I could sell baby maple trees!

Things are really taking off in the garden! More tomato plants have flowers, I have counted 8 baby tomatoes, the cucumber plants are getting bigger, the peppers have little bud like things in the centers and those seedlings from last week look like real plants now!!

I did get a little sad thinning the seedlings... all that potential food... if I had room I would have replanted them, it seemed like such a waste ;). I also had to pull about 50 baby maple trees out of my garden!!! Those "helicopters" that have been spiraling through the air for the past two weeks from my beautiful maple tree have sprouted in my garden. They were really cool looking, the helicopter part was sticking straight up as the seed started rooting into the ground. The seedlings were beautiful too... I felt they would have made great trees!! I should have planted them in pots and sold them on craigs list!!! LOL!!! I just might next year, watch and see!

Things are growing!!!

Gardening is a rollercoaster of ups and downs.


The last two blogs may have been downers, but I'm now excited!! The seeds the twins helped sow have sprouted!!! The rows are not perfect and the experience left me humbled... but we have plants!!!!



More great news, When trying to take a picture of the blossoms on my large tomato plant, I found a baby tomato!!!! Wooo hoooo!!!! I'm serious, I'm taking a camera with me to the garden every day from now on!!

Things are also progressing nicely in the flower beds! All the plants the children planted in the boxes have taken off (I guess God was smiling on them afterall). My peonies have blossomed... and they are pink!!! Wow, were they worth the wait!!! They look great with my purple irises!!

Darn bugs!

Man! some nasty bugs ate my tomato plants! We've been taking them off and killing them for days now. Today however I went to take them off with a camera in hand (to post their mug shot) and there are none. I guess it's a good thing... I'm thinking I'm going to take a camera to the garden every day!! LOL!!

Gardening with kids... what was I thinking???

Have you ever had a fustrating moment when you throw up your hands and say "WHY????"

Lately I have had more and more of these moments!!! For instance: planting the seeds for the lettuces and carrots. Twin 2 decides she neeeeedddddsss to do it by herself so she opens the seed pack and it goes everywhere! They know exactly where they want things (and it's not exactly where I wanted them!) When planting the planters boxes on the back deck they did it "themselves" which is fine but hard to watch! If those plants survive god was smiling on them!!

Gardening in general is fusturating too! It is a lot of work and good exercise which I would love but I keep getting interrupted (the kids only love it for so long and I like to get lost in my work). PLUS, everytime I use the hose the holder falls into my irises... I think my DH put it there as a cruel joke... it must be moved!!!!

To add to my stress... I think the soil is wrong... it doesn't seem to soak in water unless I put in a ton. I even watered in the rain yesterday. It's just the soil from the ground... maybe I should have added something besides compost????

So, honestly... I have no idea if anything will grow!!! I have used time release fertalizer and fish emulsion. Compost and lime went in when we tilled the beds. But along with all the other issues... the plants went in soooo late!

Boy what a cranky blog! Reading it over I guess it could be worse :) I really do know that whatever will be will be and the kids are just being kids!! It's a learning experience for all of us and it's not always going to be easy!!! Isn't that just life???

"Mom, that scarecrow is too funny to scare anything!"

The rain sprouted my creativity this morning! Daddy had told the girls we needed a scarecrow for the garden. Well, I only make stuffed scarecrows in the fall so I got out the girls art supplies and we had a blast!! Two pieplates used as a head will make noise to scare the crows away and strings of beads added for the hair will bang away too! The fun foam body, hands and feet are just plain cute I had originally thought the beaded arms and legs would bang against the pole but it's further away than I had thought.

The twins cut out the arms and legs, punched the holes, and beaded the hair and arms but got bored so I did the legs... it was a lot of work!

I can only imagine what my hubby will think of our girlie scarecrow! Sunshine came home from school and thought it was so cool but gave me the quote for my title "Mom, that scarecrow is too funny to scare anything!" Hey, it bangs around, it might work???

Garden is in...pretty much

Well, it's been a while since I last blogged. I'm sure I've lost the few readers I had but it's been busy here!

The twins graduated preschool! It was a fantastic ceremony!! I'm so proud!

I have had the opportunity to accompany Sunshine on her field trips and field days at school... I am so thankful for that!!
When we are not doing all the school activites or visiting family and friends we've been in the garden!

How exciting it is to watch the plants grow and the flowers bloom! I have found that the previous owners planted some wonderful perrinals... I have flox, lilacs, peonies, irises... plus wonderful wildflowers like lilly of the valley and columbine...even a lady slipper! I'm fusturated with the violets that have taken over the ivy they had planted in one corner... boy that stuff grows everywhere... I thought dandilions were bad!!!









My veggie garden is in and growing as well! We did cheat and buy plants of tomatoes, peppers, cukes, and herbs. I'm trying to grow the lettuce and spinach from seed....LOL!!!! Wish us luck on that! I haven't seen any progress yet but it's still early ;)

The garden has been dug!

Today we finally dug the garden!

What a job that was! It was comical to say the least! We rented a sod cutter so my husband cut the area using a tarp as a template. It came out much bigger than we realized but hey, more room to spread out!!

Then it was time to get the kids involved! We picked rocks! It was so fun to watch their different styles. Daddy told them they could earn 1 penny for each rock. This got Sunshine very excited! She counted every rock she picked... 1042 so she says! The twins went about this activity differently. #1 picked up the rocks, looked at them for their beauty, sorted them by size, and gave them as gifts. #2 decided she wasn't really into picking rocks so she helped with shoveling compost. I love watching how they do things!!!!

Then the girls went in for lunch. Daddy used the rototiller and then we picked more rocks!!! Wow, were there a LOT of rocks!!!!!

We tested the soil and it was very acidic so we shooed off the kids and added a bunch of lime and our home grown compost (Watch for a blog about this stuff!) and rototilled again!!!

It looks soooo good now!!!!! It was a ton more work than I realized (especially since we also tackled the drainage trench around the house at the same time) but I'm so glad we did it....I can't wait to plant!!!