mrazikmommy's Blog
mrazikmommy's Blog
Last Post 138 days, 12 hours Ago
May 26, 2008 | 6:28 AM PST
Thank you everyone who told me how good i was doing. it really boosted my spirits. i got a dull "looks good hun" from the hubby. So it was REALLY nice to hear from you guys that the cypress did some difference. it took 9 bags of mulch, but it was worth it. The shade garden will def fill out more over time. i'm thinking that even by next year it will look more full- not sure as i dont know how fast things spread and grow. my MIL said the hostas will def look fuller next year. i might even have to give some away?? i was going for a woodland kind of look. i saw my aunt's garden and i wish i'd taken pictures because man it's just BEAUTIFUL! i dont think she has ANY grass in her whole yard! where you need to step there is walkways with stepping stones and i think theres even some pebble down. but she has this low growing plant that grows right up to the stepping stones, it kind of looks like clover, but way shorter. she has several trees in her back yard to create this nice woodland effect and TONS of shade plants but it looks organized in a way, lik you can tell these are plants and not just weeds over grown in her yard. it buts up to this little creek. man its just majestic. while i can't transform my whole back yard i CAN transform my little haven. well i'm going back to bed for a little bit. happy gardening everyone! and happy memorial day! hoep everyone has a great BBQ or something to celebrate with!
May 21, 2008 | 6:45 PM PST
as promised i put up new pics... i wrote a comment in my blog but then i thought maybe no one reads comments.. lol. SO, the new pics are up in the "garden project" album. i have a couple of pics of the unidentified plant if anyone knows what it is i'd LOVE to know. and i'll try to take a better shot of my shade garden. it looks so bare from the angle i took. dont get me wrong it IS a little bare but i did that on purpose to leave room for new growth and to allow some of the more invasive plants room to fill in the gaps. i had to keep reminding myself that plants are supposed to grow and expand. my hostas will need some pruning next year as i ended up with a few too many, but that's fine i'm sure SOMEBODY will need some. ANYWAY! check out my pics tell me what ya think? how'd i do.. 1st year and i'm aching for some one to tell me i didn't do it wrong LOL....
May 19, 2008 | 10:41 AM PST
Ok baby news first just to get it out of the way.. i'm super excited about it but i try to stick to gardening news on garden guides and save family news for myspace. Ok i had my U/S i'm having a boy! Benjamin Thomas is the name we picked out. we've had the boy name decided since i found out i was having a girl the first time around. SO YEA!!! I'm getting bigger and bigger every day--sied effects of having life grown inside you. i'm dealing with it way better this time around.. guess its cuz i know what to expect. and even though i know i should take it slightly easy, i AM NOT putting myself on permanent bed rest...i'm trying to stay active and get out and about every day. i feel GREAT! my ONE little thing i have going on is the back pain... i'm have it all my life though. but i did start Physical Therapy to help me manage the pain. so far so good!!
OK garden news now!! Biggest news i
think is that my garden actually LOOKS like a garden now! hee hee!!! i
have SEVERAL plants in my shade garden and quite a bit in my little
sunny spot as well. I decided that this year i would focus on the back
yard as it was a LOT easier with my daughter--who thinks its funny to
scare the crap out of mommy and run into the street when i turn my back
for a second! i did manage to go out and buy some cypress mulch (dyed
red) and spread that out front. i also planted 2 rose bushes. not high
end ones, i bought them at menards for like $5/each they're hybrid tea
roses... verigated pink and yellow... one thing i have about roses.. i
HATE hot house roses... the deep red ones. i think they are ordinary
and as common as dandylions. i appologise if this offends anyone, it's
just my opinion. i prefer something verigated with 2 colors. ANYWAY. i
hope they live if not i wont be too dissappointed. i did notice some
new growth so i guess they're establishing themselves. i dont think
they'll bloom this year but you never know. if they do GREAT and if not
i wont mind.
OK the shade garden... so my Mother In Law (MIL) gave me a BUNCH
of plants on april 26th (this is what i was writing about when
everything got deleted) she has a WIDE variety of shade plants in her
woods that she dug up for me.. and has more if i need it,, but after
saturday i dont think i will (i'll get back to that in a min) My MIL
gave me some lily of the valley.. pretty.. 2 types of hostas... one
normal just green, but LOTS of it, and one verigated.. green and white,
but only a little bit. but hostas will spread out so i'm not too
worried. and then she gave me this one plant that neither of us know
what it is --it kind of looks like a weed to me... i didn't like it
though. it looks like rag weed but instead of yellow flowers they're a
more green color.
