If nothing else, Chrisi had a great time sneaking in on the party and completely devouring the entire container of freezer pickles that Penny had made earlier.  I seriously mean the girl ate every. last. one. and I’m fairly certain she would’ve drunk the juice if we wouldn’t have all been looking.  They were some good pickles.  If I can beg, borrow or steal the recipe from Penny, I will post it.  It sounded very simple to make and they were absolutely scrumptious.

I am off to finish packing for our weekend mother/daughter road trip to Tenn. to visit my dad for father’s day since he hasn’t been able to escape his evil captors as of yet. 

And someone should tell my brother that if he just so happens to get a cell phone pick of me in the kitchen canning stuff, his reaction should not be “I didn’t know Randy knew how to use photoshop well enough to photoshop a picture of my sister being so domesticated”!   just saying …

ps: I did take my camera to take pictures but the battery went dead as soon as I started to take the 1st one.  I seriously think I need a new battery for my camera, mine isn’t keeping a charge at all. 

me.

Do y’all see that?  Look at those big ole squash plants! 

They are nearly as tall as me (do not feel obligated to point out the fact that they wouldn’t have to be very tall to be taller than me), and they are started to get little baby squash on them …

I am most excited about our green beans actually growing this year.  Last year they didn’t fare so well.  I am fascinated by the curly q ness of their vines … (yes, I am easily amused, so what)!

They are all over the place.  Oh and the weeds you are seeing are no longer in the planter bed, I hoed um up.  Mostly, I just wanted to say “I hoed” and it not be a bad thing … sorry.  Back to the regularly scheduled bean pictures …

Along with baby squash and curly q green bean vines, our tomatoes are starting to sprout.  Is that the right word? do tomatoes sprout? or bloom? what’s the word I need here?  help a girl out!

I saved Richard’s favorite for last … the cucumbers.  That boy loves cucumbers.  He eats them faster than I can peel them.  I planted lots and lots of them this year.  They are starting to bloom too.  Maybe I’ll have enough to make some sweet ice cube pickles like my mamaw used to make, just the thought of her pickles make my mouth pucker, she made the best sweet pickles in the entire universe.

So how are your gardens doing?  How bout your flowers?  I’m nosey, I need to know these things about you.

me.

See the tiny little seeds that have now become little sprouts …

I thoroughly soaked myself in the sprinkler water trying to take those pictures, I think I may now be a Lutheran.

Check out my mater plant!

It’s about time to stake that bad boy up before it toples over.

My petunias … they are beautiful if I do say so myself. 

One of our pastures, which technically should not be covered in yellow wildflowers, but oh well, they’re pretty to look at.  The horses don’t love them so much, I guess that don’t taste so yummy.

Spring is in full swing.  Summer is just around the corner.  Life is good. 

me.

And this truck load of stuff …

I guess technically some of them are now hung up and some are planted.  All of these are at dad’s house.  Hopefully they will be in full bloom by the time prom roles around so we can take some pretty pictures of the kids all dressed up.

The girls and I had a good time spending the day with daddy (better known as bapa) working hard to get his porch all ready for summer time. 

They both created their own flower pots from the variety of plants we bought.  They are quite the little horticulturist divas. 

That is … until it comes to raw horse doo doo.  At that point in time, Chrisi is done, she’s out.  Anna, well I am sad to say, Anna has no qualms about handling horse poop, especially if it means she gets to torture her sister in the process.  Ahhh, sisterly love.  (I am so very thankful I have a brother)!

After the stuff was all finished up at dad’s house, Anna and I came back up to our house and planted our garden.  I should clarify that Anna actually did most of the work.

I hope I have a chance to take some pictures of the finished projects tomorrow.  The flowers are really pretty and we need a good starting point over on blooming idiots.  If any of you are interested in participating this year, I would love to get it started back up, I just need some pictures. 

ps:  just as a non related side note here,  if you happen to get a chance today, please say a prayer for Chrisi, she is having some test done tomorrow and we are praying for a possitive result.  thank you.

me.

row by row in at least half of the new garden bed.  In the other half we will be planting actual veggie plants that are already on their way to making me a happy veggie cooking girl all summer long. 

After we finish the planting at our house tomorrow, we will dividing and conquering.  Richard will be loading horse doo doo mixed with good rich black dirt and some sand to haul over to Cathy and Jimmy’s new planter beds.  I sure do hate I have other plans and will be missing the loading an hauling of doodie, but alas, sometimes we have to make sacrifices.  I will be heading down to my dad’s to plant lots and lots of flowers.  I cannot wait!  I always look forward to the Saturday each year that my dad and I spend together, picking out and planting flowers, it’s been a tradition we share since my mom died.  Last year Thad was home to help, I’ll be missing him this year and I could surely use some of  Brad’s expert advice, he is an excellent gardener. 

Be sure to stop back by tomorrow, hopefully I will get to take lots of good pictures to share with y’all. 

me.

Yesterday morning I posted about going out to work on our planter beds … I got couple of really nice comments and a couple more emails asking about the planter beds.  Who knew y’all might be interested in gardening?  I can tell you this … I enjoy it very much, which is odd, because I am not a lover of hard work.  I think that may be the biggest reason I like the planter bed concept of gardening as opposed to great big gardens that require a lot of effort. 

I thought I would share a few things in particular about the planter beds just in case you want to try one or more with your family this spring and summer.

#1. Keep in mind I am not a professional gardener.  This has all been trial and error for us.  There are probably plenty of you out there who have much much more gardening experience than I do, and I would love any tips or advice you have to offer. 

