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.

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.

Gardening: My Wannabe Style

Everybody who gardens has a gardening style. I love the overgrown look of rustic country gardens. The haphazard way the garden seems to grow wild. Every garden bed I plan is intended to have that old fashioned look. I say "intended" because it never actually happens. As I plant I always end up leaving a bit of working room around each plant for weeding and what not. So I'm always left with the feeling of close but not quite what I was dreaming of. I have tons of gardening books and magazines to continually tell me how to get the look I'm desiring but still I just can't crowd my plants. My favorite example of a book that has me continually saying "I want that" is more of a photo archive then a how to book but it's still my favorite gardening book. It's a bit of history, a bit of nature, a bit of exploring, and a lot of gardening inspiration. I can drool over it's photos for hours and I've owned this book for two years! The gardens featured in this book are exactly what I want when I dream of a rustic garden to surrouding my log home. Now, to overcome my crowding phobia.