Back in the Garden...Finally

You would think with the wave of beautiful weather we've been having that I would be in all of my garden glory. Truth is, sadly that is not the case. I spent a week in my basement making two more screen doors (one featuring a beaver, another a moose) and a second week in the hospital with my son. He had a 5 day EEG to determine if he was having seizures. Happily, he is seizure free. However, they have diagnosed him with a pediatric sleep disorder. So we are awaiting a visit with another neurologist that specializes in sleep disorders. Oh joy! After our release from the hospital we celebrated with a weekend of camping! What fun we had. If you ask me...it was just what the doctor ordered. LOL.

But now, I have returned to the garden to find...WEEDS, WEEDS, WEEDS! My beautiful iris' are starting to bloom and all I can notice is the overrun, unkempt, disheveled look of my once beautiful gardens! Since weeding can take soooo looooonnnngggg... I decided to start my gardening work by planting the veggie garden yesterday. Can you say Pro-Crast-In-Ation?

Hubby and I spent all day putting the finishing touches on the garden (square foot guidelines, weed pulling, etc) and when the kids came home we planted all the seeds. For a grand total of 532 seeds/plants! Not including berries and garlic which were already in the garden. Our detail garden plan looks like this:

I'm so glad we finally planted. It feels like I've missed some beautiful growing days but...life happens! I guess the only thing left to do is: Pull Weeds. Today. Tomorrow. Until Snow Flies.

Everyone needs a Plan, Man!

And I've got mine. Thank goodness for computers if I had done this plan with paper and pencil I would've had a hole from where I erased right through the paper! LOL. Even with the computer it took a while...but I got my plan.

Or has it got me?

The vining plants (green beans, pumpkins, Squash, Zucchini) are along the fence to make trellising easier. I saw a Squash plant in a whiskey barrel and it was so beautiful. So I decided to give it a try with both by Squash and Zucchs! I'll let you know how they do.

Have you ever seen a Strawberry Tree? I never had until I was browsing the Users Personal Albums at the SFG Gallery. That's where Therese's beautiful garden and Strawberry tree caught my eye. She was kind enough to share the how to build link. I love the kindness of gardeners. So willing to share, whether it's a cutting from their garden, seeds, extra plants, or links to the real cool garden stuff! Ill share photos after hubby builds it for me. LOL.

Building the Garden...Again

Last spring, I finally managed to convince my hubby to try raised bed or Square Foot Gardening. At the time we built three boxes and moved our arbor in front of them.

It looked incomplete so Hubby added a cedar fence that enclosed a very large area. And he added a box that ran the legnth of the fence. So last year, we had a total of 4 boxes and a fence and arbor.

This year, I asked for more 2 boxes. I should really know better...

We now have:

• 3 ~ 4'x4' boxes
• 2 ~ 4'x8' boxes
• 2 ~ 2'x12' boxes
• 1 ~ 2'x20' box

Last year we left the walkways natural. We figured that we could just weedwhack when needed but there was a terrible side effect of weedeating...All the weeds flew into our beautiful beds. So this year all the walkways have been convered in weed barrier fabric and await mulch. Which brings us back to The Great Mulch Debate.

Although, we may be debating what color to choose we have chosen where to buy the Mulch. Our favorite garden shop has re-opened for the season. We stopped in to the Backyard Farmer and had a great conversation with Brian about our plans for our gardens and about his plans for the shop this year. Apparently, I can now get an ice cream when picking out my herbs! We will get our mulch on Saturday (weather permitting). Brian recommended Preen for one of my flower beds that was taken over by crabgrass last year. So I'm anxious to give the Preen a try.

What a Great Gardening Weekend!

Trying to get back on Track

It's been forever since I've posted anything at all...and I'm very sorry. I had the best intentions last spring but the Gods of Reliable Computers weren't with me. However, that has changed. For my birthday I was gifted a brand new computer that doesn't object to internet browsing that lasts more than 5 minutes, or booting up on a regular basis.

Luckily, it hasn't been that long since I've gardened. Having finally become somewhat satisfied with my flower gardens I spent last year attempting veggie gardening. Now, in the past I've tried traditional methods of veggie gardening with horrifyingly terrible results. So I convinced hubby to try Square Foot Gardening. He thought I was a quack but I pointed out how well my flowers do in raised flower beds...why can't it work the same for veggies. We went out and bought the book by Mel Bartholomew. We followed his advice (to the best of our abilities) and we enjoyed the best veggie gardening of our lives!

I'll see if I can "dig" up some of last year's pics. That's kind of difficult considering they're scattered across 3 semi-working computers. LOL. This year hubby plans on adding 4 more SFG boxes (I think I've created a monster~LOL). And I solomnly swear...to keep up with this blog. And as long as I'm making promises...I think it's time I got back to my garden club. I just have to make sure not to overextend myself this time. I feel awful about letting the club down but my schedule just won't allow for me to be involved with anything more than attending meetings at least not for now.

For those who may or may not remember I had a blog regarding my daughter's diagnosis with Epilepsy. I have removed it. Thank you to all who stopped by the blog and offered your support but I've realized that the reason there are so few Epilepsy blogs are...when you spend all your time dealing with Dr.'s, Neuro's, School, CSE, Pharmacies, etc...who has time or energy to blog about it too!

Weeds, Wishing, and Wood Weary

Weeds: I spent sometime in the garden today. I hadn't done much weeding this year because it's been so damp and dreary. Then suddenly I realized that the weeds weren't waiting for a sunny day to grow so I'd better not wait for one to yank them out! I got my large back bed done, one half of my front beds done...and then fatigue hit. I'm hoping for decent weather tomorrow so that I can finish up the second front bed and the "little" beds around the yard.

Wishing: I'm still hoping for success in the veggie garden this year. But because I tend to have clay and more weeds than actual weed pulling energy I've decided to give Square Foot Gardening a try. The website was intriguing enough to get hubby to make the squares for me but I decided that before starting I really needed to get the book. I've just started reading it and I'm very hopeful that this will help me start a "manageable" size garden. I'll keep you posted.

Wood: I'm still making screen doors. And have several orders for more. It's keeping me busy but I'm really enjoying the learning process. I've found a great woodworkers site: Lumberjocks and this has been a wonderful place to get advice when things go wrong! I've had fun posting all my trials and tribulations there. Here's a look at my last two doors.