Just Because…

It been a long time since I’ve had a moment to update the site.  I’ve had way to many things going on and something had to give.  But now, I’ve gotten quite a few things off my plate, so I am looking forward to getting back to my random musings and such.

So, I was leaving for work one morning and realized that my Irises had bloomed.  I had no clue they were out.  See, too much stress lately.  And look, my behemouth of a French lavendar bush is getting ready to bloom as well
 

Then I looked over and saw that my new Spanish lavendar bush (as tiny as it is) is blooming too,  I love the bright purple blooms, so much more intense than my French lavendar, but nothing beats the smell I get from ole’ Frenchie though. 

It’s been very rainy here lately (really bad floods last week) and I am itching to get out and get my garden together.  My onions are coming along nicely, although I think something is wrong with the red onions I planted..  I think I have a plan for the front flower bed, can’t wait until we get some nice weather so I can get started.  So just pretend you don’t see all that grass in my flower bed, it’s living on borrowed time right now, trust me. 

Tags: Gardening

Spring Gardening Update

After a lovely morning at the spa (ah……) I came home and did some tidying around the front flower beds, in prep for the big flower planting push that I know is around the corner (I’m just waiting on the weather to decide if it really wants to be spring or not before I make that investment of money, time, and labor).

Here are a few pics from yesterday’s effort:

 My oldest daugther made a bird feeder at school (don’t ask what all is in there) so I had to hang it in the tree. Now, time will tell if we get any bird visitors.  I’m torn on the whole thing.  I hope they don’t come, because I think I have a better chance at fighting off the dog from messing with my blueberries than the birds.  And you already know how much luck I DIDN’T have at keeping the dog out of the blueberries last year…. 

The tulips are coming along.  I’m so excited that most of them acutally took!

I got the blueberries planted.  But this year, I’m keeping them up front until I can be sure the dog will not pull them up.  I don’t want a repeat of last year’s blueberry planting fiasco.

And since the weather was nice, I took a few minutes to trim up my wiley rosemary bush:

Before (this thing has a mind of it’s own….)

After: see how much better it’s looking.  And I have fresh rosemary to share with everyone.  (This thing STILL has a mind of its own though…. lol)

Next update will hopefully include the results of  my spring planting.  I’m thinking of adding a rose bush, some lillies and I think I need to add a new bush of some sorts…. And since the dog is very dutifully leaving my onions along, I’m doing to get another container going with some red peppers and some orange & yellow bell peppers.  This is going to be a great summer of fresh eating in my house.

Tags: Gardening

Garden Update

The Good:

Due to lots and lots of rain, I’m still not done planting. Which sucks because I wanted to have all my plants in the ground before June.  Oh well, there goes one deadline- LOL

However, the onions are doing really well.  They began sprouting about  2 weeks ago and are going strong.  My ginger has taken root, and is sprouting little whatever ginger sprouts

I’ve almost gotten the front yard done.  The lavender was pulled up (about 6 bushes in total),  and I planted two new ones.  Yes, I pulled up lavender just to plant more, but it’s a long story.  Just trust me  ;-)  .

I believe that in a couple of  weekends, with a little mulch, a little planting  and a little back work, the front yard will be up and running. 

The Challenges:

Well, the dog remains my biggest gardening challenge.  I swear, there is just something about my little containter garden that drives her crazy,  Not only has she eaten 4 of my blueberry bushes, but she’s also dug up my ginger twice.  Good thing ginger is hardy and relatively fool proof.

  <– see how lonely it looks without the blueberry 

And I really believe she thinks the onions are silently tormenting her or something.  She completely dug through (not dug up, but dug through) one of my containers.  It looked like a mini back hoe had been run through it. 

Then, since she got in trouble for foraging through the containers, she went and put a single paw sized hole in the dead center of the container.   Not once, but twice.  LOL!  I kid you not.  Then she looks at me like “See, I didn’t dig them up, I just played in the dirt a little”.

That dog is a trip.

Ok, that’s it for the garden check in.  I will have pics as soon as I get the mulch down and my new blueberry bushes arrive, and I get the tomato and jalapeno planted.  And yes, I’m a glutton for punishment by even attempting to put more vegetation in the backyard, especially more blueberries.  But I think the dog and I have reached and understanding  .

Only time will tell though- LOL.

Tags: Doggie Blues, Gardening

Dog- 2, Tessa- 0

Here’s a little story about me and my dog’s apparent fight for dominance over the backyard:

Ok, so here I am all psyched about my blueberry bushes that I’d planted and all. You know, feeling good and looking forward to my harvest next year.

So I get a call yesterday while I was at work. The dog decided she wanted to help plant as well, so she pulled up my blueberry bushes, and dug up my ginger. Bobby was able to find one of the bushes, but the other dissappeared without a trace. This is what I came home to:

Notice how she just reached in and pulled it?  I guess she had enough sense to know not to break my pot. (Darn dog).

So, being duly chastised, she hit me with the puppy dogs eyes, as though promising to not to it again.

Score one for the dog.

Then I come home today, looking to see how the lone survivor is doing…

Yep, you guessed it! 

She tried to help with that one, AGAIN.

Needless to say, I only found the bottom of the root ball.

So after some “choice words”  and yet another round of puppy dogs eyes promising to not do it again, I remain down two blueberry bushes. 

I still have my ginger though.  Unless, of course, she dug that up again, and filled in the hole with soil so I wouldn’t notice.  Which at this point, I would not put passed her.

Score another one for the dog.

Tags: Doggie Blues, Gardening

Earth Day Post, remixed

Ok, I lost the site yesterday (my fault, messing around with the wrong set of code), but I wanted to repost part of my Earth Day post. 

April 22 is Earth Day, a day

“designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment”

so says Wikipedia.

Here’s a list of 10 simple things you can do to celebrate Earth Day from Chaba Art:

1. Plant a tree in your yard or start a garden
2. Simply stop using pesticides on your lawn
3. Support a local, organic farmer or CSA
4. Buy organic
5. Spend time in nature
6. Buy energy-saving, compact-fluorescent light bulbs and other energy efficient products
7. Recycle
8. Shop Green
9. Join or make a donation to any organization that supports the environment
10. Create good thoughts

Now, I’m a health conscious person that enjoys living as naturally & organically as I can.  I’m no extremist (I won’t be chaining myself to any trees or anything soon, I’m too cute for that  ) but I do what I can.  So I decided to plant some ginger and two blueberry bushes I had ordered to help celebrate.

So once I got home, me & the crew got busy

The "Helpers"

Actually, they got in the way.   But an hour or so later, I had my mini garden looking good.  Check out my blueberry bushes (“bush” being the operative word here–I had no idea they would be that tiny):

Blueberry #1

Blueberry #2

Tags: Earth Day, Gardening