Day 6: We have grape tomatoes and lettuce!

I checked yesterday and didn't see anything, but suddenly today, the grape tomato plants have really sprouted.


To my surprise, our mesclun salad mix has also already germinated. It's been less than 2 days!


Basil (3 days of growth) There's lots now! I counted 63 seedlings compared to yesterday's 29!

Day 5 continued..

I went to bedroom to get changed and what do I see outside our window? The girls next door were standing under our sprinkler with umbrellas. How precious! Of course I ran and got the camera to take a picture.


I was doing a search for garden tags and found these from Ina Garten. Coconut frosting (yuck) with pansies. How cute! I love the Barefoot Contessa.

Day 5: Playing in the dirt

Last night, I cut out the area for my zuchinni, cucumbers, snow peas, and sugar snap peas. I also cut out a circle around this pole which was intended for a clothing line. I thought it would be nice to grow a climbing flower like a morning glory on it. This morning, I "double dug" it and added more compost.


Then I "directly sowed seeds into ground" as instructed. These are Snow Peas!


Then cover them with 1" of soil. I sprinkled vermiculite on it too in order to mark their location. I have yet to make labels for all the plants.


I did the same with the zuchinni and cucumbers. Plant 4 seeds per "hill" and after germination, thin to 2 of the strongest plants.


Then I double dug the main garden bed as well. I just wanted to define the edge. In the weeks to come I'll start defining each row.


Dinner! London broil with a seasoning rub I concocted myself and asparagus.

Basil Day 5 (2nd day of growth)

7:42 AM
The basil is a little more prominent today and more is beginning to show.


And my Bell Peppers began to come up as well. They are just very fine thin threads with 2 leaves at top.


I am little nervous about the eggplant. It's supposed to take 5-14days and I haven't seen any growth as of yet.

Day 4 Continued...

I searched high and low for these oversized Easter Eggs to put in our front yard, but these were the closest things I could find. They are actually meant for candy. I love them. I just hope the kids don't take them.


I started the soil for the rest of my seeds - basil, parsley, dill, cilantro, rosemary, sage, oregano and my mesclun salad mix with extra arugula. The woman at the nursery told me that top soil is too heavy to start seeds (damn you Home Depot workers) and that if that's what I have, then to mix Vermiculite into it ($6.99/bag). She showed me what the soil should feel like. I reused the trays from the pansies. With the vermiculite mixed in, it was just lighter and easier to handle.


Then I worked on the side of the house we affectionately deemed "the ugly side". It gets alot of intense sun so nothing survives on that side. In addition, it's where our neighbor puts his garbage cans and 7 old vacumn cleaners, 2 abandoned cars, and an unfinished porch. I feel like this corner needs a large rose bush.


At 3:00pm, the basil plants were really sprouting.


For the rest of the day, I cleaned out the very back which is the "black hole"..old tree limbs, leaves, dead flowers, etc. Keith used the grass we dug up to fill in the unleveled areas of our yard.


Then I worked on the right side of the shed where I am going to put the peas, lettuce, cucumbers and zuchinni. The idea is to train the peas and zuchinni to climb this fence to camouflage its unappetizing appearance and to provide shade for the lettuce in front. It was also alot easier this time to rip up the grass probably because the ground is dry.


Ewww, carpenter bees.


Me in my Weddingbee t-shirt!

Day 4: Shed

Early in the morning, I began painting the outline for the flourish on the shed. I used Behr exterior paint in white and a small paint brush. I stepped back numerous times to see if the two sides were even and balanced. When it was to my liking, I painted over it and made the lines thicker and rounded the ends.


Then, in the center I added a discrete monogram.


I went back to the nursery to get more soil when I spotted these beauties. This vine is exactly what I was looking for, but I didn't know the name of. It's HEDERA "White Wonder". They get wild which is why I left so much space in the window box. By summer, it will be nice and full and dangling down the sides.


I planted one on each end of the windox box. The middle pansy was lookin' sad so I replaced it with a happier one.


With the painting on the shed done, it was finally safe to plant around it. While I was planting, I heard a noise and to my surprise a little puppy wandered into our yard. We startled each other and he started barking at me. I just kept on planting and he kept wondering about our yard. His name is Rupert. And finally, the completed shed. I am sure I will continue to add to it as the weeks go by.


BEFORE:

Day 4 - Itza Basil!

Break out the cigars! It's a Basil!

Day 4 - This morning I went to check on my plants...well, my pans of soil...and to my surprise, I noticed growth of my Genovese Basil. The instructions say to remove the plastic wrap asap when they germinate. So I removed the plastic and put them near a sunny window. I feel like a proud mama.

Day 3: Gardening and Shed

In the morning, I put another coat of paint on the shed. I did any touching up that I missed. The shed looked much better with the second coat. We went to Lowe's and picked up those 24" window boxes for $5.97 and I bought 30" onces for the deck. I was planning on doing one with herbs in it and one with fragrant flowers so when the breeze blows through the window, we can smell it in the house.

