Beautiful Day!

I woke up this morning to the sound of birds chirping and my little bear calling me "Hon" from his room.  It was early for him to be up but I think he just wanted to take advantage of the day.  It is beautiful out today.  Some of the seeds I planted have started to sprout, my grapevine is growing some pretty purple leaves, everything is starting to show the signs of the season. 

I'm taking my little bear out to play in the yard.  

Everyone, get out there and enjoy the early morning sun!!

I think I'm going to pick up some pretty flowers to fill up my front garden box today.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Outdoor Wednesday: Child's Play

I am really beginning to look forward to Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan.  The Southern Daydreamer reminded me of the best of Spring with her array of pretty blooms. 
Like Susan, I have a hard time believing we went through three weather systems in a matter of days around here.  Incredible but true.  See the trucks are still back there - no snow this time, LOL.

This is my little peanut.  She was raking up the last of the gumballs from a nearby tree.  I hate those things but the trees are not mine to cut down so I must live with it just a little longer.  My entire yard was filled with these prickly balls.

Here we have baby bear with his trucks, back in the dirt.  His favorite past time in my empty garden is playing with the dirt which takes me way back in time.  I love it and his bath times are so awesome after he has a hard day of construction outside.

When the children play outside I feel energized to join them.  I just love to see them having fun, enjoying the weather, getting some sun and enjoying nature.  This was a fun day which by the way, it was 80 degrees - just a week after a winter storm when they were out playing in the snow.  One thing we can't do around here is put away clothes for the winter or summer.

Like many of our, the time has come to start planning my garden.  This time, since the house is for sale, I have plant some hardy, mostly grown plants to give this place some curb appeal.  Don't worry, my grass isn't dead, it's dormant :-)  When it's fully away it is the best grass in the neighborhood - soft like a carpet, never dies and doesn't grow very tall even after weeks without mowing so in that respect it's less work for me so I can focus on the garden areas.

Have an awesome Wednesday everyone and don't forget to visit Susan, join us in sharing our outdoors and visit some of the other awesome sites!

Pulling weeds

The other day I realized I had to face reality and go clean out my "garden" before the weeds grew into a jungle.  At some point towards the end of the season life took over and my garden was the last thing on my list to worry about, plus, I thought things would start dying off soon so no big deal.  Unfortunately things didn't die off, they grew thinker and strong and the flowers were beautiful.  However, the weeds were growing right along side the flowers and for a while I just figured, hey, let the be, they deserve to be among the beauties.

Finally, this week, I decided it was time to cut them back.  Even the flowers are dying out and these weeds are persistent.  They are dry and dead but standing tall...what the hey!  I spent 2 hours putting weeds and made a clear dent in the garden.  It was a heck of a workout for my legs, arms, chest, glutes, back and arms.  What that means is, I was sore, so sore I could hardly move.  Now mind you, I workout all week so you would think there would be no soreness.

Baby was out there with me either trying to pull weeds or trying to eat them.  He found out quickly, that's not a good idea.  He took a nice long nap and I got a nice break in the day...time for me.  Great day.

Name that plant

This morning I was out back taking a look at what was growing in my garden besides mounds of weeds.  I will not show those here-too embarrassing (cleaning the garden will be part of workout soon).  Anyway, the toddler was wondering amongst the weeds and other creatures where I found several things growing.  Some I know the name, others I know what they produce, but some of these left me wondering- what the ...what is that?  

So how about the gardeners in the blogosphere help me out here.  I thought I'd turn this into a little game to see how many out there really know their plants.  Feel free to share the name, origin or any other little tid-bit of information you may have.

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Can you name them all? Can you name a few? Let's see how well you do!

This work by Terie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Time to weed and play in the garden

Well, I finally decided it was time to clean out the garden. After the rain we had, the weeds took over and my garden went from looking like a "little patch of heaven" to an abandoned garden with overgrown weeds, half eaten vegetable plants and some other goodies growing along the way. I figure the healthy weeds were taking all the nutrients from what little is left for me to enjoy so it was time for them to go.

