Gardening and Plant Swapping

Slowly but surely I am cleaning out the designated garden area.  This space was already fenced off when we bought the house but completely overrun with weeds, baby trees, bushes, etc.  This is our third summer in our house and things are starting to shape up!  It probably still looks a mess compared to most of the gardens you have but believe me it looks much better than it did!

Peppers, tomatoes and marigolds (for pest prevention).  The tarp is currently killing weeds.  Past the tarp is a weeded/overgrown area that is being cleared out.  I don't use any weed sprays or fertilizer (other than compost) in the garden.  You can see a smidge of our compost bin in the top right corner of the picture above.  I made the compost bin last summer and it works great!  You can read about it here.

We also have squash and zucchini planted and basil started that is still in the house for now.  I garbage picked from a neighbor and got a wooden half barrel container to use as a basil (herb) garden.  It doesn't have a bottom so she was getting rid of it but since I don't plan on moving it around it will be perfect to keep herbs from spreading like mad!  Hopefully we will get some green beans going too!

Sam has been growing these sunflowers that we need to put in the ground soon!  He even shared some with neighbors yesterday.

If anyone local is looking for plant swapping:

Plants available for trading: Purple Iris, Lambs Ear, English Ivy (we are trying to get rid of it!), various sedums, Lily of the Valley, myrtle (vine).

Plants I'm looking for: Shasta Daisies, Black Eyed Susans, other full sun/part shade perennials. 

P to the 5th Power (Picnic, Pizza, Pudding, Pj's, Parties!)

We kicked off the weekend early by having our friends, Mandy and Kayden, over for lunch. Sam and Kayden has fun eating lunch together and then played in the pool and "Sambox" (sandbox). Sam also scored enough clothes to last him until he is about 6 - Thanks Mandy! He hasn't wanted to take a off a winter vest that he is calling "my present from Kayden!"

We did some running around Friday afternoon and went to Mimi's cafe for dinner. The boys loved the Oreo dirt pudding that came with their meals.

Saturday I went to a baby shower and left the boys to do their thing all afternoon. There is no photo evidence of what took place :) However, my competitive family of gamers will be happy to know that I won 2 out of the 3 games (identifying nursery rhymes and how many words can you make out of the baby's name) at the shower. Feeling generous, I passed on the second prize and let it go to the runner up. I lost the baby trivia game to my friend B. She also has two kids each of them are just a few months younger than my kids. I think she cheated with her cell phone. :)

Saturday night we celebrated Christmas in July. Well, at least that's what Ray's pajamas suggested.

Sunday, we had garden fresh pizza. By that I mean that we had peppers (green and banana) on our pizza fresh from the garden. As always homemade crust too. (Side note about the garden: Tonight when we went out to water we noticed that all of our growing tomatoes are missing! No trace of them. Something or someone got it... The peppers were not harmed and we have 1 cantaloupe growing like crazy!)

After lunch on Sunday we went to our friend L's third birthday party. The party theme was a Trike a thon for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. My friend, J (L's Mom) is insanely creative when it comes to party planning. Each kid had a super hero cape to wear and their lute bag had a St. Jude's coloring book and stickers, gold medal necklace, and a license plate for their Trikes. We personalized Sam's to say, "Samalam".

The birthday boy, L, is in the middle. B (on the right) has his birthday next week. And Sam of course is sneaking in on the left.

Summer Fun!

This is Mike's last week of work but we have already been having some summer fun. Here is some photojournalism for you...

We've been picnic-ing. Do you like my picnic basket? If the boys (including Mike) had their way we would do this every night but it is a little extra work loading everything up. Now every time I pull out a Pyrex 9x13 (see bottom of basket) Sam thinks we are going to the park for a picnic.

We kicked off Memorial Day weekend by going to 4th Friday (Uptown street fair. You guessed it, every fourth Friday in the summer.) Sam got to sit in the driver seat of a Firetruck and we measured him against the wheel. We also bought some delicious cookies from a street vendor; she makes them in her home and has a small business.


We also went camping with Nunny, Papa, and Aunt Raeann for the remainder of Memorial Day weekend. By camping I mean we stayed in their campers with full kitchens and bathrooms and air conditioning. And by camping I mean, Ray and Mike went back to Nunny and Papa's both nights to sleep in real beds and Sam and I joined them the second night. Here are the boys tuckered out after a day of camping; I thought the mirror symmetry they are making was funny.


