Garden Fever!

Well, the girls caught the garden fever. As I was planting more flowers this year the girls asked if they could plant some too. We had some extra pots that came with the house, so we set them up next to the bridge.

We went down to a local nursery and the girls each picked out a 4-pot of annuals to plant. I also dug up several stray violas that went crazy in the flowerbed so they could add them to their pots too.



Here's Jessica's:

And here's Mackenzie's:

And Rebecca's:

Look it! Look it!

I know this is extremely and unforgivably a tad late...but look what I got for Mother's Day!!!

A fun bridge to go over our irrigation ditch seasonal creek!

And a wishing well to go over our real and unsightly well!!

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do around the well. I want to make a flowerbed around it but I cant decide on the shape or size. Any ideas? I can't go too crazy because the driveway is there on the right.

And here's the flowerbed this year. We're still waiting for some things to bloom here since it's been such a cold spring.

This is the newest flowering addition! We put two rose plants in the back and I'm hoping the hostas hide the ugly concrete jutting out. The rest are all annuals. There are red, purple and yellow, even though you can only see the red ones.




These pots are my favorites for this year. It was fun picking out the flowers and arranging them.

It's Finished!!!

(I'm doing it again...reposting! To be honest, I posted this earlier this month when I thought maybe we weren't going to do the Before/After thing at BooMama's and I just couldn't wait any longer. Shows you how far lack of patience gets you! So...want to see more Before and After? Go to BooMama's and check out what everyone else has done!)



I've been dying to show you the flower garden I worked on this year, so here it is! Enjoy the before, middle, and after pictures!



Here is before...taken a year ago May. We moved into this house 3 years ago and this is pretty much what it looked like, minus the bike:

Not that I have anything against rock gardens, but with the loooooong Montana winters I decided I needed something with some POW! I needed bright colors and lots of 'em during our short summer.

So we got rid of the rock. It was a full family event and the kids loved it. Loved. No, actually they hated it, but they do love the results now and beg me to let them water it.

We took out the weed paper, broke up the dirt, added compost, put on new weed paper, and topped it with soil pep:

And....voila! Three months later all these wonderful flowers magically appeared!

Ok...not quite. I actually did a lot of research on what flowers grow well here and what color scheme I wanted and what height the plants would be and where to put them. Because I like to throw caution to the wind like that.

But what I finally decided was to go with red, yellow and purple. I wanted a mostly perennial garden. I like it when they come back. And I'm not into high maintenance. But the front row are all annuals so I can change them out each year and get a different look if I want.

Here's another shot at the before...

And this was taken the end of July, after they'd been in the ground over a month...

It's amazing how much they grew since then! This is what we have now and I absolutely LOVE it! It was a lot of work in the beginning. A lot. But it's been so fun since then. It's like therapy.

My Therapy Garden.

So here is what you see when you walk up to our front door:

Now for some details...

These are some of the plants I grew from seed (the only ones that made it, I'm embarrassed to say). Salvia and Black-eyed Susan. It's fun to see them now, but I probably wont go from seed any next year.

Here are the columbine. I was worried for a while that they wouldn't make it, but they hung in there.

Here are the Prairie Sun Rudbeckia. Some of these got almost as big as my hand, fingers spread out!

I planted day lilies and they are some of my favorites. I planted purple and yellow and next year I'll get red, too.

Now these are my very favorite! Blanket flower. The bees love 'em too. Hey, as long as they don't love me, I'm good.


Here are some close-ups of the whole garden. The salvia were in between blooms so they aren't as bright in these pictures. And you can barely see the coral bells in the back...they were disappointing, but maybe they'll bloom next year.

Of course I'm already planning for next year. I want to transplant some of these into another bed I'm preparing. This fall I'm also planting more bulbs in the back...purple iris and some gladiolus (red, purple, and yellow of course). There are a few other types of plants I need to get to finish it off. I already cant wait for spring!

I know you're not as excited about all this as I am. It's just so wonderful that they turned out ok, considering I had no idea what I was doing...and that I've managed to kill every single house plant I've ever had. Every. One. Not to mention the plethora of grasshoppers. It was like the plague!

I'm all over it

BooMama is hosting a before and after segment on her blog in July. So I thought I'd be rather industrious and join in.

