Gardening Efforts

I LOVE clover.  I do...  There is something very homey and comforting about it to me.  I feel the need to go get a pet rabbit or guinea pig each time I step out into this patch of clover.  I'm a little nutty about things like this, too.  Like each time our lawn gets mowed, I'm saying, "Hey, don't cut my clover!"  I like to skip it and only cut it every other week so it's gets nice and thick.  It's just so pretty.  No, I'm not rushing out to get a bunny or pig.  Not just yet, anyway...  But I am enjoying my clover patch just the same.  And my family is totally used to me.

Our very rustic looking, fairly unloved 'courtyard' patio does have some little bits of color around the edges now.  This space is a really neat little area just off the Hearth Room.  It adds loads of personality to this old bungalow, but whoever was here before didn't give it much love or care for it, so it looks a bit shabby.  In a way, I like the feel of the cracked paint and such.  This is where I started to keep the potato grow bags, but quickly found that they would make the patio a very dirty place, so they had to go.  Lots of room for more containers of tea-sipping herbs and flowers though!

Young Man's indoor garden:  As a science project he had to plant a few different seeds to see if they were dicots or monocots.

That, my friends, resulted in a few extra corn plants, a bean plant and a sunflower for the garden! 

So outside they went and off the kitchen counter!  I really hope these plants in particular grow just so Young Man can see his planting efforts come to fruition.

See how happy Mr. Bean is now that he's in the garden?  Good job, Young Man!

This is what it looks like when I head out to garden or weed or seed around the Hearth Room.  I love this little gardening cart.  It's holds all my little tools and gloves and  has a nice little knee cushion so I won't ruin so many more pairs of pants!  And Sweet P. likes to ride on it like a wagon, so it's fun for all!

I tote around my seeds in plastic baggies, my big Organic Gardening book with dirt on every page, pages torn out of magazines with fab U lous gardening ideas and inspiration, and my little gardening notebook where I keep track of what I want to plant, when we planted, when I need to plant what again, fertilize, and where I draw out our garden plan.  This is a must have for Hubby.  Whenever he's heading out with seeds saying, "Hey, I'm going to plant ______, where do you want it?"  Check the plan, Honey...  We are doing some 'Companion Planting' which is a wonderful idea, but way too many details for my brain to retain, so it needs to be written somewhere!   I'm now in the process of making a new Gardening Journal since this one is running out of room.  I'm working on a loose leaf notebook approach this time.  It's a fun new project and I'll share more about that soon.

So I mentioned I moved the potato grow bags...  This side of our garage is just off the kitchen and it was quite naked.  Since we hadn't decided what to plant there in the way  of permanent landscaping, it became a wonderful place to garden.  It is now the home of the potato grow bags.  I also added bags with carrots and scallions.  Our garden is very rocky!  Not at all a happy place for tubers, etc.  So hopefully these will help us to have some tuber/tap root success!  I'll keep you posted.  I've also tucked in lots of other seeds in this space, so hopefully it will be looking very different very soon!

Ahem, did I mention that I opted for burlap bags?  Well, here's the thing:  I've seen those fab U lous grow bags in gardening mags and catalogs.  They seem like a great idea to me!  But I can't stand the idea of paying for a fabric bag, or at least not what they cost, when I'm trying to 'reduce, resuse, recycle and SAVE'...  I mean, isn't that partly why I'm trying to grow food?  So I thought I'd try good old burlap bags, and after a little google-ing, it seemed others have done it, so why not?  These are supposed to be some kind of chemical free burlap (sorry, can't remember the details), and so far the taters seem to be happy.  It's time now to unroll the sides and add dirt!

A very happy, rain-sprinkled cabbage.  See my rocks?

Yep, Hubby often is waiting for me to do a project, but I have to get my camera first!

He so often provides me with every reason to have my camera.  Good Husbands need no wheelbarrow.  Need I say more?  The dirt got where it needed to be and I did not have to move it!

He made these very nice raised strawberry beds for our garden a few weeks back.  It was so exciting to add our beautiful, dark dirt and start filling them with berry plants.  See Hubby in the background? Empty trash can on top of tractor, heading back to reload....  Makes me laugh so much, but it was effective!

These are ever bearers, but I'm thinking it would be nice to have some June bearers for jams, etc. 

Young Man is quite interested in ridding our property of those pesky black widow spiders.  I'm in total agreement, although I'm not sure the machete and bullwhip are what it will take.  The first thing we will be doing is moving those rocks, or burying them at least.  Less habitat, less population.  I hope.  Then on to step 2:  Cedar oil.  Any other suggestions?

And for what seems like 100 times a day, we track our garden and yard into this kitchen door.  The sign of our gardening efforts, right there on the kitchen floor.  I love my Bona Mop. 

 I'm also really loving the shades of Spring Green.  In fact, I happened to walk by an end-cap in the Big Mart the other day that had the coolest green self striping yarn and it jumped into my cart and is becoming washcloths as we speak!  Then the worst thing of all happened the other night.  I went to a local grocery store and found some really cool kitchen things like little glasses and lunch plates in the SAME green color.  It's tempting me to add a few glasses to the Hearth Room.  Then they will need more self striping green yarn for coasters.  I'm really hoping all the glasses are gone when I go back for groceries next time.

Happy growing to you!

xoxo