Category Archives: Gardening

Our Favorite Rose Bush

Our favorite rose bush is called Rio Samba. We have no clue what we’re doing on growing roses, but this one seems happy with us. We have three of these. You are looking at three photos of the same rose bush from different angles taken just a few minutes ago.

We love the fact that we have so many different colors on the same bush, depending on how long the rose has been blooming.

 

When it is a bud or very early bloom, the flower is bright yellow with a swash of coral. When it opens completely, it is still yellow, but has coral edges and the older petals start to turn a much milder coral.

When if is almost ready or ready to prune, the whole blossom is a sweet shade of coral.

 

 

There are few things that lift my spirits as much as visiting our rose bushes this time of the year. They give me hope that things will one day be back to normal, in the normal flow of nature.

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Today’s Harvest 4-21-2020

This picture shows you the head lettuce leaves I harvested today. I had to wash each leaf carefully under running water, and it was easy to see that the hard rain had pretty much filled the squares high up on the plants faster than it could drain during the storm we had yesterday.

 

These are spinach leaves. I’ll use these in our salads, but I’m hoping that the plants will give me enough that I can freeze some for later. I’m looking forward to a nice, big salad tonight. Our weather is glorious today – sunny and 74 degrees. We did some freezer diving last night and will cook out tonight for the first time this season.

 

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Filed under Gardening, Healthy Eating, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tomato Plants

We call this our ‘nook’ planter. It is one we built in a space on the backside of the house right beside our screened-in porch. It is somewhat sheltered from our weather, so it’s a kinder spot for plants.

We converted the nook planter and this longer brick planter from potting soil to the soil alternative we use in our vegetable garden. It’s called “Mel’s Mix,” and was developed by Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening. (You mix 2 parts Vermiculite, 2 parts peat moss, and 1 part each of as many different composts as you can find. )

Here’s another view of the longer brick planter. We have a total of 10 plants in the two planters. I was worried the hard rain would have broken the new plants, but happily, they came though fine. Fresh tomatoes sliced with salt is one of our favorite foods in all the world. Hopefully, we’ll have a nice crop this year.

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Checking on the Garden

I was relieved to see that my veggie plants weren’t damaged by the recent really hard rain. I made the decision to plant only one plant in each square, although Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening says that you can plant 4 plants in a square. I wanted to give these plenty of room, particularly since I probably won’t be planting anything other than radishes with the pandemic.

 

This is one of the head lettuce plants. It is already taking up about 2/3 of the square. It looks healthy and happy, so I’m glad about my decision to spread out more.

I this picture, you can see three of the six boxes we built for our raised bed square foot garden. You can also see the irrigation system, in which the sprinkler in the center of each box waters the plants in that box. We have a timer attached so the plants are watered at the same time each day. We can either cut back on the time or increase it, or turn it off altogether, as needed.

 

Right now my head lettuce plants are a lot larger than my spinach plants. I’m carefully harvesting leaves from both, encouraging growth  and trying to keep the plants producing.

So far, everything is going well.

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My Sloth Brought Wonderful Results

One year I was digging up iris and trying to replant it around the yard. I ended up with SO many plants that I was completely exhausted. My friends weren’t interested in extra iris, so – I’m ashamed to admit this – I threw the plants off what we call ‘the edge of the world’ into the wooded part of our front yard beyond where we try to keep reasonably civilized.

My sloth had happy results! These are blooming beyond the edge of the front yard now.

 

 

 

 

 

There is no telling how many tubers I wasted, but I’m glad that iris is the type of plant that practically plants itself and doesn’t need much care. It really lifted my spirits to see them this morning.

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Hope in the Little Things

I can’t think that this awful situation will last forever as I walk around in my yard.  I don’t remember what these sweet little flowers are called, but they are perennial and they are blooming their little hearts out.

 

Rio Samba roses

 

Yellow Iris

Fancier yellow iris

 

 

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Veggie Garden Progress 4-15-2020

You can see the full box of spinach plants in this picture, but you can also see the barrels of ingredients for Mel’s Mix, the soil alternative I use. The tarp is covering a cement mixer. I use that to mix the ingredients together before dumping them into the planting boxes.

