WillowsMama's Blog

Spending time with my Sweetie looking at plants!
Apr 30, 2011 | 10:43 PM PST
Tags: decor , decorations , tripod trellis , nursery

This morning we got to sleep in. Willow's Grams took her to the park and we slept until 10am. It was awesome. When we woke up we packed ourselves up and headed to some plant nurseries to browse and get some ideas. I wanted to get a pineapple sage plant, but neither of the nurseries had any. I know of a nursery that does, but I figured it would give me something to look around for.

We were planning on getting some bamboo poles to grow peas and cucumbers on, but they were $2 a piece and we need 15 of them. We decided to go to Home Depot and get wooden poles to make the tripod trellises. We paid .97 a piece for those. We hit a couple yard sales on the way home and just spent some good quality time together. It was fun. :)

Chris had to work at 3pm, so we went home and he took off for work. I ended up going with Willow and her Grams to the park, and then we did some shopping. I wanted to go to the Dollar Tree to see what they had for garden decor, because I don't have much to spend on decor right now. I got some small shepard's hooks to put in the ground with some sparkly butterfly decorations to hang from them. I also got some little garden lady garden stakes. They're pretty and simple. It's not much, but it's something.

I'll have some garden progress pictures to post soon. It's going to be beautiful and more refined out there this year. :)

I love my new trimmer/edger!
Apr 29, 2011 | 3:07 PM PST
Tags: veggies , tilling , manure , fertlizer , raised beds

I LOVE my new trimmer/edger for the garden. It's just awesome. I can't believe I was trimming along the edges of the garden beds with dull scissors last year. Willow and I played out there for 3 hours, and I got to play with the trimmer and make everything look really nice. The weather today is just amazing. I'm so grateful that we got to play outside together on this beautiful day for so long.

Chris was supposed to have the day off today, but he got called in because they really needed him. He had yesterday off, which was strange because he always has Friday and Sundays off, not Thursdays. The weather was off and on rainy and windy yesterday. Not a good planting, digging, or mulching day. :( Today is BEAUTIFUL and he has to work! Blech. 

I'm crossing my fingers that he will be interested in tilling my veggie beds for me when he gets home at 4:30! Then we can spread the manure, turn it in, and get ready to plant. Woo-hoo! I'm ready to plop these seeds in the ground. Let's do this!

Late First Spring Entry
Apr 28, 2011 | 7:54 PM PST
Tags: spring , improvements , composting , salvage , re-using

The veggie beds still haven't been planted. They need to be tilled again and weeded a little, and we have some manure to spread. It's been pretty rainy, and the days I have time to work out there with Chris have been kinda yucky. I need that soil to dry out a little. I haven't fertilized anything yet, but I plan on making some tea with our organic all purpose fertilize. That always does the trick. Hopefully this coming week we will have those beds completely ready and the seeds planted!

The biggest pest we have in the garden so far this year is the CHICKENS! Those darn chickens are digging up my nice clean, freshly mulched flower beds! Our local bunnies also ate some of my chives and munched my sage down to almost nothing. Thankfully the sage is sprouting new growth, and the chives were only nibbled a little. They are looking to become supper, themselves.

 We have some improvements this year that I'm proud of. We have started replacing the rocks around the flower beds with gray scalloped border stones. They aren't super glamorous, but it does tidy things up. We bought an edger/trimmer today. I feel like a little kid using it. It's pretty awesome. Last year I trimmed around the beds with dull scissors! We also bought a fire pit a couple weeks ago. It makes it feel cozy out there. We're working on building a permanent place for it on the lawn with some paving stones. We also have plans for building a wooden compost bin. Last year the compost heap never happened, but so far we have some really yummy things out in that pile.

We're hoping to start building a hoop house in one of our 5' x 16' raised beds using pvc pipes and plastic. It's an experiment for us, but we will try really hard to get it right. I also have plans to make 4 bamboo or wooden tripod trellises for cukes and beans. We have a lot of building projects this year to keep us busy. I'm really excited to start building and planting!

Today I picked up some old windows from a salvage store that I'm going to turn into trellises. Very cool. I just need to take the remaining glass out of them and find the perfect spot for them. Ideas are forming, and soon they will be sprouting into reality. How fabulous is that?

 

Planting some freebies
May 6, 2010 | 4:31 PM PST

It was a hazey day with patches of bright sun, a slight breeze, and about 60 degrees. Thank goodness the crazy wind is gone. I decided to get some quality "me" time out in the garden without the little one. We had all kinds of little flower starts given to us after a plant sale that we went to, and today seemed like the perfect day to plop them in the ground. I put them around some existing plants to fill up the bed a little. There were three cerinthe, three centaura, three achillea, and one bachelors button. The cerinthe already have really awesome blooms on them. What a great plant! I never knew what it was until just recently, but I'm proud to have it in my garden. I laid down some poor man's pavers (rocks) to circle the beds and it doesn't look great, but it doesn't look terrible. It's what we have for now, so I better not knock it.

The vegetable beds are still a project that need to be finished. We still need to purchase some boards to go around one of the beds and then get them both filled with good earth so they will be all ready to plant in. Although, the pumpkin bed will be ready to plant after it dries out a bit after all the rain we just had.

I still don't see any sign of the gladiolus yet. Oh please let them come up! I could really use a good dose of color in the backdrop this year. The four winter creeper euonymous shrubs that I put in are doing great. They sure are pretty with their reaching arms. I still need to pick up four more for the bed on the other side of the deck. Right now I have four large rocks marking the spots where the new shrubs will go in that bed. It helps me plan how I want the bed to look. Tomorrow should be fun trying to pick up some flowers to plant between the shrubs. It's going to be my Mother's Day gift from Chris, Willow, and Chris's mom. Could I ask for a more perfect gift than awesome family and beautiful flowers?

I'm still looking at that darn temporary bed that I have and cringing. It's not much to look at. It's kind of like an orphanage for plants that I don't know what to do with right now. I feel bad...I want them in a nice home. Maybe this weekend we can condition that soil and make it a permanant home for some herbs and perennial flowers. We can do it!!!