Little P and The Garden

My little P....thank goodness he is a fighter too. What a strong boy he is. It's been about 1.5 since we discovered his growth and took him to the vet. The incision made by the lousy vet is now healing up nicely, but the growth is still very prominent. He's been refusing his antibiotics too. In the beginning, he used to take it quietly without protest, but lately he's been fidgety and frantic. I guess he is "genki" again (which means well in Japanese). He has about the same amount of energy, jumps around everywhere, eats normally, drinks normally, sleeps well. He just has that weird growth on him, which I'm hoping doesn't affect him too much. I love him the way he is, and I hope he stays with us for a while.

In other news, the Garden has been thriving beautifully!!! I'm so happy to see so many green tomatoes!! And for the first time, we have PEAS!! Yay for our little veggie garden! We have 2 small pods of peas right now. I hope they continue growing. Cilantro's doing well except there's small white flowers growing on them and the squash is still growing, no flowers yet.

(small pod of peas)

(so excited to see this!! Yes peas!)

(gorgeous cluster of cherry tomatoes)

Feeling Happy,
The Lady

The garden state

Well, a week being gone and some if not most of the veggies were just destroyed by pests and insects!! The butter lettuce, gone. Absolutely obliterated. Basil, non-existent. Kale, goodbye. Cilantro is doing okay, but needed some TLC. The peas were half eaten, some are surviving but it's not looking too good! So sad!! The only thriving plants are basically the tomatoes. Lesson learned about this......there is no such thing as organic planting. One cannot grow veggies without using some form of pesticides or pest control :(

(At least my tomatoes are thriving, if nothing else)

In other news, of course I've been enjoying my grandma's company while she is here in the States, as well as her home cooking. She's the best cook ever! I love everything she makes, including her world famous (just kidding) Potato Salad, which the Man loves as well, her Kinpira Gobo (burdock roots and carrots) and Shirae (tofu mixed with spinach and sweet miso). All my favorites!

(Chikuwa brought from Japan!)

The Man also finally finished (well almost) his work table project, which we started in February. It came together quite nicely but it's heavy and sturdy as heck. It took both of us to flip this table over.

My grandma loves organizing and one of her things is cleaning up the unwanted weeds and growing plants. She basically took off all the fern on the shared fence so the tomato plants could get better sunlight.

We also planted more basil since the original ones got all eaten up. I also brought back some Shiso seeds from Japan which we also planted. Hope they come out well this time!

Green thumbing it,
The Lady

Something's eating our veggies, Japan's calling

Well........ our garden is being eaten. Not by the Lady or the Man. By something, mysteriously. I think it's a caterpillar or slugs. We have been making progress with all the veggies except the basil!! SO sad considering that fact that I was looking forward to a plethora of basil and pesto this summer!! Dude.......

Our basil leaves have been eaten up and are hole-ly :( Boo, sad face. Don't know the exact cause either and it just seems to be our basil plant. A few holes here and there in the tomato and pea plants but pretty much everyone else is healthy! What's going on........

(The peas!! So healthy!)

(Yellow summer squash for grilling)

(YES!! Finally some cilantro!!! Salsa time!)

(nice leafy lettuce)

(Our swiss cheese, eaten up basils)

(tomato plant is thriving)

(there's a bunch of black dots on these)

(on the other hand, the Man has taken upon him to start a landscaping project and rip up the front yard. He's
putting mulch where the rose bushes are, rose bushes were prune by the Lady)

(Looks like a land mine!)

As for travelling, the Lady is leaving for Japan this weekend and can't be more excited!! Japan pictures to follow!! Time to eat some really good sushi and Bachan's home cooking!

Hungry already,
The Lady

The Man in Germany, Lady in LA

So the Man's been gone on a business trip to Germany all week, but comes home today! Yay! A week long trip for work in Frankfurt, Germany. I admit, I am a little jealous. I love travelling and any excuse to do so, I'm game! Wish I could've joined him but he was mostly working the whole time.

As for the Lady back in LA, it was pretty uneventful. My veggie garden has been growing tremendously, making great strides! So lame but this is super exciting for me. Who knew gardening could be such joy! This must be how people feel playing Farmville, except with real life Farmville, you get to eat your veggies once they grow!!

(Peas!)

(Peas!)

(Butter lettuce)

(Cilantro, was worried about these guys because they were late boomers, but
they've finally sprouted!)

(Kale)

(Can't wait... Basil! Pesto all summer!)

(First bud on the tomato plant!)

(The Lady's humble garden)

(This little guy's been keeping me company all week. Little P actually let me pet him this week).

Excited the Man is back,
The Lady

Transplanting has started!

Finally, 1 month after we started building this raised bed planter (2.14.15), we filled up the planter with a mixture of soils and we transplanted and also planted some seeds! Yay progression! And it looks pretty rad too! I can't wait for the veggies to start growing. I have to put on a netting so animals can't get it to but it is pretty much complete. Now for the sun to do its work.

(Finally filled with lots of soil and worms!)

(The Man picking out WORMS from the garden....yuck)

(Transplanting has happened)

(I'm already out of space and I have so much more to plant!)

(It was so bloody hot this weekend, found
Little P in this odd position, pressed up against
the glass. Poor baby was so hot)

Impatient for some veggies,
The Lady

So many steps to this planter.....when will I plant?!

Holy cow, I feel like we've been working on this planter forever. I guess it doesn't help that we took a couple weekends off because of the rain. But wow, started on V-day and now we are at the end of February and I still haven't planted!

Well, I got started at least. In those small planter containers, so the seeds won't freeze and die off. Bought 2 cubic feet bags of soil from Home Depot over the weekend to plant my little seedlings. We lined the planter with weed blocking liner and finally attached the corner pieces. The air compressor and staple gun were fun to use! Kinda scary at first (because it blows air every time you staple), but once you get used to it, it's a piece of cake! Look at me, the Lady using the Man's power tools! Looking complete! Next weekend, if we have good weather, I think I'm going to finally plant some stuff!! The veggies that can handle being planted directly I mean (basil, cilantro, lettuce). Moving right along....

In other news, looks like March is going to be a crazy month for us. Seems like lots of things are going on, the biggest is the Man is going on a business trip to Germany! How exciting....actually not so much because he'll be working and going with his boss. As for the Lady, I bought a ticket to go back to the homeland (Japan) to see my family and spend time with my grandparents this coming April. I am so excited to go, I love going to see my family, spending time with them, I love everything about Japan, and I love and miss the food so so much.

(Starting the liner, corners were difficult!)

(Yay, corner piece is finally attached!)

(Say Hello to my little friend.....haha just kidding. Just our little donut compressor
and the staple gun, which also shoots nails too. Nifty little tool)

(Ah the Man looks like such a weekend Dad doesn't he? What's more homey than
seeing your husband mow the lawn and get rid of weeds on a weekend?)

(Lots of dead grass)

(Gorgeous weekend, blue skies and green grass)

(Our rose bushes are on steroids, they keep blooming even though when we don't water it! Grass is looking
much better now, it was getting pretty high)

(This is a BEFORE picture of the grass and rose bushes, crazy how quickly the grass grows)

(Another Before picture of the grass. We don't even water the lawn!)

(Spent the majority of the weekend putting seeds and soil into these little starter planters. These are
mostly tomatoes)

(This is inside my side of the garage, where it's fairly warm and gets good amount of sunlight)

(Grow my little babies!)

Getting excited for some veggies,
The Lady