It is March and I GOT MY SEEDS!

This year, together with three friends, we have ordered our seeds for the 2015 garden! I can't wait to get planting.

This year I plan to go back to just staples with one or two new things to see how they work. The new things I want to try are beans, black and pinto type beans, and some grains such as amaranth and quinoa.  I am quite excited as we have had a wicked winter full of negative temps, several days if not weeks worth of -25 to -30 degree temps. And as of this morning we received a dump of snow on top of a rain/melt period which turned everything under the snow to ice. To put my hands in beautiful, black soil right now sounds like heaven!

Which leads me to the next picture......

Some how a glitch in my Ipad ordered me 23 packages of sugar snap peas. Baker Seeds is gracious enough to take the ones I don't use back and credit me, but oh me and my technology woes. Just when I think I am bad at gardening, the universe reminds me that I am also bad at technology. Which am I the worst? I guess this season will tell.

F^*# Zone 6a

F^*# zone 6!  It is May 13th and both last night and tonight we have a frost warning.  I know I have been getting spoiled the past few years with warm springs and plants in by Mother's Day, but man does it suck!

The only thing I wanted to do on yesterday for Mother's Day was work in my gardens.  Instead I froze my behind off picking flowers and hanging baskets at Brenckles Nursery.  They have a great supply of annuals and besides the cold weather, I was in a good mood.

Friday of last week, I found a new garden center not far from me.  Thanks to a Groupon, my mom and I went and found some really awesome perennials.  The name of the place is Farm & Garden and is located in Allison Park.  They only sell perennials and truthfully I am looking more for them than anything.  I would like to make this yard a low maintenance but highly visual space.

There is a lot to chat about this year.  In the fall of 2011 we got a large gregarious dog named Willie.  After hubster put in our Invisible Fence, Willie has carved paths out of some of my most favorite gardens.  He has also managed to stomp some of my most beloved plants.  So this is the year of moving those plants to areas he will not be able to reach.  But it also is giving me a chance to focus, which if you have read this blog at all or know me even a little bit, you know I lack this function.

So I will leave this post with the knowledge that this year I will be back in full force!  I promise lots of pictures and everything!

Memorial Day Madness 2012- The Year The Mayans Killed Me- Part Two

So as you can tell this whole Mayan Calendar thing has got me enthralled. I feel like I am prettying up my yard for the end. End of what? Probably just the year 2012, but just in case, I'll have some food too. Back to Memorial Day Madness (MDM)........ Saturday morning was a god sent. The temp at 10 am felt like the 90's. We stood at the kids soccer game contemplating what we were going to do. The kids saw the pool and knew it was going to open, so I skipped (GASP) the MDM on Saturday. Well at least I skipped it until we got home from the pool. Hub had dug out the ditch in the back for out dry creek bed. After grabbing a bite to eat, we headed out for river rock. Lots and lots of rock later, we had our dry river bed. Sunday, I FINALLY tackled my garden. I removed all the dirt from the bed and started sifting it. In those moments of sifting on my makeshift screen, I had flashbacks of my grandfather. He would sift his dirt and we all thought it was funny. Now I sit sifting dirt. However, it became clear quite quickly that this was going to be a LONG project. This invasive weed that had taken over my garden is everywhere and has so many tiny sprouts that I easily miss. For the sake of my poor seedlings that are awaiting planting, I forgo the sifting for now. We use new dirt and mix it with manure and compost. but we need more and we are late for dinner with hubs family. Monday, actual Memorial Day, kids go with pap to see my brother, cousin, & uncle march in the Millvale parade. Hub and i go back to the garden center. Hub is beat. So we buy the last of our needed supplies and head home. I added the remaining dirt to the garden bed and FINALLY plant my plants. Well in our 4x11 garden bed I planted all tomatoes, with some to spare. I then had enough dirt to start one of my new beds. Hub agreed to tear out one section of grass by the back door to house the remaining three garden beds. So with one down, I got my crops in.... Except for my cukes..... More about that soon. I plan to set up one bed for just herbs and the other for more veggies. But to do this, I need to sift two garden beds worth of dirt. Not looking forward to this AT ALL! In the end I know it will be worth it, but the thought of it right now is making me ill. So that will wait until next week, most likely. The one thing I do have to finish though are planting my cukes. They are doing really well in their small planters. I had a bed bought a long time ago from craigslist. I planned to use it for my daughter. We ended up going a different route with her bed but I held onto it. It has an old style spring board. So I decided to dig a hole against my house and sink the spring board into the ground. I will then plant the cukes in front of it and let them climb. Yesterday when digging this hole I kept hitting an old bird house that has been here since we moved in. I never fill it and keep forgetting to take it down. Well to my surprise there was a wasp nest inside. I angered the wasp in it when I moved the nest and it literally circled and chased me the remainder of the day. So I still have to plant the cukes, but otherwise, we're good!

