Weeds and rocks

Thank goodness for weeds and rocks. Give me something to tend to while I await more growth. Speaking of... here's an update. The rose bush definitely has much more new growth than old. So much so, I think it is very droopy. The new branches are soft and green and can't support their expanding weight. Once they have turned more woody I am sure they will perk up. I have had one bloom on that bush so far. They are so delicate they do not last long. First wind whips them away. My corn is knee high already. On Dylan. heheh. Still, knee high :) I really wish I recorded the flowers better. I see three distinct leaves popping up and know there were the 4 o'clocks and Nasturtium's that I planted everywhere just not sure which are which. The third is a bit of a mystery. Could be some Cosmos Cosmic Orange's. Still no sign of Zinnias or Delphiniums.
I pruned up the front bed, formerly tulip lane. Got rid of the daffodil leaves and shortened the tulip stocks. I was able to weed them and feel they look much better already.

Day 48

Ok, so it is pretty slow going out there. I look at my plants every day, a few times a day, each time expecting (more like HOPING) to see some huge growth spurt, a plant to have grown 5" since the last time I looked or something. I think next year I will go half and half on the flowers. I will do some by seed and intersperse others from a nursery. That way my beds won't feel so bare for so long. There IS progress, all my flowers are at least an inch high now and some of the cut flower mixes are about 4" high, but most remain in the inch range. Sigh.... The corn that has germinated is already a good 5" tall. I have replanted the missing stalks for yet a THIRD time and hope to see them grow next week. Dang birds.

It's raining sand

Today is memorial day and we enjoyed a warm windy day in the sun. Me-mere and Pe-pere joined us in the afternoon and helped us complete "Le Sandbox". Earlier this week I bought the wood at Home Depot and had them cut it to size. I lugged it home and sanded it down during naps. I found some scrap plywood and 4x4 in the garage and sanded the plywood too. This weekend I cut a trench in the lawn to sink the sandbox frame into and measured out the cuts that needed to be made in the "found wood". I got my big strong man to cut the wood and he screwed my kit of parts together. We carried it over to the "site" and it fit like a glove. I had some landscape fabric and was going to wait to lay it down for a less windy day. Luckily Me-mere and Pe-pere were their using their noodles and suggested the brilliant idea of flipping the frame over and stapling the fabric to the bottom. They also put to rest Ethan's and my "discussion" about where to get the sand. Multiple trips to beaches siphoning sand away stealthily in the dead of night or one trip to Home Depot and laying down +/-$30 on play sand. Jackie settled it with "why don't we just go and get some now?!" Hot on the heals of this SECOND brilliant idea, I jumped on it before the guys could veto and off to Home depot we went. I loaded 700lb (literally) of sand into our carts, 50lb at a time and we split the bill. Thank you! Back home we loaded the box and Dylan gave the thumbs up after several taste tests. Why is it babies will think nothing of a mouthful of sand yet spit out with a look of disgust a soft, sweet, juicy mango morsel? Last problem to resolve is the cover. Ethan and I are in "discussion" over this now...
Sophia laying the inaugural scoops of sand into the box.

The rest of the gang chipped in and helped to fill it up.And then they played.

My little seeds are growing up...

The bare patches of lawn are starting to fill in... Allysum is poking through the soil.
These "things" are sprouting up everywhere. I think it is the 4 o'clock mix as I have planted that everywhere and keep replanting it every time I start to get impatient with the speed things are moving along.
My cut flower mixes are coming up everywhere too. These are the biggest so far, but the new ones I planted around the peach tree and in the basket are coming up too. Question: What do you do with tulips once the flowers are gone? The leaves are nice, but I am getting bored of them. If I cut them, how short?
Again, some more seeds - either the 4 o'clock or nasturtium (sp?). Planted a bunch of both around but didn't keep track of.
Parsley coming in thick. I will wait a little longer to thin...

Flowers. Not sure which variety. Hope they end up looking like the seed packs as I kept those and would like to know what they are.
More "flowers". really wish I recorded them better. I had started when I was planting my veggies as I planted different kinds of carrots and cuke's and wanted to see how well each grew. My recording efforts waned as I planted the flowers and kept planting more everyday when I was wanting to see more progress in the growth department.
Not sure what this is. It is between two rows of carrots and looks too substantial to be a weed. Thinking it COULD be a watermelon that washed around. Carrot tops.
Zucchini.