Here you can see 2 of the six planter boxes. A couple of spinach plants, but mostly head lettuce.

 

Head lettuce and red onions.

Here you can see all six planter boxes, and the fence surrounding them.

So far, all is looking good. If we have another good day tomorrow, I’ll harvest some lettuce leaves and spinach, plus spray the ground under the planter boxes with weed killer.

 

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Weeding the Garden

Alamy

I’m certainly not this cute, but I can beat this cute little girl in the contest for dirt all over.

I’ve just come in from weeding my veggie garden. There were a GAZILLION+ teeny, tiny weeds EVERYWHERE that sprung up seemingly overnight. I now have them under reasonable control, I think. After I’ve glugged my water and rested a bit, I’ll go out and get some pics for you. I also plan to do a small harvest of head lettuce leaves and spinach.

Last night we had bacon-wrapped chicken breasts and a large salad with some of our fresh stuff. My husband even remarked on how nice the meal was. :0)

I THINK we are finished with freezing temperatures now, but I check every day to see if I need to cover up my plants each night. Soon I can put that concern behind me and I’ll start gritching and moaning over it being too hot…

It really lifts my spirits to have the sun shining. My inner light dims a bit each day when things are cold, gray, and wet outside day after day. Even though I’m pooped right now, I’m smiling.

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Thoughts on A Tuesday 4-14-2020

New Animalbook

  • I seem to be UNABLE to stop touching my face!  I’ve tried several things without success. As much as I pull on my nose, I should look like Pinocchio!
  • I am using every excuse in the book (and even inventing some new ones!) to cheat on my diet and exercise.

Fat Animals-Rollin Wild by BMC-Nasim Biswas-2018

Each day I ‘start over’ in my mind, looking forward to exercising and eating right. Maybe TODAY I’ll get going again!

  • My sweet veggie plants and new tomato plants made it through another freeze. As far as I can tell, this is the last time I’ll need to cover everything. I have the first load of sheets in the washer to get all clean and dry for when they are needed again. If the weather warms up (it’s 40 now) I’ll try to get a good start on getting the TEENY, TINY weeds out of my veggie garden today.
  • My goldfish have done their trick of dirtying up their aquarium again, so cleaning that is on the agenda for this morning. Happily, I am able to get everything out, clean the aquarium and put all new stuff in it in about 35 minutes now.
  • I have an idea for a painting rattling around in my head. I’ll try to get up to my art room today to get a start on it.
  • Bacon-wrapped keto chicken is on the menu for tonight. I’ll fix a nice salad – with spinach and lettuce from our garden – to go with it.

I hope you are finding good ways to spend your days as we all hope that we can put the threat of the virus, as well as financial worries from the economy being shut down, in the rear view mirror.

Stay safe and well.

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Hope Springs 2

Yesterday, before the weather changed, I cut two roses to bring inside. I can FEEL my spirits lifting when I look at these!

I drowned yesterday morning covering up the plants in my square foot garden boxes plus my two planters of new tomato plants because bad weather and plummeting temperatures were forecast. The plants were covered all day and all night. We had at least two rounds of severe storms, some with hail, followed by a freeze.

This morning they were still alive! They are looking a bit ‘tired,’ but I think they are okay. I was planning to go out and weed in the garden, but the temperature never got above 40 here, with enough wind to make it uncomfortable outside. Hopefully, I can get rid of weeds tomorrow.

 

I hope that you are safe and well. I also hope that you – also –  are finding things that give you hope for the future.

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Filed under Funny Signs - Humor, Gardening, Mother Nature, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds

Tomatoes!

Several years ago we converted two brick planters to be square foot gardening planters especially to grow the tomatoes we both love. Nothing says luxury to my husband and me than sliced tomatoes right off the vine.

We took all the soil out of the planters and replace it with Mel’s Mix (a combination of peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as you can gather).  This is the bright idea of Mel Bartholomew, the author of Square Foot Gardening.

 

We have the six foot planter you see above and then the one below, the one we call a ‘nook’ planter, since it fits in the area beside our screened in back porch and the back of the house. It is about 4 feet wide by 2 feet.

 

I weeded the planters, then planted and staked the new plants, then put a bit of miracle gro pellets as fertilizer and watered.

