Hugel Update (Wow)

So, uh, our hugel has turned into what I now call The Food Jungle. Don't believe me? Check this out:

Every single day I come back to the house with armfuls of yellow squashes, zucchini, and cucumbers. Some days I have a butternut squash and some tomatoes. It's crazy. 

So basically this means we've been eating a lot of squash and cukes. Nbd here, though. We've found some great recipes and since we're vegetarians, this is saving us a lot on groceries! 

Last week I made some kosher dill pickles from some of our cucumbers. I've made cucumber sandwiches and Benedictine for crackers and bread. Husband has made some amazing meals that are squash-heavy (Classic Calabacitas being one of our favorites!). 

All in all, we are very grateful to our mighty hugel for providing us with so much food. We've never gotten this much food out of a garden before and we've tried for years! Even when I am picking armloads of vegetables, I can see all of the things that will be pickable the next day. 

Long live the hugel! 

All Hail Our Mighty Hugel!

Wow. So, hugel update: the hugel is master of gardens. You may remember the pictures from when we first built our burial mound...uh, I mean hugelkultur. Now look at it!

Here lies our ancient king. Kidding, kidding...

Just look at it!

We aren't pulling the grasses up, because they are holding in the soil on the mound. These plants are getting enormous. Check it out! 

...and that's with my hand slightly closer to the camera!

Mr. Gnomey is being dwarfed by the plants. Heh.
(Don't even act like I don't know the difference between gnomes and dwarves. I'm just using some fanciful language.)

Plant fight! Intense!

So many flowers!

We planted three tiny tomato sprouts that we grew from seeds into the east side of the hugel, just to see how well they would do. Here are some small tomato plants we sprouted from seed that we planted in the normal old non-hugel ground:

There, in the center of the tomato cage. =/

Now look at them in the hugel:

Woah.

These were started from the same seeds at the same time, planted at the same time, and basically everything is the same except the first picture is in the ground and the second is in the hugelkultur. !!

So there you have it. I'm convinced. Hugel > normal ol' dumb ol' flat ground. Anyone who has been using the hugel method, I would love to hear about your progress!

A full weekend!

Isn't this warm weather nice? It's so refreshing to sleep with the windows open and let the still cool night air fill the bedrooms. 

We put the beautiful weather to good use this past weekend. Saturday morning we had my favorite breakfast, eggs over easy served with pesto, a sprinkle of romano cheese and a toasted croissant (what?!? You've never had pesto with your eggs.....you really ought to change that).

Then it was off to the library as a family. We have a wonderful, large library here and we make use of it regularly. We came home with scorpion books for the future arachnologist, bluebird books for the budding ornithologist, every led zeppelin album on cd for the husband, and I decided to take a break from reading my typical DIY/science/anthropology/homeschooling books and read a novel for pure pleasure. I chose Ruby Red Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callen Rogers because I liked the title and needed something New Englandy to read. It's pretty good so far :)

We happened upon the best rummage sale ever that afternoon and found some amazing treasures and people too! 

The buffet/hutch we have some really fun plans for! We are going to scrape off the peeling veneer and replace it with colorful mexican tiles, stain the wood darker, and replace the knobs with glass. This piece will be perfect for extra counter space in my small kitchen and will be great storage for all my cast iron which is currently camping on my stovetop.

The end tables we will leave as is, they are just beautiful, and for now the small vanity stand will stay as is until I decide exactly what I want to do with it. 

We also got some fantastic books and statues too!!!

Sunday was a quiet day at home as daddy went fishing on the big lake in the morning. I packed the boys up to head to the greenhouse to find some flowers to plant in the front beds. The hyacinth have passed and the tulips nearly have and nothing else had popped up. We had turned down the block when I spotted a "free day lillies" sign and the woman who had just pulled them out of her garden was kind enough to offer to drop them by the house for me (I'm still surprised sometimes just how nice people are in this part of the country). 

We spent our afternoon transplanting lillies into the front garden beds. She said they will match our shutters and door when they bloom! 

It was a very fulfilling weekend! I just love finding treasures and getting my hands in the dirt (and so did the boys). 

I hope your weekends are just as fun!!! What family activities do you enjoy in the warmer months?