Category: Our Green Life

A Garden Update

We’ve been busy gardening over in Spritzer Leyba Land, but before I tell you about the work we’ve done in the garden this spring, let me show you some photos from last summer.

See those bushes behind Miss Leyba? Turns out, they only bloom for two weeks each year and there they are, blooming and lovely! A couple days later all the flowers died and the bush transformed into a giant, overgrown hedge that blocked a view of the stairs… a super no-no when your toddler loves to sit there.

So, last May David ripped out the bush (turned out to be mostly dead with just a little bit alive on top) and we started planting a lovely little garden. Here it is today with several plants just starting to bloom and lots on its way:

David also built me a small raised bed for our vegetable garden. Here he is last year watering our newly planted tomatoes (that performed poorly due to the abnormally cool 2009 summer):

And here it is now with lots of sugar snap peas, lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes:

We also removed the bushes next to the veggie bed (behind David in the above photo). One of them had super sharp thorns and grew poisonous orange berries in the fall. The other “bush” was a spiky Live Oak tree that would grow to be twenty feet tall; definitely not a good fit for the space. Yes, there was a gorgeous rose bush, bit it was very overgrown, so we thought it better to start afresh with something new. Here is that bed today, a very work-in-progress sort of photo:

Those giant cabbages are from our winter garden; they just started forming heads, finally.

And here’s a photo of our little girl and AVID gardener! Trust me, I couldn’t be more pleased. We love working out in the yard together and I’m loving it!

(My, what a difference a year makes!)

I’ll post more photos as the summer progresses. We so enjoy working on the yard and transforming this house into a home. So glad you all are following along!

Winter Garden Preview

Our winter garden is doing wonderfully. We’ve had warm, but not hot days (think 60s and 70s!) and cool, rainy evenings. The lettuce, cabbage, spinach, and kale are thriving.

Okay, the reason it’s really going so well is probably due more to the huge amount of composted manure we added to the garden and the thick layer of mulch we covered the top with. Plant food and a warm blanket are always a good thing in November.

Phew. Our summer crop, while plentiful in tomatoes, was otherwise quite sparse.

We’re glad to have a new season and a fresh start to our garden.

Grow, garden, grow!

Bookshelves just for her

I’ve so enjoyed setting up spaces for Miss Leyba and all her stuff (i.e. books, wooden toys, art supplies, stuffed animals, and dress-up outfits!).

Here is one such area.

David built these shelves for Miss Leyba and then painted them with a non-toxic, no VOC milk paint in this playful turquoise (I LOVE it!).

The shelves are also super deep (and very heavy), so you can access items from both sides and we don’t need to worry about the shelves toppling.

(Believe it or not, we now have even more books crammed in there as I’ve recently discovered our thrift store sells 25ยข board books. I now stop by several times a week to pick up books. Yes, it’s become an addiction).

I had such fun arranging her things here… and now face the daily challenge of getting everything put away in its place. Luckily for me, Miss Leyba loves Helping Mama, so lately she’s been very amenable to clean up time.

Not that you can tell right now, of course. Our living room looks like a tornado flew through it.

Since I want to maintain my image as a domestic goddess (*cough*), I won’t bother to post pictures.

I’m sure you understand.

Playing in the dirt

David and I are thrilled that Miss Leyba loves the outdoors as much as we do. She so enjoys going for walks, picking flowers, playing with her ball in the yard, visiting each of the neighbors (and their cats and dogs too, of course!), and helping us garden!

She moves dirt from one pot to another (and back again). She puts stones and little plants and flowers in her pots too. She dumps the pots out on the ground, the porch, and in her lap. Occasionally she gets super excited and throws a handful of soil on her hair. As you can imagine, bath times have become much more frequent at our house. (Every day it’s the same routine: out of the garden and into the tub!)

Not only is playing in the dirt fun, but evidently it is very tasty too:


Here she is telling Daddy all about it.

Yesterday the three of us set up our vegetable garden in the bed that David constructed for me out of scrap lumber. We’ve planted three types of tomatoes, a sweet yellow bell pepper, spinach, lettuce, vidalia onions, cucumbers and beans. All organic goodies that we typically spend a bundle on all summer long.


Since we have limited space, we’re trying the square foot gardening approach for the first time. I am a little skeptical that everything is going to fit, so I’ll let you know how it works out.

Right now I am more concerned about Miss Leyba embarking on an archaeological dig in the veggie bed before the seeds sprout and the plants become established. I have big plans for a nearby sandbox filled with buried treasure in an attempt to divert her attention away from our veggie beds (for now!).

As you can see, our Mother’s Day was productive and fun! In fact the whole weekend was fantastic – for all three of us! We’re looking forward to many more garden adventures all summer long.

Green Baby Clothes

Organic baby clothes are super hot right now. In the last year a number of new companies have sprouted up and many major chains now sell organic baby clothes (see the bottom of this post for a list). The selection has never been better and the prices are dropping.

For Earth Day this week, we thought we’d feature a Miss Leyba Fashion Show of our favorite organic baby items. Enjoy!

All time favorite pants:
Organic Baby Clothes

  • Wiggle Pants by Hanna Andersson (all of their pjs and much of their other clothing is now organic; we’ve been impressed with their super soft, high quality weave, and great fit!)

Best quality body suits and one pieces:

Organic Baby Clothes

  • Speessees (now offering an Earth day special — use the code EARTH to get free shipping on orders over $50)

Best kimono shirts and footies:

Organic Baby Clothes

Best color selection:

Organic Baby Clothes

  • Kate Quinn Organics (beware: their sizing and fit tend to be scaled for smaller babies! Order up!)

Other organic clothing manufacturers that we haven’t tried yet:

Other places selling organic clothes:

Non-organic clothes we love:

Know of any other great organic children’s clothing manufacturers?! Please leave a comment!

We’d like to send a huge thank you to our friends and family who bought Miss Leyba the beautiful clothing featured here! We are so lucky to have such supportive and generous folks in our lives!