It looks like the lowest temperature in the next ten days will be 36 degrees. I’ll keep an eye on the forecast, though, in case I need to cover the tomatoes, plus my garden veggies, for protection.

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Cheerful Veggies

Our veggies were smiling when I went out today. I see that I will need to make some time over the next few days to weed around the plants, but they are looking healthy so far.  Here you see red onions and some head lettuce.

 

This shows you that the boxes we built are about my chest high, in two rows inside a fence for protection from deer and other critters.  You can see the irrigation system, with a sprinkler in the center of each box.  I have spinach in the farthest box in the picture and mainly head lettuce in the closer one.

 

So far the head lettuce is looking great. I planted them far apart this year, with lots of room to spread out.

 

You can see the tiny weeds that need to come out. I also need to spray weed killer on the ground under the planters.

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Thoughts on a Thursday 4-9-2020

David Zinn Art via Penny Yaffe Krakow

Even though I want to bite him in the leg at times, I’m thankful this morning that my husband and I are riding the pandemic out together. Even though I am trying to reach out to the others who mean a lot to me via text, email and phone, REAL HUGS are hugely important to me. So I hug my husband; hug my dogs, Amber and Molly; hug my cats, Smoke and Abby, every day. I don’t hug my 2 gold fish, but we smile at each other.  :0)

I’m even grateful that I work my head off each day, trying to tackle a different part of my house to heal. I’m a slob, and I hate housekeeping, but there is a sense of accomplishment when an area that was a mess gradually becomes an area we can enjoy spending time again.  (We’re looking forward to having our lunch on the screened in back porch today!)

Today’s project is two-fold: 1) weed whacking the areas my husband can’t reach with the mower. We have gone from looking like no one had lived here for several months – with 8-inch-or-so high weeds, to an area that is starting to look not only like someone lives here now, but also like someone cares. My husband was really steamed that he had to mow in March – an affront to fairness in his mind – but he has now mowed twice since then, wanting to feel happy about the yard again.   So I will use the hand-held weed whacker to clean up the edges, the area under the deck, etc. where he can’t reach, and then clean everything up with the leaf blower. 2) The other part of today’s project will be buying and planting tomato plants! (Yeagers Hardware is open and they have plants today.) I will visit my veggie garden and see how things are going.  (Pics later.)

I am hopeful we will get past this awful time and once again we will feel free to HUG our friends without putting them in jeopardy.

I hope you have someone to hug, physically or virtually, today.

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Promise

If you’re like me, the pandemic is causing a roller coaster of feelings, a bit of fear, lots of care and caution, and a sincere hope that this new virus strain won’t take many more lives before the experts get a handle on it and we can put this awful scare behind us. I am finding that escaping to my art room, getting paint all over me, helps me cope. I’m trying to get up there for a few minutes each day. I’ve painted an old, stained tee shirt to give it new life. I’ve painted some wooden earrings I look forward to wearing. I have an idea for a painting rattling around now that I hope to start this afternoon.

 

Another thing that helps is taking walks around my yard, seeing new buds ready to burst into glorious life. The buds are a reliable promise that things will get back to normal in time, and there is hope for the future for people and our countries.

 

I’m noticing that several of the yard critters my husband and I have made are needing to be spruced up. This sweet shovel bird will get my attention soon. Then I hope to move around the yard, giving our metal yard critters some love – and paint!

 

One of my favorite roses is Rio Samba. I love it because the buds you see here will soon start to open up. They start as bright yellow, then develop a coral edge on the petals, then finally turn almost all coral before needing to be pruned. At one time we’ll have all three stages of blossoms on the plant. This is one of three rose bushes we have.

How can you feel down when you see the promise of a blooming wisteria?

My veggie garden plants are smiling, too, with the promise of a continuing nice harvest. I have harvested twice so far in this young season, giving us lots of head lettuce and spinach leaves for our salads. The plants are loving the cooler gray days with lots of rain. The sun is actually shining this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks, so I’ll get out there, take some pics, and share them with you later today.

I hope that you can look around and find the promise of better times to come, too. If not, I’m delighted to share the promise I found with you.

Stay safe.

