Back in the Groove

My inner gardening goddess was awoken this weekend. The weather- perfect. My mood- followed suit. I had been having all the usual February and March feelings of despair and depression, coupled with the decision to come off of some serious mood altering medication- needless to say I'm glad we all made it to April:) 

After the Easter sunrise service, I waltzed on over to Home Depot to get manure, mushroom compost and a few plants. After mixing in the compost and manure in my raised bed, I planted cucumbers, squash and jalapeños. My goal this year is to only plant things I will actually eat, and to eat things as they ripen. I am the worst at picking things and then never eating them.... But enough about my faults:) Another challenge I will have this year is a new garden pest that I have been having over for play dates. She enjoys digging, so I'm planning on installing a chicken wire fence around the bed. We will see how that goes.

I also decided to add a little color to the yard. This year I have petunias and marigolds in the pots on the pallets images of Gerber daisies. The yellow pot has pink jasmine in hopes that it will really grown and add some fun randomness to the very geometric pallets. 

The garden pest has been nice and lazy as of late...I'm hoping he continues to be disinterested in what I'm up to;)

Spring has Sprung 2014

Spring is officially upon us. The thrift is blooming, the pollen is taking over, and the Grower's Outlet has regular hours again.

I am REALLY going to try to avoid spending a fortune on my yard this year. There is nothing I love more than a weekend with a project, but this year I am going to try to go back and redo some of the things that maybe I didn't do at 100% the first time around.

Mainly, fix the overflowing urn, figure out what's going on with my brick patio, and focus on overseeding my fescue. We will see how this pans out:) 

Planted and Accessorized

And the square foot garden has been planted! In the back, along the trellis I have crooked neck squash, long neck squash and two cucumber vines capped on each side with dahlias. The next row has a jalapeño, red, yellow and green peppers and two okra plants. The third row has two marigolds, white onions, collards and strawberries. The front row has lettuce and collards.

I was a little bummed that I missed the opportunity to plant spinach, but I think it can be planted in the fall, so I will give it a go then. I am also a little bummed that most plants come in a 6-9 pack... When I only need one or two. Perhaps I will set up a free plant table in the front yard:)

A little bit fruity

"Welcome!" to the newest members of my yard- two blueberry bushes (for cross pollination) and a peach tree!

I have been wanting to plant blueberry bushes for a while, but never had a good spot for them- now, with the addition of our shed, I have a prefect spot for them.

Square Foot Garden

As much as I hate to admit it, I have recently had to use algebra to help with my garden:) That is because I installed a square foot garden- a gardening system created by a gentleman named Mel Bartholmew. The basic logic behind it is to utilize as much possible space for growing, while allowing plants the room they need, and only growing what you will actually use.

For instance- my garden is 6'x4', or 24 square feet. This means I can plant 24 plants that need to be 12" apart from each other, one in each square. Or, I can use one of those squares for something like spinach, that requires 4" spacing and I can plant 9 plants in one square foot. Essentially you can maximize what you grow in a minimal space. Pretty cool stuff. Assuming the wildlife in my backyard doesn't eat it all first;)

Here are the pictures of mine. I filled it with 1 part vermiculite, 1 part peat moss and one part compost. This is the mix recommended by Mel.

A Firm Foundation

Hooray for our new Lifetime shed! So my husband bought a beautiful new motorcycle, that somehow kicked me out of my typical parking spot in our carport (yes, a carport-our house was built in the 50's). As we all know, I am very particular about anything at my home, especially in the yard:) So, to help declutter our carport, closets( where my weed whacker and blower live), and to house the motorcycle, we built a shed!

The whole project took a few days. Prepping the spot for where the shed would live definitely took the most work and the most time. We decided -who am I kidding- I decided to put the shed in a large bed (that was once home to azaleas... Before dogs) against the house. The shed is 8'x7.5', and fits quite nicely in the area. I have always visioned that my yard should be seen in segments, and where we put the shed certainly helps with limiting someone's view from the gate to the yard. It is really cool how it breaks it up so you can take in one "space" at a time. I am certainly over analyzing the flow of my yard, but it really is what I have wanted from day one.

I digress, so after the ground was prepped and leveled, the rest of the shed went in without too much stress or agony. The instructions were a little weird, pictures only, but there was a great timelapse video we all watched before we got started. It really helped us understand the overall plan of attack:) check it out here: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=dXc__8QN7LM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdXc__8QN7LM

We ended up splitting into two teams: the men (my husband and my father) worked on the tedious tasks inside our house, while the women (my mother, best friend and I) braved the 30 degree weather and installed the floor and walls. By the time the walls were up, we all worked together to get the roof installed and the shelving put in place. All in all the building of the shed took about 6 hours- including lunch and Girl Scout cookie breaks.

I was worried the whole time that the bike wouldn't fit through the gate, or that the shed would be too short( we have an expansion kit coming). But it ended up fitting perfectly, we even got the lawnmower in there:) kudos to Lifetime for such a great product- and for including all of the pieces in the boxes!

Low Carb Brunch Success!

A die hard watch your carb intake fan, I often find I miss the simple things in life like pancakes and mimosas. This past weekend I made spicy pecan pancakes (an Atkins recipe) and low carb mimosas, and they were both fabulous!

The pancakes were made with atkins baking mix, lots of spices and pecans. The mimosas were a dry champagne and crystal light orange juice.