Gardening | Cupcakes and Commentary

Garden refresh

June 21, 2017 No Comments

After our initial Spring gardening, we re-started the whole thing because most of the plants had either died or gone to seed. We did a simplified set-up for mid-June with basil, parsley, rosemary, cilantro, and mint.

J and I also added in arugula, chives, and lettuce seeds just to see how they would grow this time of the year. I also have plans to add in some flowers to provide some natural pest deterrents for the herbs. J also wants flowers to bring in some butterflies like this one we found at the pool:

J has a love/fear of butterflies. He is intensely fascinated by all animals, but he doesn’t like them flying at him. However, this was an incredibly patient butterfly, who sat steadily as J creeped in and peered at its wings. It even waited until he turned around and jumped back into the pool before it flew away. Definitely one we would like to visit our garden!

Gardening, Mini Cupcakes

Upping our succulent game

May 4, 2017 No Comments

My little plants at home are thriving! So much so that I decided to purchase a few more to keep at my office. The boys helped me plant them, and I thanked the Lord that I thought to buy two because then they could each individually plant one, instead of arguing over turns.

You can see A’s freshly gone tooth, here! He’s proud of that and his freshly potted plant!

Gardening

Raised garden bed

March 28, 2017 No Comments

Over the past few months, B has been planning and creating a raised garden bed. He was inspired by the Disney ride “Living with The Land”:

I have never ceased to be amazed in our marriage the insight and creativity of B:

This is just the first two sections…he left room to add more after testing it. On Sunday after church we headed to Lowe’s to get our first batch of herbs and vegetables.

We came up with a good start! Bibb lettuce, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, lavender, oregano, and thyme:

And the boys loved helping:

And then we put on our garden gloves and got to work…

After tucking all the plants neatly into rows:

We are prepped for our trial run!

Gardening, Mini Cupcakes

Garden continued…

March 20, 2017 No Comments

While it’s incredibly windy here, it’s warm again which means the boys and I are out gardening. After making a morning run to Lowe’s:

We headed home, unloaded our groceries, and loaded up our garden supplies in our wagon to head to the back yard…

After standing around watching me try to begin to elevate the back of the edge of the flower bed the boys decided they should take pictures of me working.

And various poses of them helping me plant…

They did a pretty good job! And now our flower bed is a little fuller:

Gardening, Mini Cupcakes

Garden bed update

March 14, 2017 1 Comment

J and I headed to Lowe’s to start implementing our garden plan this past week. He is quite excited…

He wanted to load all of the plants in the car himself…

And dig all of the spots for the plants…

And after we were done…

We started small (thankfully) with cold hardy plants. Once we get past the final (hopefully) cold snap of the season we are going to add one more Japanese boxwood, and some spring flowers.

Gardening

Corner flower beds

March 8, 2017 No Comments

In an attempt to stop my parents’ dogs when they are here from going under the fence (the dog that lives behind us is furiously trying to dig a hole under our fence) and create a better space in the moss pit corner of our yard, the boys and I spent Sunday afternoon building a new flower bed area:

Now I’m on a mission to find plants that will survive in this area (it doesn’t get a lot of sun). Here is my collage of shade loving plants that I have on my list to look for at Lowe’s with the boys over Spring Break:

Gardening, Milestones, Mini Cupcakes

Little grass plant

April 14, 2016 No Comments

J had a little grass plant that he grew at school from an itty bitty seed. His class watered their plants each day, decorated the cups, and he loved his plant! He brought it home and it sat happily by the window for several weeks continuing to grow….and spread pollen through our house. For our sake and the plants, it needed to move to greener pastures, so I finally convinced J that we needed to plant it out in the backyard where it could grow and help the grass.

It took quite a bit of convincing, but finally this weekend we removed our lemon tree (that died. Because we left it outside in the winter. Which you should not do.) and planted his little grass plant:

That’s his posing in the sun, which is bright, and trying to smile.

And we planted the little grass patch in the ground:

With lots of fresh dirt, to help him grow! Hopefully he will take hold and spread across the little dirt patch and cover it completely. In the meantime, J will be watching and watering it carefully. And making sure his brother doesn’t try to roll on it. Seriously. That was discussed.

Gardening

Feeling fresh and new…

March 15, 2016 No Comments

So if you remember last year, I planted two new boxwood plants in our front garden bed and pulled out the dead plants. In this photo you can see me standing in the middle of a hot mess of scraggly plants that continued down that route for the next year. They were, I think, supposed to be ground cover, or maybe little bushes, but what they turned into was a bunch of weeds that popped up all over the front bed and I could never get them to not look messy.

Flash forward to this Spring:

J and I headed to Lowe’s to pick out new boxwoods, new ground cover, and new flowers. J is a surprisingly good plant selector, or at least quite a decisive one (“Pick that one, Mommy! Now let’s go to the water!”).

He also made a friend that I’ve got to put on my list to go back and pick up for him:

The sunning turtle you see on the left, J talked about the whole way home.

After picking out two new boxwoods, four ground cover/grass-like plants, and four snapdragons, we were good to go:

And headed home to start pulling out the old plants and place the new:

J loves to do these types of things, so he was right next to me pulling plants and digging holes for the new plants. He especially loved clearing away the dirt and I think we were pretty much covered in dirt by the end of it.

After filling three large contractor bags with the old plants we placed the new:

And managed to get them all planted before the rain:

We need to get some fresh mulch for the top, and I’m hoping my one little scraggly boxwood in the corner comes back, but it is definitely an improvement!

Gardening

How our garden grows…

August 11, 2015 No Comments

Despite the fact that it looks a bit scraggly, our group of potted plants are actually doing really well! Garden This group of flowers attracts lots of moths and butterflies..