Playing in the Dirt

I've been in 'clean up and purge' mode lately.  On the rotten days this past week I've been working my way through the basement (and have the purge pile in the dining room to show for it, much to Hubby's dismay) and on nice days working my way through the yard.  Because our yard is so tiny, one overgrown bush makes you feel like you're in the jungle.  Several overgrown bushes and leaves collected in the flower beds make me feel like the yard is closing in.  Luckily, it was nice enough this weekend to attack almost the entire yard with my hedge trimmers, clippers, and rake.  The yard no longer makes me twitch!  Still have weeding to do on the veggie garden side and mulch EVERYTHING, but it's starting to look more like a yard/patio, and less like the great outdoors.  I also spent a lot of time planting in the last few days. Replanting annuals in the font garden that were in danger of being smothered by the monster Hostas, planting in the kitchen (in a 50 cent tag sale cup),

planting new perennials in my flower beds,

and LOVING the new flowers- clematis and purple pincushions.  They give such a wonderful English garden feel!  Once I get much and finishing touches in the yard, I'm planning a glamour shoot for it.

The porch didn't escape the panting frenzy either.  Since getting my rustic metal sphere at Brimfield, I've been planning to plant in it:

I had to rip apart the already established flowers to replant them, so they're still deciding if they like their new home

You don't see as much of the sphere as I was hoping, but I'm curious to see how the flowers will take and grow (hopefully!)

Did you get a chance to play in the dirt too over this beautiful weekend?

Taming the Jungle

Time to play catch-up after a relaxing week.  Vacation laundry: DONE!  Unpacking: DONE!  Fixing my unfortunate attempts to photoshop pics for this blog on an ipad in the sun: DONE!  Still a lot of cleaning and catching up to do, though. I need to tame the jungle formerly known as my yard before wild animals start taking up residence- a wet week while we were away made the weeds very happy.   I did start some trimming yesterday, so the path we created last year could be usable without walking into bushes.

Hopefully the veggie garden will be as happy this year as it was last year.  This pic was taken from a very similar view last August:

I can't wait until later in the week when I'll get a chance to start getting down a fresh layer of mulch.  I'm so excited to get the most use as possible out of our yard this year.  As soon as I get it all cleaned up, I'll post some awesome pictures.  The yard was the first thing we fell in love with when we looked at this house and I haven't given it the exposure it deserves here- that needs to change.

Exciting Clark update coming on Wednesday!!

Veggie Garden Lessons

This is our second year making an attempt at a veggie garden.

We were quite a bit more successful this year than last, but it's still been a learning experience.  I do think it's still kind of remarkable considering where the veggie garden started.

And now:

This year we learned...

Morning glories would stage a coup of the whole yard if we let them.

I can't take credit for these, the previous owners had them and they keep coming back with vengeance.  I seriously have to go out and trim it down every other day to keep it from going too far into the path.  But I've figured out how to control them!  In addition to trimming them frequently, mulching on our side of the fence made a huge difference.  I still have to weed the little stragglers that keep trying to pop up, but it's finally manageable.  In the summer, they're 100% more attractive than the naked chain link fence.  No chain link fence is sexy.  Not even naked ones.

If you leave green peppers on the plant long enough, they'll turn into red peppers or even yellow peppers.  Who knew??  Ok, I know this isn't revolutionary, but I didn't know!

Our strawberries have been producing fruit ALL summer!  We didn't get to eat any until a month ago though.  Why?  Chipmunks decided they looked tasty too and kept beating us to them.  Thankfully, a neighbor recommended the perfect remedy.  Boil hot pepper seeds in water and then spritz the plants with the pepper water.  Works like a charm, and since we're also growing jalapenos in the garden, it was a free fix!  No, the strawberries don't end up tasting like peppers.

Tomatoes get diseased, but generally still produce tons of fruit.  Cucumber plans catch tomato's sickness and most of the plants wither away.  We've gotten several cucumbers, but we would have had dozens if the plants stayed health.  This obviously needs to change next year.  Since we don't have enough room to rotate our crops as recommended, I'm going to hunt for an organic treatment for the soil that will protect the plants next year.

Good thing eggplants don't catch the same sickness- I can't wait to try these!  Only thing I'd change about these next year is the location we planted them.  They get huge and are encroaching on my carefully planned path.  I'll forgive them though, since they're going to end up giving us several awesome looking eggplants.

One thing's for certain though- we certainly can grow tomatoes.  More than we can ever eat.

Time to make some pasta sauce!