Garden Planning with Pinterest

The month of March was a blur.  It came and went without much fanfare here.  I did celebrate another birthday and this year will be filled with many changes.  I do not know what the future holds but I am embracing all the plans that God has for me.  It is only through Him that I can travel this road with its twists and turns, and blind curves.  I look forward to seeing His work in my life and in our family's life.

Spring has arrived, at least on the calendar it has. Are you all planning your gardens.  Time for the green thumbs to come out and shine.  We have had below normal temps and very few sunny days.  Although I am longing for the warm sunshine of spring, I am believing that April showers will bring us many May flowers.  While I spend my days indoors waiting for the illusive warm sunshine of spring days, I have spent some time planning our garden.  I am very interested in Growing Food not Lawns.  This site contains a wealth of information that at times makes my head spin.  I am not completely averse to lawns but find that the space can be better used to grow food that is far healthier for you. Also the upkeep and maintenance of a lawn with all it's fertilizers and mowing seems quite wasteful and unhealthy.

Our greatest challenge here is space and our three dogs.  So I have spent some quality time perusing Pinterest for ideas.

This is one of my favorites.  It is functional and pleasing to the eye.

Source: forums.gardenweb.com via Ruth on Pinterest

Vertical gardening saves so much space and you can grow a wide variety of veggies this way, even tomatoes.  Who knew?  Okay, many of you probably knew but this girl had missed out on this.  Can't wait to try this.

Source: gardeningwithkids.org via Ruth on Pinterest

Containers are also a fabulous way to grow things.  It will keep the dogs from trampling all over the plants and allow us to grow things in places where we wouldn't normally think of growing things.

Source: organicgardensnetwork.blogspot.com via Ruth on Pinterest

This is definitely on the must try list.  As the summer gets hotter, our lettuces always suffer but not they can be protected from the hot summer sun by their cucumber or squash friends.  I would like to try this with beans, too.

Source: gardeners.com via Ruth on Pinterest

This is similar to the one above.  I would put it right over the soil with lettuces or spinach growing underneath.

. These raised beds are perfect for small spaces.

Source: veggiegardener.com via Ruth on Pinterest

An amazing use of space

Source: loonyville.wordpress.com via Ruth on Pinterest

I have also found such wonderful tips for gardens on Pinterest.  This watering tip is so easy and a fantastic idea.  It also saves water.

Source: providentliving.org.nz via Ruth on Pinterest

Fabulous idea for containers.

Source: thisoldhouse.com via Ruth on Pinterest

You could spend a week on this site dreaming gardening dreams and planning to grow enough to feed an army.  Love all the tips shared here.

Source: veggiegardener.com via Ruth on Pinterest

There are so many more ideas on Pinterest but this is where I am starting.  Can't wait to dig in the dirt and grow something good.

Linking to these great parties.

A Day at the Beach

The calendar says spring but the temps say summer.  We have been in the 90's for the last couple of days.  After some severe thunderstorms and downpours the temps are a little lower but we are still holding on to some humidity here.

The garden is quite happy with this warm up.  

These are the first strawberries we picked on Thursday.  From the looks of the plants there will be many more.  They are loaded!! These strawberries are so juicy and sweet.  Love them.

 This is our first week of no school.  We had quite a few appointments this week but what a difference when you don't have the daily school work.  I decided I would use this time to turn our home into a beach house.

I found this tray at Joannes and I love it.  Added the blue Ball canning jar, filled with shells and sand, and hydrangeas from our dear neighbors bush.

 Filled my little cloche with shells.  Love the colors of the shells.  Found these at Joanns too.  It was a great trip.  Wait until you see the best thing of all that I found there.

 I didn't like the dark candle that I had on the tray so I picked the tart warmer up at a discount store today. Fits perfectly with the theme.

 I also found this there.  It was only $3.99.  What a steal.  If you have a Christmas Tree Shop near you, you have to go.  I added the sand and candle.

The best find of the day was this fabric at Joanns.  It was on sale for about $11.00.  I love it and will be using it for window treatments in the living room.  Now I just need to pick a paint color and getting moving.  This color and pattern are gorgeous.  I am so happy that Joanns now carries these fabrics.  The one near us did not always have a good selection but they do now.  It was hard to choose just one fabric that I liked.  There were so many that caught my eye.  Wish I could have gotten them all.

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In the Garden

Our garden is a happy place right now.  It has been hard work but I love every minute of it.

Here we have some gourd seedlings.  I hope to have some gourds running out of this planter by autumn.

These are Amish melon seedlings.  They are heirloom seeds.  Last year they did not do well, or maybe I did not do well.  Hoping for some yummy melons this year. 

 Our strawberry bed.  It runs over, and everywhere they runners can.  Looking forward to yummy strawberries from our garden.  They are a million times sweeter and juicier than anything you buy at the market.

When I went out this afternoon to snap some photos of the garden I noticed this little guy was trapped inside the garden. Hubby built a structure out of PVC and wrapped it in chicken wire to keep pests out of the garden.  Before that anything I planted was destroyed by squirrels and rabbits.  Even with the dogs chasing them, they would still come back.  Perseverance, I suppose.