I'm already in the process (yes, still) of that whole garden makeover thing. So, joining this before and after deal was a pretty easy decision...since I dont actually have to come up with something new...and I'm more than half way finished already!! Wooo Hooooo!!!

I know I just posted an update on the progress last week, but here are/were the goals:

1) Remove the rock from the flower bed (since it was, you know, a rock bed to begin with)
2) Replace the weed paper.
3) Bring in the soil pep.
4) Buy more flowers.
5) Decide how to arrange everything.
6) Plant, water, watch them grow.

I can already say that this has been kicking my butt more than I expected. Whew, that's a lot of work!

Hopefully by the end of July I'll have everything in and it will be blooming nicely for the pictures.

If you want to see more before and after plans, check out BooMama's site.

Garden Makeover Update

Well, I know it seems as if I haven't done anything about the flowerbed remodel. But really, I have. And not just me...the whole family pitched in - not all voluntarily, though. (If you need to catch up...click here for the previous garden posts.)

The girls and I picked up rocks and rocks and more rocks, shoveled them up, hauled them off. But just like eating Ramen noodles...you work and work at it, but it never seems to end.

Finally Stan had pity on me and in one day we got out there, with his man-power, and we finally got rid of all the rocks, took out the old weed paper (whatever it's called), pseudo-tilled the dirt clay underneath, added some compost, laid down more weed paper, and spread the soil pep.

I should have taken a picture then, because I'd only gotten about 1/3 of the soil pep that we needed. So it sat there, half naked for a few days until I could get to town to buy more.

So anyway...here's the before picture (taken about this time last year):

And here's the after (although I still need more soil):

Next we started planting. I'm wishing I just waited and bought the plants so I could see some quick results, but oh well. I'll still need to get some anyway to fill in the missing spots. At least I have the plants I started from seed...and the now sad-looking columbine that I'd gotten earlier too.

Here's Jake helping with the seedlings and the bare roots/bulbs (yeah, should have planted those at least a month ago...but winter has been taking it's sweet time leaving):

And here's Mackenzie helping me with the columbine:

By the way, the hollyhock didn't make it. I didn't mourn too much, though.

I'm not finished planting, so I'll post more later. Please tell me this isn't a huge mistake...with a dog who likes to dig, the elusive rabbits (and deer), and a little boy who also likes to dig.

Update and a Funny

I know you've been propped on the edge of your seat just waiting for another gardening update. So without further delay, here it is.

The seeds have sprouted.

The end.

Ok, so I cant just leave you hanging without a picture.

Lovely photography skillz, I know. All but 6 of the 70 pots have sprouted and some are even growing their "real" leaves (which I didn't know that the first two leaves they sprout are not "real" leaves).

And see those really tall ones? Those are the naughty hollyhocks that gave me so much misery earlier. They must have learned their lesson.

I'll probably have to thin out the lobelia (far right two rows) because the seeds were like grains of sand so I just dumped some in...now they're everywhere! I'm a gardening genius!

So that's it. The very precious few "nice" days that we've had around here didn't go toward gardening stuff. And I just cant bring myself to get out and do it while it's snowing (even though most of the time it doesn't stick).

---

Now for the funny...

Last weekend some wonderful friends of ours came to visit from...across the state, where we used to live. We miss them.

Of course the Wii got plenty of exercise. At one point four players were set up to play golf, and Jessica was one of them. She's really bad at it, bless her heart, but she was going to play anyway. As the game loads it tells each players' record best score. Stan let Jessica know that she was +40 (yes, that is 40 OVER par...her personal best) and he said something about her needing to bring up her score. Her reply?

Without hesitation, she said, "And I'm gonna dance while I'm doing it!"

So I guess if you're going to be bad at something, you might as well dance while you're doing it. At least you'll have fun. Unless you're bad at dancing.



Oh...and here's another funny from today...same kid...

The girls ask one of two questions every time we go somewhere...do we get to go in? or...can we stay in the car? Dont ask me why, but they do. Every time.

Anyway, I pull into the Target parking lot and they ask if they can stay in the car. I tell them of course they are going in. They whine that they don't want to go in and Jessica asks me...

"Are you scared to go in by yourself?"

