garden progress

Thought I would share my garden that is exploding out in our front yard..since I last shared my potatoes have gone bonkers..

They are even larger now and we need to put down another layer of mulch. This year we have not had to water once. The constant rain here in Central NY is depressing actually. I think we possibly may have had two nice days in all of June, all the rest were rain. As you can imagine, while I joke and say things like "it's awesome for my water bill this year of not having to water my garden.." It's not awesome for my town.

This past friday..this is what happened to my city:

If that wasn't bad enough, it continues to rain. Down pour rain at that. Over 160 families have lost their homes, over 20 businesses have lost their livelihoods. The rain is supposed to continue through Thursday. 

I am personally not affected by the flooding but live very close to these areas that are currently under water. To my knowledge everyone is safe (including the furry type). To me that's all that matters.

I don't want to turn this into a large post about this, I just wanted to give an update to those friends that knew where I lived and had heard and asked about what was going on up here. 

Hope all is well with everyone in your neck of the world. My heart also goes out to all the families affected by the horrible fires out in AZ and all the firemen that lost their lives. 

welcome to my garden take 3

Yes, you could say I'm obsessed with lilacs. When we have the front windows open the smell fills the house and it's amazing! I'm also so happy with the moving of the irises, it was an excellent choice if I do say so myself.

Our garden has exploded.

Our lettuce, radishes and broccoli are getting all grown up and we also are having success with our potatoes!!

The mister, the other night, actually just added the next layer of mulch on top. So these are all covered with a new layer of mulch and straw. It's so exciting, I can not wait for potatoes!!!

He also put down cardboard in all the remaining beds to get them ready to start mulching them.

It's getting there. Over the next few weeks we will be getting mulches to fill in all the beds, next year we can be "full production" But this year will just have plantings in a couple.

Shortly after taking all these pictures the other night, there was a random downpour. The mister just continued to work in the rain while Ella and I hid under the tree. A few women walked by laughing because they had gotten caught in the rain and expressed how much they loved what we are doing with the yard. It is always so nice to hear that people think its awesome. I usually think they are all looking at us like we are the weirdos of the block..though it doesn't help since the mister hung this up...

(I can't wait until we get this place painted this summer!!)

updates in the front yard..

Our yard is slowly progressing (though we have gotten a lot of rain over the last 2 weeks so things are popping up all over!) We are trying to fill in this front portion as a barrier all with different flowers and small bushes. It's fill in even thicker since taking these photos.

These were all taken last week (I'll be a week behind each week in showing you the progress) But this is the plot with our broccoli, carrots, radishes and lettuce. It is so exciting to see how fast things pop up!

We decided we not only want to have all the boxes full, we also want to give the space dimension by adding large pots filled with goodies all around the yard. 

We filled this jumbo pot with eggplant, parsley, basil and thyme. (guess that wasn't in the pot yet when I took the photo haha)

This is pineapple sage. It smells amazing. You know how a lot of the mint plants - chocolate, marshmallow, and citrus varieties - none really smell very strong, you basically just smell "mint" - I always would get so sad when I'd smell them all. But this sage, it smells JUST like pineapple when you rub the leaves. So so good!! It will be awesome come fall when the flowers come out on it. They are supposed to attract hummingbirds and butterflies.

One of the best things I did last summer was move all our irises. They look so awesome lining the backs of the boxes and front of the house (they are on both sides) And this bottom photo is awesome because if you look in the window you can see Polly howling!

Next week I'll give you potato updates, it's getting exciting!!! 

How are your gardens coming? I'd love to see where you are at in your garden, if you post about them, share the links so I can check em out.

welcome to my front yard part 2 potatoes!!!

Last week I shared with you the starting process of our front yard. The mister has gotten quite a bit done over the last 2-3 weeks.

Including my potato box! He built it using an old pallet. the slots on the sides will allow us to put our grubby hands in and pull out the potatoes.

He read that soaker hoses are the best to use in potato boxes. So we started by filling the bottom of the box with a mix of compost and manure.

You place the potato starters with their eyes upward - we are doing half purple (i forgot the technical names) and half gold potatoes. We then began to wrap in the soaker hose.

Covered the potatoes with more of the compost/manure mix we made up. We now will place straw on top (which is now on top- I was just too lazy to go take another picture). Once the potatoes begin growing you continue to add to the layers. Hopefully we get lots of potatoes because I'm a potato fiend! 

Next week I'll show you our awesome raspberry bushes we got (thornless in containers!) and our one plot that has our broccoli, carrots, lettuces and radishes. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of xtra cash this summer to spend on buying all the dirts/composts/peat/hummus etc. So we are going to do it the natural way- so not all will be plantable in this summer/fall. But we should have a bit going, next year tho...next year will be insanity! I can't wait. 

welcome to my front yard part 1

Last year we began the transformation to turn our front yard flower gardens:

..into full on veggie gardens. I'm sure a lot of you are probably thinking we are crazy. Our yard was gorgeous. It really was. We had compliments all the time. People would walk by in awe. I don't have any more recent photos (well I can't find any - I know they exist somewhere) but it was even more full then these pictures above. 

