New flower bed!

After my wedding I had a left over metal box spring, some small wooden fence pickets and plants that needed a new home. A new flower bed was in my future.

I planned to put it essentially where the metal flowers are in this picture (I (I as in Joe) moved the metal flowers to the opposite side of the gate).

The box spring came from an old business/house that was being torn down. The owner said I could take anything I wanted and I fell in love when I found this cool piece. At the wedding, it leaned against a tree and was used to hold some of the rose petal cones

The fence pickets came from a garage sale. My wonderful Uncle Carson painted and made the pickets stand up on their own. They were on the stage in Welcome Hall. I took apart the fence pieces, added some metal stakes to them and used them to surround the flower bed.

I then placed the box spring against a T-post (and connected it to the fence with wire), and planted a $3 Lowes clearance Jasmine vine in front of it. With a azela on both sides, society garlic in the front, some small clearance plants and mulch, the bed was almost complete but missing... something.
This bird bath was the missing piece. I got this at an estate sale a year ago and it had been sitting by my garden, in my "need to do something with it" section. A bit of paint later and it was the perfect addition to my new flower bed. Its amazing what some paint can do to something!
I am really loving how the bed turned out and can totally envision the plants grown up and blooming in it. I am especially happy I was able to repurpose some goodies from my wedding to make this bed complete. What type of things have you repurposed and put in your flower beds?

First Harvest

Last night I got my first harvest from my garden and it was delish!


I know this isn't much compared to Bobbi Jo's, my Aunt Marilyn's (Kristin's mom), Doug's (Jamie's dad), or the countless other super gardeners out there, but so far my garden is doing a billion times better than it has the over my previous two years of semi-unsuccessful gardening. I am hoping this years the trend continues.

This year I've got the following planted:

Green beans
Okra
Peppers (bell, jalapeno and Anaheim)
Tomatoes (several varieties)
Onions
Potatoes
Squash
And a random zucchini that somehow got planted with the squash

In the past, only my peppers and tomatoes produced anything worthwhile so I am super excited to have such a great start to the season.

Also, over the weekend I did a little construction/basket weaving in my garden. I am very tired of the ugly metal stakes used to hold up (or attempt to hold up) my tomatoes and my green beans. The green beans have already completely over grown their stake and the tomato stakes simply look ugly. I decided to make something a little more organic for the garden to fulfill these needs this season.

Two weeks ago when Joe was doing some MUCH needed trimming to our trees, I asked him to set aside some long straight branches. I then used some jute string from Lowes and my best weaving skills and made these stakes for my green beans and 1 set of my tomato plants
By the way, these are my much smaller, younger tomatoes. My other, bigger box full has the metal stakes and is already filled with tons of green tomatoes - woohoo!

So far I am happy with the visual appeal, I just hope they can can stand up (literally) to the weather and the pressure from my plants. If all goes well, at then end of the season I plan to throw these stakes in the fire pit (no more need to store ugly metal stakes!) and start over next spring

Do you have any gardening tips that made your veggie gardens more visually appealing?

Passed Along Plants - Thank You!

If you have spent very much time with me you know that I love good deals, buying things cheap, and most of all, free stuff. I go to garage sales, I coupon regularly, and I happily and thankfully accept passed along items from my mom... grandma... and others....

The plants in my yard are no exception to this rule. When I first moved into the house I eagerly accepted plants from friends and family. Some have withered away but others have thrived. One thing I did not expect with these passed along plants is the happiness and memories that they bring me. These plants are so much more meaningful to me because they did not come from Home Depot and cost me $4.39 a pot. They absorbed the character of their previous home and remind me of their past owners/stories when I water/prune/weed around them.

This post is in honor and thanks to those of you who have shared with me these green vessels of life. At one point you dug a hole for them, planted them, and showered them with love. Then you decided it had gotten to big, you had to many, or you just wanted to share and you dug it out, repotted it, and passed it along to me. I thank you. There is no way I would have bought the variety of plants that I have today from Lowes.

My very first passed along plants came thanks to Hurricane Ike and Joe and his dad. In Joe's parent's neighborhood, 2 young trees were uprooted from the neighbors yard. With their (the neighbors) okay, Joe's dad loaded them up along and headed north to Conroe. At least 2 weeks before I moved in, before the water was turned on, and final papers were signed on the house I had my first two trees. One died, the other has survived to become the funny shaped tree. I cut the other tree down, attached a birdhouse to it and it became home to baby birds. I am thankful.

