Final Planting Day

I slugged through today as best I could.  Still getting over the plague and all.  I was up and out in the garden around 7 this morning.  It looks like we got a little more rain.  The lemon tree looks like it will stick around for a little longer.  I can relax a bit because the lemon tree and nectarine are still alive after one month of my nuturing care.  We'll just see how those apple trees feel about it.  So far the Fuji apple tree seems happy and is blooming.  The Golden Dorsett apple tree looks like it's happy being a stick.

Whoa!  Look at those beans.  The instructions said to plant beans and squash once the corn was six inches tall.  This is two days of growth for the beans.  I think they are going to overtake the corn.  I had some old tomato cages sitting around so I put one around each bean plant.  I'm not worried about the squash since it should spread across the ground. 

The eggplant is planted.  There's actually 2 eggplants.  I'm not a big eggplant eater.  I like the color.  I pulled that pesky leaf out from under the wire and fixed it so it can't try to hide under it again.  

I planted it in this bed I just threw together yesterday.  I'm not sure it will work but I wanted to try.  I used 2.25 plain fence boards from the store.  The boards are 8 feet long.  I used 2 for the long sides and cut one board into 2 foot sections.  I used 2 of those for the ends.  I had some extra 2x4 pieces laying around.  I used those for the corners and put together using 2 inch screws.

The last of the tomatoes are planted.  Please, please, please let them grow.  I love tomatoes.

Here is the last of the cucumber project.  I'll take a full pic once they start growing up the lattice.  I really wanted to be done with planting today even though I was a little wary about planting these today.  While putting them in their hole I noticed they had a nice root system already.  I hope I get to make pickles.

Beans, Squash, Waffles, and Ding Dongs

I wish the title implied this was a better post.  I was finally down for the count yesterday with, hopefully, the last of the Winter illnesses/colds.  I didn't work on anything and slept most of the day

A few days ago I had planted beans and squash with the corn and those are starting to come up.  I kept real careful records and don't know which ones are beans and which ones are squash.  I do remember they are beans and squash...with corn.  Yep. 

The lovely Mr. Man got me a present.  We had talked about how I have never had a waffle iron and wanted one but never remembered when I was at the store.  We would have bought one on Amazon because we're lazy, but it's cheaper at the store.  Mr. Man broke down and bought me one from the store.  It wasn't too hard to learn to use and by the 4th waffle I was a pro. 

Have you ever found yourself calling someone a ding dong?  "Oh you silly dingdong!"  It turns out there is an actual person named Ding Dong.  Ding Dong Feng to be exact. They live in Beijing, China. Who knew?

Homesteading For Beginners Series

I was over on the Facebook and came across a trailer on YouTube for this Homesteading for Beginners Volume 4.  It is so stinkin cute!



All 4 volumes can be found on Amazon.

Apple Tree

Nooo you can't go into the garden.  You must stay with meee and pay attention to meee and pet meee.  Yes kitteh, I know you're there.  Really, I must do all this work now and when I rest you will sit on my lap and tell me about all the injustice you have suffered.

I'm currently working on a post about my cucumbers but for now I will post about other things I'm doing.  In the back garden I have this lovely statue.  Well, she used to be lovely.  I'm not quite sure of the hardships she must have suffered because she's now missing an arm and her head fell off.  She's still smiling and it becomes sort of quirky and silly.  I'll leave her there.  She's keeping some onions company.

This shed is almost done.  It needs to be painted.  In the meantime I worked on this spot to give it a little happy color.  I planted Mexican Heather and petunias.  Even though it gets so horribly hot, I planted these due to the position of the shed.  At just after noon the shed starts to create shade and shields these plants.  I'm also going to use the shed shade to help grow my cucumbers.  Anyone else use this strategy?

I wanted to plant an apple tree this year.  So far we have a nectarine tree and a lemon tree.  The little one and I made a pilgrimage to the store and got this Fuji apple tree.  I planted it pretty easily and then read the tag.  It needs a pollinator.  This means it needs another apple tree to be able to pollinate and make baby apples.  We'll be going back to the store today.  The tag says a Golden Delicious apple tree is a good match.  I like those apples, too, so I guess that's what I'll get.  But that's it!  No more fruit trees this year! 

