A Green Thumb...

This past weekend, Taryne and I planted flowers in the front flower bed and in a few pots. We planted ALOT of flowers.

She was so interested in the process and the plants and the tools. She helped me plant a few then became very interested in the little plastic 6-pack containers and plants stakes. So I let her play with them.

While I continued to plant, I began to notice that my pile of unplanted flowers was growing. She was coming behind me and digging them up. And plucking the flowers off some. Sigh.

Finally we planted the leftover flowers in a few pots. She really had fun adding the potting soil and helping me plant.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Spring garden update...

Well it has been several weeks since we started our garden. And while we have yet to see the fruits of our labor,  most of our plants are growing and doing well. We are determined that the tomato and pepper plants we purchased must not have been good plants. They looked healthy when we purchased them, but they quickly became chlorotic and sad looking. I fertilized all the plants and within a few days, the tomato and pepper plants went down hill very quickly. The zucchini and yellow squash just took off! We have a little less than half of our tomato plants left and just a few of the pepper plants.

We also started a compost pile many months ago. It doesn't look like much in the picture, but the huge pile of "stuff" is finally breaking down and becoming compost.  Yay!

Here are a few pictures of our garden from this past weekend. I also discovered a lady bug on the squash, so that is good to control some pests we could get.

Zucchini...

Yellow squash and then a pot with nothing, then a sad tomato.

Peppers and 2 pots of sad tomatoes.

Compost pile.

Our squash have tons and tons of blooms. I anticipate fresh squash very soon!!! There is nothing like fresh from your garden vegetables.

Until next time...Gig'em!

Spring garden...

We have always wanted a garden, however, we have never really had a place to have a garden. One of the bonus features of the house we are currently living in, is the fact that our yard is huge! A downside is the ugly eye sore on one side of our house...these huge dog kennels that were built to board 4 large dogs. The area is fenced off from the rest of the yard. When we looked at this house our first thought was "Wow those are huge dog kennels and that would be a great area for a garden!". The area was already fenced off so Cassie and Phoebe could not go in there and get into things. Last spring we didn't get around to creating a garden because I was pregnant and we were too busy trying to update the inside of our house.

So this spring, we have made it our goal to have a garden. Unfortunately, this year our garden will not be the garden we have in mind. We plan to tear down the dog kennels and use the lumber to create raised beds for our vegetables. So this year we are using several old molasses tubs my parents gave us. In case you are wondering...the molasses tubs are for my parents cattle. These containers make great mini raised beds for a garden.

So here is what we did...we bought lava rock to put in the bottom of the tubs to help with drainage (we cut 5 holes in the bottoms). Kyle also cut some of the lumber to elevate the tubs to make drainage easier.

We mixed top soil and garden mix together to create our personal mix for the vegetables. We used bagged soil and garden mix only because it was easier to haul to this part of the yard. If our gate to the back yard was closer to the garden area we would have just bought the soil in bulk to save money. But the time saved from not shoveling the dirt from the truck to the wagon to the yard was definitely worth it. 

Here is the soil mix in the tubs...we actually added a little more in the end compared to what is in the picture below.

Here is a picture of all the tubs spread out in the "garden area" of the yard. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow squash and zucchini squash. We wanted to plan cucumbers as well, but all the cucumber plants were pretty sad looking so we decided to wait a few days on those. 

Here is a picture of the dog kennels...huge, huh? They had name plates on each one, but Kyle took them off to use the scrap lumber. To the left of the kennels is a large fenced off area that has a covered concrete pad in the corner. Not sure what these people were thinking when they built this...

Our little helper! She had a blast being outside this afternoon.

Not really related to our garden, but a few weeks ago when we were at my parents for Charlotte's wedding shower, my dad and I went out on a drive in the pasture behind our house to check on the cows. We stopped to feed a cow with a new baby calf and I spotted this cactus and decided I had to have it. So I dug it up and put it in a plastic bag. When we got back to the house, I put it in our car and that is where it has been until this afternoon. To my surprise, the cactus was blooming in my car! So I finally got it planted and I can't wait to watch it grow.

I look forward to all the wonderful vegetables we will yield from our garden. I hope that later this summer we can plant pumpkins for Halloween. And maybe we can have a bigger garden next year.

Until next time...Gig'em!