But here was the problem. The first year it was amazing, second year got a little unruly, and by last summer it had gone out of control. The weeds were so hard to keep under control that midway through the summer I just gave up. We thought by putting down the rockdust in the walkways that nothing could come up, we were wrong. Very wrong. Picking little teeny weeds out of that stuff was a nightmare.

We had discussed for a while what our plan was and how we had wanted to take our small side garden:

..and instead of mainly only having herbs and a few veggies- we wanted to have an entire front yard of veggies, herbs and flowers. 

I had hoped we were going to have the entire layout done last year. I'm a person that wants projects done and I don't want to stop until they get finished. My mister on the other hand. unless he is extremely motivated, sometimes it can take a while to get a project finished. *insert big sigh here* So last year we were able to build few boxes and started the composting process. But nothing got past that point. 

So I really got on him this year that we need to get a move on - so over the past few weeks he built the remaining boxes and we have begun planting. 

We had lots of rocks delivered for the pathways. He put it in the walkways really thick, so no weeds can come up and if any weeds grow on the top they will be super easy to pull out.

This was phase one. Next week I will share the completed layout, all rocks in along with my potato box and how we are hopefully going to grow 100 pounds of potatoes this summer! Do you have a garden? What are you planting this year?

garden update

It's gone! Our new updated front yard is coming together. We've had to wait for the weather to cool down before we could tear out and transplant. I KNOW our neighbors must think we smoke crack with how many times we have changed up this yard! We don't, really, we don't. 

On Sunday the mister stated he was on a mission to get the yard cleaned up (he even passed up going out to dinner at one of his favorite places to keep working!) When I went out to check on him I was not expecting what I saw.

I was a little taken back but with everything gone I can picture exactly what it's going to be next year. We are still going to build the boxes that are currently in place to all be two boards high - then we will build small boxes off those. In the center where the hibiscus are currently residing will be a 4'x 4' square to house potatoes!!! I'm so excited for that my potato box I can hardly contain myself. Once all the boxes are completed, hopefully over the next couple weeks we wanted to put down super heavy mulch. Unfortunately everyone is sold out locally (we wanted natural and all everyone has left is the different colored mulches) So the mulch will have to wait until the spring. But I'm really excited and can't believe the amount of work he got done in one afternoon. It totally would have taken me a week, maybe more to do what he did! Plus I'm sure I would have been trying to save everything where he got rid of things that were invasive and things he didn't want out there. 

Some plants will be moved to the patch between the sidewalk and the road and some others will be moved to the backyard. I believe all the bee-balm will be going in the backyard. The peonies will also be moved and a row of dwarf apple trees will be going in as well to line the property.

Just so crazy the amount of changes this yard has undergone in the years we have been here. My real goal for next year is to be able to have the roof redone and to paint the house. With the gardens, a new roof and some paint it will start looking a bit better and we won't be the scary house on the block any longer. Well we probably still will be..seeing as though our plans (as of current) are to paint the house black! It will be awesome, don't be scared.

Anyone else a home owner? Have crazy stress and nightmares of owning your own home? I really wish we could pick up and take this house and plop it down somewhere with lots of land. It has so much character. If only we could come into some money so we can just fix it up and get it to where we want it to be. Ah the stresses of owning a home...

Garden Mania vol 12

Garden insanity! It's sooooooo crazy out there right now. We have done nothing - so weeds are also pretty rampant but surprisingly not too horrible because of how much everything has grown in and taken over. You can barely see the boxes we made. 

It's been HOT. I know it's hot every where. But I Hate hot. Hate with a capital H. Loathe hot. I don't know which is worse. But you get the point. Yesterday was 100 degrees in the shade and it was HUMID. Being hot is one thing but when its also like 100% humidity..oh mother..does it make me miserable! All I want to do is hibernate in the bedroom (the only room with ac) and pretend that its a normal livable, breathable temperature out in the real world of no air conditioning. How people like this is beyond me. Give me a 55-60 degree day - overcast, a little windy and I'm in my element! Content to wear a pair of pants and a hoodie..ah... dreaming of hoodie weather.. 

But anyway..back to the gardens. They have exploded! I can't wait for the temperature to cool back down to "normal" temperatures so we can begin moving clumps of flowers and getting everything ready and organized for next year.

I'm not sure what either of these flowers are called but I have lots of them! I moved a few of each to my back yard as well and will probably move a few more along our fence (again once the weather cools down a bit) 

Lots more blooming out front. Different colored lilies, bee balm, cone flowers of different variations, salvia, balloon flowers, mint, lavender, and a million more things that I don't names of that have either some how just randomly popped up out of no where, or where planted and were forgotten about.

While all our neighbors look at us like we are crazy, at least the bees love us. After looking at everything out there I really want to get out there and start rearranging. But I know I can't because it would quite surely kill the majority of the plants if I tried to move anything. Kevin's truck got fixed yesterday so all he needs to do is have the truck bed put on sometime this week and we'll be back to having a truck again. It's been so difficult only having one vehicle, and that vehicle not being a truck. You get used to being able to just run to the lumber yard and get wood for projects or go to my parents for their amazing mulch. I have so many things on lists that are adding up in anticipation for the arrival of the truck! First things first though, just taking it for a drive and getting ice cream because it is simply just one cool ass truck!