Roses and Iris's are in full bloom! The roses heavenly smell flutters into our bedroom. (There is my poetic sentence of the day.)

Sam and his cousin, Bella, tried out the pool for the first time yesterday. They had lots of fun and even were adventurous enough to slide into the pool. Does anyone else love the smell of water from a hose?! Mike thinks it just smells like rubber; I think it smells like SUMMER FUN!

Divine Design

Saturday's neighborhood plant swap was great! Well, it was a bunch of "clucking hens" trying to get people to join the neighborhood association but, aside from that, it was great. I was surprised by the variety of plants and happy that there was one other young adult there (actually a guy who knows a crap ton about plants). My neighbor D and I managed not to use our last names so that we couldn't be tracked down (haha).

I took some of my many daffodils to share and came home with:

Yarrow (It's either pink or red.)

Pink Bee Balm

Devils Phlox (purple)
Circle Flower

Daisies (Look like Shasta Daisies but according to the woman that brought them they aren't.)
No picture of the daisies; you all know what daisies look like, right?


Cosmo Seeds which I planted along will all my other seeds from Wintersown.org to form an annual cutting garden. I'm hoping these will grow and I want to learn about seed saving in the process! Are you an expert seed saver? Share your knowledge here!

Roma tomato, Bell pepper, and sweet basil plants that someone started from seed. These will eventually end up in the veggie garden but are getting plenty of soil and sun in this pot for now.

This weekend I edged the sidewalks out front (there was a solid 4-6 inches of grass over the sidewalk in some spots! According to my neighbor D it hadn't been done in several years.), planted all the stuff from the swap and yesterday I mulched the bed along the back of the house (roses and ornamental grass). The roses are starting to get buds. I love that they are right under Mike and I's bedroom window! The grasses are starting to take off and will soon do their job of hiding wires, hoses, and meters on the back of the house.

The veggie garden is getting closer to being ready for seeds/plants. I had hoped to have it planted by Ray's birthday party (not for the party that's just the rough date I put in my head) but that's this weekend so, I don't foresee that happening. Anyone want to come pull weeds?! I can (hopefully) pay you in tomatoes and zucchini later this summer.

What's the point of pictures of the plants that haven't flowered yet? Well, maybe next year I will be able to identify them as they start popping up rather than just thinking they are weeds. (rant... My neighbor, P, is amazing and can identify weeds through a combination of vision and smell. It's crazy. She looks at it and says well that could be a wildflower or horse weed. Then she smells it and says, "oh honey, that's just horse weed you need to pull that". She's awesome and you should meet her just so you can hear her sweet old lady voice. Now don't go getting a picture of a little old lady in your head. She has gray hair but I'm pretty sure her biceps are bigger than Mike's and I have heard stories about how she kills snakes by chopping off their heads with a shovel. She knows to come with her shovel if I start screaming...end rant) And, it is fun to monitor progress and growth.

Today I trimmed the honeysuckle bushes along the back fence (next to the cutting garden) and am trying to figure out what to plant between and in front of them. I still have some lavender and German chamomile seeds... I found another wild rose bush in with the honeysuckles. How are they getting there?

If you still believe in evolution over divine design check out these two flowers that I am adding to my wish list: Checkered Lily and Egret Flower. Amazing!

"Free" Gardening

If you have been following my gardening progress then you probably already know that I am a big fan of "free" plants. This year I think I have spent less than $25 on gardening things. This $25 includes: Gerber Daisies, starter pots, dirt, and seeds. I still need to buy my veggies. In contrast, I have accepted entire car loads, wagon loads, and arm loads of free plants from various green thumbs (obviously this $ amount can't even be fathomed for me). As well as dividing the plants in my own yard. I am looking forward to sharing my plants too. I already successfully got rid of a bunch of saplings and starts to random bushes at my curb, my friend, Beth, is taking the umbrella clothes line (yes, I know that's not a plant) that came with the house, and tonight my friend, Tina, will be the proud owner of some daffodil bulbs!

All of this is great but I wanted to bring to your attention: www.wintersown.org. This site teaches you all about starting seedlings in the winter, seed saving and trading and much more. They will also send you seeds for free. You just have to send them a SASE with two stamps on it to cover shipping and print out a page from their website (you do have to take a quiz to prove your knowledge to get to the site which is very easy). Click here to get started.

