Spring craziness!

I've been swamped with recent travel and work and not had much of a chance to pay attention to the garden at all. In the meantime, everything is growing like crazy! I can see many of the perennial plants that I put in last year peaking up out of the ground. There is new life in the Cardinal Guard, Milkweed, and Lemongrass among others. Even the butterfly ginger, crinium lily and other bulbs that I got from some random craigslist person seem to be doing well. The knock out roses are blooming. Of course, the weeds are also growing like crazy so I am going to need to find some time to take care of those but, otherwise, it's pretty damn nice out there.

I'm extra excited about the vegetable garden. Before taking off

for my travels, I dropped any seeds that I have leftover from last year into the ground. I adjusted th

e automatic drip system that I had installed last year and made sure that I didn't set it too high. Last year, I drowned a few squash plants. I figured that whatever happened to come up would make me happy, and anything that didn't

wouldn't matter since they were just leftover seeds. I leave town for 10 days and come back to a thriving garden. The beans, peas and carrots are doing so well!

I was feeling inspired by the ease of that and, as usual, went a little overboard at the nursery. I planted potatoes for the first time a few weeks ago and they're coming up really fast already. I've also got the usual peppers, onions, squash, zucchini, beans, spinach, and tomatoes. I'm still learning how to do all this but if even a third of this stuff last long enough to feed me, I will be a happy girl!

She who hesitates...

I've been meaning to walk around the backyard taking pictures again. Two of the three beds in the previous post are from the front yard and I've been doing a ton of work in the back lately. I took pictures about a year ago, after first starting the makeover and it looks so much better now, so I could do one of those pretty before/after views. In particular, there are these amazing mexican sunflowers that attract butterflies, are well over 6 ft. tall, and have fostered some pretty amazing pictures for Josh. But... I might have waited too long. Those sunflowers aren't looking so hot after a crazy storm last night.



















The rain was even enough to take out the poor protective gargoyle....and to spread my new bed with lettuce and spinach seeds over into another bed. That might actually work out well for me. I was feeling lazy and just dumped a ton of seeds in one small area. Spread out, we might be having salads aplenty in 30-45 days.

I think we actually got pretty lucky. The rain will make most of the plants all happy and, hopefully, photogenic in a few days so that I can take that next round of pictures.

Yard progress

Josh and I have spent a ton of time in the yard lately, creating little garden beds all over. It's hard to imagine what these will look like next spring, when everything has grown in a bit.

We put a birdbath garden in the front, right by our living room window. So far, the birds are completely rejecting this bath for the much further away one that I got for $5 off of craigslist. Bastards. I've also been falling in love with succulents, which I've been using on the edge.

We created two beds around trees in the front where the jasmine used to hold court. We've almost killed it entirely.. only about 6 months after the massacre began. Once we're sure it's gone, we can add grass to the rest of the yard.

In the backyard, my herb garden is slowly filling in.

And, while walking around, I could help but take money shots of some of the prettiest things in bloom right now

purslane

Mexican sunflower

Pentas

Raspberry hidden ginger

Canna Lily

First spring

This is my first spring in a house with a backyard and, despite my heretofore complete inability to keep a plant alive, I've decided to start a garden. I'm starting small at first and sticking to pots so as to not spend too much time building something huge in which these poor plants can die. Hopefully I'll develop some skillz this spring or next and be able to just pop out to the backyard for salad materials. I've started with green and red peppers, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, basil and strawberries and placed them along the small strip of land that consistently gets sun in my backyard. The lettuce in particular is looking pretty tasty.


One of my (many) sisters warned me that I'll need to get netting to keep the birds away from my strawberries. That advice is likely more necessary than she even realized as we have some pretty badass birds that visit our yard. This red shouldered hawk was grabbing grass clippings about 4 feet away from Mr Toybox as he had the lawnmower running. He doesn't look even a little concerned.

The Last Dance/First Wedding Present

Yay for presents. My best friend from college sent us this lovely print (which looks even more lovely against the red of our office wall) and which also qualifies as our first official wedding gift (assuming that bridal shower gifts count separately).

The wedding has been very much on my mind of late. We're getting married on June 14th.. a date that was far off in the future when we set it over a year ago but seems to be coming up quickly. Thankfully, almost everything is planned. Now I'm just trying to take care of small details like how exactly one applies makeup when trying to look more pretty bride than clumsy clown. I've made it 33 years without mastering this art but the frugal side of me decided I'd rather figure it out now than spend money for someone else to do it come wedding day. In pursuing this goal, I think I've spent more money on hair and make up related items in the last month than in the last 10 years. Mr. Toybox has been highly questioning the frugality of this plan but he also always got his hair cut at super cuts for many years so we clearly have slightly different philosophies on how much should be spent on appearance.

Bloggage!

I've tried this blogging thing before. It always sounds like a good idea - a place to rave about all things raveworthy and rant about all things rantworthy. A place to let everyone know all of the exciting details of my life like how I filed my nails the other day. Yep, that was exciting. But..then I get distracted and the blog dies out for lack of updates.

A few things have happened, however, that make me want to give this another try. First, I'm reading blogs more often these days as I seek to ignore the ever growing pile of work on my desk. Apparently I enjoy reading about when others do important things like file their nails and who am I to deprive the world of these exciting events in my life. Second, I've had a few more things happening in my life of late (new house, new job, upcoming wedding) which gives me slightly more things to post about on said blog. And, perhaps more importantly, I'm the youngest of a large family and, being the youngest, I should be more technologically inclined than those old farts. BUT, two sibs and now my own mother have beaten me into this blogging game and, given my competitive nature, that just can't happen. Sooo.. I give you bloggage.