 

 

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Hope

When I was taking Molly out for her first morning outing this morning, this sight greeted us. If you look closely, you can see it is now growing WAY UP in the tree on the far side of the actual plant in the brick planter.

 

A little closer view now where you can see the glorious color.

 

There were big, fat bumble bees enjoying it this morning. (I don’t mind them because they need a reason to sting you, unlike the red wasps who hate everyone, but tend to dive bomb me whenever I’m not paying close enough attention.  There is a lovely fragrance, too. Not overpowering, just NICE.

This blooms every year regardless of surrounding circumstance, reliably. Sometimes it is not quite so lush and fragrant, but it reminds us that nice weather is on the way, and the hope that things will get better soon!

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Filed under anticipation, Arkansas, Attitude, color, Delightful Surprises, Gardening, hope

Yesterday’s Harvest

Few things make me as happy as harvesting from our garden. Yesterday I did it quickly, though, because it was 40 degrees, gray and rainy.

 

Right now my head lettuce and spinach are very happy. I hope it continues so that we have a good harvest.

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Veggie Garden

 

This gives you a big picture of our garden. There are two rows of three 4’x4′ wooden boxes on legs filled with Mel’s Mix, a soil substitute.  They are tied together on an irrigation system.

 

Here’s another view.

Here you see mainly head lettuce plants plus a couple of spinach plants.

 

Here you see head lettuce and red onions.

 

Spinach plants

 

So far, things are going really well. As I said in my last post, I harvested the first batch today. I just finished using the push-around weed whacker to cut things down around the outside of the garden and behind the barrels of the Mel’s Mix Components behind the shop. (You can see the barrels in the upper portion of this photo.)  I also did a couple of areas beside the garden and between the garden and the house.

My husband is mowing again now, trying to distribute all the huge rows of tall weeds he mowed down a few days ago. It’s ALMOST looking as if someone cares about this place now…

 

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Our 1st Harvest of 2020!

I went out this morning and weeded in our veggie garden. I was able to do a small first harvest!

 

We will enjoy lots of lettuce leaves from the head lettuce plants. Eventually, the head comes up in the center of each plant.  I’m basically a city kid, not having tried to grow anything before, so I was like a kid at Christmas when I went out one day last year to find I had heads of lettuce – just like in the grocery store – but larger, and NICE. Nice enough I was able to share with my friends.

 

I am hoping that my spinach will produce a lot. We will enjoy this in salads, but I will also try to freeze a lot of it. I love it that there is no waste.

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Happy Wisteria

We have been working to get our wisteria to grow from its base in the planter on the right of the photo to a tree off the edge of this picture on the left.

 

A closer view. Things are looking more lush each day.

 

This fills me with hope for the future. It makes my heart sing.

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Thoughts on a Friday 2-27-2020

Patrick van Bakkum Photography via Penny Yaffe Krakow

My heart simply melted when I saw this wonderful photo, so I had to share it.

I FINALLY finished the initial yard work for the season this afternoon!  We have been battling true champion weeds – and LOTS of them, even though we spread weed killer in the yard. I finally finished pulling all the weeds out of the rock bed that goes around the base of our house. When things get back to normal in the world, we’ll get more bags of rocks and spread them. In the meantime, my husband did what HE calls spraying for weeds in the bed today. We’re due for rain tonight into tomorrow, but once we have a dry day, I plan to hose down the rocks with weed killer in a more serious fashion. I also trimmed the edges of the grass, weed whacked around the back yard, and then used the leaf blower to clean things up before our rain this evening.

I’m going to do a long, slow session of yoga stretches and then take a long, hot shower to try to get my body to quit yelling at me. I’m tired, but the main thing is that the back of my legs didn’t like all the getting down on my hands and knees to pull the weeds out of the rocks.

We called in for lunch, and my husband did the curbside pick up, and got our mail while he was out. I got a roast in the crock pot and we’ll have that, plus the leftovers from the squash casserole recipe I tried yesterday. It was really good.  If you’d like to try it, the name is, “Low Carb Yellow Squash Casserole” from  allrecipes.com.  My husband was kind of expecting the casserole his mom made years ago, even though he knows we are trying to eat low carb, low sugar, etc. He asked what the ‘crunchy stuff’ was. When I explained that this recipe substituted almonds for crackers, he decided he liked it a lot. :0)

I hope you had a good day and that you and your loved ones are staying safe.

