Spring is a fast one.

It's been a glorious spring. For real. The weather has been perfection. We are all soaking in as much outdoor time as possible before the 110 degree weather moves in and sits on our chests. We've been busting a move getting the yard ready to be on the 4th Annual Lawrence Food Garden Tour in 2 weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. Here are just a few pics of the yard and stuff.

Garden planning

Tulip magnolia in our front yard early spring

Soaking in the plants at Pines nursery when it was still too cold to plant anything

Bleeding hearts from our garden

Finally warm enough to get pepper plants!

The day after

It's been over a month since the Food Garden Tour but I was looking through my photos and realized I'd forgotten about these. The day after the tour a few of us drove around to each others gardens. We went to 8 of the 19 gardens that participated. Here are a few pics of the ones we visited. It was really interesting to see how everyone has such different gardening styles. Most were family gardens but there was one that was an urban farm (Mellowfields) that sells at the Farmer's Market and they have a CSA. It was quite impressive. It was a great day!

This was a community garden at a church. Each bed has a different owner/gardener.

Chickens at the Mellowfields Urban Farm's plot in North Lawrence.

Mellowfields.

Kirsten's beautiful garden full of berries, popcorn and medicinal plants.

Mellowfields Urban Farm's other plot at their house.

Mellowfields.

The Paradis' kid-size garden in East Lawrence.

The Hale's raised bed kitchen garden.

Lehrman Family Garden. Every single inch of their yard is used for growing veggies, berries and medicinals. Look at that gorgeous cabbage!

Pizza oven!!! So cool.

Sweet Success.

Yesterday was the most gorgeous day for the Garden Tour! It was in the upper 70s and the sun was shining. We had about 100 people come to our garden throughout the day. Everyone was really complimentary and asked a lot of questions. It was nice to have all of our hard work appreciated by others. Almost every single person said how much they loved Chris's garden gate. It was the show stopper of the day! It was a really awesome day. Now I can sit back and kick my feet up. Until we start our next project...

We had before and after pictures of the yard out for people to see the process.

Final Preparations.

Two days left until 100 or more people parade through our yard on the Lawrence Food Garden Tour. I'm really excited and nervous of course. We've worked really hard on planting and weeding and making sure everything looks spiffy. The rest has been left up to Mother Nature. Since this is our first year to be on the tour it's hard to know how the morning will go. I'm still thinking about making a little map of the garden so people know exactly what I've planted. I think there will be a lot of "why did you do it this way?" or "why did you plant that there?". It will be fun to have conversations with people and find out how they do it in their gardens. I still have so much to learn.

I love the way that Cleome's bloom. So special.

These little baby finches hatched at the end of May. They look like little furry bugs. They don't even have eyes yet!

This is 1 week later! They've grown so much that they barely fit in the nest!

The Lawrence Farmers' Market

I hardly ever get to go to the Farmers' Market because I work on Saturdays, so when I get the chance it's quite the treat! Chris and I went a couple of weeks ago to pass out flyers for the Lawrence Food Garden Tour which is this coming weekend and we are on it! (Shameless plug.) These are a few of my friends that have booths at the market:

Blackbird Bakery. Alison works with me at The Merc and makes delicious baked goods. This particular day I had a Moroccan asparagus pie thingie. Yum.

My dear friend, Audrey, and her son Lichen run Blessed Thistle Farm. And she sells tinctures at The Merc!

Dan and Cole Cottin of MAD Farm. Cole used to work at The Merc in the produce department and this is their first summer as full time farmers. I think their booth is extra fabulous!

Mural by Dave Loewenstein.

Jozie from Earth Flowers. They also sell flowers to The Merc.

Kevin Irick and his hot house tomatoes. He also sells at The Merc!

Lots and lots of Merc connections! We have a really big emphasis on buying local and the Farmers' Market really makes it apparent to me. Just walking through the market I have relationships with many of the farmers and growers or I at least recognize them from their weekly drop-offs of product. It's such a great feeling to be a part of the local food movement!