My MIL also donated 21 plants for me to take to a perennial exchange that took place this past saturday. it was a DRIVE, as i live a hour and 15 mins from my MIL and the exchange started at 9am... i had to wake up at 7.. EARLY FOR ME, and i was still a little late. but there was a GREAT turn out and i was able to get a lot of plants! i was shocked a little,. there were LARGE plants or large bundles of plants that only required ONE ticket. i ended up having left over tickets and in the end gave them to the lady at the front and said if anyone is short PLEASE let them have them!
yesterday was spent planting
the plants that i got. i got some more lily of the valley, violets,
forget me not, verigated hosta, snow on the mountain, white wooddrift,
some sort of poppy (i think), a money plant, a large thing od old
fashioned day lilies-orange (for the sun garden), OOOO and this
botanical elephants ear.. not NORMAL elephants ear this one has a
bland flower it grows on risobmes (sp???) she told me to cut the leaves
off as they wouldn't perk back up but that they'd grow back... i think
next year. it'll be a BIG plant in my shade spot.. but i'm fine with
that.
the only thing i think i want to do now is lay in some stepping
stones to make a path, and if i could find a VERY LOW GROWING ground
cover for the shade i think it would look GREAT if it grew up around
the stones and made a path. it would have to be a sturdy plant though
as it would most likely be stepped on a lot. and then i have a wrought
iron chair that i want to put in a corner. the path will lead to the
chair, and if i could get a little more trellis to go up against the
deck and close off the little open spot that would be nice. does any
one know of a shade loving vine? i thought it would look good if the
trellis had a vine covering it. which reminds me.. i have to take a
picture of it.. but i have 2 plants growing that i dont know what they
are. one is a vine with a small purple flower on it.. the leaves
remind me of ivy because they're shiny and a deep green, and the other
plant is also a shiny green leafed plant but more of a yellow green
color.
p.s. will be posting pics so look for them !! if not today DEF tomorrow!!
one last quick thing. my birthday went GREAT. Hubby got me a camcorder and daughter got me a garden cart for moms day. my mom sent me $$ to get a new digital camera!! went to red lobster... YUMMMMM. and turned beet red when the waitress came over and sang happy birthday to me--they dont usually do that , i know. which is why i was totally NOT expecting it. all in all i had a GREAT WONDERFUL mother's day/birthday (they're 2 days apart)
Apr 28, 2008 | 11:15 AM PST
i'll post later. i just wrote this huge thing and i accidentally just deleted it all. kind of bummed now. talk later.
Apr 15, 2008 | 9:00 AM PST
well its finally warming back up! i'm sooo glad. my MIL said the perrineal exchange is around mothers day, so that will be fun! more and more garden centers are putting up their spring plants! i'm soo excited all i need now is some $$. lol. my birthday's coming up.. may 9th.. wooo hooo. i'll be 22! i aske my hubby to get me garden gear... i have a trowel now (quite a bit ruined from last year) and one of those garden fork thingys. thats it. i def need a nice shovel --big one for turning the dirt, and maybe a cart or wheel burrow. i like this one cart i found online at lowes. it by ames... not sure if they're good but i see their name around alot so i dont think they're too bad. hmmm not sure what else, i have some gloves, i guess i dont need it but i'd also really like one of those knee pad thingys to keep my knees clean... maternity clothes are expensive i really dont want to ruin them, lol. well just wanted to jot down my quick garden thoughts. oooo yea. duh. i'm trying out growing apple trees from seed, and an avocado tree.... we'll see ...
Apr 7, 2008 | 9:00 AM PST
Well i now have a different backyard. well sort of. we removed all the leaves yesterday. well most of them. apparently around this time of year the city does leaf clean up again. woo hoo. so all we had to do was get all our leaves from our back yard to our front yard. quite a task if you'd seen my back yard. we bought a tarp and raked all the leaves onto it.... we had to make 4 trips!! yikes! we still have more leaves, but we ran out of room in the street.... what we do is line the leaves along the curb... and then the city comes by with the street sweeper (set up to suck up leaves) and voila no more leaves. i think they'll take sticks too bu they have to be in a pile or box on the corner, and we were dead tired yesterday by the time we'd finished with just the leaves (we had quite the busy day yesterday). ... well i'm gonna finish up cleaning the house (and not get distracted by the internet again) and then Me and Lizzy are heading out doors. we put some marigold seeds in her garden, and then we bought a little dog statue and some butterfly sticks for her little plot. she still wants to dig there loll. oh well we're getting one of those sandbox turtles soon so maybe that will distract her from the garden so her plants will actually grow. oh well if they don't. she's having fun enough just digging.