#2.  Our planter beds are made from 2 x 10 boards of untreated lumber, which would mean they are not 5 x 12 like I thought they were, they are 5 x 10.  Richard had some left over boards from a job he had done, thus we used those, if you happen to have other size boards laying around your house, any size should be fine to use, just base your measurements on the board size you have.  For each bed you will need 3 boards.  Level out your ground area, and it does not have to be perfect but the more level the easier.  Cut one board in half, lay the other 2 boards long ways and nail them all together, forming a rectangle.  Very simple (especially if you have a husband who can make anything).  

#3.  Filling up the planter beds with dirt and lots of yucky, but very good stuff … for us, this was easy, we live in an area that has plenty of dirt available and we have a tractor with a big ole scooper thing, a brush pile that produces lots of good ash material, a sandy river bottom for getting some sand to help with drainage and horses that provide more than plenty of organic fertilizer.  If you happen not to have those things, please call, comment or email and I will be more than happy to hook you up with any or all of the necessary starter dirt and fertilizer you may need … just bring some rubber gloves and come on over!  I’m serious about that, we have plenty and we are happy to share for free (but I am not shoveling horse poop for you, I will be glad to provide you a shovel, pitch fork or hoe and a bag to tote it home in but I am not shoveling it for you, I love you dearly but I have my limits and they stop at horse poop).

#4.  Not only did we put all of the things above in our planter beds, we also used a couple bags of potting soil in each planter bed along with the following things (I cannot find the link to the website I got the ideas for compost material so you’ll just have to trust me on this one) I saved all of my eggs shells and coffee grounds for about a month or so prior to filling up the beds with dirt, I just put them all in an old coffee can that had a lid so the smell was contained.  When we filled the planter beds, I dumped all the stuff I had saved, a little in each planter bed, and Richard tilled it right in the dirt mixture.  I don’t know if the egg shells and coffee grounds really helped or not, but I do know we got some really good, fresh produce from our garden beds.  I think it was most likely a combination of all the stuff and the good dirt. 

#5.  We let the dirt set a few days before we planted anything in it.   I don’t know if that is necessary or not, but we did.  And then came (for me) the most exciting part … shopping for what I wanted to plant.  I was fortunate to get some great advice on types of seeds and plants from my friend Alices, mom, they farm for a living so she, unlike me, had a clue what I needed to plant and about how much.  I shopped for my plants at a local plant/flower place (Country Road greenhouse is where I went for our veggie plants, although we have plenty of good garden shops in our county and we later purchased things from other places too.  I like buying locally for several reasons … first, it helps our local economy and second, when buying stuff to plant, I find local growers much better since the produce is already growing in soil like the soil we have at our house).  Personally, I picked things I know my family likes to eat … there is nothing more rewarding than stepping out your door, grabbing some veggies and fixing them for your family to eat for dinner.

#6.  What did we plant?  We did a combination of plants and seeds.  We planted squash, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, corn, okra, lettuce, spinach, a mixture of peppers and tomatoes.  Personally, I think I prefer the plants simply because I can see them immediately, but for spacing out what you have blooming a combination of both came in handy.  I will have to admit, I did get a certain amount of gratification from seeing the little seeds pop up thru the dirt.  I did my happy dance (which is  actually very sad if you happen to be in a close enough proximity to have to watch it).

That’s about all I got to say about that.  (name that movie)  If you have the slightest inclination that you may enjoy haveing some fresh veggies in your yard, I would love to encourage you to just try it … I truly think you will like it.  The things I most liked about the planter beds were:  they were easy, inexpensive, practical for our family, did not require much weeding and if they had been a total flop we could have easily removed them.  If you have younger children, it would be a great spring/summer family project that won’t wear you out.  If you want to try them and need some help, please let me know, I will gladly send Richard over to help you.  If you do decide to try them out, please let me know, I would love to see some pictures.

ps: we borrowed Cathy’s little bitty tiller, but had we not had it to use, we could have used a rake or hoe to accomplish the same thing, it was just easier with the tiller, but don’t let that stop you from trying … it’s worth the effort.

me.

I suck at growing corn.

really really bad.

me.

My daddy and oldest daughter have turned into green eyed monsters! That’s what we refer to as jealousy around our house. They were jealous that I have a beautiful garden and they had … nada! So today, they planted their very own garden. I might ought to throw in here, for any of you readers who may not know us, Chrisi lives in an apartment in the downstairs of my dad’s house. Anna will be moving there this summer. It’s not cause I really suck at being a mom … it’s their little college dorm. So anyway, my dad announced this morning that he was not going to be out done and sent Thad & myself to buy garden stuff, hanging baskets & flowers to plant. This was of course after he called me to come eat breakfast, on my day off, at 5:30 am … ok, fine, it was like 7:45 am, but it felt like the middle of the night. Tomorrow morning I will once again not be able to roll out of bed without whining feeling an immense amount of pain because I am a glutton for punishment and planted flowers most of the afternoon. The part I love best about their garden is … Dad did all the work getting the ground ready, Chrisi pops out of her compartment in time to dig a few holes, put the plants in and poof it is now their garden. No clue who she got those skills from. Here they are planting their garden.

I am still going to be the best garden winner!

me.

these would be some okra sprouts (somebody better be getting some corn meal & grease ready) …

and green bean sproutie thingamabobs …

and some sort of lettuce (I think) …

The squash, cucumber & sweet corn seeds haven’t poked their little heads out yet, I guess we’re saving the best for last. Check back in a few days & hopefully we’ll be making some progress with them also.

I have a bunch of weekend camping/birthday pics to post. I just haven’t got them all downloaded, cropped & resized yet. I am worn out, I don’t know what crazy person thought sitting up by the fire until the wee hours of the morning was a good idea but I am way too old for that nonsense, I need my sleep. Check back for those pictures too!

me.

me.