Wild Kingdom

On today's episode of Wild Kingdom.....

I am being amazed by the critters in my yard/garden this year. It's almost as if they are tame and have no problems associating with me a lowly human. While we have always have some sort of animals and insects, I am marveling at how the numbers have increased over the years. Perhaps, they have realized part of my garden is for them. I grow sunflowers, everbearing strawberries for the birds. Almost all of my flowers are perfect for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. I have a cottage style garden not only for my pleasure but for the toads. And, I also grow certain veggies just for the rabbits.

Since it's Monday, I thought I would make this an easy blog post and acquaint you with the party that happens morning, noon, and night in my yard.

K got this shot of our "baby" rabbit. Don't know if she's actually a baby, but if you saw the size of the other one, you'd think so. Her favorite thing is to sit in my flower bed and wait to scare me by popping out when I go to plant something.



Ever wondered what toads do during the day? They dig holes. This surprise awaited me when I went to plant my new planters. Glad I put that dirt there for them. These are my attack frogs. They particularly like to attack the Mr. Man when he's walking through the yard at night.



Here's what happens the morning after a toad party. Yep. Tadpoles. In my new pond. These are the day old babies. I'm waiting for the older ones to get their legs so I can take pics of that. I'll keep you updated on my toad babies. (Btw, since this is Wild Kingdom, did you know one toad can eat approximately 3300 insects a month?)




Not the best pic of this big ol furry bee, but I like it anyway. Last year my yard was filled with bees. I could sit and weed and have bees buzzing all around not paying me any mind. Can't wait to see if they come back.



No butterflies yet, and those darn hummingbirds seem to know when I don't have my camera outside. I really want a pic of the beautiful ruby throat that visits daily.

Oh, and I'm going to start living in a cave so I can get back on schedule. I swear I'm going to have to start telling people I've moved just so I can get something done. Since the last time I blogged, the Mr. Man hit a deer with his company van(he's okay), K has been nonstop with things at school which she has so kindly volunteered me for, had to visit relatives at the bequest of the matriarch of the family-my grandmother, the riding lawnmower blew up so I'm now pushmowing all 2 acres of my yard, and the summer is only beginning. I'm not complaining but I would like 3 days back to back where something doesn't break, no one gets sick or hurt, and I'm not the only that answers the phone in my family.

I'm blogging tomorrow if it's the last, and only, thing I do. :)

In Love with Spring

Spring is in the air! I can smell it, feel it, and almost touch it. I'm hoping that stupid little groundhog was wrong, and spring will come early. Even though, I know, technically, there really is more winter and spring will not be here officially until my birthday.



Even so, I am starting to plan my garden. I love to garden even with that black thumb I have. I'm thinking of adding more rows to my vegetable garden and debating what veggies to grow. Yeah, I know. I did this last year too. There are just so many veggies and not enough room. I like to grow enough to eat fresh but still have some to freeze for the winter. Boy, did that come in handy this winter! If you have just recently found my blog, I just started doing real veggie growing last year.

(On a side note, the Mr. Man has BBC america on, and they have some men doing some tribal dance thing, and it's really distracting.)

Back to my garden. I have had requests from K to grow edamame, mung beans, corn, peas, lima beans, peanuts, and some exotic watermelon. Mr. Man has requested potatoes, garlic, and peppers. I personally like fresh tomatoes, lots of herbs, and want to try some broccoli and blackberries and so many other things! Oh, the dilemma! I'm thinking of adding some veggies in containers to sprinkle throughtout the yard and garden as well cause veggies can be so pretty.



Then there is the planning of my flower beds. This is the department I need serious help in. I just don't know what to do with them. Some years they look so bare then other years it looks like a florist shop exploded in my beds. I want something gorgeous and well planned. Does anybody do landscaping plans over the internet? (I have pics!) Possibly for jewelry. Just give me a plan and tell me what to get and I'll be good. I'm so horrible at decision making.

