Spring Planting Weekend!

Up north we have so many farm markets with fresh flowers on every corner that I was looking around here so that Mom wouldn't be disappointed with the selection. She has been itching to do a little planting. A lady at work told me about this place that has amazing prices and selection on flowers and plants.

 

 If you live in the Atlanta area you need to check out Growers Outlet in Loganville. It is worth the drive. They have hanging baskets for $3-$5, $1 vegetable plants and $8-$10 flats of petunias, impatiens, begonias (just to name a few).

 

Check out the availability on their page where they list each type of flower/plant and you can click to get information on each item. The prices are superb, but it is hard to find someone there to talk to so do your research before you go (for shade vs. sun plants, etc.).

 Max had fun looking at all the flowers. Such a good helper.

 We went a little nuts. This was David's full truck bed with all our goodies. We bought ferns, dalias, petunias, Howard's Ligustrum bushes, blueberry bushes, and a fun tropical plant I forgot the name to.

 

We wanted to get some bushes for our electrical box area... remember when David tore out the pampass grass in the area between our house and neighbors?

This was our plan for the new bushes. They have pretty little white flowers that bloom from spring to summer.  I read that they can get quite tall so we might have to do some pruning in a few years. They were only $9 per bush. Doesn't our neighbors yard look so pretty?!

Mom was planting away in the front garden beds.

 We are leaving most the existing plants as they look really nice in the space just adding the hanging ferns to the porch. Mom also weeded all the garden beds by hand. What a fantastic helper, as I do not do much in that area.  Up next is pine straw.

I love knock out roses and we have a few bushes down in the backyard/side area.

We also have pretty dual color hostas lining the back before the woods. I am missing a few photos of my blueberry plants and some after shots so I'll show you those later.

My sister had surprised James by having his best friend and his family come in town from Charleston (actually I think it was Missy's original idea) to stay the weekend at our house.  It is mid way between their houses.  They have the cutest little boy that Max loved playing with.  Here you can see Max photo bombing their photo.  As you can see we had a busy, fun weekend and I'm glad we started some updating to our house.

Our Little Patio Garden

We have finally planted the 2012 garden. I scaled way down and just put a couple of vegetables in some pots instead of a huge garden bed. I just didn't have the time or energy to do anything elaborate. Last years weed mat failed miserably. I didn't take any photos, but I had David remove it from the yard and the grass had grown up so far into the weed mat that we now just have a huge dirt spot in that area. When Mom got here we headed to the local garden center to stock up on plants.

 We wanted to make sure the soil was nice and moist so we got the garden hose out and Molly came running for a drink. It was super hot that day so I had fun spraying her with the water.

 Our simple garden plants, see anyone can do a small garden even if you only have a balcony in an apartment. 

 We have zucchini

 Roma tomatoes

 Green Pepper

 Red Pepper

 and Basil!

Molly cooling off in the shade. Stay tuned for progress photos in a few weeks. Did you plant a garden this year?

Backyard Adventures

We have a lot of birds that chirp in our yard all day so I thought it was about time that I step up and feed them. 

I purchased this bird feeder from Walmart after going to a few of the home improvement stores and not finding anything fun.

They say to hang it away from trees and fences so you don't have squirrels and other predators trying to get the food and birds. We really don't have squirrels in our yard since we don't have a ton of trees and are backed up to other houses I think.

I love the pretty design and it reflects very nicely in the sunlight. We have a lot of little bird friends that come visit daily and they seem to really enjoy the spread we put out. 

We have already been through a 5lb bag in 2 weeks time. Pretty birdie. 

Our knock-out roses have really blossomed early this year with the warm weather we have going. I just love to look at them.

Molly enjoys the weather outside also. Check out the jungle we have growing in our backyard. Davids going to be working on trying to maintain our yard this year as the weeds are just out of control.

We still need to clean out the old garden from last year that got infested with grass. As we were looking at some of the things still growing we noticed something red in there.

Upon closer inspection they are strawberries!! I planted them last year and nothing happened and this year they came out! We have quite a few and thats pretty exciting. I am mad that the garden looks so bad that we can't really use the space. I am going to finally get some of my vegetables to pots and start the outdoor garden. It's been slow going with this little guy who has decided he doesn't like to shop around with me anymore.