Flower Power: Garden Makeover - Seed Update

Yesterday the hollyhocks started misbehaving. They ALL got these stringy, white, spider web kind of stuff growing out of them. Just the hollyhocks...no one else. At first I thought maybe that's normal. But who am I kidding?! That cant be normal!

And it wasn't.


After searching online...all of 5 minutes...my patience wore out. So I went to the Ferry-Morse website (the brand of my greenhouse) and found the Gardener's Help Line!!!! Wow! Can I just say that the lady I talked to was SO nice and helpful?! Here's what I described to her (see those three rows of naughty hollyhocks?):

And she didnt make me feel like an idiot at all! Now that's impressive! And I found out that I dont have to throw it all out and start over (as my wild imagination had me convinced).

It's mold.

Good grief! I already know I can grow mold! Just ask my refrigerator. I want to grow flowers!

But a few Q-tips later the mold is cleared off, the plants are breathing and I even saw the beginnings of a few little sprigs thinking about showing up!!!

Can you see it? Toward the bottom...there's a little green white-looking rounded part down there. That's a hollyhock about to poke through!! Wooooo Hooooooo!!!

As I looked around, there is also one black eyed susan that started sprouting (because its seed is the same color as the soil I dont think that one got buried at all) and a salvia starting to peek through.

Oh! Oh! And...I was at Lowe's again today (starting to feel like a stalker) and found some Columbine plants already started for me and blooming! You know...the seeds that didnt make the cut because they were going to take way too long? I got 3 plants. Hopefully I wont kill them before it's time to plant them in the garden:

I'm not allowing myself to get nervous about all this. Well...not too much, anyway.

Lighting:

For now I decided to not buy any lighting for the plants. A while back I had thought I was being frugal and got some fluorescent light bulbs but when I put them in the bedroom I hated it. It wasnt bright enough and it was a weird color to me. So I took them right back out and set them on the shelf.

Well this time the "I might need it someday" paid off. I stole got a little shop light from the garage (hope Stan doesnt miss it), put in the neglected bulb, engineered it right over the greenhouse...and there ya go! No money spent!

Dont worry. Even though it does look hideous, it's in a part of the house that is hideous all by itself - the sunroom (that needs to be torn down and re-done...someday).

Flower Power: Garden Makeover - Planting the Seeds

Here we go!! I've officially started gardening. Even though it's cold and windy outside, I stood in the warmth of my kitchen with a fire going, still in my pj's and planted my seeds! I cant even say I got my hands dirty...just my fingers. Gotta love it!

So here we go. These are the seeds I planted in that handy dandy self-watering greenhouse mentioned in the last post...

In case you are Monk insanely observant...you would have noticed from the last post that I got 6 packets of seeds but decided to only plant 5 of them. The "Columbine" flowers were going to take 25 days to germinate and 240 days to bloom. So you're outta here! I'll buy the plant this summer if I still want you. I mean...my patience only goes so far. Everyone else will germinate somewhere around 10-15 days and will bloom within 3 months. I can do that. Oh...except the hollyhock wont actually "bloom" with the pretty red flowers until next year. I decided to give you a chance anyway.

Do you like how I refer to them as "you" instead of "it"? They say it's good to talk nicely to your plants to help them grow. Well, I dont always talk nicely to my own kids...and they still grow. I'm kidding - kinda.

So there I am, planting 70 little pots with various seeds. I did 2-3 rows per type of plant to make it easier on me to keep up with. (Had to put name tags on those little suckers, ya know.) I wasnt sure how many to do, so I tried to do enough to compensate for any death loss (I know...that's a cattle term, but you know what I mean).

Since I'm a follow-the-directions kind of girl I put 2-3 seeds per pot like it said and covered them as directed on the seed packet. To help with handling those tiny seeds...I put them on a little plate...

And looking at that now...makes me wish I had a Coke and a smile (or Dr. Pepper since I cant stand Coke).

Anyway...

With only mild distractions (girls were watching cartoons, but Jake woke up in the middle of my planting, with an unpleasant surprise in his diaper...and he was hungry - go figure) and only one real mess-up (accidentally put a Salvia seed in with the Black-Eyed Susan I'd already planted) I got it done easily enough.

