Gotta Knit!

May Day

Last weekend I dove into Martha Stewart Living which the focus was gardening.  

     

That lead to me going down the seed packet isle

 

scoping out bulbs and getting three tomato plants.

 

Spring in my backyard.

Was out to brunch on Sunday and saw a little boy in his Sunday best including white patent leather shoes.   When we got home it was off to the creek with Poodles, Inc.   While they romped around,  I stood at the creek bank watching the fat tadpoles swim around.   It seems Spring is offically here.

 

Took a walk around the backyard and was happily surprised how much was in bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lasagna Garden Style

Have been wanting to covert the pitiful side of the house garden into more of a veggie and herb garden along with flowers for a few years.   It is one of the places in yard that gets a lot of sun.  But it also has weeds in it so was trying to figure out how I could get rid of the weeds without chemicals or hours of pulling.    Over the past few weeks I have been checking into double digging and layering which is also called lasagna gardening.   As great as the double digging sounded for growing veggies there was just no way I could dig up that Georgia Red clay after a long dry summer.   Fear it would involve a jack hammer to get that deep into the garden.    So went with my neighbor's suggestion of layering.

 

It takes one pitiful garden

some supervision from Annie.

 

 

Grabbed me some mushroom compost.

 

flung it here and there in the garden.    Over weeds and I had ripped out our three tomato bushes so they got added to the layering.

 

Forgot to take a picture of it but laid down some brown packing paper that we had gotten with a shipment at work.   You can also use 3 - 4 sheets of newspaper.     This helps kill the weeds by blocking out the sunlight.

 

 

Then started my new and improved soil recipe in the wheelbarrow.  Some peat moss, compost manure and top soil.

 

 

Fifty stabs and tosses later I have healthy dirt.

 

 

Hard to tell but this is what I was able to accomplish the last wheelbarrow load before this past weekend.  Figure a few wheelbarrows a weekend and I will have the garden finished in a few weeks.   Takes time but really the easiest way to get a good garden going for next Spring.

 

 To bad I can't plant some silk yarn plants in it!

 

 

 

 

Went on a Tour

Saturday morning started bright and early with us quickly swallowing our breakfast to head out to a stranger's yard.    The Man and I were volunteers for the annual Decatur Garden tour.  If you are local and happened to have gone we were at garden #2.    Nicest folks live there!  They brought us out coffee and muffins then tried to feed us Bar-B-Q for lunch.   We sat on the front porch of their 1929 Bungalow welcoming visitors to their garden.   My favorite part of their garden was this huge black Tupelo Tree.

 

 

 

Another front porch I loved.  This is seriously Southern with all the hanging plants.   I swear I thought I was in the pages of Southern Living Magazine!   There was even a sleepy cat on the front porch steps.

 

The Man and I mainly go to get ideas on what to do and what cool plants are out there.  

 

 

 

But have to say I really liked the idea of having a sitting parlor in the backyard.

 

 

One of the gardens was a front yard converted into a a lovely vegetable garden.   They had melons all over the place along with fall veggies like kale, spinach, lettuces, etc.

 

 

Then there was this bird bath nestled in plants on the side of house.

 The Man and I are having dreams of maybe one day being on the tour.

Garden Bounty

This seemed to be the year for our garden to produce tomatoes.   Think our next door neighbors having 4 no kill traps in the close vicinity of our three tomato bushes helped a lot.  From what I understand the squirrels were relocated across town to a park.   I had my doubts for I was positive they had internal GPS tracing systems in their little walnut brains.   Must have worked though since we finally had a crop of tomatoes this year for the first time since we moved in 7 years ago!

Now it is September and we have only one tiny tomato.  Bummer in the most major of bummer ways.

Going all Martha Stewart

Being a knitter it never fails when I met new friends or co-workers, friends of friends, etc there is always that look when they find out I knit.   You know the “you don’t look like a grey haired grandmother, etc” look.  I’ve long since trying to entice them into the dark side of the cult of knitting.   Mainly because the more I knit the more I recognize the wannabe’s for a short while because it looks like fun versus the ones that really want to learn.    Then there are the folks that see me knitting frequently and tease me about the Martha Stewart thing and want me to knit them something.   Learned long ago to just flat out tell them how much the yarn cost for whatever project I’m working on and that brings it to a sudden halt.   Yeah, they were like me in the beginning thinking knitting was an affordable hobby!    I’ve paid more for Rowan Bamboo yarn for a tank top than I will for cashmere sweater.

 

Then there are my friends including my knitting friends that all think I’m nuts for making my own laundry detergent.   Now I suppose that really is going all Martha Stewart at least in the laundry room.  Haven’t done it in awhile since I was making the gel but you know the powder mix would be the way to go if you are interested in trying it out.  The only thing I found was that whites became kinda blah white but the clothes were clean and it is much cheaper.

 

But when I mentioned the gardening class that I was going to take that sealed the deal on the “your turning into Martha Stewart” deal.    Really who would have thought a simple gardening class would have tipped me over the edge.    Just because it was on succulents of all things and well making wreaths with them.

 

Okay, okay.  They had a point.   It really was all Martha Stewartish.

 

We were sitting outside in the community garden.

 

 

With chickens.

 

 

Making wreaths.

 

 

Martha, call me girlfriend!

Eye Candy Friday

The little guy drinking from the birdbath is Buster who is the cutest Jack Russell and Jack's best friend.   Well after Annie that is.

                                

                                                                                                      

                                                                                     

What a gorgeous blue.

Scents of Summer

Growing up there was a huge Gardenia bush my Mom had planted just right outside my bedroom window.   For me summer are those hot nights with the scent of Gardenias in the air.   Imagine my delight when I got home today and found this in our backyard.

There were just enough blooms to put a bouquet in the Den and one in our guest bedroom. Wish I could wear one in my hair tomorrow but to many sneezy folks at work for that ever to be accomplished.       

                  

Now if I could only keep Jack's nose out of them.   I keep finding him in the Den with his big black wet honker of a nose shoved in a Gardenia.

Eye Candy Friday

Was sitting on the back porch enjoying the weather and the start of a good book.   Happened to look over and the glint of metallic silver and rose sparkles caught my eye.

   

 

             

Who knew that the underside of a begonia plant could be so stunning when the afternoon sunshine hits it.

May Day

May 1st is one of my favorite days of the year.   Especially when it lands on a Saturday!    I remember long ago when I still lived in Florida going through my Mom's garden in the backyard picking flowers for my 2nd Grade teacher's May Day Basket.     I'm sure it was a bouquet of roses for my Mom had a large rose garden with heavenly coco bean mulch.   Or at least from my height and angle it was immense.  

Still to this day I remember making a basket out of our milk carton and arranging the flowers.   My mom drove me over and with excitement I rang her doorbell.  Unfortunately for me, she was not home but what a hug I got at school the next day.

So I do not have a May Day basket of flowers for you but I will share some prettiness that is going on around here.

 

 

Oh, my Meyer Lemon Tree is once again very happy.

 

Think I'm going to join Annie & Jack and go lie in the grass.