Apr 4, 2008 | 12:39 PM PST
ok so while surfing the forums i ran across a post about someone's yard. i'm pretty sure the screen name was okiescott. so kudos to you okiescott, you have inspired me. (ok i get on a little tangent here but i'll get back to it in a min i promise) lol. while the weather today was not good for being outdoors and working the garden like yesterday was, i did get some things done anyways. i started a little journal, where i cut out and pasted in all of my ideas. they weren't completely all about the garden, i also put some clippings of things i'd like to do to the entire house. sort of a way to keep all my ideas together so i don't forget and so that i can build onto them as my ideas change and progress.
ok back to okiescott. i saw pictures of you yard yesterday and was inspired by your archway! I LOVE IT. i think i left you a comment about it too. so my idea is this. i have the gate leading into my back yard right?? well what if i put up some trellis along the fence surrounding the gate, and then put an arch going over the gate, and then grow some thick IVY or other thick vine so that it would all be like ivyish... does that make sense? lol
||||||||||
||||(``)||||||||| ok now imagine all the lines and the arch are covered in IVY. ... lol.
the only thing i'm really worried about is that at on each end i have potential over growth areas. i.e on one end i have my neighbors privacy fence--what if the ivy decides to jump ship so to speak? like wise on the other end i have my brick garage. no i don't really mind ivy on my garage, but my neighbor might not like my ivy....hmmm any thoughts?
btw i thought about this ALL NIGHT last night. i couldn't sleep--heart burn yuck-- so instead i thought about gardening lol. and when i did sleep i dreamt about gardening. is that normal? lol
Apr 3, 2008 | 4:00 PM PST
I had a very productive day today! i didn't get EVERYTHING i wanted to do done, but then the chore was a bit bigger than i origionally thought. I put up a couple more pics, but i'm gonna list them here too. i got about 1/2 the yard raked. i never realized how big my yard actually was until i was raking it. OOOh and i managed to clear out my shady spot!! that was my big thing, it was pretty burried in leaves and other stuff. i still don't know what to do with all the leaves. there's TONS! at the moment they're residing in the leftover pumpkin bags i had and a huge pile in the middle of my yard. i also have a big stick collection starting. i made Lizzy a little bed of her own. we planted gladiolas, they said plant end of march, i figured now was good. i dont know that they'll take, but i don't think she'll care. we're gonna look for something else too to put there. she just liked digging in the dirt! lol. it was ironic because at first i couldn't get her to want to even stay outside w/me, but after i introduced the shovel and gave her an area to dig in, she didn't want to go inside! it's finally spring, it was so nice out i went w/o a coat. OOOOh!! and i found some plants growing! i planted them last year but forgot about them because they died almost as soon as i planted them =( i think they're called Hyacinth, ok dbl checked, yup thats what they are. yea. so i offically have something in my garden! hee hee.
this is my sunny spot.... needs some more tlc i know. you can only do so much in a day though. gimmie 7 see what i accomplish then...
these are the hyacinth, there are 3 total. i think these two will be purple, i'm trying to remember, i bought them a year ago...
this is my shade garden. still under construction. like my pumpkins in april? lol. they were leftovers from last fall. not sure what you do with leaves? o and the tarp... i just discovered that today... under my porch. ugg. on a plus side though my MIL is offering me free shade plants!! yea! she said she has at least 10 different types of hostas and she's also offering up some of her plats for me to take to a perennial exchange! ... i'm not sure what that is, but i think it's just what it sounds like, you exchange perennials right? i bring some and offer them up and trade them for something else someone else has..... she said her best plants have some from there. sweet! =)
Lizzy's Plot. believe it or not those bricks were just laid in my yard..... i have a ton of them i'm not sure why. they make a square so maybe something used to lay on top of it... IDK. but under it is sand so i'd say it was intentional. we planted gladiolas here along the back. i'm looking for something else to put here too. idk.
it's a girl.... lol. this one is pink.
Mar 20, 2008 | 2:21 PM PST
ok when i sign in it keeps saying i have like 17 new messages. but i don't. i have no new messages. a couple of days ago i tried to delete a bunch of messages. it said it deleted them but they're still in my in box. that day it said i had -2 messages. how does one have negative messages??? weird. and it's a little annoying. i never know if i actually have messages of not.
