Making Progress

That feels so much better! We're going to put a mix of dirt and pebbles around these (there will be more) and plant stepables/spongy ground plants in between. We're also going to brick in the square upon which the garden bench will go (with bricks that match these in color). AHHHH! The kids were enjoying themselves out back today, jumping from stone to stone and playing with balloons.

Yesterday I planted pansies all around to brighten things up, as well as some rosemary plants. I found the porch swing I want for our front porch, beautiful, hand-made and very comfortable looking. Now I'm going to see what I can sell so that I can buy it, since it's outside the budget. :-)

The first of my little wildflowers are peeking out of the dirt. They survived the two days of hailstorms in a row.

Happy May Day!!

Gorgeous!!!

Banishment of the Cat

(Above, our soda bottle tomato pots..)

I have enjoyed the company of our cat while I've been working outside. She follows me around and watches what I'm doing, sniffing here and there. Fun. However, there have been a couple places in the empty beds that have been used for a feline toilet. Yesterday morning when I went out to check on the newly planted bed I was horrified to find a huge mound directly in the center of it. Then I realized that it was in the ONE spot that I hadn't planted on that end of the bed because I'm saving the space for a bigger plant to go in. Still, I grounded the cat indoors until my plants are up and bigger. It's a long time for her as she loves being outside.

Per the Farmer's Almanac, I should plant most of my vegetables around May 15-19th. This is their best recommendation based on frost dates and the phase of the moon. I had no idea that the moon phase made any difference in how well your plants do! That's a little over my head. In the experimental spirit of this project, I'm going to go ahead and put all my transplants out at the end of this week and shelter those of them that are not cold hearty and then plant the rest of my seeds around May 15th.

I really want to plant potatos this year but don't have room in my yard. I'm going to try to find a place where I can plant a couple rows of them. There is a community garden about a five minute drive from my house I will look into or I might plant some in my sister's garden.

Yay for the rain today keeping all my little germinating seeds moist!!!

Planning and Planting

The picture directly above is of Patrick listening patiently while I excitedly rave about all my gardening plans and adventures. Today it was about the beautiful apple espalier tree I found (Can we plant it in a wine barrel so we can take it with us?) and the heirloom apple tree orchard I want to put in at our next place (Suuuure..That sounds great. ) Chickens, Apples...variety is good and dreaming is fun. :-)

Also pictured is the Sweet Woodruff I picked up today in honor of May Day. I have grown this before and love it because it is such a beautiful green color and easy to grow (but spreads, so I'll have to choose a good location for it.) Woodruff is used traditionally to season white wine, (Alsace) on May Day. Maybe we'll try it. Miraculously, I didn't buy anything else while I was at the nursery though was highly tempted. I have so much luscious space to plant in now BUT when the plants grow to full size, our space will seem much smaller.

I've been planting a little each day. Sunday I planted some herbs, as well as three varieties of lettuce, leeks, carrots, arugula, onions, and spinach. Eventually that bed (the fern bed) is going to be my perennial shade plant bed so I left some room to put in some hostas and other shade plants. This year is a learning year to find out what grows well where, so I'm trying a little bit of everything, and hopefully next year we'll be able to plant more for beauty as well as a good yield.

I realized yesterday that the leeks I chose have 150 days to grow until harvest. I love leeks but have only planted about half of the seeds I bought so am going to plant the rest of them today for harvest at the end of September. If they do well and we don't have an early frost, I'll be looking for a good leek soup recipe....

Phew! All In And California Poppies all around..

Today was a gorgeous day for finishing up our flower beds. I ended up even having a little compost left over so I mixed it with some Miracle Grow potting soil and started six 3ft by 1.5 ft. experimental beds in the back 40, or the secret garden as the kids call it. I planted 3 varieties of lettuce, Parisian market carrots, spinach, arugula, plus some flowers back there. If they grow, bonus! Also put in two wildflower beds, sweet peas, california poppies, columbine, snap peas, and a catnip bed. This weekend we will plant the rest of our cool season veggies. I called the neighborhood nursery about the frost date and they said it would be May 15 or 17th. Yikes! I can't wait to get all my tomatoes, squash, peppers and nasturtiums going.... Our backyard feels so peaceful now. I like being out there. Can't wait to get some patio furniture! And more plants to keep our little fern company.

Tonight was an interesting adjustment for the kids (and dog) learning about the flower beds. Patrick was sitting on the front steps and told Lucy to go in the house and she went over and through the large planter. It never occurred to me that would possibly happen. The cat, well, we pretty much have a kitty spa around our entire house. We met a couple of our neighbors because we were all outside in the early evening, a fun bonus to gardening more!

Hopefully I'm not getting in over my head with all this. It's going to be a huge amount of work this summer. But very rewarding... My favorite parts so far are the "secret garden" and planting my favorite flowers, CA Poppies, something I've never done before. Yay!!

Planters, Ready to Go!!

More Photos

Here is a little more about the process. I love working outside! Looking forward to seeing our back yard when it's all done. Next time I'll pace myself a little better on the yard work. Now I need to find when we will be safely past frost. It should be soon!