Misc. flowers. Again, waiting for blooms to see what they are. The packs all say to thin the flowers at about 1-2", but I don't know what any of them are, so I don't know how much to thin what.
One row of lots of corn, one row of bird thinned corn. Grrr. I already replanted this row twice. Was going to get a "bird block" net, but that just seemed like too much effort for a few tiny rows of corn.
Cilantro. doing nicely :)
Perhaps a couple Basil. they haven't been coming up so I am hoping these are a couple.
TA-DA!

So, my cucumbers are NOT growing. I guess they don't like being beside the fence. Too shaded? The iris' don't have any blooms either. I will move them in the fall if I don't get any flowers again this year. The leaves look really healthy, just no flowers.

Sanding and stuff

So, it was a beautiful sunny day today so I got back outside instead of raiding the chip bag during the kids' afternoon nap. I replanted the cucumbers (again) and planted more 4 o'clock mix along the front fence, added a little more fertilizer around the trees and watered.

Once the landscaping was taken care of I sanded the first two boards for the sand box. I looked up sand on line to see if anywhere had it cheaper and was surprised that only Lowes and Home Depot were the only ones that sold it (checked walmart, sears and Kmart) and Lowes was almost double the price! $5.08 a bag. Of SAND. not gold. Sheesh) I guess it will cost about $35 to fill the sandbox. Not a huge sum of money, just don't like paying for sand. Like paying for air. I am glad I got the sanding started, though. I am excited to have the kids IN the sandbox, just not thrilled about how the project has started.

Sandbox

This could be under Sodyl too, however, I think it affects the lawn more at this point. I have wanted a sandbox in our yard for a while now and finally took the first step to achieving this yesterday. I went to Home Depot and bought some wood. Took me much longer than I had anticipated. I also felt much more "like a girl buying wood" than I would have liked. Once there I couldn't decide what to buy. 2x8? 2x10? the 8's seemed too narrow while the 10's seemed too wide. After some discussion with a couple employees I went with the 10's and am still not sure that is the right width. I also went there with the intent of building a 5'x4' box. I want it to be big enough for at least 2 kids to play in comfortably. That extra foot of length in the long direction cost me about $5 more in wood. (had to buy a 12' length instead of the 8'). Again my indecision is kicking in and I am thinking 4'x4' might be good enough. Especially when sand costs 2.75 a bag and the chart says a 4'x4' box with 4" of sand would require 11 bags. that's around $30 for SAND. This was supposed to be a quick and cheap project. I didn't buy the sand. Going to "shop around". I had them cut the wood and will start with sanding the edges. Baby steps.

The art of sprinkling

So, I have yet to master this art. These "cut flower mix" or so I believe this to be is coming in thicker than the grass I planted. I really didn't think I sprinkled the seeds in such a cluster like this. Why doesn't the lawn come in so plush? I hope the flowers don't kill each other off fighting for nutrients and, well, root space and leave me with nothing.

I believe at least a few of these green things are to be parsley. Taking their sweet time to get out of the ground.
How cool is this? A cilantro leaf actually looking like cilantro! Salsa anyone?

Cilantro

The packet said to thin when the herb was about 1-2" high. So, at 1in, I was out thinning today. I didn't have the heart or courage to go as far as 12" apart yet. What if I pick all the ones that WOULD have grown big and healthy? So, I thinned them to more like 4" apart. I also thought they were supposed to be 6" apart, but that is the parsley. Anyway, what struck me, was HOW much they all ready smell like, well, cilantro. Their leaves do not yet even LOOK like a cilantro leaf and yet their aroma is really quite strong. As I type this I can smell wafts of cilantro from my fingers typing away. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, what else WOULD they smell like and when WOULD be a good time for them to develop their smell. Just things you don't think about as a novice gardener until things start popping out of the ground or you start popping things into the ground (like the cucumber, watermelon and corn seeds - what the heck did I think they would look like, duh!)

More is better?

So, there are a bunch of flowers that should have come up by now... So, I don't know if they are duds or what, so I planted a bunch more. I am sure I "scattered" them too thickly (they don't tell you on the pack how much ground they should cover. I get about 2 square feet per pack. Mostly the same stuff: Nasturtium, mixed flowers and Four O'clocks Mix. Hope I see more flowers soon. Tulips and daffodils are almost finished and I NEED more flowers! I love flowers, any flowers, however, the more fragrant the better. I have planted a TON of mixed flowers so hopefully there will be enough for me to cut and display on my table AND have to look out upon from my window.

