Fern and Flowers

A small fern for the table on the front porch.



A bumble bee collecting nectar, with his hips full of pollen on a cucumber bloom.



A okra blossom.



A bee visiting the bee balm. It is always a good idea to plant bee balm near your veggie garden.






Creeping Jenny on a Georgia brick. I have had this same Creeping Jenny for years. It is so easy to transplant. Basically you just have to toss it on the ground and cover with a little soil. More on the bricks can be found here.



I always grow Nasturtium from seed. Nasturtium is a type of water cress and you can use the flowers in salads. They taste a bit peppery.




I found lily what I call an Orange Double Ditch Day Lilly, in our old yard. On country back roads in these parts, you can see beautiful orange lilies blooming in ditches. Usually they are just a single, but this lily is a mutant double. I like her.

In the Vege Garden.

No, I am not sure why there is a wheel (not just a tire) a WHEEL with TIRE attached in the yard next to the chairs......

I did not see it until I took these pics. Oh well.

Already Thinking of the Garden.

Monday, in the mail I received the first seed catalog of the season.

What is it with the seed catalogs? I love 'em.

Then today I was flipping through the design blog pages and came across this post from Oh Joy.




Images via Gardenhouse.

Swoon worthy vintage garden furniture from GardenHouse.
L.O.V.E.

Reminds me of the furniture we found in the basement.

A Garden Web.

The spiders have been busy the past few days. Just thought I would share.

Dressed in Yellow and Black.

From my mom's garden.

Sunflowers in the Garden.

It is the time of year of bright white light and strong shadows.
The past few mornings were filled with crisp air.

Happy Day.

Garden Pests

What the squirrels leave behind.....



The lubbers are sure to eat......

I found all of our corn shucked on the stalk the other day. I could not figure out what may have eaten all the corn off the stalks. Twitter said that is was Raccoons or Opossums. I believed them until I caught the furry tailed rascals green handed this morning.

As far as the Lubbers.....I hat them. Nasty bugs.


Good Day!

It seemed like a long wait....

The first lemon yellow bloom .....



The scent of the vine on my finger tips.



The first hint of golden orange hues..



To the scarlet colors still on the vine.








To finally.....

Thin crisp bacon fried to perfection, young tender spinach leaves, Duke's mayo, fresh bread, and Alizarin crimson slices sprinkled with sea salt and ground pepper.



I wanted the tomato juice to run down my elbows as I took the first bite.

It did.

Newspapers Recycled in the Garden.

For the past 5 years or so, we have been recycling our old newspapers in the Vege Garden. I saw this once on a TV show and have been using this method for weed prevention in the rows successfully ever since.

The photo above shows where I placed the newspapers down in the garden late last fall. I raked backed the leaves to reveal only a tiny bit of newspaper that remains. (The grey blobs in the middle of the pic.) This spring, I had no weeds to remove in the area of the garden where I used the newspapers under the leaf mulch.

After removing any weeds and turning the soil in the garden, with my trusty, red with pink polka dotted pitch fork. ( Which is missing a prong.)

I begin to place the newspaper down in the rows of the garden. I have since read where they news paper should be at least 5 layers deep to work well. I never count, I just start placing newspaper down, overlapping the layers as I go down the row.

If it is windy, you could take the time to wet down the newspaper before placing in the garden to keep it from blowing away to your neighbors yard.

I sometime get distracted and read things I have missed in the newspaper.

Like the names of who is winning the March madness bracket contest in the local paper.

( FYI- My pics came in 5th overall in points. Not that I like watching basketball on TV, the squeaking of the shoes gets on my nerves.)

I continue down the row, and realize it is a little crooked. That will not matter once all the veges begin to grow.

Oh....The red with pink polka dotted pitch fork? I bet you are wondering......

You see sometimes my husband uses our garden tools at his work sites. In the past, these tools have been lost, forever gone. This made me very angry, until I was painting and had left over paint and thought our garden tool handles needed painting, then thought that if I painted the garden tool handles, girly like... A man would not bring them to his work site and if he did, no other man would even think of "borrowing" such girly looking tools. So far, so good. It has worked.

I then start placing the mulch on top of the newspapers. In the past I have used pinestraw and leaves as mulch. We did not have enough leaves this year to use as mulch and we do not have a big pine trees at this house, so we had to buy (shudder) mulch. (gulp) Chris suggested wheat straw. We will see how that goes. I hate having to buy what so many people place out by the curb. I want to be the weird lady who goes around collecting other peoples leaves. The piles of leaves they place out by the street for the city to pick up and place in a land fill. People use your leaves as mulch.

Anyway...
I place the straw, haw, leaves, pinestraw, mulch on top of the newspapers.

Then I remember, I found a magnifying glass in the garden and placed it on top of the straw.
Probably not a good idea. Fires start that way. oops. Luckily, I do not know about that first hand, I just saw where that happened once on Little House on the Prairie. I was 7.

I keep going until I finish the entire garden. Or at least a good stopping point.



Then I plant my little plants.

Eggplant.



Squash.

( I also have planted okra and tomatoes.)

The newspapers will allow water to seep through while aiding in keeping weeds out of the garden making our life easier in a few months.

These newspapers are also being recycled in our yard. Not being transported to a recycling center or being placed in a landfill.

Life is good.

Now... to figure out how to pick up the neighbors leaves by the curb next fall with out being the crazy leaf collecting lady.

hummm.

Wishing our planet a
HAPPY EARTH DAY!