My poor garden has been so neglected. I’ve noticed that there are still things growing out there and decided to investigate. These are only a few of the peppers growing out in the garden. I left some out there to get a little bigger. I told Hubby that I felt a little more motivated to get out there and clean things up. It is terribly overgrown, but many of the plants look healthy.
I can’t wait to stuff these and cook them for dinner!
We picked up some friends for our garden… did you know you release them after sundown because ladybugs don’t fly at night?
Welcome to our cucumber hut, Gnomeo.
I was thinking today about where we started. With the garden, that is. We planted our veggies around the end of March. They were puny little things. It is now the end of May. I have faithfully watered every morning and things are greening up thanks to the rain last week.
The deer have enjoyed our tomato plants and morning glories but we are working on a plan to keep them away. Those are our tomato plants in the very back of the picture. Our family has enjoyed cream cheese/bacon/jalapeno poppers and sauteed zucchini and squash. I’m still waiting for the cucumbers to take off but I think we’re off to a good start!
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Signs of spring…
Blue jays. Our little cardinal family is back, too.
Knockout roses are going bonkers.
Geraniums, big and beautiful.
The birdbath is cleaned up and ready for bathers.
Hummingbird feeders are up and we’ve spotted a few hummers.
Spelling lists are being written on the front sidewalk instead of paper.
C has been over to play ball and help water the garden.
Got a new hose hanger.
Twix is up to her nasty “treat” gathering. (I’ll spare you the photo for this one and instead post a picture of a live, healthy bunny.)
Watering the garden every morning and looking for signs of growth.
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Hours of weeding.
Weeks of watering.
Trips to four different stores for plants.
Raking and more weed pulling.
8 muddy, dirty hands planting.
And one garden gnome keeping a watchful eye.
Hopefully this year’s garden will be fruitful AND pretty to look at.
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This year, the kids are going to plant and care for their own garden. I found this really fun garden plan on the Better Homes and Gardens website. They have quite a few plans that are great for a starting point. Their garden will be small and manageable, fun to look at, and will actually have some edible vegetables, too (we hope!).
We gathered seeds from Home Depot and burpee.com. We also got a fun little seed starter tray/greenhouse kit. The seeds from Burpee were more expensive than what we paid in the store, but we had specific things we needed for this garden. There will be Jack-Be-Little pumpkins, Mini-Boo pumpkins, mammoth sunflowers, Queen Sophia marigolds, morning glories, sun gold tomatoes, and sparkler radishes. There will even be strawberries!!
Yesterday, the mailman came and brought our Burpee order. That was all we needed to get everything out and start planting! First we had to prepare our “soil.” This dirt was small pellets that we had to water so they would expand. Don’t they look gross? They smelled pretty icky, too.
Next, we covered the tray with its little greenhouse cover, found it a warm spot out of direct sunlight, and left our little seeds to do their thing. When we checked on them this evening, a few of the seeds had already sprouted! We can’t wait to get these plants in the ground, but they need some time here to get started and the Big Farmer has to make the girls a place to set up the garden. Stay tuned…>
Here’s the finished garden. The girls and I got all the plants in the ground and even had a little fun doing it! I remembered there were some bulbs in a pot in the mess of weeds in the front of the house so we decided to throw those in the corner of the flower bed with some flower seeds just to see what we come up with. Who knows what this will end up looking like!! I am hoping that it will all grow full and lush and up to just below the window.
And yes, that is a bird feeder there. Hubby thinks I’m crazy because the seeds will fall into the flower garden and grow strange wheat-like weeds that I’ll just have to pull up. But the cardinals and birds that live in our trees know that little feeder is there and I hate to disappoint them. Besides, Twix likes the feeder there, too.
Here’s a closer picture of some of the flowers… gerbera daisies, shasta daisies, verbena, alyssum, lavender, and a couple others that I can’t recall right now. I love, love, love gerbera daisies. They are great for cutting and bringing inside. They last a long time after cutting. And they bloom like crazy. I also picked up a basket of tulips on clearance for $3.99. They were ready to be cut so I have two vases with purple tulips right now. I have instructions on what to do with the bulbs. We’ll see what I manage to do with those. I’ve never dug up and saved bulbs before! (I’ve just left them in the bucket in the front weed bed.)
Hopefully in a couple of weeks, my little flower garden will be fuller and more colorful. I’ll post pics when it looks good!
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This man. He’s the best. That is a very stinky trailer full of dirt for a flower garden that he is making for me.
He’s very thorough. Notice the level? He’s also a closet pink person. Notice the pink paint in the grass? After trying to make my shape with a hose and then finally using the bricks, he pulled out pink paint and got all professional on me. I’ll have you know he did all the work, but I made the shape! I wanted a flower garden, not a flower box.
The plan is to start shopping for plants soon. (Like tomorrow, maybe?) I know it is supposed to be a cold weekend, so we may have to hold off on getting the plants in the ground, but at least I’ll have them ready to go. I can’t wait for spring!!
{everyday} moments 