BLOOM: TGIF!!!

BLOOM: TGIF!!!

TGIF!!!

I am soooooo glad it's Friday! It means that I can sleep in a little bit but still get up early and head out to The Garden with a cup of coffee. The Mr. is going to put me up a gate between The Garden and the back yard. Starting tomorrow, I won't have to go all the way around the house in order to get into the back yard. I'm very excited about this! I'm also getting a clothes line put up in the back yard. It will be so nice to have line dried sheet again!

I didn't get the tomato sauce made and canned last night cuz I forgot to get lemon juice when I was at the store.

Oh! I did remember to make the bed this morning, I'm so proud!

Hubby and I sat out in The Garden for a long time last night talking about ways to save money and pay off the mortgage faster. We rememberd how when we were growing up we didn't have all this junk that our kids have today. There wasn't 1000 t.v. channles, internet, ipods, video games, computers and cell phones. We have totally spoiled our kids with these things. Now when you need to cut down on the expenses by eliminating some of it, the kids have a fit! They really do think that they will die if they dont have their toys! It's really our own fault though, we are the ones who gave them all of this. I tell you what, if The Good Lord were to bless me with another child, I would sooo do it differently. There wouldn't be t.v. or video games. There would be books and imagination and lots of physical activity. There wouldn't be mp3 players or ipods, there would be musical instruments. There wouldn't be public school, there would be home school. There wouldn't be fast food, there would be home made. Oh the mistakes I've made...

I have adopted a practice from a fellow blogger. It's called Friday Night Pizza. It's where the whole family participates in making home made pizza. But I think I'll make it Saturday Night Pizza for us since I don't have all the needed ingredients.

I want to make bread this weekend too. Boy, I've got a lot of shopping to do!

Taday's Tasks

Ok, so when I get home from work today, I'm going to make and can tomato sauce. I have about 10 ripe tomatoes just sitting on the counter that will go bad before anyone eats them if I don't do something with them soon. So, I looked up a recipe this morning while having my coffee and found a very simple one that won't take long at all.
I noticed how my dirty laundry is piling up in my closet so I went ahead a threw a load in the washer before I left for work. I'll just have to hang them up when I get home.
I meant to make the bed but forgot. I hope I remember tomorrow.
I also need to sweep and vacuum.

I'm so glad the weekend is almost here!

Productive Long Weekend

Man did I work like a dog this past weekend! First, DH and I teamed up and tackled the long dreaded job of cleaning up the junk wood pile in the back yard. The really good thing about that task is that I ended up with quite a bit of usable lumber to use however my heart desires! I can make several more SFG's, I can make flower boxes, I can border my existing ground planting areas. I can do all kinds of stuff! I also found a Bee Hotel, already made, all I had to do was stick it in the ground! Hubby doesn't think it will work though, he thinks it will only attract dirt-dobbers and such, we'll see... I read about this little Bee Hotel in a great book I found titled Trowel and Error by Sharon Lovejoy. It's filled with over 700 tips for gardening. Anyway, it mentions a way to attract bees into your garden with a Bee Hotel. I haven't really noticed any bees in The Garden, which worries me a little b/c I need the bees to pollinate my cucumbers, right? Well, I hope my find works.
Second, we trimmed up the trees that line the fences in the back yard. That wasn't fun, we have a lot of those thorney vines and sticks that really hurt when you accidentally grab them. We made a huge mess that took way longer to clean up than it did to make. Hubby also started tearing down the water/termite damaged screened in porch. We plan to rebuild it... someday... when our money tree starts blooming. :0) We also moved pavers from the back yard to The Garden and Hubby used them to make me a little sitting area, he's the best! Next we will move some brick pavers from the back yard into The Garden for my walkway that will lead from the house to the sitting, I'm starting to see a path in the grass!
Third, I mowed the front yard, transplanted Fox Gloves (I hope they make it) and transplanted Lantanas. I also transplanted a beautiful vine that I found at WM. I had never seen this plant before and had to have it! It's a Blue Passion or Passiflora. I wanted to take a picture of it but I waited too long and now it isn't feeling so good since the transplant. It looked better yesterday when I got home, it even had a bloom but I could tell that it still isn't completely recovered yet. I think it will be much better over the next few days. Here's a link until I get to snap my own pic. http://www.digitalflowerpictures.com/images/x128/Blue%20Passion%20flower%20web.jpg It's the most unusual flower I have ever seen, it's like 3 different flowers stacked on top of eachother to make one flower. I'm really glad I found it! I also picked up an Allamanda, I thought it was a bush but later realized that it's another vine. I think I have one more piece of lattice that I can use as a trellis. Now, where to put it???
After all this clean up and creating and beautifying was done, Hubby decided to have Son blow off the roof and clean the gutters. Guess what happened...yep, leaves, dirt, acorns all over the place! Should have put a little more thought into that plan!
Until next time...

