update

The lilacs are almost done blooming. Kinda sad to see them dying off. I love lilacs. It has been hot so it seems they haven't lasted as long. Maybe I'm mis-remembering last spring. I don't have a great memory for the last month or so of being pregnant with Bear. I got my beds planted along the front walk. Just seeds and seedlings. All flowers for Tom. My hanging baskets are doing well. Everything needs water though. It has been hot. It was into the mid 80s. The new plants (currant and raspberries) seem to have established well. I'm behind on weeding the garden. Imagine that? I'm also behind on getting the rest of my tomatoes and some of the other stuff planted. I think I'll see what I can do about getting a lot of stuff planted this weekend. I'm off to see about getting some of it done tonight.

Losses

Well, I didn't get them covered the other night and it froze. I lost what looks to be every other tomato in the row and both of my bush beans. The Kitchen King Beans seem to have made out okay though. Good thing I still have some tomato plants that need planted. It didn't even freeze all that hard. Maybe 28 degrees. I didn't check since I had to go to work and I saw the frost as I was walking to the car. Oh well. Such as life.

The lilacs are in full bloom though. They smell so good. Everything else seems to be doing all right.

Oops! Dog needs out and Bear is getting into everything...

Planting, planting, planting...

The night before last, so Monday, I got several of my tomatoes and all of my beans planted. I know I'll have to run out and cover if it gets too cold at night, but I'm finally getting some room in the house.

Let's see... over the weekend I also got another lavender planted and I found some hostas for the North (shady) side of the house. Mom and Dad were up visiting for the weekend. Mom decided she was going to help outside so my beds are dug along the walk-way and the random flagstones in the backyard are now dug up. She needs to show up more often. Lots got done.

Still more tomatoes, peppers, peas, and squash to plant. It is finally getting warm enough to plant everything. Maybe not the peppers until well into June? We'll see how the weather looks. Of course with the way time is going it will be June before I know it.

hanging baskets

I got the hanging baskets planted today! Impatients and petunias. Also I threw in some salvia seeds in with the impatients and some baby's breath in with the petunias. We'll see if it works. I planted two pots of marigolds I had started a couple weeks ago. I still need to dig the beds along the front walk and I got another lavender to plant.


Now that Mother's Day is past I should be able to plant my tomatoes and that out soon. I'm still kinda chicken though. I'm thinking I'll get some plastic for row covers today and then I can plant them out. That way with the inevitable freeze that we'll get I can not worry as much.

Perfect Spring Day

It was finally nice today so I got my peas, beets, some lettuce, and some spinach planted in the garden. Also, I ended up needing to plant my horseradish and my friend's so they are in containers.

It was a busy day outside. Tom pruned bushes and mowed the lawn. I planted and then we mulched, and I stained the second chair for the porch. Almost done with the set. As soon as we get the little table built and stained we'll be good to go. Our yard is finally coming along. It actually looks like someone lives here again.

Still so many beds I want to put in...

Garden continued...

The photo of the garden...

Garden

Finally the first 3 rows are in the garden. I got them planted on Monday afternoon, just in time for the rainy weather. At least I haven't had to water other than at initial transplant. My broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, walla walla onions, brussels sprouts, red potatos, russet potatoes, and carrots are in. My carrots are the only ones I'm direct seeding with that bunch. I have peas, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, beets, and turnips hardening off getting ready to go in the garden. They'll go in hopefully this weekend if it ever dries out.

I've gotten things mulched with shredded cedar. Hopefully this helps with the bugs. We are also having a guy come in and spray the house for the hobo spiders. We already have them in here this spring and they aren't supposed to move inside until July. Apparently the ones around here think they own the joint.

Oh, I finally uncovered our front walk. Who knows how many years it has been neglected. We used the sod we pulled off of there to help fill in some of the holes around the roots of the trees in the back yard. I want to put flower beds lining the walkway and then put my blueberries out front to mirror the lilacs that sit on either side of the front porch steps. We'll see what happens this summer.

One last thing. I ended up gettting a garden gnome for my veggie garden. I'll have to take some pictures to post once things settle back down here a little bit.

Planting

I'd better log things here for a bit since I can't find my notebook at the moment. I got marigolds, cilantro, snow peas, lavender, sunflowers, and sweet basil planted yesterday. Zinnia's are coming up and I finally got a few cloves of garlic in pots. We'll see how it fairs. I'll have to remember to plant some this fall as well. 1/2 my tomatoes are out in the green house and doing okay. They need planted but the garden plot isn't quite ready. Tom did a bit more tilling for me yesterday so it is closer. Plus I don't want the poor things to freeze. I think Tom is going to try pruning my rose for me. We'll see how it goes. Since I really know nothing about this rose it is kinda hard to do things for the species. That doesn't really work when you don't know the species.

We've had some nutty weather. It was snowing last week and was down in the high 20's and low 30's. Today it is supposed to be in the 60's and sunny. It was nice it rained yesterday though. I never did get water on my transplanted strawberries but the rain took care of that.

I did start leaving broccoli and other hardy plants out of the green house last night. They seem to have faired okay. I think I'll try to get them planted in the garden as soon as I can.

Quick notes

Planted strawberries finally, they came while we were in Austria. Got a Spanish Lavender and planted that today as well. Have tilled the garden a bit, but need to one more time before planting. Part of my garden fence is up and I'll get it finished about the time I get my tilling finished. Oh, I also got a bunch of irises from the neighbor that I planted last Saturday. We'll see how they do.