A Slower Pace...

This past weekend we made a trip to Arcola, IL to visit Rockome Gardens.  Arcola is Illinois' largest Amish settlement.  Rockome Gardens is a bit of a "theme" park that showcases how the Amish live.  It is truly serene and strongly reminds me to simplify and slow down.  To share it with you, I've picked out some of my favorite pictures.

This is the view from the entryway.  Very quaint, isn't it?

Intricate rock sculptures enclose their beautiful gardens.

Buggy rides that symbolize their pace of life

For the young choo choo enthusiast, there's a child's playground too.

Just thought this was too cute.

Fun times :)

An enclosed stone wall hanging fern garden ~  One of my favorites

It was a very peaceful day that everyone enjoyed.  We strolled through the gardens, enjoyed the playground, watched the blacksmith at work, took a buggy ride, rode the train and visited the educational museum.  The kids also liked the "haunted" caverns.  Unfortunately, most of those pictures didn't turn out.  One that did, however, reveals a sense of humor...

I even made a stop at the onsite Amish grocery store.  There were lots of goodies to be had - a couple I plan to share later in the week ;)

Productive...

is the key word for this week.  I've decided to be home bound this week due to the kids' activity schedules.  There is just no solid blocks of time between taxiing to go places so might as well stick around the house and get stuff done.  Today marks day two of working in my sons' room.  We've been pulling everything out and giving the room a deep cleaning, plus going through and sorting stuff into keep and donate piles.  It's nice to see empty containers at the end of the day.  Less stuff = less to clean/put away later.

We've also been enjoying the productivity of the garden.

It was just a little over two weeks ago that I wrote my first blog post on the garden.  Then only a few flowers had appeared on the tomato and cucumber plants.  Now, the tomato plants are bearing and the cucumber plants are loaded with flowers.  In just two weeks, the cucumber plants have trellised  over three feet.  I've even been able to harvest the first cucumber of the season.  I was very skeptical how they would do at all considering the small containers they are in and the limited amount of sun they do get.  What I once considered experimental is beginning to look rather successful.

Even the watermelon in a bucket has taken off..

That's Jojo's feet in the background.  He's the family dog and now sharing his pen with the garden. 

The pickles are coming...

So are the tomatoes...

The peppers have arrived...

Look dead center.  It's there.  It's so cute in person :)

For some time now I've been debating what to write about in my first post.  Today, I decided.  I've decided to write what I'm excited about.   I am excited that my garden is producing, and I have big plans for that.  My plans include making sweet gherkin pickles, pizza sauce, and salsa.  All of which I want to post tutorials for.  Hopefully, my harvest will be ready to do so  in late June or early July.

For me, it's been rather experimental - my garden that is.  I have a few things working against me.  One, my yard is about 80% shade.  Vegetables don't like that much.  Two, oak trees make up that shade which doesn't help the soil much in terms of the right PH.  Three, we live on a hill.  If I could plant in the one decent sunny spot, it would cause for the soil to wash.  Did I mention that when we get a good rain that we have a river in our back yard?  Quite interesting.  Those will definitely be some pictures to post.

Back to the garden.  It's very basic.  I'm using containers - any that I can find.  The containers are on our small trailer which is movable should I desire to help the plants follow the sun.  I have around eleven tomato plants - Romas, cherry, and slicing tomatoes.  There are two broccoli plants which are not doing much, and a few pepper plants which are producing.  I also have six cucumber plants in containers next to our dog pen where they can trellis.  Emma, my daughter, wanted to buy a watermelon plant which now resides next to the pickles in a bucket.  Like I said - experimental.  

How is your garden shaping up?