Hooray River Rock!

My dear sweet WONDERFUL husband bought me river rock for my garden yesterday and spread it out for me while I took a nap. It was an AMAZING surprise to wake up to :)

Versus The Weeds

It was a lovely day yesterday, not perfect, but still couldn't help myself from wanting to be outside. The daughter and I got to play on the new swingset hubby built. After awhile she wanted to dig in the dirt, and so did I! After pulling off the plastic that was protecting my raised beds I decided it was time to finish my garden paths, and do the last bit of prepping to finish off my veggie garden.

I laid the rest of the landscape fabric, using staples to keep it all in place. Some of the fabric was tucked under the beds as well. I really want to weed as little as possible.

So here's where we got to yesterday. All that left is to add the gravel, and mulch the beds. Then all I have to do is GROW STUFF (and not weeds)!!!

Muddy Nails...

Well, yesterday was a huge rain. Storming and pouring and just...well... ICKY (as my daughter says often at her age). But today I was over come with a need to get my hands dirty and the fufill this need to create life.

So I made a grocery store trip to Walmart (yeah I know... I should be shot!) and got a few cheap bulbs of calla lilies and bare root Lily of the Valley. I can't convince myself to spend what I would like on Calla Lilies until I know how they'll do in my zone first. My west side of the house is bare other then a few Azalea's trying to hide my A/C unit. I totally forgot the LOTV likes shade. So we'll see if those come up. I also planted 6 bulbs of Calla in the large empty pot on our from walk. It gets sun until about 1pm. That should do good for them (IF they can handle our zone... from what I read they are iffy... then I will put in an order next year to parkseed.com for what I really want).

That wasn't enough to fill my dirt need today, no, I didn't have quite enough dirt under my nails yet...

I transplanted 22 plants from my jungle in the bathroom into 3" pots where they will transplant easily outside. I had a couple of loses... but for the most part everything made the move without an issue. Of course, if any damage was unseen I will notice in a day or 2.

So my out of control plants that got moved were my coneflower, Flowering tobacco, Tidal Wave Petunia, Lobelia, Bachlor Buttons, Black Eyed Susans and some foxglove. I need to make a run back to the store and buy more 3" pots. I know for a fact I have 18 more to move, and a few more that will be ready in another week.

Now... to just finish prepping those raised beds to have somewhere to put them!?!?

Open Leaves & Veggi Gardens

I have so much to share! Only a matter of days makes a difference sometimes for things to grow so much MORE. Today I'm posting some pictures of my thriving Petunia in bloom in the kitchen, the Black eyed susan vine that has begun to climb (Thanks Stef for the idea of the skewers), my almost finished veggie garden, my sprouting spinach covered from last night's frost, and of course my lotus with actual open leaves!!!!

The First Lotus Leaf

That's right! There it is unfolding. The first leaf from the 2 second seedling to start. It really helped to add that new light source for them. I have a second leaf developing on another lotus as well... it just hasn't unfolded as much. More photos to come!




I also wanted to show how huge my snapdragons have gotten as well! These are going to be 'Black Prince' version which are Deep Red that almost turn black in the throats. I'm planning on planting these in front of my 'Earl Grey' Larkspur. I think they will both really set each other off!

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Lotus Second Shoots

So now I have second shoots up and out of the water. I had to get a new grow light to really get them moving again, but that seemed to do it! In fact, most of my seedlings on the cart have done better! So are leaves in the near future?! It looks like I may actually be getting a leaf on one of the shoots that is newly emerged. However, if you look closely some of the original shoots have shriveled up and died.













Some other fun things to pop up and be doing so well are my Black Eyed Susan Vines (fun to have a wildflower on a vine, this of course is an annual hybrid) and some Black Prince Snap Dragons.