Sprucing up the joint

One of my favorite things about summertime is that one can spend a great deal of time outdoors and never get sick of it. At least I don't get sick of it. I don't even mind the rainy, gloomy days because I usually go out anyway, even for a few minutes. I'll pull some weeds in the garden or clip some herbs, anything to just get me out. A few weeks ago we had a string of gorgeous days and when Nanner was napping, I took some time to take a few photos of the ole homestead.

Until we got married and moved here, I never realized how much nicer our porch looks with flowers out front. It really makes our house look like a home. That said, I always have very little to do with the gardening--that's where Graham's a viking.

Last fall, right around Halloween, we took a trip to Menards--Mecca for the cheap homeowner--and I chose a few different spring and summer bulbs. Graham did some work out front, mostly with the lava rock and the edging, and he planted my bulbs. We got tulips and daffodils in April and May, and in June my irises finally bloomed.

Hello, gorgeous!

They were definitely worth the wait. They've since fallen off, but they were lovely while we had them.

This little bugger is called a lobelia (I think). I just love that color.

And check out that cute pot! I DIY'd it!! It was almost foolproof. It needs a few touch ups, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think I'll give it a touch up at the end of the season since I've got some spray paint left over.

 This, my friends, is a begonia. And, believe it or not, it's gotten bigger and lovelier in the weeks since this was taken. When I was a kid, I didn't know what a begonia was, except that old ladies grew them. During our first year of marriage, this was one of the first flowers I planted in our window boxes on our balcony. I've always had a lot of luck with them, and they really do some good for your soul, doncha think?

When this rash of rainy weather passes, maybe I'll post some photos of our vegetable and herb garden. I'm really pleased with my perennial herbs and my basil plants are out of control. I'm seeing some pesto in my future!

Our Place, May 2011

It's been a while since I've done a post about our home and the improvements we've done to Casa de 1970. We're definitely overdue, and there's a lot of smallish things we've done that we're proud of, so I'm showin' 'em off.

See this vehicle? It's ours. Like, literally ours. We OWN this! 

Aaahh, what an awesome feeling.

 In October, we planted some spring bulbs out front. Last year we had some large pots and window boxes outside, but we both really like the idea of something that comes back each year. Since I was Angie the Pregosaur, I didn't really help with this project, but I'll say "we" just for the hell of it.

First, we started by extending and rearranging the stone border around the bushes. We extended the stones so that they went to the corners of the house instead of just smallish circles around the bushes. I really like this, because it makes the landscaping look a little more polished and less like someone threw some rocks around some bushes.

All we need is the white picket fence.

Next, we planted spring bulbs. Since I couldn't do much of the digging and planting, Graham let me pick the bulbs and decide on their placement.

I picked four types of flowers because I can't ever make a decision about anything. We alternated with red and purple tulips, which look and smell gorgeous.

We didn't have enough tulips to go completely across the front, so we put our tulips on the ends and placed daffodils right in front.

Call it an Easter miracle, but with the exception of the purple tulips which bloomed this past weekend, our red tulips and daffodils were all blooming and open on Easter morning. It was pretty terrific.

Behind the tulips and daffodils we planted purple irises. You can't see them yet, but they're starting to come up. Our neighbors on the corner have gorgeous irises, and I fell in love with them last year. These will come up later in the season, and I'm really excited to see how they're going to look.

While Graham has been doing much more work in the garden than me, I'm happy to say that this year I've been able to help out and work on some of the weeding and planting. Last year I had to opt out and let him do it all because of the risk of toxoplasmosis to me and Nanner. We weren't sure if any kitties had been using the garden as a litter box, so we chose to play it safe. This year, I've been slowly getting myself into the garden, and as the snow melted and the ground warmed, I was suuuuuuuuuper excited to see that my perennial herbs have returned!

Oregano on the left and chives on the right. I have some small sage plants growing behind them, too.

The old lady who lived here before we did loved to garden. Unfortunately, it got too much for her as she got older and she left her flowers and garden to their own devices. Last year we had peonies growing all over the place, small rose of sharon trees all over the yard, and lots of green leaves but only two daffodils. This year we broke open the ground in front of the garage and did some...redistributing.

We created a small raised bed in the back where we broke up some huge clusters of daffodils--like, seriously huge--and then planted some more tender bulbs in front of them. We'll have calla lilies growing here this summer!

My friend Amy yelled at me for uprooting daffodils in the spring because we likely shocked them. Not the best practice, but since we really didn't expect them to bloom this year given their condition, we figured it was okay. I should have taken photos.....you really can't imagine how many bulbs were growing in some of these clusters we uprooted. Some of the bulbs were so small and being choked out! This layout is much better and will give the daffodils a chance to reestablish themselves and actually grow and thrive.

This area will probably always be a work in progress. This side of our garage was a jungle when we moved in. There was a sick rose bush, peonies all over the place, and an infestation of day lilies. Add in some small and stubborn rose of sharon trees, weeds forever, and growth from the neighbors on the left, and we had a situation. Graham spent half of his spring break last year hacking away at the mess back there and trying to make sense of it. He replanted a ton of peonies that were growing where our vegetable garden was, and he broke up some huge clusters of peonies he found over here. He also cut back the rose bush and dug up a number of day lilies because they were taking over. It doesn't look like much now, but once everything blooms, this area is quite lovely.

See these down here? See that growth?

These are the peonies that Graham dug up last spring and transplanted over to this side of the garage. Like I mentioned above, he probably shocked them by digging them up in the spring, because they didn't bloom and just flopped over. However, it looks like nature is on our side because they're growing just the same and will be blooming this season.

So there you have it! Nature and flowers and springtime goodness. You're welcome.