Obsession

The title says it all. I'm obsessed. With my garden, that is.

I am dying to get my plants in the ground. Literally itching for the weather to get warm or at least even out in temps. I have pretty much moved and divided everything I can. Now I'm just waiting to transplant my seedlings.

I have also become obsessed with getting plants. I keep adding to my list of things I "need". Notice the quotation marks. This implies that I probably don't need everything I've bought or am getting. For the most part, I have relegated my buying to fruits and veggies. I blame my sudden spurt of fruit seed buying on SevenAcreWoods from etsy. She had some mini orange trees she was selling in her shop. Living in Maryland, I never even thought about growing an orange tree. Heck, I've never seen an orange tree mini or otherwise. I also can't stop reading about my plants. I think I've read all the articles and books three times over.

My fruit and veggie list continues to grow. I am currently growing heirloom beans, peas, spinach, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, luffas, lemon basil, garlic chives, lavender, watermelons, anise hyssop, butternut squash, lemon balm, bee balm, cantalopes, corn, birdhouse gourds, sage, and goji berries(I have to wait for a couple of years to get these berries). I'm getting broccoli, pumpkins(for K), onions, lettuce, popcorn, edamame, peanuts(again for K), summer squash, and broom corn.

With my list ever growing, I have discovered something. I am a much better farmer than I am at growing flowers. I stink at growing flowers from seed or any other way. So far, I rock at growing at veggies and fruits. As you can see from the photos. Most of the plants in the pics are the ones I posted a couple of weeks ago. See how much they've grown. My flowers on the other hand either are not progressing or never came up. I guess I will just have to buy all ready grown flowers sometime unless I just decide to fill my whole yard with veggies and fruits. So, come on Mother Nature and help a girl out.

I'm Free At Last!

I'm Free!! I'm finally free of my mob style county government. It was a bit hairy towards the end, but we passed. Although, her supervisor made sure she stressed that we need to be in contact with the permits department. Well, like I didn't know that. At least, I'm free. Until another of my neighbor's gets a bee in their bonnet.

I am now so ready to get started in my garden in between working on the house and JSD stuff. I decided to grow cantalopes, butternut squash, peas, carrot, corn, spinach, potatoes, bush beans, watermelons, luffas, blackberries, and grapes. I also planted lemon balm, anise hyssop, lavender, chamomile, bee balm, garlic chives, lemon basil, and echinacia(or however it's spelled.). I have a couple more on my want list that I'm hoping to order by next week. Crossing my fingers. Then that would give me some pole beans, popcorn corn, bunching onions, sage, and broom corn. The best part is most of my seeds have come from organic or biodynamic seedsavers. I'm hoping to save my own seeds this year then be able to add to my plant list next year.

The whole southern side of my house is going to be my vegetable garden. I'm so excited. I just hope that Tilla the Killa, my cultivator/tiller, is up to the challenge. I have it all planned out which means it will look nothing like the plan, but I have a plan.

Oh, I promised pics. Well, here's one of a few of my darling seedlings. Mostly the veggies, but there are a few flower seedlings in there. My poor house looks like a greenhouse. Perhaps I'll get a greenhouse next year so I have a place to put all my seedlings. I have so many flats and trays with plants in them that need to go in the ground. I think it's about 100 or more plants though I haven't actually counted. Now if it would just stop frosting so I can get them in the ground.

I should be back to blog again tomorrow with new stuff from the shops. I've got my fingers crossed again.

Misplaced creativity

Finally got my supplies in. Yay! It's sad to think how much money it was for not a lot of supplies. It's sad too that I still need more. Maybe this will give me the push I need to get back to jewelry creating.