Installing the brackets for the window box were a real pain. Keith seems to know what he was doing so I left it up to him while I planted some more flowers around the house.


I continued to work on the side of the house.


And I began shaking the soil out of the grass we dug up. I really want to give up on this, but you really want to keep as much of the original soil as possible if it's good soil.


When Keith was finished, I put some flowers into the window box. There are only 3 plants right now because I planted some seeds that I hope will grow through the summer and fall after the pansies have gone. I left room to plant some vines to come down the side.

For dinner, I made baked chicken breast with cumin, zuchinni with dill and noodles. It was so yummy.

Tomorrow I am going to work on painting the trim on the shed and planting the rest of the flowers around the shed.

Design your garden

I made a rough outline of what I am planning for my garden. I just wanted to lay it out to make sure I have enough space between plants and the most logical location. I spent a day tracking the sun light in the yard. The area where the main veggie garden will be gets the most sun. The whole yard gets alot of sun except for against the left fence, but the spot near the shed gets the most. I thought it would be cute to have the garden near my newly painted shed. Then I decided to grow the large viney plants against the right fence (which is ugly) so that the plants can climb it.

I know it's just a boring rectangle, but I didn't want to get elaborate until I was fully commited to do this again next year.

I am going to plant marigolds along the edges to "pretty it up" and supposedly it keeps animals away, but I think if there is a will, there is a way.

Painting the shed

This was a little trickier than I thought. It was tedious, but I love seeing the results when it was done.

• Hose the shed down with water.
• Scrub the dirt off with a broom.
• Rinse again..and again.
• Allow to fully dry.
• Get all your materials together and ready.
  
• Paint all the little corners and edges with a paint brush first.
• Then using a roller, paint the rest of it.
  

We went to Home Depot and bought Behr Exterior paint. I took a piece of siding from our house for them to match the color. It looked a little too dark at first, but once it was on the shed, it really lightened up with all the sunlight. I chose a "satin" finish for the paint.


This photo is a dark because it was already 7pm, but you can kinda see the blue in it. We're going to add some window boxes with flowers for decor. Tomorrow I am going to finish up and then plant some flowers around it.


A view from the front yard. It will look like a mini house.

Veggie garden: Day 2 - Garden Bed

I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN. NEVER EVER EVERRRrrr...

Digging the garden bed from scratch with existing grass was torture. I would pay someone any amount of money to do this for me. We were really tempted to slip some cash to the landscapers we passed on the way to the nursery. Last night, we left off with cutting the 8x10 rectangle where my garden will be (using a square or pointed shovel)

• Then we cut them again into strips and then squares.
  
• Using a pitchfork, we then had to fully wrip each patch of grass up with the roots (about 4").
• Then we had to shake out as much soil back into the ground before disposing of the grass. This was messy and extremely tiring because the soil is really heavy.
  

*Wear sunblock. Wear a hat. Have plenty of fluids handy to stay hydrated.*

Our soil was surprisingly rich and "fluffy". We had alot of worms too, which is a good sign.


Using a tiller, we loosened the soil and added humus, gardening soil and top soil to the ground.


Finally, after 10 hours of labor! Cover the soil with a black tarp (plastic) to keep the soil warm before you're ready to plant your veggies.

Gardening continued

It's an addiction. Once I get started, I have to keep going. To motivate myself, I decided to start with the shed and make it match the front of the house. Again, I had to begin with raking away the old wood chips and weeding. Ugh.


Then I shaped the areas around the paving bricks to soften the look. Any existing grass simply needs to be removed. Take the shovel and go in 4" and dig it up. Shake as much of the soil back into the ground as possible.

I ran out of soil so I stopped there and I wanted to paint the shed first. Otherwise I would be stepping on my garden. I went to Home Depot again to get some color cards to get matching paint for the shed.

Then I decided our lonely tree in the front of our house needs some flowers. There must have been flowers growing there previously because there was some potting soil already and the soil was surprisiingly rich.


When Keith came home, he helped me dig the area for my veggie garden. Apparantly it will take too long to kill the grass so we just have to dig it all out. We cut the grass into strips and tomorrow we're going to try to remove the grass from the area.

Veggie Seeds: Day 1

Since I couldn't do yardwork anymore as I planned, I decided to get my seeds started. I didn't buy expensive seed starter kits or anything like that. This is how my mom used to do it. Perforate aluminum pans with a nail. Add 2 inches of garden soil (for veggies). Break up the chucks really fine.


Then I placed the seeds into the soil. I randomly spaced them depending on the size of the seed. Then I covered it over with 1/4" of soil with my hands.


Voila! Then I covered them with plastic wrap and placed them under a lamp inside the house. It looks like a science lab. kekeke I am going to move them to my office because it's warmer.