Growth Updates

I have new photos to share! The Garden is looking great right now. Tomatoes are popping out everywhere and are starting to turn red. I think I will pick green ones this weekend and pickle them. I have discovered 4 ears of corn developing. The cucumbers have flowered. The watermelons and cantaloupes have sprouted, it will be time to thin by the end of the week! I built my SFG on Sunday and put spinach, okra and squash in it. I cheated on the spinach and bought plants, only cuz I couldn't find any seeds. But the squash and okra are seeds. I hope to see seedlings by the weekend! I finally have a photo of my worm bin. I probably should have gotten more worms, I only bought 2 containers which I think is somewhere around 50 worms total. Nevertheless, they seem to be very happy in their new home. I just need to find out how often to feed them...
I managed to bring flowers and plants from the front area into The Garden to decorate the new fence. I intend to add more flowers and yard decorations little by little. All in all, I think The Garden looks great!

Watermelons


View From The East


The SFG



The New Fence



Cucumbers


Corn Cobs


Cantaloupes

News Paper Subscription

My darling husband has been reminding me for 2 weeks now to cancel our news paper subscription but I still haven't done it yet. So last night when I get home from work, he says "did you remember to cancel the paper?", I bat my eyes and give him a shy little smile and respond "no, I forgot again." and that was the end of the conversation as I headed out to The Garden. I spend the rest of the evening bringing things from the front yard into The Garden. We had supper, watched American Idol and went to sleep. A very nice evening, as usual.
I get up this morning, get ready for work. Hubby makes me coffee. A kiss before I go, then I head to the car. Here's how Hubby reminds me one last time to cancel the subscription...

New Pics of The Garden

Ok so yesterday I hurried home to pick some onions since I read that when the stalks fall over, they are mature. Evidentally some of my onion stalks had been forced over by a critter cuz, some of them were REALLY small. As for the rest, I'd say they are small to medium. Here are some photos...











I also snapped a pic of the watermelon & cantaloupe bed. I put the seeds in this past Sunday so they haven't popped up yet, but soon!




And finally, I snapped a few of The Garden in general so that you can see what it looks like before it's transformation into a real garden with more veggies, flowers, decorations, more plants, etc...

Weekend Garden Update...

The weekend was fantastic! It was Jordan's 14th birthday and it was Mother's Day. The boys gave me 6 tikki torches and Jon gave me privacy fencing to separate the front and back yards from The Garden. I looks terrific! Now I have a dedicated, secured private garden area! Oh, the plans I have for The Garden! I love to just sit out there in the evening, among the growning vegatables, fruit trees and flowers. The breeze is perfectly soothing and the sound of the crickets is quite calming. I sit there and imagine what I'm going to plant here and what I'm going. to plant there. I think I'm going to get a bunch of those plant hanger thingies and mount them onto both sides of the fence and hang hanging baskets of flowers from them.
I'm so excited that the dog and the cat can no longer dig their little holes in my freshly planted beds! They act like I did all that work just for them!
I'm also gonna make little signs to stick in the ground that tells what everything is.
Oh! I planted the watermelon and cantelope yesterday. Tomorrow I will post new pics. I ran out of time to take pics before it got dark on us last night.