2020 Garden

OMG!!! I have officially put my order in for the seeds I wanted for our garden this year!  My only question is... What are we going to eat???!!!

I have ordered the more beautiful flower seeds from Floret Flower Farm!  This is my third time to order from this lovely company.  If you grow your own flowers you should seriously look into their selection.  I unfortunately was too late to buy some of the seeds on my wishlist but that's ok.  What is meant to be will be and I am so tickled at what I did buy.  If you are lucky to be one of the people that had my flowers adorn their summertime tables last year then you will know the fortunate beauty of bringing garden flowers indoors and should really be excited about my selection this year!  Here are pictures (taken from the website of Floret Flower Farm) of what is coming this summer to a garden near you!  And please click HERE to see my wishlist where you can find all of these flowers of my choice and more!

Here we have Bachelor's Buttons, Cosmos, Snapdragons, Black Eyed Susan, Sunflowers, Zinnias, Foxglove, Dahlia, AND ornamental squash!

ALSO, I was teasing about what to eat :)  I still have tons of seeds leftover from last year for fresh veggies.  I did, however, have these on my list of seeds to buy from Rareseeds.com or Baker Creek Heirloom.  Find their website HERE.

I'm excited to grow Stevia this year as I haven't had any in the garden in several years.  In fact, I'm still using it from the last time I grew it in 2014 LOL!  

I decided to include Marigold in with my tomato growing this year to keep bugs away which I haven't done in a long time.  I had some strange bugs last year that didn't seem to mind any kind of poison I put on them,  

I am really looking forward to having dried Parsley after this season!  It's also been several years since I've grown parsley.

I love these white zinnias and can't wait to have them as a bit of contrast in cut flowers this summer.

And the Brandywine Tomatoes.  I had really good success last year with Bonny Best from this site and decided to try these for this summer.  I am planning on only growing two varieties this year.  last year I had five varieties in the garden and seriously only wound up canning the Bonny Best.  I'm not going to grow any cherry tomatoes or smaller varieties as I really just wound up having too many to eat.  Seemed a waste of garden space and only gave the bugs something to eat.  I'm trying to use my space wisely I guess?   

I will still have squash, zucchini, green beans and peppers to eat.  And of course the flowers!  I'm drooling just thinking about how beautiful this summer is going to be!

h-aloe

Aloe Vera.   I love having this plant.  I can't remember a time in my adult life that I have not had an aloe plant... or five.  They are wonderful and extremely handy.  I've repaired many, many skin burns with cuttings from my plants.  The plants that I have now, although they are younger, are actually descendants from plants that an old friend gave me in my early twenties.

I had some extremely large plants that I "let go" one season.  I felt horrible killing them.  Honestly, it only took one good Tennessee frost/freeze and they were gone.  But I did get my enamelware tub back that they had taken over.  That thing had to have weighed eighty or more pound with all of those in there.  Shaun had to help me move it several times. 

So, I have three very small, very overgrown pots of Aloe.  I decided, since I have cut back on my plant buying this year and have several pots of dirt sitting around from last year, to separate the babies.  Once I pulled them out of the pots I was a little shocked yet not surprised at how many plants were shacking up in those little pots.  They divided up quickly and I had to walk around the porch and look for more pots.  Which weren't hard to find.

While some people will tell you to buy certain dirt or soil test... blah, blah, blah... aloe don't care.  I plucked them from their tiny abode and stuck them in that old dirt and I tell you they will thrive.  The only thing is... I now have seven pots of aloe instead of two.  And I have one more pot to go.  I am not promising that they will all come inside for the winter this year.  Please don't call the plant police.

There were seven plants in that one little pot.  One of them was not healthy so I let it go :(

My camera battery went dead so here are pics from the ones I transplanted last Saturday.

And one more to go.

summer shopping

I absolutely LOVE when QVC has their spring garden party smack in the midst of winter.  If they did this show once a week I strongly believe my winter blues would diminish.  I walked in the day care this morning and flipped on the tv to find the deal of the day reeling me in.  I quickly called Mary Evelyn and within minutes we had split the deal.  So... this summer my container plants will be my begonia bulbs that I bought from QVC last year and saved over the winter in the basement, my caladiums that I do the same (4th year now) AND these beautiful sedum... WHICH come back every year might I add.  I don't landscape.  I have two rose bushes but other than that I strictly stick to containers of all sorts.  I wanted to share just incase you are interested yourself.

 

 

 

Fantastic!  AND it will go dormant during the winter and come back the next year.

