Siding, Siding...out of Siding?!

We've been siding the house while I've been getting my gardens going. Its been a few weekends worth of work and we're getting it done as quickly as humanly possible. Well, we were until we realized they miss shipped some siding to us and shorted us about 100 sq ft. Of course its the nice custom order stuff on our front porch that is now sitting half done for goodness knows how long. Right now we're trying to figure out who's to blame for it, and how much more we need... of course, when we can order it for how much and how long to get it in. Looks like a few more weeks of having a half done front porch!!! ARGH!

Here's where we were on Saturday evening. We've put up a few more pieces since them and its sad, because we have a lot less coverage to finish it off. I only need 1 more box!!!





Saturday I did put in another raised bed at the end of the driveway. I really like this one. I bought more plants to fill it up, but its the vines I planted in there to cover the fence and arbor I can't wait for!!!

Just... Too.... Hot....

It is 83 degrees out and I'm sweating like crazy. The daughter dragged me out to walk around the yard. I put in some corn in the garden, then realized it was just TOO HOT! So we filled a bin with water for our ducky outside to play in, got a couple of freezie pops and sat on the deck for about 20 minutes. Now we're in the nice cool house, and won't dare go back out until this evening.

Hooray Spring Walk!!!

I got some photos of some more things popping up! I even got our first calla lily bulb is up. (I checked this morning and there is another one I missed under a dirt mound.) We have the siding going up on the front side of the house, and the front and side gardens are HUGE mature and even blooming in some spots!!!














Sadly, it also looks like my strawberries have Leaf Spot, or Leaf Scortch! *sob* I did call the nursery I got them and they are going to replace them, even if we aren't sure if they are infected or not. Otherwise its going to be too late to plant, though it already is kinda late to replant. We'll try to cure these plants, and we'll wait on the replacements and see what we'll do then!

The Easy Garden Website

www.theeasygarden.com
I just want to plug this website again. I've been part of the forums over there, and they are SUPER helpful. You always get quick answers to questions, lots of pics to go through... and of course a friendly community too. Its the sister website to
www.Backyardchickens.com,
which I'm going to go ahead and plug that site too! Super helpful!


...and both can be addicting!

A Walk In The Garden

Didn't do much today as far as planting. I should have, but the kid and I just watered everything and played on the swingset. Nothing wrong with that! :)

I did take some pictures to share though:


Strawberries:


Pots:


Potatoes:


Grapes:


Bed at the end of the deck, daisies, hibiscus, snap dragons, foxglove, ect:


Thai Basil:

The smell of compost!

I've been adding compost to my old beds today to give more life to the plants that have been here. There weren't many, but enough to need a snack. My husband had a long drive today to a job in Greenville and he didn't need to be there until 6 tonight, so he spent the morning with the daughter and I. We managed to add the final raised beds for the year. One behind the play house for sunflowers (my daughter did an awesome job planting them by herself) and one at the end of the driveway to keep weeds under control for my vines.

Like that wasn't enough work, I managed to transplant 9 tomatoes, 2 daisies, about 6 of my tidal wave petunias, and the very last 2 of my foxglove.

I'm so thrilled I saved all those foxglove seeds last year and started some fresh plants. I was crushed to find my only lavender foxglove from last year never came back. The roots were rotted and the old stems had no green left. I covered it with mulch over the winter, but with a few late snows this year it couldn't take it. Next year I will double the mulch pile and my new plants.

We all make mistakes!

My long Tuesday drama...

Tuesday, I actually got an early start to the day and managed to get up and get everyone fed before 8:30. I planned on baking some cookies for an order and spending the rest of the day with my daughter watching movies and reading books. It rained... a LOT yesterday.

Come 10am my idea of a peaceful rain day was over. A large dog shredded my coop run and gave my chickens a run for the money. I caught the dog as it was trying to get in the coop itself... thankfully the dog couldn't get in, and all the chickens made it safely back in themselves. I did find the owner of the dog as I followed it home as it ran from my pellet gun. I've only ever had STRAY dogs around here try to bother my chickens... and those have all failed and got a few BBs in their rear as they leave in terror.

The owner was sympathetic and I was able to get new wire for the coop to replace what the dog destroyed. I was feeling much better at this point. My broodies were still sitting on their eggs and didn't get off, no one was bleeding, and could easily lock my chickens in the coop for the rest of the day while the repairs were made.

Hubby came home and decided.... well.... lets go ahead and move the coop behind the garden by the grapes and orchard we're growing. It will give them places to hide and more cover then where the coop was in the center of the yard. Its a little farther from the house then I would like... but I think its a nice spot we chose anyways.

