Two birds, one hose

For anyone who has kids and a lawn, and now that it is hitting close to 90 degrees in my neck of the woods, I highly recommend obliging the children and letting them run crazy wild in the sprinklers while you water the lawn. That's a bang for your utility bill buck! Just remember to have dry towels on hand. Or a mop. Needless to say, I have very happy children right now. And a soon-to-be greener yard! :)

My fairy gardenmother to the rescue!

So my neighbor across the alley has tripped upon this blog and -- gasp -- figured out pretty quickly whose blog it was despite my meager attempts (I said meager) at anonymity. She read about my dreams and yearnings to make the mess that is the back corner of my yard (the one closest to her) into a garden that actually produced produce rather than spiders and blackberry bushes. And instead of teasing me about how long it's taken me to attack that corner (though I have been attacking other corners!) she got to work. This genius of a landscaper is once again lending some of her energies to my yard (and making sure she has something prettier to look at than a couple blackberry runners that keep re-emerging and the pile of bricks left by the previous owner when we bought the place more than five years ago.) Like I said, she is my fairy gardenmother. She's been plotting with my husband on making this a real plot. They've staked it out, ran the string, figured out which neighbor was about to get rid of the fencing, she even squished some nasty looking spiders and turned the pile of bricks into a border for the soon-to-be growing space. Pretty soon it will be ready to have a giant load of TAGRO Potting Soil dumped on it, some seeds and starts planted within, and then I will have no excuses for not keeping this corner kept up. So thank you, fairy gardenmother, for kickstarting some magic in my backyard, especially in that horrid corner, and for being patient with our household of gardening/yardscaping idiots over the last five years -- and for helping take the fear and mystery out of just getting growing. I look forward to you having a prettier view from your yard -- and to me becoming less of a gardening idiot.

Growth spurt!

On any other blog I'd be talking about the kids' growth spurt, but I'm talkin' about my garden plants. While I'm still waiting to see if the mixed flower seed I spread in one area a few weeks ago will actually emerge (there's something coming up, but I haven't discerned whether it's weeds or what I planted) ... other areas of the garden/beds are positively popping. The kids and I added a little extra TAGRO to each of the plants in the main flower bed ... and perhaps that's it, perhaps it was the warm couple days, or perhaps a little of my imagination, but today the pansies each have more than a half-dozen buds (and these aren't big plants), the peas doubled in size, my zucchini start exploded with happiness, the garlic's stalks are sitting up straight ... it's like they all got a little jumpstart. Perhaps it's a combo.

Now, the only PROBLEM with letting the kids help me shovel and such is when the 4-year-old boy gets frustrated at his 2-year-old sister and takes his kid-sized shovels and STARTS WHACKING HER ON THE HEAD WITH HIS SHOVEL!!!

Seriously. However, you will be happy to know that she was wearing her bike helmet at the time. Which is probably the only reason he even did it ... but still. NOT cool.

But the growth spurts of my green stuff ... very cool.

And now I must pay the front beds a little attention. All the TLC has gone to the back, and it's about time the sidewalk-walkers got a little peek at my newfound powers, too. :)

The barrels are full!

So, thanks to the fabulous hubby, the wine barrels (cut in half) we bought last year are finally in use. Two are up front in the planting strip, filled with TAGRO Potting Soil and now have herb starts planted in one, and flower seeds in the other. It will be nice to have some manageable color up there.

I love that GardenSphere is open on Sundays and now carries bags of the great stuff ... it makes it so convenient for us procrastinating gardeners in the neighborhood.

Time to go work some of the remaining TAGRO Mix into my dry, dry flower beds on the side of the house ... hopefully we'll get some moisture in there soon! Wow. I feel nerdy gardening knowledge coming ... not yet, but soon.

Lawn update

My lawn is rockin' it. And my husband's mowing it. Seriously, not only have I gotten the darling hubby to do OUTDOOR work, I've also gotten my lawn to work (now with hubby's help). Instead of big bare patches, I have lush, soft, toe-friendly, bright green lawn. And all it took was some TAGRO, some overseeding, and a bit of time ... but take THAT raccoons! Not so easy to roll up my lawn now, is it!?!?!?!?

Zucchini update

My dried up zucchini plant is now flourishing! A bit of water, some rest in my TAGRO-prepared plot and a day or so and it's as if I never left it on the porch without watering it for nearly a week. :) If all goes well, many of you will be getting zucchini bread (if I'm energetic) or the veggies them selves (if I'm feeling lazy) this summer and fall. I'm excited!

An "aha moment" while digging in the dirt

I'd been told all about soil quality, why it mattered and how to improve it and all that. But only yesterday did I truly understand the difference between totally crappy soil and really nice tilth. There's an area to the side of my house ... part of the area that had its dirt replaced last year ... this side of house I thought got OK exposure to rain, but recently it always looked bone dry even during downpours. Well, I'd done a half-assed attempt at adding soil amendment (TAGRO) to the area a couple weeks ago. And let's just say I might be making a more thorough attempt in the near future. Because as I took the hose to the thirsty plants, it was SO OBVIOUS the difference between where I could water and water and water and it seemed like the plants could drink forever, and the areas where I'd barely drop any liquid and it would slide and pool and run away -- and if I touched the dirt in these pooling areas, it would be BONE DRY underneath. It was so dry and sandy that nothing could soak in ... no wonder my plants were sad. And I'd go back in forth, incredulously, between where the water would not soak, and where it seemed like it would soak in forever -- the areas where I was wondering if the hose was even on it soaked in so nice and fast. It was kind of a nice science experiment,and gave me hope that even gardening idiots like me can learn a thing or two. And now off to add some more TAGRO and compost to the garden so that my plants won't be so thirsty ...

Dreamin' of zucchinis

Bought a zucchini and white pumpkin start last Sunday, and was a bad girl and did not plant them right away. And I see that zucchini definitely need water. Ran out to plant them this evening into the soil I'd already prepared a couple weeks ago, then soaked them to make up for the past few days. What, you ask? Why plant zucchini? Your coworkers already bring you zucchini by the bagful? Well, it's ONLY one zucchini. And I really, really like zucchini bread. And the white pumpkins, well, they're for something different.

And I'm quickly running out of garden space. Hmmm ... me think next year will take a bit more planning. :)