Fertilizer Friday - Happy Spring

Good Morning Blogspot World! Hope everyone is doing spiffy today. It's that time again when we all get together for Fertilizer Friday. Click on the title and head on over to Tootsie Time and check out what Tootsie is up to and all of the other bloggers participating in Fertilizer Friday.

Again I didn't load in proper order. Check out my new veggie garden spot. The fellow I hired to tille the garden just showed up on Tue and said just pay me when you can. Such a nice old man and very polite. So you can imagine how much work I have to do to remove as much grass as I can. The soil here is very dark and rich.

The yellows have it in my yard so far this year. Ya'll I have shared most of these with you already but I tried really hard to take a different angle hoping to spice it up. LOL

The snapdragon purchase in Jan for $1.50 was a great purchase as you can tell.

This little pansy is so bright you can't get a good picture. It's like looking at the sun.

Yellow Viola's.

I spent much of my time last weekend putting down 15 packs of seeds.

Check out the new lettuce I planted last weekend. They come up 4 days after planting and now they are about an inch high and...

The Cosmos I paid .20 for sprung up 3 days after planting and now is at least 2" high.

I cannot believe how well the Russell Strain Lupines from Hometown Seeds is doing. They look so happy. There at least 16 little plants.

I have 2 plants of the 8 ordered from Springhill Nursery still alive. This is the purple hydrangea. It seems to be coming along nicely. It should give me some blooms this year. Didn't get any last year.

The pear tree has blossomed out nicely. Hoping I have some edible pears this year. Buddy sure liked them last year. Did I tell you the story about the pear tree last year? Every time I took Buddy out in the back to do his business he would grab him a pear and take inside and eat it. Later in the year when not as many pears would be laying on the ground due to all of the other animals I would shake the tree a little and he'd get his little treat. For 2 days in a row when I shook the tree - Buddy found a little baby bird. After 2 days I figured out what had happened and oh I felt so bad. I killed all of the little babies. God forgive me.

The peach tree is beginning to lose the petals and is taking on the prettiest shade of green. I just love this time of year.

Wondering how long it takes broccoli to make - anyone know? They are doing beautiful and so is the lettuce.

I may have a salad this week.

The blueberry bush is budding out nicely. I hate that I'm not suppose to eat these. The seeds aren't good for me.

We are expecting a very nice weekend with hi's around 70 and lows around 50. Aaaahh finally.

Happy Spring everyone.

Photo Tag Fun

I have been tagged by LemonVerbenaLady for "Photo Tag Fun". Check out her lovely blog for all kinds of fun and herbal stuff. http://lemonverbenalady.blogspot.com/ Here goes...



This is my 10th photo from my first set of photos using my new camera last year.



Photo story - I am showing how badly the drain off from the house is effecting the gardens here. Not really much to tell. This particular garden area has septic plumbing below it and last year I did not realize this until there was a problem. This year this garden area is being used for lettuce and broccoli. I will be placing containers over the areas that have the underground plumbing this year.



Here is how photo tag works - on your first list of photos choose the tenth photo and post it and tell the story behing it. Hope yours is more interesting than mine.

I am suppose to pass this on the five other bloggers and those are:
Kim at Beautiful Wreck - check her blog out. She has 5 kids and homeschools and sometimes she is raving on. I love her blog.

Randy and Mike at Chicken Boys - I love to see what they are up to.

Busy Bee Suz at Day by Day with Suz - What a fun blog too. She is funny with her writings.

Tatyana at My Secret Garden - Tatyana has some really awesome gardens and she is just a fun person.

Carol at the Writers Porch - Nothing like a good book and Carol is the one to recommend it to ya. She loves all of these southern authors and so do I.

Ya'll have a good day.

This and That

The old washer had to be replaced. I went out and bought a new one on Saturday. I just couldn't stand to have another used washer come in only to not work. Unfortunatley the man friend that I let come back into my life messed up my drain hose for the washer and the electrical plug. Grrrrr. Can't believe that he is so stupid to pull it straight out of the ground and to pull the plug so hard that the box came off of the wall. Oh well we live and learn.

I've been sick. Missed work on Monday and that throws me behind at work. Had the ole stomach bug I guess. My troubles when I get the ole stomach bug is that I get so violently ill. I shake uncontrollably with chills and then the hot flashes. Terrible experience. While I was so ill my mom called this so called friend thinking he cared enough to see about me and guess what - he came over all right and acted like a fool - so angry at being there. I told him to get out and stay out - never come back again. I really don't need a man. I will hire someone to do what I need.

My veggie area was plowed yesterday. I have a lot of work laid out for me. I will be planting the vegatable garden in about 2-3 weeks. Haven't finalized my list of veggies to plant yet.