Memorial Day Madness 2012- The Year the Mayan's Killed Me

I am currently sitting here in a semi coma from pizza and I have just cracked my first beer.  Here are the gory details on our Memorial Day Madness from the past two days.

First, we had about 4 yards of mulch delivered.  Hub thought this would be enough to cover the entire length of our property where a "flower bed" had be made by previous owners.  We also planned to mulch five other areas, including a new area under the kids new swing set.  After two days, we came up about a yard short, if not more.  UGH!

Second, the above mentioned area hasn't been touched in two years.  Last year, I was working as I had a retail shop with my tea business.  I have since closed it to spend more time with the kids, but I would have done anything to be sitting at the shop these past two days!  Anyway, since it has been so long everything was over grown, horribly over grown.  Instead of spreading mulch, we ended up splitting hostas, cutting forsythia that had tumbled in from the neighbors yard, trimmed the bushes back, pulled weeds, and removed dead plants.  We were able to unleash our poor quince tree which had been gobbled up by the forsythia.  I am hoping we can trim it in the fall and get a good harvest next  year.

Third, we split some of our tall grasses.  They are over 6 feet tall and have grown insanely thick.  One thick grass was split into 6 or 7 smaller grasses that we replanted to hide the neighbors unsightly area behind his garage.  Also so the other neighbors can't look straight down into our yard.  We still have 3 or 4 more of these big grasses to split.  I am dreading this as one of the blades of grass cut my neck.  It stung horribly all day.  I may be allergic.  That sucks!

Fourth, with the grasses we started planning for our next project which is to turn the water runoff ditch into a stone brook.  Well at least when it rains it will be a brook.... other than that it will be a stoned ditch.  I eventually want to install a rain garden, but that is on the back burner for now.  I can't wait!

Fifth,  Hubster was able to fix some of the holes that our new dog, Willie, had dug.  Hub has never had a big dog and so he is learning, sometimes unhappily, about how big dogs work.  Willie has dug a ton of holes in our yard.  Hub should have gone to school for lawn care for how much he LOVES grass.  He did graduate from Penn State so he could have, which I pointed out during a very heated conversation today.  In any case, as we took back pieces of our landscape, he took the sod and replanted it around in the holes.  He was very happy, which is good.

Sixth, some of that said grass from number 5 came from underneath the kids new swing set.  Last fall, well labor day, hub rented a truck and bought a big swingset from someone on craigslist.  It is massive and took 5 grown men and a u Haul to get it here.  It is not part of the cottage garden I envisioned, but it makes my kids happy.  They are only little for a short period of time.  The cottage garden can wait.  However, there is a tower of sorts.  We think underneath is meant for sand, however, my kids are too big for sand AND we have cats.  No thanks!  So today, hub recycled the grass for his holes and we mulched it.  Then we put their picnic table under there.  They love to eat outside!  It was perfect!