When I read about this I figured actually receiving the seeds was a long shot but I gave it a try and the seeds came very fast (2 weeks at the most). They are supposed to send 6 seed packets and I got 10 (they send your seeds according to the zone you live in)! I am so impressed by the quick turn around and the cute little labels on the bags. I may save some to try the winter sowing but will likely throw most of it in the yard soon!





Here is a list of the plants I received:
Speckled Trout Back Lettuce
Sweet William Mix
Tickseed
Mexican Hat
Evening Primrose
Lacey Phacelia
Cornflower
Black Eyed Susan
'Winter Giant' Spinach
Large Red Cherry (tomato)

This Saturday, Huber Ridge, my neighborhood, has it's annual plant swap. More free plants may be on the way... I'm looking for some shade friendly plants for out front.

Anniversary Part Two: All I Want For Our Anniversary...

Warning: Multiple posts today!

Mike and I usually don't exchange big gifts on our anniversary. In fact, I can't recall getting him anything ever but, he usually gets me flowers. This year I told him that all I wanted was for him to till the vegetable garden area. I had already done a little patch but it truly needed some MAN power.

Thursday Mike tried to be sneaky and say he needed to finish up some school work and that he would be late but I knew that was code for, "I'm going to get you a present." So, I called him out on it and he came home. He said, and I quote, "Sarah Rae Mara, you have to give a guy a fighting chance here!" I always ruin surprises. Apparently he wanted to get me some Gerber daisies.

Friday Mike took the day off work so that we could spend time together as a family and so that he could till the garden... DONE! Awesome! Thank you Mikey! There is still lots of work to be done before we can plant (pulling out the tilled up weeds and probably tilling again) but the weather has to cooperate for that. Today Mike put a tarp over the garden area to try to keep it from getting so wet (we have been getting a lot of rain) and to sun deprive the weeds.

As long as we are in the garden area...

This weekend Sam and I planted herbs (cilantro, mint, basil, and rosemary), sunflowers, green peppers, and small ornamental grasses from seed. I also found a hanging basket at Aldi's for $6 with yellow Gerber Daisies. There are three plants in the basket and I'm going to put them in the ground. My neighbor gave me 3 poker plants. Apparently they get a tall red flower out of the center that, according to her, looks a little phallic; we shall see. :) I also pulled lots of weeds and divided up a hosta and the rest of my daffodils (yes, there were still more!). My quest for a bleeding heart plant (to replace the one we never got planted last year) has been filled! We have looked several places and haven't been able to find one. I mentioned going to Oakland Nursery to V (Mike's Mom) to find one and she said she has one in her backyard I can have! Pink and free!

We (by "we" I mean Mike with the help of his brother) also hung a clothes line this weekend. It is pretty nifty because it is retractable so, it doesn't have to be out all the time. Now if the sun would just come out!

Here is a picture of me (in my pajamas) hanging up diapers this morning. Notice the tilled garden in the back right corner of the picture. And, no that is not a dead animal laying under the slide, it's lion (Sam's stuffed animal). Sam along with lion, a hammer, screwdriver, sippy cup of milk and some letter magnets came out to "help" with hanging the diapers.

Making a "Feed Birder"

After a day of temper tantrums and whining on Tuesday, I took a 26 minute time out (1 minute for each year) to think about Sam and how to deal with "the terrible two's". I decided some Mommy time and creating something would be good. Sam is very responsive to art and music. We started out "painting"; Remember those paint with water pages? They are great! We ended up making a bird feeder too.

Spreading the peanut butter.

Taking a break to eat some peanut butter.


Putting the seed on.



We hung it on the back porch so that Sam could see it.
The squirrels quickly devoured it.



Sam was very proud of his creation!

"Sam tell Daddy what you made."
(very excited and quickly talking) "I made a feed birder Daddy!"
"Yep, Sam made a bird feeder. Tell Daddy what you spread all over it."
"Huh?"
"Was it jam?"
"No, humus...."

CURB ALERT

Tonight I pulled out a bunch of bushes and trees that have started to grow along the fence we share with our wonderful neighbors. The 4 big bushes we have sure have made a lot of babies (over 20 and I only did about 3/4 of the bed because it got dark)! I decided to put these to the curb because I saw gallon size starts going for $20 at Home Depot today (picked up some soil to start herbs and 2 pink Gerber daisies NOT more rocks. Even my neighbor asked me if I purchased more guaranteed rocks today...).



The picture is as good as it gets for being 9:00 pm.