What to do about the squirrels messing with my flower pot containers. I think they are still looking for nuts they hid in the fall and winter. I heard that red pepper flakes may deter them - I'll try this. Any other ideas?

We are getting some rain showers today. Nice light rain the kind that does the plants some good without knocking them over. The weekend is calling for temps of 70 and sunny. Yea!

I can't believe that my oldest and still my 'baby girl' will be 37 tomorrow. Happy Birthday - April. She is off enjoying their annual 'family' vacation up in the mountains of Tennessee.

That enough of my rantings. I'll be around as I can this week to visit you all.

Have a great day and hope you are having some nice weather.

Fertilizer Friday - Things Are Springing Up

Click on title to go to Tootsie Time.

Well it's that time each week to flaunt our flowers or whatever you want to flaunt. Ya'll head on over to our dear friend Tootsie Time and check out all of the other bloggers flaunting their stuff. Tootsie has the most awesome magazine perfect gardens so I know you'll enjoy...


My uploads did not go in the order I intended as I got in a hurry this morning.

The same azalea that bloomed all winter long is budding again. All of the other azaleas are just now budding.


These are some bulbs that I bought at Walmart and will be putting them all in the ground this weekend.

I can't wait to see this beautiful Clematis H.F. Young.

Oh and this awesome Peony.

Beautiful Dahlias.

Ooohh I love these Iris' and can't wait to see how gorgeous they are.

Pear tree is beginning to blossom.

The peach tree in bloom.

Lettuce is coming along very nicely. Looks like soon I'll be able to eat a salad.

The broccoli is doing very well.

Planted lots of seeds last weekend.

I mentioned earlier this week about changing up my seeds start mix by adding in some organic potting mix. This is going to allow a much easier transfer to the gardens. I tried different containers that are on the cheap side. Drink bottles and milk carton. I punched holes in the bottoms and cut them to about 3" high and they are perfect. Plenty of soil for the seeds and will permit better root growth.

I already have a couple breaking the surface. The Shasta Alaska Daisy and the Sweet Pea Everlasting and Sweet William 'Sooty'. I'm sure the others will be up this weekend.

A little color on the ground. Snapdragon I purchased on clearance. They are re-blooming and lots of new buds. Those daffodils I don't expect them to bloom since they were just planted in Mid Jan.

Johnson's Blue Geranium is greening up.

The Red Breadseed Poppies seem to be happy here.

Isn't this a crocus. I have tons of these growing up under a tree in the shade. I will have to re-locate them when it's time.

I did some direct sowing last evening. I planted some Foxglove (thanks Tatyana) and Red Melon Poppies (thanks Tatyana) and more Red Breadseed Poppies.

Busy weekend ahead. The weather is suppose to be a breezy 65 for highs both Sat and Sun. Lots of garden work to do and to my utility room. It is still torn apart since I am trying to get some shelving in and not to mention that my washer is not fixed. Brought back to me but it doesn't work. Gotta get a new plan so I can wash.

Hope you all have a great weekend and that you enjoy each day like it was your last. Don't forget to tell your loved ones that you love them.

Question?

I have a question - the seed starter trays that are made of thick cardboard - can you plant each little cell directly into the ground after removing the bottom part of the cardboard?

I want to use this tray. It has 50 cells for seeds but if I have to empty each cell that isn't going to work.

The rain that is coming is expected to be rough this afternoon and evening with possiblity of 4" of rain and hail and possible tornados. The threat of tornados don't scare me but the rain washing away the seedlings worries me. Am I crazy or what.

Have a great day and hopefully you are experiencing nice weather.

Babbling...

I had a great weekend and very productive. With weather like we had over the past week, even if you aren't a gardener the outdoors was calling all people.



I planted the Russell Strain Lupines and the Red Breadseed Poppies. Both seemed to be happy outdoors. I planted clumps of Poppies like Darla suggested. I managed to plant 18 small clumps of poppies and 17 seedlings of Lupine. The snapdragon is still so small I didn't want to plant yet. The seed start mix is so fine that it is difficult to retrieve the seedlings from the container. I decided to add an organic indoor potting mix to the seed start. I mixed 4 parts seed start to 1 part potting mix. I believe that this is going to give me a better root system for transplanting. I also figured that if I don't get a BUNCH of seeds started this week that I will be running behind.

I spent a great deal of time trimming trees and bushes. Much more to do since my yard is so huge. I can walk under them again.

My washer went on the fritz in the middle of the week last week. It was taken out and went for repair and is to be returned today. A very old fridge also sat in the utility room and was removed (thank you Lord). So my utility room is getting a clean up. Everything is still sitting in my kitchen and is getting pretty annoying. The room needs to be painted but we'll see if that happens. I am adding some shelving and hopefully a pantry of some sort. I really hate when an appliance goes on the fritz - this often means replacing it. Thankfully it has been repaired but don't ya hate when everything else is put on hold pending the repair.