The Secret Garden

Well, enough mopey-dopey b.s. It's time for a picture post!

We're gardeners by hobby, and this is the first time we've gardened with plenty of land at our disposal. We haven't planted anything of our own yet, but surprise! Some bulbs are coming up depite the plans we've got in store.

After the last few weeks, I can't tell you how glad I am to see these guys. Keep it coming, Spring!

Nasturtium...

Well lookie here.....it's kind of blurry, but we've got blooming nasturtium! These are some of my favorite flowers to plant. They're beautiful and delicate, and they only bloom for a few days before withering. I've planted the Peach Melba variety, and they're a gorgeous yellow color. They also smell glorious.

I love watching these flowers bloom.

MORE Gardeny Goodness!

Remember this post from a few weeks ago? Well, we've had a really cool and rainy June this year, and our plants haven't minded one bit....

My zinnias are going to take over the building soon. If you never hear from me again, assume I've been strangled to death by one of these guys!

We're also going to have flowers soon! A few of my zinnias are budding!

And Graham's pot of wildflowers and native grasses are pretty large and in charge here....

Oh, and our tomatoes are doing reeeeeeeeeeeeeally well....

We've got tomato flowers!!!! We'll have vegetables soon enough, my friends.

Graham's marigolds are finally starting to bloom! We struggled with them early on this year, and they've finally figured out that the roots go down and the stems go up. Way to be, flowers. Way to be!

My herb "garden" is doing really, really well, too. I've been able to harvest some basil, and I'll be using my sage, dill, and parsley really soon, too. The pot in the foreground has been struggling, some, but my chives and the other herbs are doing okay despite the rain and oppressive humidity.

Our garden is really taking off! I'm really impressed with all we've accomplished so far this summer. I can't wait to use some of our tomatoes.

Gardeny Goodness

Remember these stringy little guys?

Well, as of earlier this week my zinnias are still hardy and strong!

Our tomatoes are doing well, too!

This year we planted Patio and Tiny Tim tomatoes, as they're supposed to fare better in small containers. So far, so good! We also planted some parsley with the tomatoes, as the parsley is supposed to promote growth for the tomatoes, and then the tomatoes return the favor.



Graham's also experimenting with some wildflower seeds we got from our visit to Midwein. Nothing's blooming yet, but they're doing well despite all the rain.



And finally, some petunias we got from my in-laws. They had some leftover flowers, and my Moss Rose and Poppies just weren't digging the garden thing this year (Aaaaaand, rimshot!) They're looking good and they seem to like hanging out on the balcony. (I kill me, I really do!)



It's been raining a lot lately, and as soon as the rain stops and the sun comes out, our plants take off like crazy! I'm almost afraid what the next week will do to my zinnias!

The Garden...

...is getting out of control! I love it! After 6 straight days of rain, we've finally got some sun, and the plants are lovin' it. I'll post pics this weekend, but let's just say that the tomatoes are diggin' it and my herbs are...getting there?

Our Garden

Graham and I both love to garden and watch things grow, and we love having an activity that we can do together that's fun and productive. He's especially good with plants and he knows when to water and how. His green thumb gets greener all the time! Last year was our first attempt at container gardening and it wasn't a complete success but I was pretty impressed with what we accomplished. We grew tomatoes in large planters and I grew some herbs in small pots. My herbs did well, and we actually got some usable tomatoes! They were rather small, but hey, we didn't have to buy tomatoes all summer so it was a small victory.

This year we've "expanded our operation" as Hubby would say. We didn't stick with regular sized tomatoes this season; Graham found a type that supposedly thrives in smaller containers so we're giving those a shot this year. I have also planted a few more herbs and I've already got some Italian parsley, some marjoram, basil, a little thyme, chives, and some dill. Still waiting on the sage, though. It's exciting to wake up every morning and check on the progress our seeds and seedlings are making.

In addition to all the edibles, we've planted a number of flowers and I can't wait to see them bloom. This year we planted marigolds, nasturtium (supposedly edible but I prefer the flowers for viewing's sake alone), four o'clocks (very unedible as they're poisonious upon ingestion), snapdragons, zinnias, moss roses, and poppies. I can't wait to see them all in bloom!

We can't transplant the seedlings until after Mother's Day. Apparently in Illinois that's when the danger of a frost has passed, but I swear I remember a freak frost in late May when I was younger. Hopefully if that happens, we'll have enough warning and we'll be able to move everything indoors for a day or two.

Some photos of our fledgling garden:

Some four o'clocks. If you look closely you can see 4 seedlings. Four o'clocks are strange. The root breaks out of the seed casing first, and the plant grows upwards still wearing the casing. When the leaves grow large enough, they pop out of the seed casing. Right now 2 of our seedlings have sprung free, one is very close, and the other is getting there.



There's nasturtium in the foreground and our tall tall zinnias in the background. Zinnias are naturally tall so it should be fun watching them adapt to smaller containers. I hope we get some pretty blooms from them! This picture was taken on Sunday and overnight the nasturtium shot up and now they're taller than the zinnias. It's so cool to watch them grow. Last year we got some pretty yellow and peach colored blossoms from the nasturtium and we only had two seedlings take. This year we've got four, so I can't wait to see what they do. They're a little on the viney side.



Herbs! That's marjoram in the far left and center, and one of my dills on the right. The dill seedlings are growing nice and tall, and the marjoram is a little slow in getting there but I'm sure it will take. We planted these in biodegradable starter trays, so when we're ready to plant them we just have to break the trays apart and plant the tray, no popping and digging required!

That's enough for now. Hopefully sometime soon we'll be able to show off some growing plants and usable herbs.