A couple months after moving in, my mailman told me about someone on his route that was completely redoing their yard. I got the lady's phone number and made plans to help pull out plants the following weekend. I got monkey grass, elephant ears, firebush, some shrubs, and more. Today the firebush is very popular with butterflies and hummingbirds. Speaking of the mailman, Stephen, he gave me a truckload of monkey grass, baby herbs, a tree, and little magnolia plant. Best mailman ever? I think so!

My aunt Marilyn gave me a beautiful rose bush (which by the way is the best looking thing in the yard in the springtime) and some bulbs. I love them! She also helped me pull some plants out of Kristin's yard when Kristin first moved in (Kristin gave us the ok). Marilyn's thoughtfulness is on display in each flowerbed around the house.

Dorothy Maurer gave me some bulbs the same day I picked up my baby rabbits from Doug Maurer. They are a very generous family indeed. My uncle Jimmy sent me some 1 foot tall oaks that were sprouting in his yard. All but one died but the one that lived is not taller than me! (also is this picture is the cut down tree with the bird house and the firebush).

Joe's dad pulled me a flowering vine that has truly exploded. The purple flowers look really cool too... Thank you!

Finally, my mom constantly gives me plants that have really made a huge difference in my flower beds. I love the variety I have gotten from her. Everytime I go home (to Brenham) I take a walk around the house to see what new plants can take a bit of. Thanks Mom, I love you!

There are 3 points to this story. The first is to thank you for sharing your plants with me. I love them, and I think of and appreciate you as I water them and await their blooms. The other is if you have blooms to spare I will gladly make a home for them in my yard! And finally, if you have plants to share with others share them. This passing along of a little piece of you is a gift that keeps giving and it lasts longer than the jelly of the month club.

Arbor Day Came Through!

Recently, I got to enjoy my Arbor Day trees in a very tasty way. My peach tree produced some running down the chin juicy fruit. I got exactly 7 yummy peaches.

This is quite amazing to me because it was only a year and a half ago that I scoffed at the twigs that came in the mail when I ordered trees from Arbor Day. While my complete tree order did not survive, this tree makes the entire purchase worth it.

I did not take this picture but the trees I ordered looked exactly like this one when they came in the mail. Pretty rough right???

In fall 2009, the tree was barely taller than my 3ft garden fence (you can kind of see it behind the tub with herbs in it here) .

This spring I got pretty peach blossoms.

Almost there....

And the most lovely of all, ripe peaches!

And I must give credit to another Arbor Day tree - a red maple that is growing REALLY fast! This was one of the free trees that they sent. Its already over 6 feet tall!

Signs of Life

I absolutely love springtime (who doesn't) and am constantly amazed how overnight things can completely change from dreary and gray to alive and colorful. Walking around the yard the past couple days I have found so many great surprises waiting for me. I know its sounds like I am exaggerating but each of these fun surprises truly bring joy to my heart (I don't have kids so these things are my everyday pleasures, bear with me!).

One of the most exciting things are my peach and plum tree leaves/ blossoms. I bought both of these trees from the Arbor Day Foundation and was (un)pleasantly surprised when I got a box of twigs in the mail. Literally they mailed plain sticks ranging from a foot to 2 feet in length with a damp paper towel in a plastic bag protecting the roots. Nonetheless, I planted my little twigs in November 2008 and little trees appeared later in the spring of 2009 (they ended the summer about 3.5 feet tall). With the drought of the summer I knew the trees energy was put towards survival rather that growth of the root structure so I was pretty worried that January's freeze would do them in. Well this afternoon was was really happy to see pink buds getting ready to blossom on my peach tree and little leave growing on my plum tree. I know its probably unreasonable for me to hope for a few fruit to come from my grown up twigs in their second year of life at my house but my fingers are crossed.

A couple weeks ago I was pulling early weeds and found some little leaves from the cilantro I planted last year in a container. How exciting! I most definitely made a Mexican dinner that evening to celebrate and will continue to enjoy its harvest throughout the season (and hopefully beyond).

When I bought a small thing of curled parsley last year and planted it directly in my poor (clay) soil I had few hopes for survival. I was wrong. besides the basil and sage, the parsley did the absolute best (my potted flat leaf Italian parsley did not prosper nearly as must and will be planted directly in the ground this year). I had fresh parsley on just about every dinner last year and and happy I can re-introduce this herb in my meals.

