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How Does Your Garden Grow Update 06.24.11

I think I might actually be doing something right as far as my garden goes :) I’m shocked that I have made it this far and it just keeps getting better. It won’t be long now before I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor! We had a bit of rain this week and it seemed to make everything grow so much more. Even though I have been watering everything daily, I guess there is no substitute for good old fashioned rain! Here are a few pictures of my garden babies:

Can you believe those are my tomatoes?! Remember when they were just starting? Now they actually look like tomatoes and I’m starting to think I might get to eat some. It doesn’t take much to get me excited does it?!

They are growing so large I finally had to stake it.

And right next to my little tomato plant are some daylilies that have busted out and make me smile every time I water my tomatoes.

I also saw my first cosmo bloom this week and there are more that will follow shortly.

Can you see the others just waiting until their time?!

My spinach is still doing great also but now I’m wondering when I should eat it. Am I supposed to start eating it now? Does anyone know? I bet it will be the best spinach ever :)

Onto my cilantro and basil. I really can’t wait for these guys to be ready. We just had some cilantro last week that we got from the store and now I’m itchin’ to eat my own! I’m also super excited to try and make pesto with my basil.

I also have a dahlia plant in the backyard that I have always loved. It’s just getting ready to bloom and soon there will be blooms all over it. It’s so beautiful and I have to force myself not to pick all of them to bring in the house :)

Anyone else doing any gardening this year? Am I the only crazy one? I suppose it’s just another DIY project that I have to try for myself. Silly me :) If you want to see all of the gardening posts click here.

By the way… remember when I mentioned that I was going to have a garage sale? Well, it got postponed and so now we are going to have it this weekend! If anyone lives in the area and wants to come email me for directions.

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Tagged: DIY, Outdoors

How Does Your Garden Grow: Flowers!

I’m still watching my garden grow and I’m still surprised I have enjoyed it as much as this. This past week was fun because I saw my first flowers open up in my grill planter box. My plants have all gotten a lot bigger since the last time I shared and I have now had to deal with bugs as well. I’m learning so much as I go and next year will be even better since I will have some experience under my belt.

See how big my tomato plant is now? It even has some buds which is very exciting! They seem to be thriving and I’m very thankful. I recently replotted them into a large pot and soon I will put a cage around it. I really can’t wait to eat that first tomato…

Can you see the first tiny little white blooms on the Alyssum? If you can’t see them, here is a close-up:

Super cute!!

Here is the bummer bug problem. They have found my spinach and so I have now applied bug killer and hopefully they will be gone soon. Drat those pesky bugs!

As for my new herbs, they are coming up nicely. Considering I only planted them 6 days prior to this photo I was happy to see some new little starts of the basil. And then today, I noticed the cilantro coming up as well. I love it when they are this tiny, they are so cute.

And in other news, working on the table has begun again. I took quite a long break from working on it. One of the reasons is I was trying to figure out what color to make it. And you know how that always stumps me. I’m always worried I will make the wrong decision. So I have finally chosen and I’m working on it now. I’m really hoping to have it finished by the end of the week and in the dining room. I have already put one coat of finish on and I’m working on painting the legs today. I might actually get this thing done :)

Thanks for your advice on the bathroom by the way. I think I might have a winner… stay tuned!!

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Tagged: DIY, Outdoors

How Does Your Garden Grow: Update 05.17.11

I have an update for you about my little garden. I have been having so much fun with this silly little garden. I have never had fun doing outdoor work before but for some reason, this has been fun. I simply cannot wait until I get to make my first salad with my tomatoes and spinach. I’m sure it will be the most delicious salad I have ever tasted :)

I started my garden on March 29. This is how it looked on April 8th, the first time I saw little sprouts. This is how they looked when they finally began to look like little plants. And this is how they look now, a month and a half later:

This is the hardiest of the tomato plants. But the others look pretty good too:

Soon I will be transplanting those little guys into bigger containers. My spinach is lookin’ pretty good as well:

But I did have to put a wire cage around it so the bunnies and other creatures won’t be able to get to them.

