Green House and Raised Garden Project

Hello Friends and Welcome SPRING!

I am happy to report that reclaiming our green house is finally finished.  Poppa put new screen in the window screens and we put them on the windows, completing our Green House project, except for exterior painting which will be done when we repaint the exterior of the house.  It has taken many months but it was a labor of love and hopefully the flooding issue has been solved.  Time will tell.

...and I am tickled with our Raised Garden!

Here are the BEFORE pictures.  It was a problem to weed eat this area.  Our goal is to simplify.

Confucius said, "The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." That is exactly what I did with this project.  Small baby steps and wee increments of time. All of the debris was removed, then I put down a weed barrier, put down concrete blocks and caps next to the green house to hopefully prevent flooding.  Then I started moving 12" x 12" concrete pavers (purchased and delivered from Lowes), a few at a time with the help of my trusty Hustler Zero Turn Lawnmower.  Starting at the back wall, once I got the pavers in place so I could tell where the garden was to be, I put together our sweet 4' x 8' raised garden kit from WalMart.  It only took about fifteen minutes to put it together. After it was in place, I called in help!  Our neighbor put 4 bags of mulch, 20 bags (40 #'s each) of top soil dirt and 6 bags of humus into the raised garden.  He screwed on the top caps for the raised garden and also put several pavers in place on the east side of the garden. He did work in a matter of minutes that would have taken me days to do.  Thank goodness for neighbors! A few days later I decided to put more pavers down so Poppa can get all around the garden in his Wheelie.

AFTER:

I am so pleased with how this project turned out!  A raised garden has been a dream of mine for a long while.  Now we are waiting on the weather to settle down.  Grandma always said there will be a *cold snap* right before Easter and Grandma was usually right. We have a late Easter this year. Seeds and plants have been ordered online.  How did we ever get along without the internet?  It's a sweet day when you can dig in the dirt!  Slow down, enjoy your life what ever it may bring.

Until next time...

Easter Eggers and Plant Update...

I wish we had chickens, but we don't, so we will depend on our friend Jerri Pickering for these big, beautiful delicious fresh eggs! Love the brown ones and the green ones are a special treat. Thank you Jerri.  There are several breeds of chickens that lay blue, green and even pink eggs; and some are speckled.  These chickens are called *Easter Eggers*.

PLANT UPDATE:

I planted our first deck planter with beet and lettuce seeds.  The beet seeds were suppose to take 12 to 21 days to germinate.  Both the beets and the lettuce were visible in four days!  We were tickled!!

On March 6, Poppa and I planted spinach and lettuce mix in the second planter.  As you can see, they are already beginning to sprout on March 11.  Tickled again!

And how about these beauties?  Husky Red Cherry Tomatoes from Bonnie Plants.  Can't wait to munch on these.

I have thyme started in peat pellets on my kitchen windowsill.  These are old seeds from 2011 and they are coming up nicely.  These were also planted on March 6 which was a good day for planting above ground crops according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.  Thyme is suppose to repel mosquitoes and cats.  It's exciting to watch things grow.  It doesn't take much to make us happy here in the country.

I hope you can find some time to dig in the dirt.  It's healing and good for the soul.

Until next time...

~Edna~

Green House Project Update...

The first week in February I decided to rearrange the greenhouse and purchase some deck planters to grow some veggies inside. It has been a fun project. Here is the progress and how it looked when I started.

I removed the love seat.

Moved in a table that Poppa built me years ago as a display table when I had my shop.

Brought in two 36" x 15" deck planters, with the help of my assistant Miss Beebs.

Positioned them on the table.

Filled the planters with dirt.

Planted beets, turnip tops and salad lettuce in the top one yesterday.  Our neighbor brought us fresh turnips.  I cut the tops off and put them in water.  Overnight they had started to grow so I planted them as an experiment to see what happens.  My mother use to garden by the different phases of the Moon and she always had the most wonderful garden.  Root crops by the dark of the Moon and above ground crops for the light of the Moon.

This green house project has taken me several months of working in very small increments of time. I'm amazed and what can be done in just a few minutes if worked at methodically.  We had a problem with flooding and I'm hoping I have taken care of that problem with some work that I have done outside which I hope to show you soon.  For now the green house is finished except for redoing the window screens.  Next I will be tackling my Raised Garden project!  Don't we have fun?  Get out there and play in the dirt.  Digging in the dirt is healing and good for the soul.  ~E~

Green House Project Continues...

I severely trimmed back our Bougainvillea last fall and was afraid it would not come back, but it is loving our greenhouse this winter...and so is our sweet cat Dinky Sugar. She use to stay in here during the winter before she became a house cat last year. The smell of Petunias is heavenly. I have ordered two 36" deck planters to go on the table and packets of vegetable seeds in hopes of getting a head start on our growing season. I can taste those home grown tomatoes already!