Today's work in the garden

The whole family was working in the yard today. 3 yr olds included...he he! Busy transplanting, mowing, weeding, covering etc.

More lilies are blooming and they sure are lovely! This one hardly looks touched by the bug or fungus that is getting some of the other ones. Isn't it lovely!

Daisy and Jacob's first Pumpkin plants. They are doing good so far. They did so good, they even filled the whole pot with potting soil all by themselves.

A veiw of the veggie garden. Gotta keep the critters out! Already have had two bell pepper plants and a tomato plant eaten to the stub! Cat or bunny I think!

Some of it is growing well. Clark said "did we start all of this?" All but a couple of things! All from seed! Feels good even though some of it is behind! Hopefully it will still do ok. I had to start over again after my cats ate my first seedlings! I started some Acorn squash seeds in here today too.

Clark's Giant Pumpkin box (Dills Atlantic)! The giant pumpkins are on the right. On the left is Ambrosia Melon and Sugar pumpkin. I might plant some flowers between them.

I know, you can barely see some of it but it is there! There are some tiny Habanero's, and some tiny Cilantro mixed among the tomotoes, watermelon, Cucumbers, etc. The vining stuff goes on the end so we can put them on a support that is not yet built!

A surprise in one of the flower beds. I had planted Nasturtium there last year, I did not know any would come back. I am pretty sure they are annual so it must have seeded itself! That's ok! I'll keep it! I almost shoveled over it so I hope I didn't do it any damage. Clark says he is amazed at all the plant names and bug name I know now! Lots of reading! I am no expert yet, but maybe someday!

Clark was working on putting new hinges and latches on the gate! Gotta keep those kids locked in! They are sneaky!

Lilies in bloom

Only a couple are blooming and it isn't looking too good so far. Some of the petals are a bit deformed and stuck together. I hope I can figure out what the problem is soon so I can fix it.

Pests and Diseases!

Flea beatle?

Is it doing this or is this a slug? I got a lot of those too.

My Lilies have multiplied this year and I still have no idea what kind they are. They really do start out lovely but the same as last year, something attacked them, a fungus maybe, not sure. I would be glad to know though if anyone can help. By the end of last year they really did look pitiful and I did not think they would return. But they did...and multiplied. I only started with about 5 maybe. I transplanted them from another part of the yard where I found them hiding.

I see the slug, and the spider web. Hope it is a good spider and not a mite.

So close to blooming I can't wait!

Beginning to bloom

This is my Achillea that I planted last year. I liked it so much I went and got 3 more....

3 red ones, this is only one. I will have to see if I can find their tags cause they are not all the same type.

oh and I found a friend in the garden. Wish there were more good ones out there, but sadly I have a multitude of bad ones! Destroyers!

Eating and pooping!

Something is eating my plants. Something small and something larger. Some bugs and maybe some rabbits. Last year we used blood meal around the plants to keep the bunnies away, and it worked quite well as long as I kept up with putting it out again after the rain washed it away. Something even bigger is making it's dumps in my SFG's! Today is the second day I have found a big pile right in my plant box. Maybe a cat, maybe a dog! But I want them out, so I ordered some insect barrier net today and I hope it gets here quick! And I hope that it keeps the bigger animals away as well as the little bug(gers). Maybe it will stop raining some time soon long enough for us to get out in the garden again! I feel so behind.

Happy Mothers Day (moved)

We have been working hard on mothers day...this mother included!

I got all the front and side flower beds done. Now maybe after I catch up on some energy the next couple of days, I'll tackle the back flower beds!

Maybe you want to see a before pic

(If you click on the pic you can see bigger more detailed pictures)

You'll notice that we have painted the door and the shutters, removed some bushes and trees (and lost a few to the storms!) It really is looking much better and less cluttered! At some point we want to replace these bushes and replace the garage door and fix the porch (crazy ppl clued CARPET to the front porch, talk about bug heaven).

This is our new Dynamite Crape Myrtle that replaced our Blue Spruce that fell. I hope it gets flowers this year!

Red and white Impatients, euonymus, and White Andgelonia fill the front beds, with my new mothers day kitty! And Fuschia plants hang in pots by the door.

This is the right side of the house. Hostas and Impatients. Needs a topping of compost!

And the left corner next to the garage.

Turned out really nice I think!

And this is just a pic of my pretty flowering Weigela shrub.

More in the Spring Garden

Young plants getting ready to be transplanted. Cosmos, tomatoes, Salvia, and Daisy and Jacob's pumpkins (not even germinated yet).

A work in progress.... 4 Square Foot Gardens. We have started laying out some brick to make a brick path around them to make them look real nice and easy to work around. The front two have seedlings in them, the other two are empty till we start transplanting all those seedlings from the previous photo.

The clematis is looking beautiful this year.

3 different strawberry plants. Tennessee Beauty, Ozark, and another I forgot, I'll have to check when it stops raining.

Today we are gonna work on starting seeds for Blue Fescue Grass and some Orange Cosmos.

Spring in the Garden!

I have decided to start a separate blog for just my gardening progress! Spring is here and the garden is started and I would like to track the progress as our garden grows!

This is the back bed next to the deck and if you had seen it last week you would think this is an amazing transformation.....it was taken over by weeds, completely full. Now it is full of marigolds, two Moonbeam Coreopsis, Lilies, and Alyssum.

This is the other side of the deck where I planted some new Paprika Achillea some marigolds and those are grape tomatoes hanging in the pots. And of course the Daffodils are dying off.

This is the front of the deck, full of Lily's, 1 Azaleas and some marigolds.

This is our first attempt at Square Foot Gardening. There are tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, chard, spinach, beans, onions etc. Not sure what all is gonna make it yet.

Well, I will have more to share tomorrow for those interested in our garden progress.