So all this was taken care of by 3 people (1 was me, and I'm a weakling)using 2 dollies we hauled this monster of an awkward coop about 50+ ft to its new location. Can you say OUCH!

Anyways, that's done... that day is done... I'm moving on! So cross your fingers after all this, my broodies don't give up on lovely Quality Breed eggs I have them sitting on. I would hate to be out that money over this!

Siding Getting there

Saturday, VERY late the siding on the back of the house was finished... getting so close to done I can feel it!

It looks fabulous!


Other then that we're looking at 3 days of rain, so not much to look forward too.

Today I stopped at home depot and realized there were several plants I had to pick up started. I just COULDN'T get some plants going well from seed. I lost several tomatoes, I couldn't seem to start an eggplant seed to save my life... and I was lacking on some herbs I either couldn't find from seed or failed at. Not all this starting from seed stuff has worked out well.

So I picked up a Heirloom Pink Brandywine tomato plant, eggplant, Thyme, Oregano, Thai Basil and Sweet Basil today. I planted them in the rain to get them in... but they should do good!

I still have 100+ surviving plants I've gotten in the ground, so it wasn't a complete failure by any means!!!!

Easter Weekend

Wow... what a busy weekend. It was fun though, we got a LOT done on Saturday, and we had a fun Sunday. Nothing like finally getting to spend a whole day with the family just playing, eating and having fun!


I have to post my 10 lb harvest of Spinach from Saturday... and the siding my husband did on Saturday. Now, the siding on the whole back side of the house is finished!!! I have to get a final photo of that, but it was dark when it was done.

Heating up!

Finally a nice warm sunny day with little wind. I was able to get some coneflowers, bellflowers, foxglove, and columbine in the ground today. I lost some onions to a darn cat using my plant beds as a liter box though. Managed to get everything watered today as well. I harvested some more spinach, and saw my potatoes I planted back in mid March had sprouts. Mmmm... russet potatoes. (I got those from spuds that had sprouting eyes I got at the store.)

I moved all my plants out to harden off... then of course after dinner I moved them back in. I hate this part... move them out, move them in, move them out, move them in... ARGH! I can't wait until that's done.

My daughter and I got to play on the swings a lot too. Then daddy went for a walk with us around the neighborhood. It was quite a wonderful peaceful day actually!

The weather has been ...brrrrrr

Its been windy, then cold, then wet, then windy... and today its windy and cold!? Had a frost last night I do think. Expecting a low of 35 tonight on top of that! What a rough couple of days for my plants.

However, Saturday and Saunday were GORGEOUS!!!!!!

Didn't manage to do much with the plants though. We had a birthday party on Saturday morning, then a delivery of siding and porch posts on Saturday afternoon. By Sunday my husband was excitingly putting up some of the siding, and I was off swinging and playing with the little one. Then we left to go visit the grandparents for dinner.

Just wanted to show some of the siding work we managed, and show the cute little chicks that have hatched the last couple of days. Waiting on 2 more eggs to hatch as well. Also waiting for a new batch of eggs I bought to come. Very pretty silkies these eggs are coming from. Mine will look so much nicer when I breed them from here on out!!!

Strawberries in!

Well, they were a day later then expected and we had light rain earlier in the day. I've had a SUPER busy week and wasn't sure I would have time to actually get them in since they didn't come when planned for.

I spent 3 hours and a lot of back pain to get these puppies in. I have 50 strawberry plants now though. I chose to go with Everbearing varieties as they will give me continuous berries through the growing season. A spurt in Spring, Summer and Fall. I was told to pull the blooms from the first part of the season so they develop their roots and not the fruit (which would probably not be the best harvest). I was also told to just pluck some blooms off and cut their production in half the first time to get a small harvest, but a harvest none the less! So that is what I plan on doing.

You can see each planting is different. In the first bed I did 3 rows 12" apart, and all the plants are 8-12" apart in those rows. This gives them room to move and send out runners later in the season. (This variety does not get as many runners as does June bearing berries.) The second bed has them in mounds 12" apart. This second bed is for the birds and wildlife by the pond.

In the second bed you will also notice the 12 irises coming up. Hopefully they will do well in a raised bed. They are my first attempt at Irises too.

Sorry my 3 tiered bed is only half full of dirt. I ran out, but will try to finish filling it on Sunday. Depends if I have time as I have a lot of running around to do on Saturday, and the landscaping place is not open on Sunday.