieties (the yellow ones were really good this year)
-Not as many peppers and more of other colors (we had 6 and couldn't eat the peppers or tomatoes fast enough and a bunch died on the vine)
-try to grow strawberries
-start the butternut squash later so they can be harvested in fall rather than all summer also
-compost all year

Hershey Gardens

After the zoo and a great lunch (I highly recommend The Chocolate Ave. Grill) we dropped Chris off to meet friends at Hershey Park. Then, on a whim decided to see what the sign for "Hershey Gardens" was all about. OH. MY. GOSH. I've got to follow whims much more often. It was amazing. I haven't enjoyed myself so much in a LONG time. The beauty of creation was overwhelming and magnified by the pure joy of watching Ella's eyes light up over and over in wonder at all we saw. It was the perfect place for me and for Ella, a little girl who has been saying, since she could put the sentence to together "flowers make me happy!"


Just to give you an idea, this is the rose garden we walked into when we entered the garden. We spent 30 minutes here because I thought this had to be all there was. It smelled amazing and we had so much fun reading all the names of the different colors of roses. Then, I discovered this garden was about 1/8 of the whole place! Have I said "amazing" enough??

Hydrangeas are my favorite flower which Ella knows so she was thrilled to point them out all over the gardens. She also said she wants to have them in her wedding like I did :-) I told her she has to get married at Hershey Gardens. I'm not kidding.

All of the gardens had themes (there were probably 20 different ones) The Children's Garden was awesome!!!

A big part of the children's garden was plants that began with each letter of the alphabet which Ella loved.

My favorite part of the Children's Garden was the "secret garden." You go down some steps into a lush, wooded area with a pond, a stone bridge and then this little table and chairs hiddwn in the trees. It felt magical!

On our way through the "Coniferous Trees Garden" to the "Ornamental Grasses Garden." We also spent time in the Herb Gardens which smelled great!

The Spa Garden had all kinds of spa-worthy herbs and plants and some of them growing in this bathtub!

This tree was so cool...

this is what the "walls" looked like from inside...

and this is what it looked like if you look up! Ella asked if we could please live there.

The red-orange-yellow rows of the Rainbow Garden where each row was a bunch of color-coordinated plants and flowers.

There were so many beautiful little gazebos and benches under trees and nooks and crannies that seemed perfect for memorable moments...


If you look closely you'll see a bee in this rose. Ella was so excited to tell me about how it was getting pollen to go make honey!

My beautiful little girl enjoying the flowers! Stay tuned for the Butterfly House...

INSANE Garden update!

Ok...so remember this picture of zucchini? Taken on Friday?

Well this is the SAME zucchini on Wednesday!! Less than a week later!!

It's a horrible picture of Ella but OH MY GOSH the zucchini is HUGE (well, not anymore, we ate most of it). I'm in shock at how fast things can grow!!! (PS-Thank God for spell check because I have no idea how to spell "zucchini" and spell it differently (and wrong) every time I've typed it!)

Here are some of our grape tomatoes. Ella was carrying 4 and then all of a sudden she had 3... then 2 and we were looking all over for them because we knew she didn't eat them (if it grows outside there's very little chance of her eating it without prodding). Finally we discovered the culprit...Raleigh (the dog) had been walking behind her and when she dropped the tomatoes, she scarfed them down!

Aunt Stacy is in town from Colorado! We got to just sit and talk for hours-great to have time with her.

Ella had a great time with sidewalk chalk while we chatted

And taking pictures of her favorite plant :-)

And chasing bubbles! Fun afternoon outside :-)

Garden Update!

Ella is quite the capable plant water-er

Our grape tomatoes are the first to turn red! Yay!

That plant along the whole the right side is a pumpkin plant that is already 10 feet long!! In the front left is an enormous zucchini plant and behind it are lettuce and broccoli.

Our Green peppers are tiny but growing!

Our first zucchinis are out! We have about 4 that are about 6 inches long.

Some of the big tomatoes. I have no clue what the actual name is-I'm not the gardener, I just water and take pictures and cheer Chris on!

Looks like this experiment is yielding some "fruit" so we're excited for the eating-our-own-produce phase!

More Garden Updates

Well, the plants are making their way from the seed pods to small pots and then into the ground! A few weeks ago Chris and his brother Andrew rented a tiller and took turns creating garden spaces at our house and theirs. Here's the finished product and some updated pics of the plants! We'll see how many survive the big move into the ground!




My sweet husband-turned-gardener

Garden Growth!

Chris' love for gardening has continued to grow-he's become quite the researcher and planner for this project and the plants are doing GREAT!!! He's acclimating them to the outdoors now so they spend some time outside each day now. They go into the ground in the next week so we'll see how well they make the transition. Chris researched their different needs for sun, water, space etc. and has planned out a map of how the garden will be layed out. I'm so impressed with him! He's also added garlic, a korean melon (thanks Ping!), and a new type of tomatoes. I think we're up to about 20 different plants/fruits/vegetables! Here are the latest pics.


Ella helping carry the butternut squash sprouts out

The green beans and sunflowers are 12 inches tall! The garlic grew to 6 inches in a week!

Ella showing off her plants!

Vegetable Garden Part II

They're growing!!

after about 3 days


1 week

Ella wanted to show us how big they were one morning and scooped up a plant with a big spoon! Chris was NOT pleased but the plant survived :-)

8 days!