So, remember all my big talk about all my “hard work” getting the soil ready for the garden this year. Well, I made the executive decision to put in raised beds the following week! The soil, I guess, is not a total loss as the beds are still sitting on top of it but it is kind of funny to not plant directly in the dirt that was worked. Hubby and I had chatted about the raised beds for a bit and the talk was getting bigger so I decided that we should just go for it. When I say that I decided we should go for it it just means that I said okay lets do it. Don’t be fooled by that either though because by “lets do it” I mean great, go for it.
While Sis and I headed to a brunch and a birthday party last weekend Hubby and his Dad were hard at work gathering materials moving a TON (literally, no kidding ONE TON) of dirt/manure and building boxes for my happy garden. Amazingly hard workers!!! I really did not know what to imagine in my head I just knew that they would be large and that there would be 5 for the actual vegetable garden and 2 smaller ones for flower gardening. I was kind of excited about the whole project. When I came home and actually saw the boxes sitting there in all their glory I was incredibly excited about it!!! I don’t know what it is about those boxes but they made me SO happy!!! I cannot wait to get out there and get planting in a few weeks.
I am SO thankful to Brad and his Dad for ALL their hard work and super sore bodies!!! Thank you guys so much and I promise to share some veggies and flowers.

I got to start work on two projects last weekend.

The first being to paint the front door. We have gone back and forth over colors for a very long time. We finally agreed, though, with a good bit of give and take on black. I decided that I would paint it and be done. Did you know that painting a white door black takes, well, we are up to 4 coats of paint and we could use a few more? I am not much of a painter so I am pretty clueless when it comes to such things, but, wow! I decided that we would finish that project a different weekend. I am happy with it though and I love the way that it is coming together. Lest, you think that the door looks like the above picture in its finished for now state I promise that I really did do the 4 coats. It looks good from the driveway it is just when you walk up to it that one might notice that it is a work in progress.

The second project from the weekend was to check out the garden. I covered it in cardboard boxes for the winter. Consider it a layer to hold in the moisture inviting worms and other wonderful things for happy soil. I was very anxious to see what it looked like underneath and to stir up the soil just a little bit combining a few layers. I used a new to us tool which was very fun! A lot of work but fun all the same. I was happy to see so many worms and better soil underneath. I need to lay down a layer of newspaper and add some leaves and pine needles and get to planting in the next few weeks. I am really excited that it is almost gardening season again.

Two projects in process is a good thing. Still a few more to start as the weather continues to warm up.

It looks like I let the kiddos loose in the garden, doesn’t it? Maybe they were playing in the garden and became hungry and settled upon a yummy looking honeydew and just started eating away. Well, I know that it was not the kiddos as we have a tall fence around the garden and the kiddos need my help to get in and out. We added the fence to keep the bunnies out but I think that the squirrels have found a way in! Grrrrrr! I have caught them inside the fence before but I did not know that they would really eat anything but now I have proof that they would. I started noticing a few weeks ago that part of our vines were missing off the honeydew (see how some of the leaves are brown in the picture. . .stinky squirrels) and a lot of the little watermelons were disappearing. I was trying to be okay with it because was still had fruit that was growing and getting pretty large. Today I became not okay with it because this stinky squirrel ate a hole out of the melon. It was really fresh when I found it so I must of just missed him. Who knew that one would have to worry about squirrels climbing the backyard fence to jump over the garden fence and land safely in the garden to chew down a bunch of honeydew vines and grab a taste of a honeydew while he was at it. Grrrrrr!

The Sunflowers have started to bloom this week. Our Sabbath morning started with seeing our first Sunflower fully open which was a sweet gift! Sister did laps around the downstairs screaming and dancing along the way. She was so excited!!! These seem to be a smaller variety but no matter they are bringing our household much joy! I love the process of watching them unfold and I love that they are all in process. They seem to be so much like us. . .we are all in process and we are all in different parts of the process.

The garden still amazes me! I mean food actually grows out there! It really does blow my mind sometimes! Saturday morning I went out to pick a few things and just check on the garden in general to see how everything was doing. 5 cucumbers, a pile of beans, several jalapenos, squash, okra and zucchini all went into the bucket to come back into the house. Food growing in my yard! Wild! Yes, it is work but it is still neat and exciting! I went back out to look around the garden one last time and I spied the baby watermelon! Watermelon growing in my yard! Amazing! I mean yes, I planted it but you always think, at least I always think, will it really grow!? There are so many things that have to work together to create little veggies and fruits that grow into big veggies and fruits. Who knows if they will make it to full size (maybe the large problem is that I am a negative thinker) but the baby watermelon was such a fun surprise! I went out again this evening to water and I found a honey dew growing as well! They are so cute when they are small! God is amazing in the way that He creates and grows things! Definitely amazing!