You see in the spring, especially with this house, I have a lot of creative urge to be in the garden or working on the house. I want to get things done and work every minute. Perhaps if someone actually forced me to do that I wouldn't have anymore creative energy in that field. While this may be all fine and good, the rest of my creative life suffers. I've made one new thing in approximately a week which is a long time for me. I'm going to see if I can make my two creative lives share time.
With all this creative surge, I did manage to decide what was going in my garden at least with flowers. I don't know what they will look like together, but you know I don't care. At least, I'll have lots of pretty flowers and some seed pods to do electroplating with. I decided on chinese lanterns, globe gilia, ornamental grass, chamomile, bee balm, baby blue eyes, oriental red poppies, a mix of clarkias, crimson king, verbascum, maltese crosses, and a mix of columbines. I do have a slight fear of all these seeds because they will have to be started in the house so the birds and ants won't eat them. I've never had a seed actually grow outside. I should've built a greenhouse because my sunroom is going to look like one. I think it amounts to like 3 or 4000 seeds. I got good deals. What can I say?!

Well, I suppose I should get down to business. Orchid has been updated with that lovely owl pictured and a few jewelry supplies and a pretty frosted blue glass mini vase both not pictured. I even finished my challenge item at Jewel Street Designs which is also pictured. A lovely pair of earrings inspired by Art Deco design with birds flying from wire. It can be found in my shop.

Helpless in the Garden

Thank you for all of your fantastic comments yesterday. I really appreciated it.

It's almost spring. I know because my birthday is just after spring. Actually, this year Easter falls on my birthday. I don't like that. I don't know why I have such an aversion to Easter being on my birthday, but I do. I found out last night on the Etsy forums that the last time Easter was on my birthday was 1913. Of course, it wasn't my birthday then so that was okay.

Anyway, there's only about a month and a half until the first day of spring. I have started to wonder what I will put in my garden. You might no know this, but I have a garden serial killer. Last year was absolutely the first time I had a garden that lasted, and it looked beautiful. I hope I can do that again this year. I raised cantalopes(or cantaloupes as I sometimes like to spell them), tomatoes, peppers, and had lots of pretty flowers. Most everything I planted last year was annuals except for my lilies and irises. That's a picture of one of my lilies above. This year I would like to add some more perennials.

I have a thing about lilies so I will probably add some more. I was also thinking about gladiolus because I just love how big and beautiful they are. Tomatoes and bell peppers. I would love to plant a big old night blooming jasmine somewhere on the property, but I would have to find one first. I do have a grapevine to plant, but I was thinking about adding a blackberry vine as well. I remember picking wild blackberries with my father when I was little and my grandmother would visit from Florida. Is squash hard to grow because I would love to add that as well.

I just don't know what perennials to plant because I know nothing about plants much to my step-mother's chagrin. Japanese or Asian plants are my favorites and they do well in my garden because of the sandy, acidic soil we have being near the beach. It doesn't help that I have a big barren wasteland of yard and so very little money. I might go to the auction again this year and see what I can there on my list.

What do you have in your garden and do you know anything about peach trees because I have one and haven't got a clue?

Home Improvement Roundup- Garden Style

Time for another installment of Home Improvement Roundup. This one will be a quicky. Just a little peek into one of the things that I have been doing on my so-called summer vacation.

I have gotten a pedestal sink for my bathroom remodel so that will be coming sometime in the near future, and I stress sometime. Tiling and siding will also be future installments.

The pics are of my new and improved garden. One is a sort of before pic. It is actually the other side, but that is pretty much what it all originally looked like. One pic is what it looks like now, and the other is my new walkway that I am currently adding. Check out the awesome leaf stepping stones I got. The rocks are a great addition to any garden. I like them because they just have a really clean look about them, and they help hold the moisture close to the plants. I have some beautiful pepper plants, lilies, double impatients, a gardenia with the same name as me, musk melons, and some beautiful ornamental sweet potato vines. I'm really quite proud of myself because I have not lost a single plant. Most of the plants are annuals, but it helped to plan out where I wanted plant placement so I can add more perennials next year. I will definitely be adding more vegetables and herbs. Tip on the vegetables and herbs. Just add a few right in with your common flower beds. They really don't take much more care than your regular plants.