Mar 18, 2008 | 5:30 PM PST
So it rained up here in the mitten. i'm actually glad for it though. it wasn't a big rain really, more like sprinkles. or misty. really refreshing, and great because this is the first rain of the season, and you KNOW it's spring when it rains in michigan. On a GREAT plus side of today i got my camera fixed! it might be temporary but i'm hoping to get some pics of my garden plots and my yard up before it quits working again. i'm 1/2 tempted to just go out and buy one of those cheap-o ones that go on a key chain!! LOL.. i got out in the yard the last couple of days and a thought occurred to me.. ok so my shady garden area isn't very shady right now. is that a problem? when the leaves on the trees come in, yea then it's a shady area, because the trees block the sun, but until then it's actually pretty sunny. and btw when the leaves and green stuff do come in i have to take a picture of this super weird plant in my back yard. it grows on this tree, i've pretty much confirmed that it doesn't actually grow from the tree but must be a type of vine on the tree. when i first saw it i thought immediately of jack and the bean stalk. because that's exactly what it looks like. i mean if you saw huge heart shape leaves and what looks like super sized string beans what would you think, especially when you're looking UP at a tree?? weird. i'm starting research on where i should buy plants now. i think i've narrowed down my plants, well i'm still looking at the same list, but i made myself stop there for now until i can create a budget for my garden. i can't buy any plants if i don't have the $$ and i also thought it would be a good idea to figure out where i was buying them because i could get completely sold on a plant only to find that i can't locate it. That being said. i was wondering has anyone ever been to a Horrocks? i'm not sure how main stream they are, i only know there's one in lansing, and it's the closest thing to a nursery i've seen around so far. i'm gonna google it in a min. i just wanted to see if anyone had some opinions on the place? or if you live in the western michigan region and know some good nurseries in ionia county or lansing area, i'd gladly take that advice as well!! THANK YOU!!
btw i have to say i'm LOVING this site!! everyone's sooo helpful, i'm truly grateful! thanks a mil everyone!!!
Mar 14, 2008 | 11:32 AM PST
Well it def. feels like spring today. it's like 50 degs, and i'm loving it! i really want to start on my garden but as there's still snow my guess would be that the grounds still mostly frozen. =( So instead i'll continue my research. i think i might head to the library today, check out some books on gardening, and maybe hit the park--so my lil girly can play. =) i guess i could rake my yard... but i'm gonna wait til all of the snow is gone. and for my hubby to have some time off, he's gonna help out, because he was supposed to rake the leaves BEFORE the snow fell!! i think a couple months of procrastination is long enough. oh i can't wait for it to start looking like spring. new leaves on the trees, not these barren skeletons of their former beauty. new flowers popping up, we have some birds back but it'll be nice to have them all.
Some plants i've been considering. you should be able to click on the name and it will link you to the page where i found them. i'm going to try and find these all locally though, because i really don't want them shipped. i'm afraid they'll be damaged in the process. at least if they get damaged in the back of my car i only have my self to blame. some are shade plants, others sun.
Mar 12, 2008 | 5:05 PM PST
Well wow what a welcome. thank you!!! Lizzy and i are very excited to get started and i am soo happy i go soooo many responses!! i'm trying to find some photos to post up, my camera is broke at the moment, but i know i have some pictures of my yard somewhere on my computer. i was able to make a simple plan of what my yard looks like on word, but i can't figure out how to get it on here. working on that too. i think i'm going to try scanning in a printed off copy and see if that works. this means relying on an absentminded hubby however, so you might be better off waiting for the photos. lol. i'm going to be back on in about an hour or so, i gotta get my toddler in the bath and off to bed, be back soon! TIff
Mar 10, 2008 | 11:29 AM PST
Tag: need help starting from scratch!
I'm LOST. Gardening is something i've never really done before. i'm REALLY excited for this coming spring, because i'm not working and i'll have tons of time on my hands. well as much time as you can get with a 2 year old in tow, and our next little one due in september. but being pregnant doesn't make me invalid, and i need to find ways to get outside and enjoy the weather. I LOVE making things and so this year i intend to take up gardening. Now i just have to figure out where to start. i suppose i should make out a plan. i'm a good planner, and researcher. i'll have to get some tools-- i already asked my hubby for some for my birthday and mothers day- both are in may so not too late in the season. I already have one things figured out, i AM NOT starting from seeds. as cheap as it would be we had too much trouble with that last year. i attempted seedlings last year and had to leave for 3-4 days, they got too heated and dried up. i tried salvaging them, but they were too far gone. so we're starting from plants, preferably easy to tend plants--forgiving plants, as i don't ALWAYS make it out to water. i have at least 4 small bed areas that are marked off and sort of started. the previous owners of my home had garden beds, but not much in them. mostly just bushes and mulch. at least thats about all that survived the 2 year house vacancy. i desperately need to up heave the mulch still laid down and lay fresh mulch down. i also have this big rock area that i want to do something with. i think i might take out the brick border they had laid out and replace them with the rocks. i do have a brick home so the bricks match, but i prefer the rocks. we'll see. maybe i can have a rock garden, if i ever figure out what a rock garden is.. lol. i have a LOT of learning to do. I did figure out i live in ZONE 5. so there's something. at least i'll know if the plants i buy will last in my area. i think i might start with bulbs in some areas, and plants in others. but where to start what to choose. how do i make a plan? ugggg.
