Boy, the rain won't seem to go away! It was drizzling last night, and just yucky today. It was cold enough that I began to worry a bit about the residents in the garden. But, the plants are tougher than I give them credit for, and they survived without incident. I can't get over how cold it's been this spring, and it seems like it will never warm up. I wore my green and black flannel shirt all day long...my wood-chopper shirt. Makes me feel like I'm camping I guess...or just lame!

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I am an impatient gardener, and I'm anxiously awaiting the day that my plants will actually grow. I got the notion to run out and take some pics to share with anyone out there that cares at all. If anything, it gives me a chance to actually see that they are growing, but when you see them everyday it's kinda hard to see it. But here's a glimpse of what's happening in the backyard.

My packed, but "happenin" garden spot.

The lettuce on the left...radishes on the right. I know...time to thin em out!!

The tomatillo plant is one of one my faves...don't know why. Tomatoes in the back, garlic, rosemary, and the little thyme plant off to the far right.





One of the yellow bell peppers has a flower!! Yeahh!!! These are little midget plants right now, and having never grown them I don't know how big they will get. Maybe they will be dragging fruit on the ground, who knows.

Heather's mums. Beautiful!

The Sweet 100 tomato plant is actually pumping out little babies already, much to my wonder and amazement. I think there's like 5 or 6 little fellers out there right now, and it's the 4th of June. Is this a sign of good things to come?

The blue lake bush beans are coming along nicely. I've been reading up on these guys, and from the sounds of it I will be building some trellis or net-like contraption for them to climb on. Why are they so needy? The corn is also doing well...surprisingly. I've never grown corn before, and it seems to be doing what corn is supposed to be doing...so...there you go.

In an earlier blog I think I mentioned something about my overzealous desire to pack my garden with "stuff". Well, here's some more stuff, as it were, my straightnecked squash plants. My fear is that between this, the zucchini bush plant, and the 2 watermelon plants, they will spread like the plague. I can't even recall having eaten a straightnecked squash in my life. I hope they taste good.





The watermelon plants look a little sad right now, and I'm hoping that they come out of whatever little funk that watermelon plants go into. It's probably just been too cold and wet. I opted not to do the "plant in a black tire" thingy, so here's to hoping that they will actual produce any fruit at all.









On Mother's Day, I chose to plant some banana pepper seeds to see if they would come up quickly.....yeah...not so much. They got a really late start, and have just come up over the past week, so I'm not holding my breath.

Here's a really sexy shot of the corn....oh, and the trampoline....and the dandelions in the background. Neat, huh?

Last but certainly not least....my bumper crop of nasty wild geranium. It has some name for it, but I frankly could care less what it is. All I know is that I pull a TON of these things. Why is that when you want something to grow, it won't....and when you DON'T want something to grow it tries to take over the joint? Life's little quirks I suppose. I guess that would make it would be too easy, right?

Well, until next time!!

6-1-2008

Boy, do you ever feel like you bite off more than you can chew? Or do you ever wish you had more hours in the day to do what needs to be done? Yesterday was a prime example. It started out when I decided to plant more in my garden. I really think now, even in short retrospect, that my if the residents of my garden ever decide to REALLY start growing, that it's going to be so packed that I won't know what even in there! I'm falling into the trap of wanting more and more things growing in the garden in order to fill up space...just eager for a nice large crop I guess. Day before yesterday I stopped and K-Mart and picked up a few more plants (it's like a heroine addiction!). I brought home a zucchini plant and a straight-necked squash plant to add to the 2 watermelon plants that I added earlier that day. So now I have 4 squashy viney plants that are almost sure to take over the garden. What was I thinking? I tried to give them the space that they require, but who knows if that will be enough. I've heard horror stories of those type of plants running amock. *sigh*. I also planted some cilantro seeds as well, so we'll see.

In addition to the planting, I've been re-doing the bathroom floor. Actually, a more appropriate term should be that I have gutted the bathroom and am trying to fix the mess that I've made. The floor had rotted from a previous leak around the toilet and a leaking valve, causing a really neat odor that constantly permeated the room. I also took out some sheetrock as well, so right now the bathroom looks like an Iraqi bomb-site. I had ripped the flooring up about 3 weeks ago and had replaced about half of the floor, then came down with some weird Ebola virus thingy that out me out of commission for a good week and a half. I'm much better now, but the bathroom needs to be done. The kids are afraid to use the bathroom for fear that they will fall through! You can't help but laugh a little...but when you are sitting on the...um...er...taking care of business, and you are staring at this gaping hole in the floor and thinking about what might jump out of there are grab you, it's really time to get it fixed!!! It's really nothing that a little therapy won't cure for the kids down the road. That's terrible. Anyway, today I will get the rest of the flooring in, nail down the concrete backer board (we're doing tiles as well), and see if I can get some drywall up. Never done any of this stuff before, so it should prove rather interesting. Wish me luck.

Oh...by the way....the bathroom photo is the BEFORE photo.......That's how it looked when we moved in. Gross, huh? Leaking toilet...stained tub. Freakin' sick, let me tell you.

Today was a long day, mainly because I had to work, and because it seemed to rain off and on all day long. It weird because this year it seems as thought summer will never get here. It's been such a long, cold, and bleak winter, and me and my wife have been anxiously awaiting the coming of spring. The cold, wet drizzle today seemed to chill to the bone. I worked late, and then "puttered" around in the garden. This year is the first year of growing a backyard vegetable garden, and I'm pretty excited about it. I've had this urge to grow something, and it's allowed me the opportunity to put a HUGE pile of dirt in the backyard to good use. So far I have yellow peppers, purple peppers, jalepenos, a lone tomatillo, corn, thyme, rosemary, beans, tomatoes, purple carrots, and radishes. I'll be adding to the list as I feel the urge. Right now I'm just getting impatient for the plants to grow, grow, grow. I'll show some photos as the year progresses. I don't know if I even planted everything right, but things are growing so that must be a good thing. I just can't wait to eat the first thing I harvest!!

Here's a little lettuce action!!

Tomatoes, tomatoes, and more tomatoes.

Blue Lake beans

Corn....and my 7 year old son Zac, taking it all in. What's with the hands on the hips, son?

Ok...this is it!

Hello, y'all! I've decided to take my first official step into the "blogger's world", as it were, so that I can share with others the things that will be going on, have gone on....and well....just to get stuff off my chest from time to time. I can think of no other therapeutic way to do this, and heck, I will get a chance to post pictures of things that I think are really cool! I'm not really into sharing a LOT of intimate details with complete strangers, so I may change some things here and there in order to maintain my online anonymity. I can do that. Because it's MY site. Quit crying about it, for Pete's sake! LOL. Anyway, I'm sure this thing will be filled with everything from the profound to the meaningless. If anyone else finds enjoyment in it, GREAT....if not....may the Lord find you well! :)