Flower Pottin'

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Yesterday was one of my favorite days.  I planted lots of pretty flowers in pots for my deck.  I am creating a nice little spot for us to enjoy the outdoors and relax!

It's so funny how doing yard work, gardening, and weeding were definitely not on my "love" lists growing up.  It felt like a chore and i would have much rather been indoors doing something else creative.  Now that  TJ and I have started gardening, I'm LOVING it!  We were first focused on vegetables and fruits, but yesterday we purchased quite a few flower plans and herbs and I spent the day potting them.  It was so much fun and even better to see them all pretty on our deck.  I like to sit out there in the mornings and eat breakfast now. I've been here 2 years and I have never done this.  It's definitely a new season for me. :-)

I am going to start looking for some patio chairs and an umbrella for our table.  I keep looking on craigslist for that "golden" find!  If you have any leads on some nice chairs and/or an umbrella and base, let me know!

Anyway, here are some iphone photos I took yesterday after I planted my flowers.  I will get out there and take some better photos soon.

Everything we got at Lowes & Sugar Creek Garden Center

Impatiens

Begonias

Iceland Poppy's.  I call it my ET plant. haha.

Here is the Iceland Poppy in bloom.  I was so excited to see it had blossomed over night!

Petunias

Coffee Mug Begonias

Rosemary

Cilantro

As mentioned above, we went to Lowes & Sugar Creek Garden Center yesterday.  We had the BEST customer service at both places.  There was a master gardener at Lowes who was so helpful with information about our garden.  She even gave us a website for the York County Master Gardeners.  She said we can get info from the website as well as call them for help and advice throughout the week.  Here is the website, York Master Gardeners.  Because we were looking for something organic and safe to kill some maggots that killed our green beans (blog post on this to come...boo!), she referred us to the Sugar Creek Garden Center down the road.  Wow, it was so much fun and he employees were great.  We found what we needed and got some herbs as well.  I highly recommend this garden center!

Anyway, that was my gardening day yesterday.  I'm sorry it has been over a week since I had posted.  We have been so into the gardening and making Garden Center runs..ha!

Farmin' Update

Daily we are adding something to our garden (i mean "farm"), especially since this is the first week.  While running errands on Tuesday, we stopped at the Growers Outlet to check out what they had in the vegetable/ herb area.  We ended up picking up some cucumber plants as well as some chamomile and basil.  I am really excited about growing chamomile and drying the flowers for tea!!  It also makes for a great decoration in the kitchen, especially with it planted in my tea cup planter.  The basil we decided to plant in a glass pitcher that I had found at a thrift store last year.  I love using "non planter" type items.  It makes it look so much more unique and fun.

Chamomile

Basil

Look!  One of my hot peppers has sprouted!

Cucumber plant

I would be so appreciative if you wouldn't mind voting for The Yellow Pepper at Picket Fence Blogs by clicking on the link below.  One click is all it takes! :-)

Compostin'

As I mentioned in a couple earlier posts, we decided that we would build a compost area.  After looking online at all the different ways to build a compost pit or even the compost bins to buy, we decided to make one.  I can't wait to begin using our own compost dirt for our garden!!

TJ cutting the wood to attach to the fencing.

Stapling the stakes to the fencing.

We used zip ties to secure the wood and fencing after stapling each end together.

Our Compost Pile!

Mmmmm, tasty! LoL

I am so loving this whole process.  It is a learning experience FOR SURE.  It makes me excited for next year once we have a whole year of gardening under our belt.

I would be so appreciative if you wouldn't mind voting for The Yellow Pepper at Picket Fence Blogs by clicking on the link below.  One click is all it takes! :-)

Farmer Jackson is his name

After Saturday nights storm that unleashed wild winds and balls of hail, we decided to get more plants instead of taking a chance on our seeds that we planted.  We had no idea whether the seeds were moved around in the garden bed or what.  So, Sunday we worked on planting these new plants AND building a compost area (blogging about this next).  

Here are photos I took of my wonderful husband, Farmer Jackson, planting our veggies.  I kinda think he's great! :-)

THIS is my Yellow Pepper plant!!!  I couldn't have a garden without growing Yellow Peppers! :-)

I would be so appreciative if you wouldn't mind voting for The Yellow Pepper at Picket Fence Blogs by clicking on the link below.  One click is all it takes! :-)

Farmin', Floppy Hats, & Warm weather

Saturday was such a wonderful day in the yard.  We got our garden bed ready and planted our seeds and tomato plants.  We felt like farmers!  With this being our first garden, we are obviously learning along the way and will learn so much more for next years garden.  It is fun!  I have never been a yard worker or lawn mower (due to the fact that i am allergic to cut grass), but I told TJ that working together on this garden makes me feel more "ownership" of our backyard.  Does that sound silly?
Anyway, after we planted the garden we dug up the grass in front of our back deck.  I bought organic sunflower seeds that I wanted to plant.  TJ did a great job of digging into the hard Carolina clay and grass and made a great area for me to plant the flower seeds.  I hope they grow nicely.  I think they will look so beautiful out back!  :-)
Later that evening we ended up getting a TERRIBLE storm that brought nickel to quarter sized balls of hail.  YIKES!  I knew we were supposed to get rain, but not this bad.  Our poor garden got a bit beat up. We are not positive whether or not our seeds were washed away and mixed into other areas of our garden (making a salad of a garden...ha).  It didn't look too bad and I think the seeds may have stayed in place, but our tomato plants got beat up.  Stay tuned to the post on what we did to help our garden in case our seeds were messed up.

Here are photos of our beautiful Saturday (before the storm).

 Dandelions in our backyard

 Our Crape Myrtle in bloom

They may be weeds, but they are beautiful yellow!

My Floppy Hat! :-)

I love Zoe's face here!  

It was a beautiful Saturday spent together.  I can't express how excited and thankful I am for the warmer weather.  I come alive when I am not shivering and bundled up!  Tank tops, cutoffs, and flipflops here I come!! :-)

I would be so appreciative if you wouldn't mind voting for The Yellow Pepper at Picket Fence Blogs by clicking on the link below.  One click is all it takes! :-)