I spent rest time yesterday outside in the front yard. We recently had our bushes torn out as they were growing very old and tired and I also was growing tired of them so out they went. I replaced the bushes a few weeks ago with a the smaller Firepower Nandina and I am really excited about that choice. It took me forever to decide but I think that overall we are happy with them. We also have a TON (understatement) of monkey grass in the front beds which was fine with the larger bushes but now that we have the small bushes it needed to come out. I have definitely been putting this job off but after finding some thyme on clearance (I cannot remember the name of it but it will have white blooms in the spring and fall) at Home Depot I knew that it was time to dived and conquer the monkey grass. I finished one side but still have more monkey grass to pull out on the other side. I think that I could of finished but a bee sting slowed me down. I have not been stung by a bee since I was little but it still hurts even when you are older!!! Brad actually took the day off yesterday so he came to my rescue with ice and baking soda. He is my hero! It did feel good to accomplish at least part of this huge project and play landscaping for a day. Playing pretend landscaper is so much cheaper than hiring a landscaper but it is a ton of work!

I hear the word, again, often these days with the garden in full bloom. It seems as though we have an abundance of squash and there are only so many ways a person can make squash. I am still in the camp of, it is delicious! I am surprised but I am really not tired of it yet. Maybe it is because I am the one who gets to go out to the garden and chose the veggies that we have with dinner and it is still amazing to me that I could grow our food. I do love it! The kids are in the camp of, for real mom, I mean we have had this a million times! Hubby is in the camp of, again, but hey, it is free and good for us! Ahh, just wait until the okra is going full force! It could be worse I tell them! I am the only okra lover here but that is okay! I will sneak it into their meals somehow! They will be thankful for the squash yet again! The garden is well. The sugar snap peas are dying because the squash has begun to grow over top of them and it is threatening the peppers as well but I am willing to take drastic measures to keep it out of the peppers! The green and yellow beans are slowing down a good bit. The zucchini plant for some reason is a super slow producer. He is not happy about something I am just not sure what it is. The tomatoes are nice and green so I am hopeful for some sweet juicy redness soon!!! I did pull a carrot out last night as I just wanted to see how far along it was. It was super cute but they are still not ready yet. Does anyone else feel weird about sometimes eating what they grow in their gardens? There is just something about the carrot growing in the dirt that totally weirds me out! I cannot explain it! We have a whole row growing so at some point I will break down and eat one! Even sister is weirded out by it! Well, I am off to deliver more squash to the neighbors!

Yes, it is not officially here yet but the kids are out of school and the days are warmer so the feel of summer is in the air minus the humidity (it shall arrive soon though). We have been busy out in the backyard this spring working away on jobs and just getting the backyard to a place where we can really enjoy it. I think that we are headed into the years with the little ones where we will be spending much much time out there.

I had a small garden last year just to try it out and see if it seemed doable and this year I decided to go a good bit bigger. After planting about a month ago I felt super stressed out and was feeling a little done with the garden. . .I know not good to feel that way at the start of something. After a lot of work and weed control this has been the first weekend where I feel like it is at a place where I like it and can really enjoy going out there to pull just a few weeds and check on everything. For now no bugs are eating away at anything and the weeds are under control etc. It is a happy place! For now we have Carrots, Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, Jalapenos, Green Peppers, Yellow Peppers, Pimentos, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Yellow Beans, Green Beans, Okra, Sweet Basil, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Honey Dew, Sunflowers and some other flowers from seeds. Whew, we shall see what of that actually grows well but so far the squash and cucumbers, peas and green beans are all coming in. A few others have begun flowering so it is exciting!

Another purchase this spring were our rain barrels. I am super excited about these!!! It just takes a good rain for them to be overflowing so I am sure that we will add more in the future but for now I am very happy with two! They are very handy and hopefully they will save us some on the water bill when it comes to watering the garden this summer.

Last but not least yesterday Brad and his dad worked hard to install some post (set in concrete) in the backyard that we can attach hangers on for bird feeders. We have had one feeder for a very long time but we have all (even the kiddos) greatly been enjoying watching the birds come so we decided to add a few more. It has been fun to pick out some new feeders and I am hoping to plant some flowers underneath the feeders as well. We hope to add a few more plants to the backyard as well but for now it is all coming along. It has been so much fun to make our backyard our very owns space and bring a bit of restoration to it!

I found this beautiful Okra flower blooming in the garden last week! It was a wonderful surprise as the okra had not done much up until now. I picked the first of the okra this week and last night I fried some in true southern style! It was very yummy even though I ate it alone as the kiddos and hubby would not touch it.

My husbands Alma Mater sent us an invitation for the opening of their new science building and it was so cool that I had to share! What could be so cool about an invitation you ask, well it is printed on paper with wildflower seeds embedded in it! I know, so cool isn’t it! Here is a picture of the back of the invite which tells you how to plant your new wild flower seeds!

I just Googled wildflower seed paper and you can actually buy it at many different places and many places will print invitations on it as well. Hmm, maybe I am the last to know about this as well but it is still cool!