Spring!

Thank you all for your kind comments and emails from my last post.   I am so very proud my son came to me.  I'm glad we have this kind of relationship, I hope that it continues!

Spring is here!  We have baseball, horses, swimming and karate!  All kinds of busy!  But I wouldn't have it any other way.   I have been planting some flowers, even though it's not entirely safe to do this before Memorial Day here in Upstate NY.   I have planted a few planters and thought I would share!  

I also took some pictures of my daughters bedroom I will share tomorrow.  Two posts in the same week?!?!  My goodness! :)

XOXO

Fresh from the garden

Lately,  I am just feeling blessed.  It has nothing to do with our new home.  It has more to do with the fact that my husband and I love each other entirely.  We have three beautiful children.  Make no mistake, life is not perfect.  I have blogged about it before.   But it doesn't HAVE to be perfect.   I have three little human beings that are growing into wonderful people.  And honestly, I'm just PROUD!

Today was "clash" day at camp.  They were supposed to wear outfits that clashed, so I snapped a quick picture of them before they were out the door at 7:45 am!  They have been having a great summer.    When they got home today, Kris said to me "mom, there was a boy on the bus that looked sooo lonely, so I went and sat with him".   He went on to say how GOOD it made him feel.  I can't tell you how happy it made me!!  My other son Johnny has such a kind, empathetic heart as well.   To know that these two are learning lessons like this makes me so happy, proud and warm my heart!

  Kris has special needs, which I have talked about before.  He got hurt at camp yesterday, fell near the pool.  So his counselor called me to let me know.  She said he was fine and didn't cry.   Then she proceeded to tell me how he was having a wonderful summer and was such a good boy.    After hearing for years what is wrong with him, this again brought me to tears!

And Kris is so lucky to have Johnny, he looks out for him constantly!  He watches over him (and his sister) like a mother hen.   And I tell him what a wonderful boy (and gift) he is !    I had to share this today.  Because in our world, it seems like there are so many negative things.  And I want to focus on the positive.  I want to teach my children about the GOOD in the world.   I know there is good left, we just have to find it and pull it out sometimes.    Thank you for letting me babble share this!

Ok so onto the subject to my title!  The garden!  The garden has been through many ups and downs.  Seems we have a little visitor (aka bunny!) who is feasting out there!  So far he has eaten all the escarole, celery, kale and ALL my impatients, a geranium and some lobelia that was apparently trailing too low!!!   However.... we have been adopted by an older kitten!   This wasn't convenient because my hubby is HIGHLY allergic.  But she was skin and bones when she found us and my boys have been feeding her and taking care of her ever since.   so needless to say she is an "outside" cat.  I'm sure we will need her when we move into a middle of a FIELD! :)

Meet Chloe............

Because of her, we have herbs!  And strawberries and some other goodies still growing.  Seems Mr bunny is afraid of her!  For good reason too because she has left a few "gifts" for us,  a couple of mice and a bird........  

Anyway, onto the herbs!  I picked basil, tarragon and rosemary! I also picked some grape and cherry tomatoes.  I'd like to tell you that the lettuce is mine, but Mr Bunny enjoyed that before we could!      Oh and our strawberries have been producing great! We eat them raw or make smoothies daily!

And last but not least, Miss Moo moo!  She picked out her own dress and shoes!  I had her in something else, she revolted (I put my foot down) and while I went to my room she took it off and got this dress out of her closet.  Me thinks I'm in trouble!!!!!!!!!

XOXO

Playing in the dirt

This is what the back of my truck looked like about 10 days ago!   It actually looks like LESS than what is really here.   I never buy anything bigger than 6 packs, unless it's not offered that small like geraniums.  Again, I am cheap, but more than that I like to watch my plants GROW!

I am sharing pictures of my urns and containers!  PLEASE do NOT look too closely, I haven't weeded everything yet, but it's getting there.  This time of year the inside of my house REALLY takes a backseat.  I just love being outside and growing flowers and a garden.   Speaking of my garden, I have a little visitor (I am thinking it's a bunny) that is eating ALL my escarole, celery and now my swiss chard!!!!!  I bought some chicken wire at Lowe's this past weekend and need to put it up before I have nothing left! 