Lastly, we mulched my newest shade garden and sun gardens, only I forgot what I had planted.  So I was carefully trying to figure out what I had planted and what I wanted to pull out.  Unfortunately, I had shopped last year at the local nursery that specializes in local plants, which most people think are weeds.  By the end of that, I had enough.  My stomach hurt, I was over heated, slightly dehydrated and exhausted.  I could have  cried right there.  In all fairness, we took a short break to go to the nursery to get another yard of mulch since we ran out.  So after sitting for about an hour, the last thing I wanted to do was spread more effing mulch.  But we wanted to get it done!

This year hubster took off yesterday, today and then obviously gets off on Monday, so goodie for me, Memorial Day Madness is extended.  Tomorrow we will tackle the garden, which needs so much work, I could die.  It was great in the spring and then Willie jumped in it and dug out all of my spring crops.  Not to mention,  I have some kind of weed that keeps growing in it.  So I have to remove all the dirt and start over. We are also moving one garden bed.  My body is rejecting all offers, but I have to get this done.  The vegetables are one of the main reasons I garden!

Advil tonight...... Until tomorrow......

Sometimes Procrastination is Good

Back in the 10th grade I had a teacher, Mrs. Weber, who triumphantly told my class that, "Procrastination is the thief of time.".  While that statement has haunted me many a times as I pulled all nighters or late nighters before a big test, event, etc there is one time that she was wrong.  Yesterday.

We've had a warm winter and a warm spring.  Many days of 80 degrees followed by colder days of 60 or so.  None of which are too cold for most plants.  I was planning on planting my tomatoes, peppers and the like early this year thinking I would be in the clear.  However, Sunday into Monday parts of PA got blasted with snow and not just a little, but a LOT!  We were forecasted to get 6 inches and we got zero, but the air was cold and the rain was sleety.

Since I procrastinated putting my seeds to dirt, I never did get to plant early as I wanted.  But you see here is where I win because by procrastinating, I saved time and money!  I saved money by not having to buy more seeds or plants and time by not having to redo my garden.  So take that Mrs. Weber!  Us procrastinators aren't always wrong!

Spring of Armageddon

It's the year of Armageddon, or it is supposed to be according to the infamous Mayan Calendar.  As interested as I am in figuring out why the Mayans stopped on December 21, 2012, I had finally put the whole "world ending" on a back burner of my mind.  That was until today.

As noted in this blog on a prior posts I hate when trees are removed.  Trees to me symbolize life, earth, air, and they tug at my inner hippie heart strings.  Their beauty is striking and symbolic.  We bought a house built in 1926.  Trees back then were planted along the property lines as a green living fence.  These trees grew to twice even three times the size of our house.  Along the way someone hired an arborist that topped the trees.  Apparently, when you top the trees instead of pruning them, the tree can't heal itself properly.  When this happens, the wood begins to rot.  So now we have BIG beautiful trees, two to three times the size of our house rotting from the inside out.  This means I will eventually have to be the person I wrote about in the other posts.  The person who chooses to take down not one but three monumental trees.  I am sick, sad and overall feel like this is my armageddon.

Whether it is lucky or unlucky, I am not sure, but we currently do not have the money to remove them.  I think for now, they will stay and hopefully not fall and kill anyone.  When the day comes to take them down, it will be a very hard day for me.  Until then, I will just photograph them and enjoy their beauty.

Just When I Thought I Wanted to Live in the City....

I spent time in my garden.

Last night I attended a meeting about the fate of a historic building, in which my business is located. All of the insanity aside, the plans were quite beautiful. I envisioned selling my house and moving into the waterfront condos. With basically no need for a car, I would be living in my green heaven.

I should also mention I am at a point in my life where I want to do what makes me happy in the moment. Nothing else matters than this moment. So with that attitude I awoke today wanting to be outside and outside I went. I started with some simple weeding, followed by planting some plants that were given to me months ago by friends. I then got out the mower and mowed the front lawn. During the mowing process, I believe the humming put me into a trance. In that trance, I realized, I'm happiest in my garden. Even when it is back breaking and exhausting, my yard brings me such joy that losing it all together would be awful.

I am not going to worry about the future, but one thing I know...... I always need a garden.