Like the trees, I did not think my new hydrangeas would make it. I am happy to be proven wrong by these green leaves.
I don't think anything represents spring better than lily's and tulips. I didn't have time this year to plant tulips (that to do is already on next years checklist) but for now the lily's are more than adequate.

I didn't use thyme a lot last year but its coming back strong so I will have to try out some recipes with it this year.

And even the weeds are responding to the nice weather....

Hopefully soon I will have a little chick too. This hen, Circumstance (her fellow bantam roosters name is Pomp, get it?) has been sitting on an egg and some golf balls for about 2 weeks. In about 2 weeks there should be a new chick in the hen house!

Getting Ready for Spring

I love spring, the fresh flowers, nice weather, veggies from the garden and all the other things that come with it. What I do not love is how much it cost to buy the plants so that I can enjoy flowers and veggies throughout the summer (I found out just how expensive plants were last year as I tried to start flower beds from scratch...). I decided try my hand at growing plants from seeds. This seems like it should be a simple process- buy small containers for growing plants from seeds, fill with dirt, put seeds in dirt filled containers, water, and wait. It's not quite that simple though. It can actually be quite daunting.

I started the growing plants from seeds process this afternoon at Lowes. Walking it I see about 20 different versions of the containers to grow the seeds it. There is environmentally friendly (I'd rather go wallet friendly), some that you just have to add water to (the dirt grows when wet, kind of like the sponges that would grow from little pills I used to love to play with growing up), containers that are actually in the shape of small pots, and plain containers that are like the 6 pack you can buy at the store that already has plants in it (except the plain containers I was looking at had 72 spots to grow plants from seeds). Then they have all the types of containers for about 3 different brands, each with slightly varied offerings. After walking around the two different parts of the store that these containers were on display, I chose the plain container style with 72 spots to grow plants in. My particular package had 3 trays, each with the 72 spots. This means I have 216 spots I could plant plants in from seeds. I know, its a lot of spots but as I mentioned earlier, I really like plants.

Then it was off to choose my seeds. I thought I had a lot of choices with the container to plant the seeds in, I had was vastly unprepared for what was to come... There were literally hundreds of seed packets to choose from. I have always walked past the seed section(s) and never really paid a whole of attention to it. I've even bought seed packets before but never on this level. My goal was to fill my garden with plants all grown from seeds. Pretty ambitious right? So I'm back at the seed section and I first look at tomatoes. Then the peppers, then various squashes, then beans, and on and on. It would not be so bad if I just had to choose between the color or size of my future vegetables but there were so many varieties of each of the veggies- there were at least 15 types of tomatoes alone to choose from. I actually was sitting on the floor, choosing between the perfect for slicing and the excellent flavor varieties of tomato. It was pretty ridiculous but I finally made it out of the store with about 15 seed packets and a plan for the rest of the afternoon.

I filled 2 of my seed trays and decided to leave one empty - I know I will end up at the store wanting to try out just a few more plants before the planting season is over. This way I can avoid the whole buying the container to grow my plants in process later on.

So as of now, my fingers are crossed that baby plants will actually grow from all the seeds I planted. I know people do this every year but I am pretty skeptical. We shall see!

Here is what I've got so far-

And this is what I am hoping for in a couple weeks-

And in a couple months-

Getting Started

So I have been wanting to start a blog for a while, primarily to document my first years (and adventures) of home ownership (I bought my house in 11/08), raising chickens and other surprises along the way. Several times I have made home improvements to the house, got my first chicken egg (that really only happened once), or created a new flower bed and thought gosh, I really should do a better job at documenting these moments. Finally I decided I would create a blog if for nothing else then to have a scrapbook to look back on for my own memories.


So what will this blog consist of? My whimsy's of course! More specifically, I plan to include updates to the house, stories about my dog and the chickens, garage sale finds (or as Joe would say, my "spoils"), and ideas I find inspiring along the way.


To start, here are a couple pictures of my house from this past year. It was a really hard summer on my new grass because of the lack of rain, but the grass finally started perking up and trying to spread towards the end of the summer. Hopefully next year will be better for the lawn.




House Spring 09



Garden Spring 09


At the end of the summer I added 2 pallets of grass to increase the size of my immediate lawn. It has taken pretty well considering the big freeze we got but we will see for sure in a couple weeks.





Garden Fall 09