Here is what I have been up to!

My dad bought me this wheelbarrow and I LOVE IT!  Needs another coat of stain......

I got this little yellow cement urn at a consignment shop, love finding things like this!

These big urns are on my front porch and the smaller ones are in front of my garage. I got these at an Estate Sale. These usually are VERY pricey.  I have seen ONE of the urns on my porch go for $395.  I paid $225 for all FOUR of them!!  WOO HOO!

        

Cement urns from Lowe's.  I tend to like the "wild" look in my urns and containers. :)

The black urn is iron and I got a pair of them at BJ's wholesale club.  The rusty one is part of a pair and found at a consignment shop.

The red container is plastic and I spray painted it with Krylon Fusion for plastic.  The little half barrel my daddy bought me! :)

I got 4 of these laurel wreath containers.  They were a steal at $5 each.  They are plastic but look very real :)

Vanity chair found at a garage sale for $2, love it!

One of my very favorite places to sit and hang out here!

I am linking up to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.  Come and join the fun!  There is a giveaway too! :)

XOXO

Square foot gardening

Since spring is just about here and I can't be outside playing in the dirt (yet!!). I figured I would post about it.

These pictures are from last spring. You see, I'm blonde.... which means I lost my old camera memory card. And just found it and was so excited when I did!!! So a few "old" picture posts to come........

Ok back to the gardening! If you Google " square foot gardening" you will find lots of information on this. You can meet Mel here . There are many reasons to try this, especially if this is your first garden. My top two reasons were no weeding and no rototilling! And in this format it makes it SO easy to manage.

And I'm here to tell you it ROCKS! We are still eating our frozen veggies and herbs from last years garden. And it's SO much fun for the kids to participate in!

So here is the "box" which is basically a 2x12x16 that I had them cut into 4 equal parts. Just used decking screws on the corners (3 I believe?)

Then it is filled with compost, vermiculite and peat moss, which makes it SOFT so you NEVER have to rototill (another awesome idea of Mel's!) I will admit I cheated and used a little "moo dirt" which is the actual name. It's top or potting soil with cow poop mixed in. ;)

Then it's time to put in the divider which make it a "square foot" each. We used very inexpensive tomato stakes.

I made 3 of them like Mel says to do, which is actually 12 squares in each. But one I made 9 squares so it was a little bigger for some things I knew I would need more room for.

Some of the things we grew were tomatoes, celery, squash, zucchini, strawberries, onions, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, Kale (and a few I know I'm forgetting). And TONS of herbs! Which can be washed and frozen for all year round use. I blanched some of our veggies and froze them as well. LOTS of fun and good for you too!

And last but not least my little helpers who jump at any chance to drive the tractor! They are cute aren't they?

Patio projects

Here is one of the urns I bought for our back patio. It's iron and only $39.99 at BJ's! Of course I had to snap up two of them! I have 3 other pairs all around the house and garden. It's becoming an addiction, lol! Could be worse right? I have two different kinds of verbena, lobelia and white allysum in it. I'll take a pic later in the season when it's grown a bit! The other two pictures are Weigala's that I bought last year to replace the poorly planned rhodo's I had there. It was just too much sun for them and they were suffering. So I relocated them and these weigala's ,which were TINY last year, are loving this area and got so big this year! The stone is finally done back here. After I took these 3 pictures my battery died, so hopefully I'll have more pictures today!

Almost June......

I can't believe it's almost June! I have been scarce (as usual) lately, but getting alot done outside! I love spring and summer for the simple fact that I can play in the dirt all season long. My irises have just bloomed, along with one of my early blooming lilacs. The peonies are going to open any day now. I have a few pics to share of my pride and joy. It is like therapy being outside, watching it all grow and thrive. I have filled my pots and urns. And today I'm planting my vegtables. There will be more pics to come!