 

Now... I do remember (pretty sure) that my Mother had a yellow-ish type of sedum that was a ground cover.  So if you put this in an area that you don't want to fill you might now like it.  But it looks really easy to transplant.  The video of how they harvest this stuff was amazing.

 

Here is today's link to this deal. 

 

I plan on sharing my half too!  And having some at the day care.  It only takes a little bit!

lovin right now

I really, really like sharing things that I am lovin right now with you.

 

First up...  I am for sure lovin this orange and black pekoe tea blend!  The dollar tree in white house used to carry a kind that I enjoyed but the store went out of business.  Two weeks ago I wandered into the dollar tree in Hendersonville but alas they don't carry it.  I found this brand at walmart and enjoy it so!  It's just different than the usual instant kind I've used forever.  I call it my day care tea.  You need special quirks where you spend your time.

 

 

 

I recently rented Bloodroot by Amy Greene from the library after eyeing it on a blog somewhere.  I love to see what other people are reading.  If I didn't browse with that in mind sometimes I fear I would never happen upon some really good reads.  I really liked this one.

 

 

 

At the day care this year we decided to plant a flower garden where we usually have a vegetable garden.  I am actually glad that we did because this did not turn out to be our best garden year.  Our garden does have a couple of tomato plants but also orange zinnias, pink zinnias in large and small and also orange cosmos.  We pick a fresh batch to go in a jar on our eating table each week.  The boys have also enjoyed plucking the nasty green horn worms from the tomato plants and squashing them.  I can't stand those things!  We have also enjoyed the plethora of butterflies and bees and even hummingbirds that our flower garden attracts.

 

 

I like this little quote.

 

I feel like I am the queen of beliefs.  I've got some odd ones as many of you do too.  Not really major beliefs like religious stuff or all the mish mosh on the news.  Everybody has opinions and beliefs like that.  These are more personal.  I believe I will do yoga for the rest of my life.  I believe that if I use the wrong body wash in the morning if can affect my day.  I believe that certain bras that I own and wear will result in friends coming over in the evenings although I can't ever remember which bra does which.  I also do believe in waiting for the Lord.  I have been minus a few kids at the day care and trying to enjoy my time with less kids to worry about but the money part stings.  I believe the Lord will send them when I am ready to receive them and I just need to tough it out in the meantime.  Although the idea of job hunting does cross my mind.  When we first decided to open the day care I wasn't totally sold on the fact of it working out for us.  Mainly because I had never been in business for myself/by myself and always worked for others.  I was walking the driveway one afternoon after work, before I had quit my job in Nashville, and after we had been remodeling and working to prepare the trailer for my new job and suddenly stopped in the driveway feeling doubtful and scared as I looked at the trailer at the end of the driveway.  I asked the Lord out loud if this was the right thing... was I going in the right direction by quitting my job and doing this.  At that moment I felt a breeze come up and wrap around me like warm arms.  It felt like a hug and right then I wasn't scared anymore and knew we were doing the right thing.  I have to trust and believe in myself and these decisions and that this is where I am supposed to be career-wise right now.  Well, that just went in a different direction.  Talk about typing what you're thinking! 

 



around here

In Bloom was the title I envisioned for this post.  But it truly is what's going on "around here."

 

 

I have said it before.  I believe there are two "most wonderful times of the year." 

 

If you came to my home right now

and took a stroll around with me

here's what you would see.

 

3rd year Caladiums.

Begonias from a friend.

One of my QVC bulbous begonias.

and another.

and another.

Yellow roses.

Tomato blooms.

 

Butterflies loving the milkweed.

Green bean blooms.

Zucchini blossoms.

Dragonflies resting atop corn stalks.

Black bean blooms.

Basil blooming too fast for me to snip it.

Orange Zinnias  -  new to me this year.

Pixie zinnias from saved seeds.

Cucumber vine flowers.

Water Hyacinth from a friend.

Begonias from a friend.

I am right fascinated by this one.  How lovely.

Can you spot the tadpole in my water hyacinth?

It is one of many... many... many tadpoles in there.



greenhouse life

I love seeing the progress of my teeny greenhouse everyday.   I even find myself thinking of my little plants while I am at home and they are down at the day care just growing away.  I sometimes move them from the front windows back to the back windows for maximum sunlight exposure.  I know that Walmart already had mature plants like these for sale as do other joints but I thoroughly enjoy the entire process. 

BTW my bulbous begonias from QVC have shipped! 

Tiny dill for a friend.

I know.. I need to thin badly.

 

 Tomatoes for my mom, sister and best friend.