I am not sure how the birds manage to get in but every once in a while they do and get so flustered they can not get out. I opened the door so he could fly out and he can't seem to find it.

 Here are the plants.  I have four varieties of tomatoes, celery, peppers, kale, squash, cucumbers, and romaine lettuce.

 Poor little guy is still there.

 He's too upset to find his way out.

 It is not helping him to know that his little friend is calling to him from the bushes, on the other side of the fence.

I hope he finds his way out soon.  I don't think he'll want to come near this garden again.  It did not help when our husky decided she would chase it around the outside of the garden, further frustrating and scaring this little guy.

I wanted to share some of my son's artwork with you here.  It has been a long time since I've shared something he's drawn but he is always working on a picture.  He is currently drawing and creating a story for a Sonic the Hedgehog comic book. This will be his third one.  We have submitted one of his creations to the company and hope to hear some response soon.  He is so talented.  Sorry to brag~but he's great.  He never ceases to amaze me with his work, especially because he is legally blind in his right eye.  He has amazing perspective.

He also takes amazing photos.  He took these themselves and says he would love to have a camera that he could really take amazing shots with.  We will have to be looking for one for him to learn on.

The color is amazing~

Thank you for letting a mama brag.

Have a super weekend.

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In The Rain

In the past two and a half weeks this is all we see-dreariness.  It has rained on and off and we have only been blessed with one sunny day since Mother's Day.  

 It downpours and stops but the sun does not come to visit.  I am in need of sunshine.  I am feeling very deprived.  I may be suffering from vitamin D deficiency from all the lack of sunshine.

With all the rain these girls have been spending long days in the house.  They are not very pretty smelling and are in desperate need of a bath.  If only the sun would come out and play. Not only is it consistently cloudy and raining, the temps have been in the 40's and 50's.

Longing for fresh air.  I want to open the windows and let the freshness fill our house and drive the stinky doggy smell away.  You can live with it in the winter but when spring time arrives you want/need sunshine and fresh spring air. 

For now I must resort to lighting these through out the house in hopes of driving away the wet, stinky dog smell.  

In the second photo you can see, to the left, the dog shed with a fenced kennel and covered roof.  This was intended for the dogs to live.  When Skylar and Petie came to live with us, they would stay out there together but since Petie has passed away Skylar does not want to be there by herself and we don't want her by herself either.  We tried to put our beagle in the house with her and it did not work out well.  Our beagle does not like other dogs very much.  She wants people.  So now we have this large area we are not sure what to do with yet.  When we go out Skylar (black and white) husky has to stay in the dog shed because if not, she tears up our house.  It is hard to train her because she is 7 and things haven't been consistent in her life.  Besides she is stubborn.  I think we need a dog whisperer.

What I would really like to be doing is gardening.  I worked on preparing our garden right before Mother's Day.  I had every intention to get the plants in the ground shortly after that but the weather has not cooperating.  Last Friday, our only sunny day, I headed to our local farm to purchase our plants.  The dear farmer said I needed to babysit the plants this week because of the rain and cool temps.  

I am itching to get out there and dig in the dirt.  For now I am enjoying these books:

I want to plant a large herb garden with our veggies this year.  Our front flower beds are in need of cleaning out and a lot of work.  They were sadly neglected last year with the kitchen remodel.  I am hoping to have them all pretty as soon as this bother some rain stops.

I have also finished this:

It is incredibly soft.  I love the pattern but it is wider than I usually like.  If I use this pattern again I will probably cut it down to only one strawberry pattern per row.  The pattern did say gauge was not important but I would prefer a narrower scarf.  For this one I left it this way because it is different from any of the others I have.  I will be warm and comfy and look amazing with a bright, large flower pin.

~How Does Your Garden Grow~

This has been a very busy week.  We have started back to school with our full time schedule.  Getting back into the routine after a long break takes some time.  I don't think we have it all figured out yet but we're working on it.  My dd is a junior this year and there is alot of work on her plate.  My ds is in 7th grade.  I can hardly believe how big they are.  It seems like just yesterday they were so little and so dependent on me.  

The garden has been trying to survive this crazy summer.  We went from a very cool, cloudy and rainy June and half of July to a almost three solid weeks in August of 90 degree temperatures with high humidity.  I don't think the plants knew what was happening.  Overall, it has survived pretty well.  I have learned quite a bit to help me grow a better and bigger garden next year.  I started everything in the garden with heirloom seeds from Seed Savers Exchange.

This is how the garden looks now.  

This is my gourd plant.  It has gotten a late start because of the crazy weather but I hope it will do well.

My first little gourd.  I have three or four of these growing.

This is a rose of sharon our dear neighbor gave us.  She didn't think it would bloom until next year but it is blooming beautifully.  I am so thrilled.  Rose of Sharon is one of my favorites.  She has a gorgeous one in her own garden.  What a sweet, sweet neighbor she is.

Gorgeous bloom!

I did lose my squash plants to squash vine borers.  At first I didn't have any idea what was wrong.  I did some research on the internet and once I came across this article I knew exactly what had happened.  Next year, I will know ahead of time and will take measures to prevent it from happening.  The garden is an ongoing learning process and I am enjoying it so much.