Monday, February 28, 2011

2 days outside...

Well, we are finished with the garden! And I am oh-so-excited to see whether we get any fruit/veggies in a few months :) Let's hope so because my body is KILLING me today. Altho, we did allot more than just work on the garden - we mowed, and edged, and cleared out the debris from the garage, and fertilized, and watered, and cleaned beds, and organized....it was a group effort mind you, but hopefully worth it all to have a pretty yard this year!

Here a few pics of the progress:

After we finished with the box, we dumped in our bags of soil and quickly discovered that I hadn't bought nearly enough, 4 bags of rose soil and 1 bag of compost. I returned to the nursery yesterday and picked up 9 more bags of rose soil (1 cu.) and 2 more bags of revitalizer/compost (1.5 cu). We used all but 1 bag of rose soil!

Next I placed the plants and moved them around about 100 times before I decided on their perfect "spot", then Ian, Michael & I dug the holes and placed them into their new homes. I left the sweet peas, cucumbers and the butterfly plant for Alex, which is why some are still in their pots in this picture.

Once all of the plants were buried, I added a bit of fruit/veggie food, we lightly watered, we put in the lattice for the climbing plants, and then added the plastic fencing around the garden to keep a nosey little poodle's nose out of it! The fencing is attached to the stakes around the garden, and can be easily removed & replaced when I need to work in there.

A final picture of the finished product, including a few of the herbs that I ended up potting for the time being. We may end up with a smaller "herb" garden next to this one, but I spent enough money this weekend and decided the pots would work fine for now. I actually now have 3 more pots of herbs, and a group of seed-pots waiting to sprout!

All-in-all we had a ton of fun! Here is the run-down of what I planted:
cucumbers, sweet peas, carving pumpkins, strawberries, jalapenos, peanuts, cauliflower, tomatoes, asparagus, (awaiting the broccoli plant), a butterfly plant & marigolds, and lots of herbs! The seed pots contain red/green sweet peppers, yellow onions, baby carrots, and green beans. Yummmmmm!!!!!!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Humble beginnings

This is our garden. Well, let me rephrase, this is the box that will be our garden. Michael & I spent an hour & half in Lowe's walking back & forth & back again buying the wood, weed barrier, brackets, nails, gardening hand tools, and various & sundry other items today. It was a looooooong hour & a half, let me tell ya! And expensive too! Altho we bought a new weed-eater/edger and a new drill, so that contributed to the expense. But still, you'd think we were made out of money or something!! I was so excited yesterday when I left the garden center with all of our new plants, seeds, soil, and "stuff" for only $138. Little did I know the 4 bags of soil and 1 bag of compost wouldn't even begin to make a dent in filling our 7'x4'x10" garden box. Yeah, its looking as tho I will be buying allot more soil tomorrow. And can I just say that organic soil isn't cheap!


Oh well, I'll just keep reminding the hubby that eventually, we'll start to save money on our fruits & veggies & herbs/seasonings - eventually....

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spring 2011

Well, I've been away for a very, VERY long time, but have been trying to get back to my little blog. I just haven't had anything to write about here. I have another blog that I've kept updated, but it really doesn't correlate to this blog, so this one has fallen by the way-side.


However, I'm determined to begin blogging again :)

And what better time to begin something then in the spring time, right? For instance, we're going to start a garden - its something we've talked about doing for years, even bought supplies for last year, but just haven't ever done it. So this weekend, that's what we'll be up to - picking our spot, digging out the grass, and beginning to get the beds prepared. I've been chatting with a friend about organic seeds and plants and she recommended "Botanical Interest" seeds, which are an organic/non-GMO brand. I found a local garden shop nearby that sells them, along with organic soils and supplies, so I'm planning a trip there tomorrow. This should prove to be an interesting endeavor, but I am hoping that when its all said & done, we'll get some fresh organic veggies out of the deal!

I'll post pics & updates as we go. Wish me luck!!!!