This may sound silly, but I can’t believe these are actually at my house since I am not known for my green thumb. I honestly tend to be the opposite :) If this garden goes well, I will definitely want to expand next year. I wanted to keep it very limited this year as a sort of test run. I’m hoping that everything does well because there are so many veggies that I would be happy to have growing in my backyard. All of this gardening stuff leads to wanting more things like a rain barrel and a compost bin. I feel so domestic :)

I didn’t stop at planting veggies. I also planted some flower seeds. We had this old grill that came with the house and is unusable (nasty is a word that I would call it). We have never taken it out because it’s cemented in place and it’s a gas grill so we aren’t sure how to remove it since it may still be hooked to the gas line. So we have just left it until we decide what to do with it.

It was definitely an eyesore. Then, I had a brilliant idea this year and immediately put it into practice. After making sure it was safe and I wouldn’t mess with the gas line or anything, I spray painted the grill and removed the lid which was barely hanging anyway. Then I filled it with dirt and planted some flower seeds. I have some little shoots coming up in there as well and I’m excited to see how it will end up looking. I’m still a bit unsure if some of the shoots are weeds though because they came up so fast but I’m reluctant to pull them out until I know for certain. This will be an interesting experiment for sure :)

Even just sprainting it makes it look a heck of a lot better. I should have done that years ago!

My little garden is coming along. I have so many dreams for our backyard and it has so much potential. One of these days I will take you on a little tour of the outside of our place, the backyard included. I don’t think I have ever done that. Would you all like that? If so, then I will do it :)

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Tagged: Before & After, DIY, Outdoors

How Does Your Garden Grown: Little Plants

I don’t have any projects to share with you so I thought I would just give you a little update on my plants. They seem to be doing well despite my lack of gardening skills so I am pleased. The real test will be if they produce anything! I really hope so or I will be so disappointed.

Just to remind you, a couple of weeks ago the tomatoes and spinach were really tiny. They are still small but getting bigger all the time. Here is what the tomatoes look like now:

And the spinach:

Aren’t they cute? They are no longer little shoots, now they are little plants. Pretty soon I will transplant the tomatoes into bigger containers to allow them to grow more. I’m so excited :)

Does anyone have any plans for the weekend? I have some sewing I’m hoping to get done. I’m not sure why but I have been in a sewing mood lately. It’s been good because I have been getting all sorts of things done. And hopefully a bunch more today :) Have a great Easter weekend!!

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Tagged: Outdoors

Front Flower Bed Update

Last year I wrote about how my amazing friends threw me a gardening party for my birthday. My front flower bed had been a mess and they came over and gave it a complete overhaul. Since spring has sprung here in the South, I have been noticing how much fuller and larger all of my plants look since last year when they were still babies. It’s fun to watch them mature and I’m happy to know that I haven’t killed any of them. For a while I wasn’t sure, but they all came back this year, thriving! Yay!

To remind you, here are a couple of shots from right after the party when they were first planted:

And this year, here are some pics of the new growth. See how pretty everything looks!

Currently, there are no flowers but soon the roses will start blooming. There are already a few buds, I can’t wait!

But on the other side of the porch, there are some azaleas blooming and they provide a nice pop of color.

And, here is a close up of one of my favs. It’s thyme and I have already used it twice for cooking this year. It’s so fun to have fresh herbs that now I want to plant some oregano, basil, dill, and cilantro. But first, I might wait and see how well my tomatoes and spinach do :)

I’m not usually into anything having to do with the outdoors but for some reason this year… I’m kind of into it. It will probably only last until it gets too hot to be outside so until then, I will just let myself enjoy this unusual (for me) hobby and continue making plans to enhance the outside area at my house.

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Tagged: Our House, Outdoors