It's Garden Brainstorming Time!

It's probably past garden time with all the unseasonably warm weather we have going on. This year I am scaling things back as I just don't want to have a huge garden to maintain. I really want to focus on the herbs and vegetables that I actually use and are easy to grow.

Let's start with a flash back to garden year 1. We did a raised wagon garden. I liked this because you didn't have to bend down and everything was easy to get to and you could move it around. Some of the cons were it was hard to drain and if left in the same spot of the yard, you'd get wheel marks and such. We had 16 squares (4 ft x 4 ft).

Garden year 2 we decided to really up the number of squares and we did 30. I didn't like how we had a TON of grass that grew through the squares even though we had put a weed mat down. It was really hard to maintain and I just ended up letting it grow in.

Source: marthastewart.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: webecoist.com via Jen on Pinterest

This year I want to use some pots and possibly something like this on the patio. I will post again once I plan and I will share what were the easiest and best things to grow.

I went to pinterest to find some inspiration and hopefully you'll get a little green thumb to do just something little this year. It really is rewarding to see something start either from a seed or even a small plant that you'd get a nursery.

Source: dighomedesign.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: container-gardening-for-you.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: gardenfreshliving.com via Jen on Pinterest

Source: whitewatercrafting.com via Jen on Pinterest

Garden Update & Porch Flowers

The garden is flourishing. Although I am still having a grass problem, I am just going to embrace it because its out of control.

 Roma tomatoes are everywhere, he is the visual of my grassy situation. It makes me so mad, but you live and learn.

 Some tomatoes are just about ready while others are still growing, its a fun time.

 I swear the tomato plants are 4-5 feet tall at least.

 Check out my basil. This is by far my favorite herb, cilantro comes in a close second. I think I might make pesto this weekend.

My peppers are also doing very well. I used 2 of them this weekend and you can see more in the background.

Here are the green peppers I used from the garden.

 I also decided to get some porch plants since I was lacking color. I now feel that I need another door mat, although the party does always start here, I think I want a more elegant monogram one.

 I got these pretty yellow pots and these Dianthus flowers.

 What is growing in your yard and garden?

Tomatoes Everywhere- Garden Update

Things are progressing very nicely in the garden so far. The watering system is performing quite well and in turn our plants are flourishing.

The strawberry plant I got is creating long vines which I hope are a good thing. Please note that our weed mat wasn't as tight around the edges so we had grass starting to poke out. You'll be happy to know I have pulled most the straggly grass out, it bothers me a lot.

The most exciting thing to me this year are the tomatoes. I tried them from seed last year and didn't get but a few green tomatoes. This time I went with transplants and they are growing like crazy. This is a picture of the Roma tomatoes. There are tomato buds everywhere!

I am really excited about them and hope they keep growing.

The other tomato plants are progressing just as nice.

Some other notes- for some reason my basil seeds are no good, none of my plants sprouted. Last year I had MEGA basil so there must be something wrong with the seeds. I went ahead and bought some basil plants this past weekend because I am really looking forward to making pesto this summer. How is your garden growing?

Garden Planted!

I was such a busy bee on saturday when David was camping. I wrote myself a long list and got most everything accomplished. Since we had the last frost last week the gardening places were PACKED out. I couldn't find a parking spot even close to the entrance. So, its official, the garden for 2011 was planted on Saturday April 9, 2011!

This year I wanted to get some hard to grow from seed plants for the garden. On the list were tomatoes, peppers and onions. Since I went to a local nursery I did have a hard time finding a few things. I had to go to Home Depot for Roma tomatoes and onions. I think I spent about $30 on veggie plants and a few more tomato cages (not pictured).

The spots where you don't see plants are the seeds. I used my seeds from last year that I kept in a nice air tight bag in the refrigerator. Let's hope they are still good, if nothing sprouts in a few weeks I'll plant some new ones. To see the official garden plant click here.

I am so glad I live in the South where I can already start planting. I should have abundant growth by June, cross your fingers! David has also installed a sprinkler watering system that I'll show you later, which is working great!

 

My knock out roses were also very pretty so I took a photo for you. Happy Spring!