Spent some time with Mom and Pop. I planted her seeds in some containers for her. I'll plant more this weekend for her. They are not feeling good these days. Both of them take 1 or 2 naps a day. Last year at this time Pop had both of the huge gardens plowed and some stuff planted already. The fall that he took 3-4 weeks has really affected him. Falling 10' is bad for anybody and falling into a greenhouse that is full was really bad.

We are expecting a 2-3" of rain today and tomorrow and then clearing off for another beautiful weekend. Hope my plants don't drown.

Time changes this weekend. Don't forget to spring forward.

Hope everyone has a great day and maybe enjoy some outdoor stuff. To all of you gardeners out in the yard today - I'm jealous.

My First Fertilizer Friday

http://www.tootsietime.com/ The title links.
This is my first Fertilizer Friday and hope to join in each week. I hope I linked up properly. I am not real computer savvy.

Ya'll if you haven't already and I bet most of you have checked out Ms Tootsie's blog you are really missing out. She post so many great topics and has the prettiest home gardens.

I can't hardly wait to get all my seeds planted - but I expect I'll be doing seeds for the next 2 months. Exciting huh.

This is what I have to share today....

Indoors this baby is really growing since I repotted it 2 weeks ago. Ya'll tell me what it is please. I forget the name. Question how do you root this plant?


The Red Breadseed Poppies are looking good. I have thinned these babies 2 times already. Do I need to thin more? I can't wait for these to bloom.

The snapdragons are looking good too. They are a little slower growing than the Red Breadseed Poppies.

Sorry the photos are dark. These are the Russell Strain Lupines and they are doing beautifully. These came from Hometown Seeds. Can't wait to see these bloom too.

I am so looking forward to having a salad with my lettuce. These are Hometown Seeds - Lettuce Gourmet Mix.

This is Hometown Seeds Broccoli Waltham. I've never grown lettuce and broccoli before. I am going to add to this bed with more salad fixings.

New growth on the Johnsons Blue Geranium.

These daffs didn't get planted till mid the first of Jan. They will be late blooming if they bloom at all. I planted 55 daffodils I bought for $5.

New growth on the Purple Hydrangea. I am going to plant this in the new bed at the porch.

Picture blurry. I took at least 10 pics of the Georgia Peach blossoms but they were all blurry. In a few weeks it will be in full bloom.

And I have to finish off with my favorite fellow - Little Buddy. Buddy is loving playing with his friend, Molly who visits regular. They get so rough with each other sometime - but I'll tell ya he holds his own with Molly the Rat Terrier. Buddy like to pose for the camera.

Well I'm hoping that all of you are starting to warm up a bit. We have had and expect the next 5 days to be beautiful and warming more each day. Next week we are expecting temps to be in the low 70's. YEA!! Spring is around the corner.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to check out Tootsie's blog and see who all else is flaunting their goodies.

Bird and Butterfly Garden

The weather this weekend reminds me why I like living on the Alabama Gulf Coast. For the past week our temps have been easing up even if only slightly. Saturday was a beautiful sunny day with highs around 60 and Sunday was the same with slightly warmer temps of 64. You all know what this means to a gardener this time of year. I spent both days including Friday outdoors.



I managed to get this garden edged on Friday with the rubber edging you buy from Walmart. Saturday my friend came to visit for the weekend with Molly, the rat terrier. Well Molly has a fetish with rubber and gloves of any kind - though clean ones are not the ones she is looking for. After siezing my gloves a few times I quickly learned to keep them on or in a safe place. The rubber fetish drove me crazy because she pulled up ALL of the rubber borders taring up my beds around the edges. I had no choice but to head to Walmart and pick up the scalloped stones to edge the bed. Of course it looks a lot better but I wasn't planning on that expense this year.



I'll have to pick up stones for all of the beds.



Doesn't this look good and all ready for some plants. What I have so far are a few daffodils, blue hyancinth (blooms are on my new kitchen table). The piece going down the center is a piece of flashing that wasn't usable. It is temporary. I am going to purchase some flat stones for getting around here. This garden ended up measuring 16x6 - much larger than my plans but I am glad for all of this new space. This bed will be part sun in the summer. Currently it is more shade. This will be a Bird and Butterfly garden.









This new bed is full sun. This is an enlargment actually more than doubling its size. It will require 35 12" scalloped stones to go all the way around. Already here in the section I put down last year are yellow and red cannas and 52 daffodils. I won't be digging in these areas of course. This garden will also be a Bird and Butterfly Garden.

I hope you all have a great weather day and maybe do some gardening.