I Love Spring!

I just love Spring for all the wonderful surprises it brings.  It brings them everyday, too.  I can't think of another season which things change so rapidly.  Can you?

The lifeless and boring lavender has woke up and is getting fuller and now wants to flower.

The little one planted these.  She has an amazing green thumb with sunflowers.  If they grow to their intended height we will surely be the envy of the neighborhood, with many 10 foot tall sunflowers around the property.

Oh alien flower, what are thou?  You have raised your majestic and strange head.  We will know you soon.

I'm having some great results with fennel.  I've never grown it before.  It sort of wintered over before growing bigger.  The deer don't seem to like it.  I shall plant it everywhere.

Bronze tipped lettuces are yummy though they tend to look like they are turning brown and dying. 

I like this lettuce for it's shape, not necessarily it's taste. 

Aha!  You are a Poppy, little alien flower.  I'm so glad I didn't dig up all your friends.  Now we will have lots of Poppies blooming.

Maurice's

Last Friday the little one and I had some serious shopping to do, I mean really serious.  There was a princess party and she needed a real princess dress.  Where else to go but the Disney Store.  Once there I was sooo incredibly lucky because she found the dress she wanted right away.  (Disney, you need to have a dressing room since I'm spending this much for a dress.)  I had a coupon for 20% off and we made it out of the store ALIVE! 

Now I'm not opposed to shopping.  Though I hate the traffic I like going to different stores and seeing all the new things out there.  This is also where I have a problem:  new things.  A lot of things I see aren't really new.  A lot of stores I see are regurgitating the same tired things year after year.  There are certain stores I can't stand to go in anymore because there's simply nothing new and the quality is becoming subpar.  The husband likes to go to Old Navy but this is one of the stores I no longer like because of quality and boredom. 

I had also received a coupon in the mail for 50% off at Maurice's.  Now that's a coupon I can like.  It was also by the Disney Store.  This store has a wide array of sizes and is crammed full of stuff.  The helpful store manager told me how the store was organized and I went off looking for something to use my coupon on.

  

While I was looking around the little one and the manager conspired against me and got me to try things on.  The dressing room was great!  It had this little couch and I wanted to get some tea and a book and just stay in there.  

In the end they convinced me I needed this lace edged camisole top and these capri jeans with a very sparkly behind.  How cool are those going to look in the garden?!  I also got some new sandals.  (Warning:  Only slender feet will fit into their sandals.)  

My bill was like $2 because of all the coupons and promotions.  I couldn't even keep them straight.  I'll get something in the mail, and email, and the end of the month, and once a year, twice if it's a odd number year, and on and on and on.  I can also stack them all on top of the store's regular sale.  So they should be paying me to take clothes out of their store.   

Garlic, Sage, and Chard

I decided to make this easy sounding recipe in the crockpot.  It called for some cloves of garlic.  One clove of garlic had a green tip growing.  I can plant this!  I looked it up on SuperduperGoogle.  Easy peasy.

I let it soak in some water while I went out to town for a bit.  Ok, for awhile because I was at the garden center...again.  When I got back home I planted it 2 inches deep with the green sticking up.  We'll see if it works. 

At the garden center I found this strange plant.  It's sage with variegated coloring.  I'm not particularly good at growing herbs but I'll give anything a try.  I found the salvia plants I wanted.  I planted 5 salvia plants along the fence line.  I also picked up some Mexican heather for the husband.  I also am continuing my obsession with tomato plants.  There's always that one vegetable or fruit I can't get enough of.

Here's a cute little guy volunteering in the garden.  The yard has mostly prickly pear cactus.  This is the only cactus of this variety I've seen.  I'm not sure what the little white puffs are.  Probably spiders...sigh.

I decided to take a few leaves of the chard.  I gave them to the rabbits who get very excited and act like a woman getting chocolate.