Spring Break in Arkansas

Carter and I spent a part of his spring break in Arkansas visiting Mama Helen and Daddy Phil. Carter wanted to learn how to fish. 

Practicing casting in the backyard

Playing with the worms!

Mama's requested activity...

Gnome garden that Mama Helen and Carter built

Gnome garden (also known as a fairy garden) closeup

Waitin' for the fish

(finally) Caught one! (and just one)

Yahtzee! Good for practicing math. And... creativity.

Quick Garden Update

When this guy does your watering, look at those results!

Garden, Take 3

Our first veggie garden two years ago was moderately successful. Last years was a complete bust, as I wasn't home enough to maintain it. Hoping this year is at least better than last year!

Finishing Touches

We've been putting the finishing touches on our front yard landscaping, including this new spot for sittin'. It's a great spot for (not so patiently) waiting for friends to come over.



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Garden Transformation

From this

To this

Thanks to a little of this

And a LOT of this

First, let me clarify that the camellia bush/tree was very, very sad looking when we cut it down (I don't have a picture of just how sad it was). The snow this winter didn't treat it well. Plus, I didn't like it. So I refuse to feel guilty for cutting it down. So...there.

Donna is my gardening guru! You may remember the smaller scale garden transformation she executed when we lived in Brooklyn. She's teaching me a few of her tricks, and she pitched in a lot of labour to put in our new flower bed and bushes in front of Carter's window. she and I had fun, and the front of the house looks much better (you can actually see our front door now!)

Thank you, Donna!

And... thanks to Thomas for wielding the chain saw!

Garden Update

What a difference 7 weeks makes...

We knew we planted too much in our garden, but figured that since we don't have terribly green thumbs, probably at least half of our plantings would die, so space wouldn't be an issue. As it turns out, everything is growing, so half of our plants may still die, but it will be because they they don't have any space! We have several tomatoes on the way and are about ready to harvest the wax beans. Our yellow squash, zucchini and cucumber plants are enormous, but aren't actually producing any vegetables yet. The carrots are growing, but are still a month or two away from being ready. We'll see if we actually get any food out of this experiment...

Carter has his eye on the tomatoes... "I'm supposed to be the tallest!"

Spring Gardening

We finally built our raised garden this weekend! We're at least a month late getting started, but hopefully this will be one of those better-late-than-never scenarios. Our yard is inclined, which limited the garden's placement, and it is also pretty shady, so we are hopeful that the spot we picked will have sufficient sunlight. We put in two kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, yellow squash, banana peppers and tossed in some carrot and wax bean seeds for fun. That's too much for the space, but I don't expect everything to actually make it, so we'll move things around once we see what wants to grow for us. It was very much a family project, and with the exception of all of Thomas' tools breaking on Saturday (thanks to Rob for talking T down off a ledge), it was a pretty easy project. Looking forward to seeing what happens out there.

Over the last couple of weeks, when my time has been more limited, I focused on getting my herb garden going again and getting our containers filled with annuals.

The big containers in the front previously had rosemary and flowers in them, but the rosemary was outgrowing the space. I relocated the rosemary to the yard and filled the container in with more flowers. Strangely, one of my two containers flourished once the rosemary was removed, but in the other container, the flowers are barely hanging in there (I've only provided a picture of the pretty one!). Not sure why one pot is so dejected over the loss of the rosemary, while the other was so happy...

Propagating Pothos

Like everyone, we're looking for ways to save money these days. So when I decided that our kitchen needed some house plants, I decided to grow them rather than buy them. It takes longer, but it's free - and easy!

First, I took cuttings from the ends of my existing pothos plants.

I placed the cuttings in jars of water in a window and waited several weeks for roots to sprout.

Once the new roots were a couple inches long...

I planted them in a new pot!

It was so easy and successful that I have another batch going now. Plus, I think the cuttings look nice lined up on the window sill. I hope to never have to buy another pothos plant again!

Spring!

I don't know if I've been living under a rock or something (or more likely, a whole bunch of very well architected rocks), but I don't remember ever experiencing a spring so fully. The pink! The purple! The chartreuse! The fragrance! The pollen! I'm loving it all! (Even the pollen. it's kind of pretty how it dusts everything and I don't seem to be having any allergies).

We are (okay, I am) having a lot of fun doing a little light gardening and seeing what comes up in our yard this year!

Carter "helps" with the gardening.

The dogwoods in our yard are beautiful.

The hostas are on their way up.

The azaelas are in full bloom.

Window boxes have been filled.

And my herbs are growing!

Garden Transformation

Thanks to Donna's very, very green thumb, our garden has made quite a transformation!

Here are some before and after pictures:

February


May


before Donna's magic


after Donna's magic