Here it is! I took a pic without the clear plastic top on so you could see it better. Like my name tags? Oh and in case you're new to this like me, they come as little, flat wafers and when you add water they grow and have this little netting around it to hold the soil in. And since they're so tiny you have to dig in it with a pencil to plant the seeds. Fun!

Now we wait.

And wait.

Just one afterthought: Why in the world did I plant Salvia (sage) here in Montana?! That'd be like planting a Mesquite tree in Texas - they're everywhere! Oh well. The picture on the packet was pretty. And if I dont like it, as the saying goes...I brought you into this world garden, I can take you out!

Next steps:

~ Decide what artificial light I want to use for my seeds and where to put them after they sprout (yeah, should have figured that out by now).

~ I'll probably wait a week or two to take the rocks out of the flowerbed and bring in mulch. We're supposed to have a wet week and I need to go thru the kids summer clothes for a consignment sale soon.

Flower Power: Garden Makeover

Spring is here!!!! Woooo Hooooooo!!!! Although, someone needs to tell the snow that it's time to stop falling. It has snowed nearly every day last week, including the first two days of spring. But that's not "blanketing" my spring mood.

I have a project. A fun project. And I'm SO excited!! I'm going to overhaul our poor excuse of a flowerbed. Even though I was feeling all gung-ho for a full blown property renovation for all of our 1.5 acres, I've decided to start small and just do the front, existing flowerbeds (well, and a little behind the house too...but we'll discuss that later).

Here are some "before" pictures (taken last May):

Above: To the right of the front door, and first thing you see when you come to our house. B-O-R-I-N-G!

Below: To the left of the front door. There really are windows behind the lilac bushes. This area is not too bad but needs some TLC.

When we moved into this house nearly 3 years ago it had a nice sized flowerbed along the front of the house. But it's a rock bed and I just can't like it.

It is taking me 3 years to fix it because the first summer was devoted to getting the house - and our emotions - settled (we moved here the end of May, right after saying good-bye to Stan's mom). The second year I was big prego and bending over a flowerbed was about #97 on my top 10 list of fun things to do. The third year I had my hands full with child #4, who did NOT like sitting in the grass and watching...so I did a few flowers in terra cotta pots to appease myself. So here we are, actually approaching our 4th summer in this house.

I wont bore you with the details now, but I'll keep posting about the progress as we go along. Although I must say that one item on the list is to get rid of those evergreen trees that look like earmuffs on the house (See first picture).

I'm new to this whole gardening thing and have killed every single house plant I've ever tried to keep. Every. Single. One. (I've killed an ivy for crying out loud! That's nearly impossible!) So this should be quite entertaining for you.

I chose to work with a flowerbed instead of a vegetable garden because...well...this is just more exciting for me. I mean, I dont really like vegetables anyway and I'd feel more pressure for them to succeed, and then there's the work of putting them up once they've grown. That and I just want something fun and not something practical or functional. My whole life is practical and functional...lets have some fun.

So I've done a little homework and looked into this crazy Montana micro-climate insanity to see what might actually grow here. I chose my color scheme and some (hopefully) easy to grow plants that are also deer and rabbit resistant so I dont get discouraged. I know. Nothing is fool-proof. Especially for this fool!

So we're supposed to check out the color wheel and find harmonizing colors to plant in our garden. Colors like red, yellow and orange are hot and energizing, while blue, purple and green are more soothing. Well...I'm going a little against the grain and I decided to go with red, yellow, and purple! I mean...red and yellow go together, purple and yellow go together, red and purple go together...so what's the big deal? I think it will be great!

I went to Lowe's and picked out some supplies to get started. I'm going to start some seeds inside so that they will be ready to plant in May. Most of what I got are perennials (for any novices like me...that means they come back each year)

Anyway, here is what I have so far:





Pretty, huh? This is just the tip of the iceberg. These will probably be all that I get for now and when it's time to plant I'll buy some plants (mostly annuals...only grow one season) from a nursery to add to my collection.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoy our garden makeover. Being new to this I'm sure I'll make some pretty dumb mistakes along the way, but ya gotta start somewhere, right?

Next step:
Plant seeds in that handy dandy self watering greenhouse that you see in the picture and get them growing. Also, clear out those ugly rocks and bring in the mulch!