 

 

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I MAY Be Too Old for This…

Letters From the Loft

The sun came out today to brightly shine on my while I’m trying to rid the rocks in the bed around the house of weeds. I lasted about 40 minutes, then came in and drank a really large glass of ice water, and then a lot of rest. I’m making progress, but this spring has been the best encouragement for champion weeds we’ve had in my memory of living here for almost 33 years now.  So far today, I’ve cleared an area from the garage door out to where the bed turns and goes around the back of the house.

I’m going to give it one more session today. Then I’ll drink water until my eyeballs float and then do a LOOOOONNNNNG session of yoga stretches before dinner this evening.

I have some nice pads to put under my knees, and a roll-around seat, so I’m about as well set up as one could be for the task, but it is still a LOT of work.

Guess who will NOT forget to hose down the WHOLE rock area thoroughly with weed killer once the weeds are out!

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Thoughts on a Thursday 3-26-2020

Since it finally quit raining for a bit here, we are scrambling to get our yard under what passes for control around here.

My husband used the riding mower a couple of days ago to cut the grass (mostly weeds) for the first time this season. We had spread weed killer earlier, but this spring has been a perfect one for all the weeds that have ever been in our yard, encouraging them to burst forth as never before. Some of the weeds were over a foot high! It took my husband twice as long as usual to mow, but he got it done, leaving huge amounts of cut grass everywhere. The next day he used the push-around weed whacker to get big places he couldn’t reach with the mower.

That left it to me to wield the hand-held weed whacker to get what is left, trim and edge the sidewalks, around the planters, under the deck, etc.. This spring has also encouraged the weeds to come up in the rocks we have around the house. Usually we can simply spray weed killer on them, but this year they are so prolific we actually have to pull what is there first. I did the front yard yesterday. My body is complaining pretty loudly today, but I’m going to try to get the back yard done today.

laughtard

When I finish, I’ll schedule a half hour to 45 minutes of gentle yoga stretching to get these old muscles stretched out again. I’ll schedule the elliptical trainer for days when I’m not doing so much in the yard.

I’m finding it difficult during this time to stick with my keto eating plan. I love the basics of it, but find I’m craving comfort type food during this stay-at-home time. I realize it’s probably just another excuse, but I ate some Blue Bunny New Freedom No-Sugar-Added Ice Cream with my husband last night.  It’s better for my husband, but it’s bad for me, as far as carbs go. It also has maltitol, which we should both be avoiding. “Being good” is difficult. Being good when my husband keeps bringing things I need to avoid into the house makes it more challenging. Being good during a pandemic is an even larger challenge.

Today I found a Low Carb Yellow Squash Casserole that sounds yummy. I’ll make that to serve with our leftover hamburger patties for our dinner tonight.  I will also make a loaf of bread from a favorite keto recipe so I can have some tonight.

It’s funny what each of us considers something that is ‘necessary’ to do in times when you are encouraged to stay home and avoid unnecessary contact with other humans. Apparently washing his car at the local car wash is a necessary thing for my husband, since he has just left to do it. I’m not even sure it’s open, though it is designed to be a place where no humans are needed. We will see if he comes back with a clean car or not.  Mostly, he has complied with staying home, so I’m trying not to fuss at him TOO much…

I am grateful that we are still healthy; have a warm, dry home; have food and water; and have Internet, books, TV, music, DVDs, art, pets, AND to-do lists to get us through this crisis. May we come out the other side as soon as possible and get people back to work.

Stay safe.

 

 

 

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Smiling Veggies

My plants are truly loving this cool, wet weather!

Spinach

“It was such a pleasure to sink one’s hands into the warm earth, to feel at one’s fingertips the possibilities of the new season.” ~ Kate Morton

 

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.” ~ Ruth Stout

 

Head Lettuce

“My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant’s point of view.” ~H. Fred Dale

 

Lettuce and Red Onions

“In every gardener there is a child who believes in The Seed Fairy.” ~Robert Brault

 

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Sending Spring Your Way

I took a walk around our yard this morning and felt instantly cheered by signs of spring.  We have several Redbud trees in the yard. Each year we try to cut down things around them, giving them the best chance we can of living and giving us a nice display.