I also pricked my finger on what I think are some mysterious rose bushes. How did they get there? Are they really roses? Is there such a thing as wild roses that just get planted out of nowhere? Tomorrow I will have to call the garden guru of Buenos Aires to come over and identify them.

Okay, I'm gonna go hug a tree now!

Dumb Blonde (-ish, reddish, brownish) in the Hardware Store

Here is the story I alluded to in my last post.

Last week the boys and I ventured to "The Home Improvement Store" (that's what Sam calls any hardware store), Home Depot. My plan was to get some rocks to fill in the spot in the garden that you have already heard about several times (catch up on your reading of my blog if you don't know what I'm talking about) and possibly some chain to make a rain chain.

When we arrived at Home Depot we wandered the nursery and Sam called out the colors of the flowers while Ray smiled. It was a little chilly so I decided a quick trip inside to warm us up would be in order before heading back out to pick out rocks. When I got inside a friendly man asked me if he could help me. I blanked... "Um, yeah, I'm looking for (*links thumb and pointer finger together on both hands) chain, yeah, chain..."

I didn't find any chain that I liked for the rain chain. So we headed back outside found a $3 bag of rocks that I thought would be suitable and headed to the check out.

Cashier: "Just one bag."
Me: "Yep, just one bag, should be enough."
Cashier: "You know those rocks are guaranteed for a year"
Me: "Really? Great. Not sure why they would guarantee rocks though, probably just to get people to buy them..." (Yep, I really said that! Wow!)
Cashier: "Oh, actually Mam, I was just kidding."
Me: "Oh, right, have a nice day."

Fast forward to next day. We go back for more rocks because clearly one bag will not be enough to cover a mud puddle and two trails dug out for the water run off from downspouts.

The Same Cashier: "3 Bags?"
Me: "Yes."
Cashier: "Were you here yesterday?"
Me: "Yea..."

Not sure if I should tell you that I still need another bag...

Bring on the comedic responses! I'll start:

Sarah, Do you have ROCKS in your head?!

The Buzz Around the Garden

After our weekend in BG/Toledo (see Mike's blog) we came home to lots of growth in the garden. I've included some pictures (I just took them and it's raining out). Here's the buzz around the garden:

I've seen several bumble bees in the past week. Last night I knocked down some type of stinging insects nest that they were building on the shed. I try to be selective about killing things but this one was a no brainer - I don't want the boys getting stung.

Mike rigged up the bird feeder with some old wire hangers. This is much better than it's previous home (a hook on our porch). It hasn't been knocked down (yet) and the squirrels are having a much harder time getting to it.

When we came home on Sunday we noticed our Lilly of the Valley has really taken off! It's even starting to bloom. The few hostas that are mixed in have popped up too. The tulips however, have a sadder story. They all popped up and had buds that were about to open last week but then were gobbled up by rabbits and/or squirrels. They didn't make it last year either so, I am considering moving them (maybe to my neighbors yard where her dogs keep the animals from eating flowers).

Mike also trimmed the front bushes last week. This makes the house look so much better! I planted daffodils and sedum between the bushes. Last night, I planted a border/strip of Marigolds (Jaguar variety) in front of the bushes. In 7-14 days they should be starting to come up (I guess that's why we always planted them in little cups at school and I feel just about as impatient as a preschooler to see them!). The large Taxis bush at the corner of the house that we had planned on ripping out will have to stay a little longer. I found at least two birds nests in it. I can't in good conscious get rid of it now no matter how ugly we think it is!

I am becoming more and more happy with the garden just off our back porch. Last week I picked up a bag of rocks (they are guaranteed for a whole year*) for where the rain water pours into the bed. Paired with some rocks Sam and I found this weekend (big rock pile in my Mom and Michael's sub division because of construction) I hope it will serve it's purpose of not creating a huge mud puddle. I may eventually add a rain chain as well and have a little concrete turtle or frog waiting for me at Mike's parents. New additions to this bed include: daffodils (I divided my huge clumps and spread them everywhere, seriously had about 100 bulbs and still more to go!), Rhubarb ("Victoria") that I planted last night (you may see the red plastic knife sticking up in the picture that I used as a plant maker), and one small Lily that I took from my Mom's flower bed (it had strayed from the rest of the flowers).