I worked tirelessly for over 2 hours pulling weeds, grass that was attempting to find a new home by sneaking its way into the garden, excess branches from tress not in my yard, etc. I initially wanted to go to the gym this particular morning but I think after all this work in the yard, I'm done exercising for the weekend. This was hard work I tell ya!!

In the mean time, my daughter cut the grass and the two little ones attempted to help me with my weeding issues. It was sort of fun and educational for them, above all, it was a great workout for everyone. Taking a lemonade break in the afternoon was well deserved and truly enjoyable after all that work.

Now my garden is clean, well almost, the tomatoes have been fed, the grapes and herbs are doing well and untouched by the critters. The watermelon vines are still struggling but there are some buds in the making.

It is such an adventure and a learning experience for the kids when we get outside, even though we all had to work hard for a little while, it is much more fun to enjoy our back yard when we do the work ourselves.

I am now working on making some dishes with tomato because I have more than I can eat-- yellow pear, orange, yellow and regular red tomatoes. I think I will attempt to make salsa tomorrow. I just need a good recipe to follow and I should be OK.




Photo Credit: The Great Beast

Gardening for the rabbits...grrr

I was eagerly awaiting for my zucchini to finally reach the point of harvest, which wasn't too far away. Along with that I have a few plants filled with tomatoes promising to ripen any day now, green beans with little sprouts, corn with a least one ear and bunches of grapes. I go out every day to check on the fruits of my labor and proudly sit out and check email, drink coffee or tea and take in the early morning peace. We had 100 degree weather recently, which worried me, but then it started raining or storming and I was OK with that.

Today there we had a break from the rain and the wind felt nice, the rain had stopped and it just felt like a good time to go out and see what was waiting to be picked. Much to my surprise I found that the bunny rabbits or some other vegetarian critter from around the neighborhood had a party in my garden. I felt sick to my stomach, literally. I mean, I wanted to cry, then I wanted rip every plant out of the garden and throw it in the trash. Yes, every zucchini and the flowers that come before them--all gone.


What was I thinking? Why didn't I protect my hard work. You have to understand, I don't have a green thumb, well, it's a little green, I got this far, didn't I? I took a few minutes to just assess the situation and realized that this was no one's fault but my own and ripping out my garden was not going to help anyone. I chose to spend a few hours putting up sticks and mini fences around my plant and I added a black netting that is supposed to protect plants. I also put my chime and some other noise-making items back there.


I don't ask for much, just one harvest, only one or two plants, they can have the rest. I am thankful that the tomatoes have not been touched....yet! The grapes need to be protected from the birds and all the other plants need protection from the critters. Maybe my cat needs to sleep in the yard more often. She seems to like catching moles and bringing them back as a gift to me--how sweet--gross!!

I hope my efforts worked. I'm over it, now I know better and next time I'll protect my plants before the rabbits decided to go to the market. Maybe next year I will just grow some flowers and keep the tomatoes in a pot near the house.


Photo credity: Baby Rabbti by foshie

My Garden...it's growing!

Right now, this very moment , nothing is more satisfying than the fact that something I planted is growing in my garden. I'm so excited. You have to understand, I'm not a gardener, I love to do it but things don't always workout. This year I made a commitment to getting something out this little patch in my back yard and here are the results so far:

Grapes

Tiger Lilies

I wont take credit for the tiger lilies, they grow every year on their own but I take credit for watering and caring for them...they are just so beautiful and bright.

Beans
(not really sure what type but soon I'll know)

Tomatoes

Squash

Corn

I also have watermelon, spinach and carrots growing--if could eat just one of each at least, that would make me feel like I accomplished something in this garden. For now I have to care for my infant goodies as they grow and mature into a delicious meal. Very exciting!

(Photos taken with a Canon PowerShot S2IS 5.0 Mega Pixels by me)