 

This is our tulip tree. We just love it. It only blooms for a little while each spring, and is usually battered by storms – making the pretty blooms fall – but we love it.

I hope these trees lift your spirits as they did mine.

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Happy Veggies!

Science | How Stuff Works

Spinach

 

Sweet Red Onions

 

Head Lettuce

 

 

 

My veggies were smiling when I went out to take these pictures this morning.  Everything seems to be doing very well now.

I told you how hard I was trying to get the irrigation system going for my garden a couple of days ago. If my husband and I couldn’t get it going, I was going to have to fill my watering can over and over to give them a drink. We FINALLY figured out why we weren’t getting water in the outside agricultural water faucet we have – a faucet control in the well house was turned off instead of on.

Now that it is running perfectly, and the timer is set for daily watering, we are getting rain every day from yesterday through Thursday of next week. A beautiful illustration of Finagle’s Law of Dynamic Negatives.  (Finagle’s law of dynamic negatives (also known as Melody’s law, Sod’s Law or Finagle’s corollary to Murphy’s law) is usually rendered as “Anything that can go wrong, will—at the worst possible moment.”)  We also have it to mean “the more you need it, the harder it is to fix” or “you will get it fixed when you no longer need it.” 

My garden is such a joy. The boxes we built allow me to continue gardening with pleasure, not having to bend over double or get down on my hands and knees over and over. The fence keeps large critters out. The chicken wire around the bottom keeps small critters out. The Mel’s Mix in the boxes (peat moss, vermiculite, and as many different kinds of compost as you can find or make) allows plants to grow well and happily, not having to depend on the quality or quantity of our soil.

The cool weather crops, spinach and head lettuce, will hopefully do really well before it gets too hot here. The red onions will stay where they are until harvest, probably in October.  When it gets a bit warmer, I’ll add yellow squash and radishes, if not some other things, to the garden.

I have two large brick planters on the other side of the house that we converted to be square foot planters. We devote both of them to tomato plants.

So far, I have smiling, happy veggies. Fingers crossed that this will continue.

Have a happy Saturday!

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I Love Trying to Grow Things

Gorilla Love – Unknown – via Penny Yaffe Krakow

Head Lettuce

Red onions

Head Lettuce and Red Onions

Spinach

I have a funny problem. I was just out weeding and cleaning up the plants a bit. We have had a lot of rain lately, but most of it is going around us, rather than watering the garden. I decided to hook up our irrigation system, uncovering things for the first time this season. My control for the watering needed a battery, so I came back inside to get one.

When I went back outside, it was raining! Hahahahahaha!

Now that I’m writing this post, it has stopped.

Mother Nature is playing with me and laughing.

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Think Spring

Carol Auclair Daly

Isn’t this wonderful? I don’t know who actually sewed this, but I WANT IT!

I’ve been feeling a bit down this morning for no good reason. I took a walk around the yard and immediately felt my spirits lifting.

This afternoon, my husband walked with me while I took Amber out to the garden and around the yard, training her to walk with the no-pull leash/collar combination, and even HE was remarking how lush our daffodils look right now!

If YOU’RE feeling down, come visit!

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Enough for Today

Joanna Brandt

We got our Internet upgrade via CenturyLink – speed up from 6 bps to 41 – a significant difference. My husband worked with the tech to get the new double lines run outside and then the new modem installed and tested while I made sure that our dogs stayed out of the way – and away from each other. I’ll let you know what I think after I get a chance to test it some.

The other big thing for the day was scrubbing our master bathroom. This consists of a double lavatory with counter top, a whirlpool tub, a walk-in shower, toilet, floors and rugs. It took me a couple of hours, but things are significantly better in there now. My husband will see it when we go up to bed tonight…

He took Amber to Yeagers and got some weed killer for the lawn. Right now it looks like we need to mow, but all is weeds that have spurted up. We’re hoping that the weed killer he just spread will do the same good it did last year. We’ll both sleep well tonight after our various forms of exercise today.