Last night I was in my neighbors back yard admiring all the work she had done over the weekend to her flower beds. I commented to Mike that I wanted to get a trellis similar to one that she had in her yard to put our Clematis on. It has already outgrown the stakes I put up for it a month or so ago. Well, my neighbor was actually looking to get rid of it because she didn't have anything growing on it and it is slightly broken so, we hoisted it over the fence! She (neighbor) is excited about this because she loves when the Clematis grows up and she is able to see it and she got rid of some "trash". I taught her the term: "Freecycling". We officially broke the broken part on purpose to get it to a more desirable height - win, win, win (me, neighbor, and clematis).

In the back of the yard wildflowers are starting to pop up, I have an area where I am going to have a herb garden (in containers so they don't spread like crazy but sitting in a bed), and the veggie garden is being tilled at a slow and steady pace (Mike is supposed to help me this weekend with this).

* Stay tuned for the "Dumb Blonde (-ish, reddish, brownish) in the Hardware Store" blog.

Compost in a Can (part 1 of 2)

Compost in a Can, it was put there by a man (woman)... Millions of compostable items, compostable items for free...

When I came up with the title for this blog it reminded me of the song "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America. Hopefully I'm not the only one that remembers that song. It really rocked the charts!

Anyways, I have been wanting to get a compost system going for a while now. I did a lot of research on the Internet and decided that a bin made out of a garbage can would work best for us right now. It's a manageable size, the animals (possums, cats, toddlers, etc.) won't dig in it, it is contained, cheap and easy to make, and it's a good starter system according to the Internet research I did. (Some super-granola folk disagree with the garbage can and think everyone should use a three bin system but oh well, it's better than nothing.)

I used these directions. All you need is a garbage can with a lid, drill with a 1/4 in circle bit (or a nail and hammer), and a few bricks to raise it off the ground.
Once a week you are supposed to roll the can on the ground to mix up the compost. I already did this once and it was a lot easier than some of the reviewers online had said.

Here are some benefits of compost. I am excited about using less water for our garbage disposal, we are already noticing that we have less trash, and free dirt!

Compost is supposed to be ready in 4-6 weeks so, stay tuned for part 2. Speaking of the number 2, we are not composting our number 2 but google: "composting human waste" for some interesting reading material (for the bathroom, I guess).

Does it smell like updog in here? or just flowers?

Nothing new is really up in terms of the Mara family happenings but I thought a tribute to the things that are "up" in my yard might be nice. Oh, and lots of links for all you gardeners and for my future reference too! Be sure to scroll all the way down to see all the pictures (I saved the prettiest "flowers" for last)!

Tonight Mike and Joe finished salvaging our fence (it blew down a few months ago in a wind storm). They were using a saw and we had warned Sam, "Don't touch because it will cut your fingers off!" Well, I was at the back door getting ready to come outside and Sam got very serious and said, "No Mommy! No outside! Cut your fingers off!" At least he understood the seriousness of the situation. I think Mike is finally convinced that our fence needs painted. I have had the vision of painting murals on our crappy fence since last summer and I think he is finally down with the idea. Nothing too planned just doodles and such. Think community garden murals. Here's a pic of Mike and Joe "hiding" (that's what Sam thought they were doing the whole time). The saw is in the pic too.



Mystery Plant (don't remember the name but it flowers and forms a larger circle like a crown).









Hostas.







Autumn Joy (Sedum) which is so easy to divide -
just break off a piece of it and stick it in the ground, literally.







Another Mystery Plant (taller phlox?).







Two different Creeping Phlox - dark pink (color didn't show up well in picture) and light purple.




Purple Iris. Lamb's Ear - like sedum this divides and spreads easily! Last summer I pulled some up (it had overtaken everything) and threw it in the garden area yard waste pile and it planted itself!


Hammock for summer reading and napping.











Another Bird Feeder (I've seen tons of male and female Cardinals the past few days).







Peonies - I think they are pink/red on the stems because of the frost.




Daffodils (they are almost done now. I only had a few blooms because they need split.).







I used my new tiller today (one of those twisty ones like the infomercial - similar to the link) and this is the new home of a wildflower bed.








Two Clematis making their come back after I cut them down last season (I gave them new stakes to grow on today). Tulips. There are some Lilies starting to pop up too but the picture wasn't very clear.



Magnolia tree at dusk. Lily of the Valley (covers entire ground under magnolia tree). New growth on rose bushes. All the rose bushes are just outside my bedroom window; it's so beautiful when they bloom!



















Not sure if these are weeds or flowers?! :)

To do: Invite my neighbor, Ms. Phylis, over to identify my mystery plants. She is the garden genius of the street.