Mother's day gardening

I got back into more planting and digging on Mother's Day. Being my birthday weekend too I had plenty of funds to supplement my gardening efforts. I went to a nursery and Home Depot last year for starter tomatoes and the Home Depot ones ended up being as good or even better, so I chose 4 varieties of those and got two of each.
I also dug up a flower bed below the dining room window. Grass wasn't growing there anyway and that area is in shade all day, so I chose a Hosta variety that is for 100% shade. I hope to find some more shade plants to fill in the gaps.
I bought a lavender herb and planted that in the corner with my rose bush and peonies that haven't surfaced (I am beginning to have my doubts on them).

I have planted a bunch of seeds in this corner too and believe some four o'clock mix are coming up, see below.
My impatience with the growth of flowers in the front flower bed gave way to buying starter flowers of what else, but impatiens.
I planted a few lily's beside the Lilac bush and the peony that isn't growing. Hoping to have at least a few fragrant flowers in this corner!
I planted a lemon balm plat next to my thriving raspberry bush. Supposed to be good for teas. The leaves are supposed to smell nice and lemon-y too. All about the olfactory for me :)

Little Green Things Everywhere

I just got in from my ritual watering of, well, everything. Started with the lawn and I noticed more green sprouts are popping up through the black patches. I then moved over to le jardin (garden for you anglophones). Carrots are coming in THICK. And here I thought I spread them thinner this year. I guess every seed was a hit this time, haha. My corn is growing taller and little green stuff in my herb patch is coming through. I then went over to Tulip Lane and there are a lot of green things coming up. Pretty sure not weeds. I think there are a bunch of the cut flowers mix coming up. Then onto my triangle patches in front of the house and I think the purple flower ground cover (forget the name) is coming up. Lots of little green sprouts.

I am surprised about the marigolds in the baskets at the end of the driveway. When I planted them from starter plants last summer they really took off. These seeds I planted don't seem to be doing much yet. Hmmmm.

Also, the peonies I planted from a few bulbs haven't come out of the ground yet. I hope I don't have to wait until next spring to see them. Maybe they needed to be planted in the fall. Hope not. I may be too impatient and buy some starter ones if I don't see results in the nest week or two...

Life Detected at 107 Bunker Hill Ln

Funny how much a tulip looks like a poppy to me when they are all opened up. Looks like all my tulips came up that I planted and they are all now in bloom.

Yay! I have a few that are already doubles. Hope they multiply again next spring!

I planted a row of "something" in front of the daffodils and tulips and I believe this is what is growing here. (that or a weed...) YAY!

Grass is starting to grow in the big bare patches on the lawn! At least in this one. I was beginning to worry. Still not out of the woods yet, I know, but this is a start.

Work lull.

Rainy weekend. No work done. Trying to think of what to put between the two flower beds behind the house. I definately want stepping stones (where would I find these??). I just don't know what would look good as infill. Grass would be a pain to mow and I don't relaly want mulch. Was thinking gravel, but not crazy about that either. What else is there?

Detection of life

Yup, the garden groweth. Pretty cool to see things happening. Maybe I won't write off my gardening efforts just yet.

Friends, countrymen, lend me your ear. Or can I lend you my ear... of corn. Yup, I am pretty sure this isn't a weed. A bunch of these things have popped up in my corn rows. I filled in the gaps with more seeds that I found in the garage of organic sweet corn. I don't recall buying this packet - a donation from Tommy?

I am pretty sure this is a cucumber sprout coming out of the side of the cuke mound. Only one, though, so I planted more on top. I was nervous of the others washing away as the hills were so dry when I planted and the dirt was sliding down the mounds. I thought this with the other stuff too, but there seems to be growth on their mounds.
I am pretty sure this is a zucchini shoot too. There are two on this mound that look the same.
And of course my row of tulips. Still red and proud. Funny what a big difference morning and afternoon sun make. I planted one long row on the north side of the house. One side of the walk is on the east and the other the west. They both seem to get the same amount of sun, but just look at the difference from one side of the walk to the other...
West:
East:
These little guys have popped up all around the yard. So pretty. Hoping they will make a ground cover on all my beds instead of mulch.

Frozen vegitables?

Do frozen peas come from frozen ground? Does a frozen skim of ice on the bird bath mean we had frost? Ground seemed fine and damp when I faithfully watered my grass seeds this morning, but found it a little concerning that I saw some ice in the bird bath. On a positive note, I think I saw a couple shoots of corn come up. I guess the birds didn't get ALL the seeds.