Garden walk

This past weekend some family friends had a garden open house. They have one every year but I am always amazed at the beauty I find there.

A little behind

My only excuse is I haven't been feeling well the past couple days. Today is better -- I just sound like an enormous toad.

Here are a few photos of my Clemantis:

Pretty flowers

Gerber Daisy
(plus carnations & something else i forgot the name of)

Purple Petunias
(plus carnations and something i forgot the name of)

Planted

Mom and I planted our garden this past weekend. This is the raised bed we built a couple weeks ago and our green bean fence in the background:


This is Joey Jalepeno:


This is Mr. & Mrs. Pepper -- they prefer to go by Bonnie and Bell:



And I can't forget Red (cousin to Bonnie and Bell Pepper):


We planted a gaggle of onions . . . :


a couple Big Boys (for canning and salsa!) . . . :


and a mound of zucchini! :

How does your garden grow?

These are the containers I planted today.

Also, mom & I planted our vegetable garden -- I'll have pictures of those on Monday!

Planted

Bleeding Hearts & Lilac Bush

Yard work

I mowed my lawn last weekend. The very first time of the season.

It already needs to be mown again. Of course the moment I had a chance to it was raining.

I hope this isn't an indicator for the entire lawn mowing season . . .

I am getting excited about planting the vegetable garden (I will be getting photos of our beautiful raised bed up soon!). We're planting onions, tomatoes (for canning and salsa, ole!), peppers, zucchini, green beans, mmm, I think that is all. No! Wait. Pie pumpkins. Yummy. I will be doing some more canning and freezing this year I think.

Maybe some jams too . . . mmm.

Oh April, where have you gone?

I have to say this list thing is working out for me. If I hadn't started using lists more effectively I think I would be freaking out a bit right now. What with 6 days until my roommate moves in (Hi roommate!), and 9 days until I have my garage sale.

Wait -- okay, yup -- still freaking out a bit. It seems it was only 30 days ago I still had a month to get stuff done (heehee -- thirty days? a month? -- get it? okay, I am going insane here).

I have all day tomorrow to finish cleaning up the yard. And my mom and I are going to build some garden beds for the vegetable garden out at the farm -- that should be interesting. (If I remember my camera I will have some photos next week. If I am still functioning next week, that is.)

Then the rest of my weekend is going to be devoted to making the house a little more livable so my roommate (Hi roommate!) doesn't have a heart attack when she walks in the door. That would be very, very bad. :-)

Very bad.

Catch up

I was out of town this weekend . I didn't a chance to check e-mail, read my feeds, etc. because I was enjoying visiting with a friend (more on that later).

I had a bucket load of things to go through this morning. Why, you might ask did I not start last night when I got home?

I was going to -- in fact I had the computer all booted up and ready -- until the lightning storm began. I decided to err on the side of caution and just go to bed early.

Anyway, here are a couple links that caught my fancy:

• I don't know why this post caught my eye but it did. I really don't use a briefcase or backpack everyday (only on the days I walk to work). I do only pack the essentials . . .
  
  
• This is so clever! I'm trying to think of a way I could implement it into my own gardening scheme. Such as it is. Actually it really isn't much more than weeded gravel beds at the moment. But it is weeded!
  
  
• As someone eliminating clutter in her house I found this link useful. Now I can start some recycling piles!
  
  
• Last one -- sent to me by the sister -- I already have plans to make some bagels and yogurt. Mmmm . . . doesn't that sound yummy!
  

Busy, busy

I realized that I haven't been posting every weekday lately. Last week I was working, working, working and by the time I remembered I hadn't posted I was already in bed with my eyes beginning to close.

Project number 1:

I have been cleaning out my flower beds. I am almost done I have about 10 feet left. This is what it looked like before:



Lesson learned: When they say it is easier to weed a little each day rather than wait until it gets overgrown, they mean it. Blah. I should have done this last year!

My lilac's a-bloomin'

Pretty Poinsettia

Varmints!

I went out to the farm to pick some produce this past weekend and this is how we found the corn . . .

stripped . . .

and eaten!

Garden progress

I went out to the farm last week to see how the garden was coming along.

Beans . . .

Corn . . .

Broccoli & zucchini . . .

Weeding courtesy of my mother . . . :-)

5 things I need to do this weekend . . .

I have Monday off -- due to Memorial day -- so these are some things that I need to do:

• Start cleaning out my flowerbed

• Mow my lawn (never-ending chore!)

• Clean out my car

• Visit my grandparents

• Finish up the curriculum for my Adult computer class

Maybe after that I can relax a little? :-)

Vegetable gardening

This summer I am growing some vegetables in my parents garden to freeze and can.


Some baby green beans . . .

And baby zucchini . . .

I'm also growing some corn and some broccoli. Yummy!

Definitely not weeds

Yesterday's post made me a little sad. I mean I can't even keep the weeds out of my yard! I should say "don't" because I could if I really really wanted to. If I wanted to go out and pull weeds after I get home from work at 8 pm. Or if I wanted to get up earlier in the morning and do it before my workday started. It is my own choice so I should deal with it.

I do have the ability to garden . . . a little anyway. Thusly illustrated by these beautiful photographs.













True they are indoor plants, therefore no weeds. However, I do need to water them and make sure they get enough light. It also helps to keep troublesome cats from chewing on the leaves. (I think most of the holes are gone now . . .)

And I do know of people (who will remain nameless) who have killed plants similar to these.

I have to say that when I come home and look at these plants my spirits lift a little bit.

Especially after walking past all those weeds.

Is it really a weed?

Look at my pretty weed. Hmm . . .
This is only a small portion of my weed . My weed is almost taller than me.
Sigh . . . one of these days I will have to get rid of my weed(s).

Flowers, flowers everywhere

This past Sunday was our church picnic. We had it at one of the church member's home. They are gardeners (if you can't tell from this photo). Wow. Every time I visit out there I am blown away by the beauty.

My goal is to someday have at least 3 plants (that are not classified as weeds) that I can keep alive in my front yard.


Isn't it beautiful? We had a great time. It was a great day. The last picture here is of the "cup race." Every year the kids get a cup with their name on it. They drop the cup into the creek at the spring then run across the yard to see whose cup wins. I think I had more fun watching everyone watching the race!


There were lawn games . . . I played croquet. I hadn't played croquet since I was in elementary school and I don't think I have ever played by the rules. My brother and sister and I always stuck the hoops in the ground and hit the balls until we got tired of the game. I actually learned the rules and did fairly well for my first time. I started out slow but finished in the middle of the pack.

I could have stayed out there for days. But all things must come to an end. Besides, the way time seems to fly by, next year's picnic will be here in no time!