Even though it’s too early to say this, as far as I’m concerned my work is done today.

Cindy Basnett Thurman

 

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Rich in Daffodils

Today was spring-like, but grim and gray. When I walked around in the yard though, after we got home from errands, I couldn’t help but grab my camera and try to capture the richness of our yard right now.

 

There is still the hole in the middle of the yard where we had to dig up a large part of it to find the leaking water pipe. I told you we managed to roll the rock over the edge of the world, but the hole remains. It now has some dark potting soil, but it’s still an eyesore and will be until we are confident the mower won’t sink down into the hole, and the grass once again covers the area. Even with that, the daffodils take my breath away.

Each year I did up some of the bulbs and plant them in another spot. I’ve done this for several years now, so clumps of daffodils are blooming all over the front yard and we now have a couple of clumps in the back. (The one above is “Debbye” in full bloom now.)

Big happy daffodils in several different shades of yellow and styles, all living together. Long stalks heavy greenery, bringing up my spirits.

These are beside the well house. We have dug them up twice, thinking we got them all, and yet they continue to bloom year after year.

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Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature, quality of life, Seasons

Thoughts on A Friday 2-28-2020

Tasmanian Devil, commonly referred to as Taz, is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Wikipedia CreatorRobert McKimson

We just put Taz up on our mailbox this morning on the way to Lunch Bunch. The Tazmanian Devil is one of our favorites.  It’s funny the way our designs have differed over the years. This one seems small and light, particularly compared to the Snow-Goon we just took down and stored in the shop. This one is only about 2 feet tall, where the Snow-Goon is almost 4.

Jerri St. John of Jewels from Jerri’s VIPS  (https://www.facebook.com/groups/jewelsfromjerriVIPs/?fref=nf )

bought a couple of pairs of earrings I was listing on my Etsy site. They were delivered yesterday. I was so happy she liked them. Then she did THIS –

on Facebook. I’m STILL grinning and dancing. What a NICE, generous thing for her to do!  She is a representative of Paparazzi Jewelry – FUN pieces that I can’t resist. I buy things from her all the time. She couldn’t do a better job of responding, filling your order, shipping, etc.

We had our normal wonderful time at Lunch Bunch. We look forward to catching up, good food, good conversation, laughs, and good hugs.

One of our errands was at Walmart. On the way out to our truck, there was a crowd. A person was down in the parking lot. We stopped, asking if there were anything we could do, but they told us an ambulance was on its way. My heart goes out to the person in distress, but I was happy that so many people stopped what they were doing to try to help.

It is a bit after 2 pm here. The sun is shining and it’s 55 degrees F. here!  What a lovely day – and it’s still February!! I’m going to go out and visit my veggie plants and walk around the yard. What a treat!

Have a happy day!

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Filed under Friendship, Gardening, Great Companies Who Deserve Your Business, kindness, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations, metal art, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds, Thoughts on a ________

Early Spring Garden Progress 2-27-2020

This is the main part of my raised bed square foot garden. There are six wooden 4’x4′ boxes filled with Mel’s Mix on metal ‘tables’ chest high so that I can simply open the door, walk up, and either plant, weed, or harvest without having to bend over double or get up and down off my knees. The fence around the boxes keeps deer and other critters away, and the chicken wire around the bottom takes care of smaller critters, such as rabbits. We built in an irrigation system that is hooked up to an outside agricultural type faucet with a timer control on it so that I can set it to water for a certain amount every day, or whatever is needed.  I haven’t set that up yet because we’re still having freezes.

I tried to get some close-up pics so you can see what’s going on so far. The pic above is spinach. Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening, says you can plant 4 plants in each square. I’ve decided to spread things way out this year and see what happens. I have one plant in the middle of each square, giving them lots of room. I’m hoping I have plenty for salads, plus I’ll freeze what we can’t eat fast enough.

This is head lettuce.  Last year, we had a great harvest. We had plenty for us, and I was able to give heads of lettuce to lots of friends.

 

Head lettuce and sweet red onion sets.

It LOOKS like I may be able to skip covering things up at night for a couple of nights!  I’m SO ready for spring!

And then I can plant tomatoes and summer squash!

 

 

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Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds