7 Months Not Being Myself

Since October I've had what I thought was a repeat virus. I kept catching it over and over again, passing it around the family and then back to me. Finally I got an ear infection and needed to visit a doctor yesterday. Turns out this 'virus' has been the same one since October when I first had it. It attacks hard for about 5 days, sore throat, stuffy nose and head and HORRIBLE congested cough for 5 days after. Then another week or 2 go by and it starts over, because it was DORMANT in between break outs. It took a sinus infection and a double ear infection to finally get me to the doctor in the first place. He's shocked I got through this for so long?! While it was dormant I was weak and I just didn't feel like myself... I just blamed it on working out in the garden so much, chasing a 3 year old, being depressed since hubby got laid off. I just forced myself to go on with life, but I felt like I was pushing a boulder up hill to get any chore done. FOR 7 MONTHS!!!

So out in the garden, doing dishes, washing laundry, playing with my daughter.... all wore me out. I haven't gone out to do anything with my friends, I never felt up to it. I have lived a pretty lacking life for the last 7 months, though I forced myself to do everything.

Anyways, I am just here to say I am over joyed that FINALLY I am going to get back to good, get back to being myself and able to live my life again HEALTHY. I'm going to finish my meds and get back to my garden and some time in the sun. Then I can share everything I did that wasn't a struggle to get done. Thank you all!

ETA: While I was sleeping and trying to recover, my husband was so unbelievably sweet. He built me a new 12' x 2' raised bed out in my garden. He just keeps feeding my obsession. Who could ask for a more amazing man!?

GIVEAWAY - Garden Watering Spikes

I have a set of 2 Aqua Spikes. These neat little watering spikes attach to a used water bottle, or 2 liter bottle filled with water and got stuck right into your garden. Very useful when you are going to be away a couple of days. They also water deeply for better root growth. These hold a lot of more water then the aqua globes you see around for house plant pots.

 FREE

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Last Frost Date Past, Tomatoes In

I finally got all my tomatoes, and peppers in the ground. It seems early for some of you, but Zone 7b is now out of the frost date warnings. Our last day was April 15th , and though I planned on waiting an extra week or 2, I could not be patient any longer as out weather has been fantastic. I even got in 4 of my plants 2 weeks prior to the last frost date and watched them like hawks!

I wanted to list my tomato choices for this year. All are varities that are heirloom, suited for this area, and were all traded seeds so I did not pay for them. How much more budget friendly can one be?

(**remember, I am always up for a trade, contact me if I have something you would like and have something to trade! I want to help with your garden too, and being broke doesn't mean you should miss out on the greatness of the garden**)

So what did I plant?

Banjan Roomii
White Wonder
Green Sausage
Chocolate Cherry
Esther Hess Yellow Cherry
Italian Market Wonder
Purple Cherokee

Now some of these are new to me. I have not tasted most of these before,(excepting Esther' Yellow) so I am putting a lot of faith into people giving me their personal opinions.

Today, mother nature has blessed us with some showers... so I don't have to drag the hose all across an acre to water everything, thank goodness! But it also means I can't go out and take photos and updates like I would like to. So I will do a photo walk tomorrow or Friday.

So today I am going to just go to Home Depot (buy one get one free on packets of seeds) and get me some lettuce seeds I am out of for a part shade area, and some wildflower seeds to sprinkle out by the pond. I just have to remember to factor in those costs into my chart I have with the Community Garden Project. Don't forget to join the project and download a copy of the chart to keep up with costs and harvests!

Community Garden Project Blog Link

Spreadsheet To Download and Print

You can also join the group to chat about this project at TheEasyGarden.com Forum Thread

Now if everyone can post their tomato choices for this year, I would love to see the popular choices everyone else has chosen. AND whether or not you bought started plants, or started from seed!!!

Yard Work and Grape Propagation

Yesterday, I had several more plants to go in, quite a bit of weeding to do, a ton of edging with the weed eater and finally hubby mowed.

Though it didn't bother me at the time, my muscles are killing me now. I haven't done anything this hardcore in the yard since fall.

With all this extra work, we realized (I emphasize "WE" ), that I just don't have enough garden space for my gardening needs. Though we did add in a new 6' by 20' bed in the front yard, and a 3' by 20' bed on the side of the driveway... still not enough. So, I will be sharing a project we have planned to solve that problem soon. (It's a surprise.)

What I will share is some cuttings I took from our grape vine, in hopes to get some to root. This is a chancy project, as I've been told old wood and fall cuttings would be best. Instead, we're doing new growth and spring cuttings. Oh well, you try with what you got, if it works, great... if not, I'll try again in fall.

All I did was add about 10 cuttings to water I sprinkled rooting hormone in. Left them on the kitchen window sill.... now we wait!

My tulips don't have much longer

The heat is overwhelming and my tulips are fading fast. So I wanted to share the new one's I added last year that opened late before they are gone. I also wanted to share the photo of my columbine. We're waiting patiently, as we planted the seed 2 years ago, and the color was an unknown mix of seed. So the suspense is killing me!



Columbine:

Tulips:

Gorgeous and 88 degrees?!?!

Too nice lately for my own good! Too warm too! I've had the windows all open and all the fans on in the house. Its like spring came and went in a week around here. After viewing the call for 80-90 degree days for the next week, I starting putting in my tomato plants already. They've done well in the coldframe/mini green house so it was time for them to start hitting the ground 1 by 1.

We've mowed, cleaned the yard and added more plants to the front porch. Not to mention the fresh coat of white paint ON the porch!

So I need to walk around today after I'm done getting the rest of the tomatoes in, and take some photos for all of you.

I'm sure you would like to see how HUGE my pea plants are getting. ;-)