August 24th, Seriously?!

Blink. Blink. Hello, August 24.
 

Seriously, where has this summer gone? We have spent most (all) of our summer on the road. I am, by no means, complaining. We have spent more time with our families this summer than ever. The trips have included vacations, baby showers, 6^th birthday parties, class reunions, golf outings, graduations, 20^th birthday, Mom and Sister-in law birthdays, 25^th birthdays, 16^th birthdays, bachelorette parties, school clothes shopping…

Are you exhausted after reading that…yeah me too! I went eight weeks without spending a Saturday night in my own bed!

 

We have neglected our house, our yard and ourselves. This weekend will be spent getting caught up on all three. We have 50 bags of mulch being delivered today along with new landscape lights. Who is pumped? This girl! We have spent the past two nights getting new bushes planted, old bushes trimmed and everything ready for a fresh coat of mulch.  So what if we probably should have mulched three months ago. Better late than never, right? 

If I haven’t said this before (although I think I have), I love gardening and yard work. I love it! I love picking out new plants and watching them grow (or die in the case of a few of my picks).  Gardening is a fine art. It is a game, really, of trial and error. I finally feel like I am starting to master it.  Just because you want a pretty, flowering bush in a certain spot, doesn’t mean it is going to grow there! I have learned that lesson the hard way.

 

My husband has been very patient with my obsession for planting and replanting. This is our 5^th summer in the house (which is insane) and I finally feel like I have our landscaping how I want it. He doesn’t believe I am done planting, but I promise I am!

I can’t help that I love lilacs, daylilies, hydrangeas and azaleas. Or, that when we moved in, our yard lacked all four! I am proud to say that we now have three lilac bushes, two hydrangeas, a hot pink azalea bush and upwards of a dozen daylilies! WOOHOO!!

 

Happy Friday Friends J

I will be back next week with an update!

Garden Update

I told you awhile back that we started our garden by planting seeds in March. Well, we transplanted them outside a few weeks ago and it's doing really well. I can't wait to get my first veggies.

Do you see that?! I have three zucchinis growing!!

  

Oh and my rose bushes are blooming like crazy…

Ahhh, I love spring/summer :)

Joey's Memorial Garden

Ok, so I have talked about my friends before.  I have raved about how they are the best and so on. Today, I want to share with you just how wonderful they really are.

On Joey’s due date we received this beautiful gift:

They went together and got Rik and I this beautiful granite memorial stone and forget-me-not plants to create a garden for him. They know how much I love having my gardens and they thought this would be perfect. I could not agree more. As soon as I saw it, I had the perfect place to put it.

Welcome to Joey’s Memorial Garden:

It is stunning and brings me so much peace. I love everything about it.

 When reading about the plants, I learned that they will bloom every year in the spring. This means that every year around Joey's due date, I will have blooming blue forget-me-not's to admire. How perfect is that?

This group of women is the most thoughtful, loving, caring group in the world. We have been through sorority pledging, college parties, graduations, break-ups, marriages, divorces, pregnancies and miscarriages. We have celebrated the best of best times and cried together during the worst of worst times.

This is the same group of women who presented me with a donation, in Joey’s honor, to the March of Dimes at his funeral.

I am so blessed to have each and every one of them in my life.

 I love you guys!

Garden 2012

Today, my friends, is the first day of spring! Here in Ohio, however, it is feeling more like summer. The forecasted high for today is 82 degrees. Seriously, in Ohio, in March?!

I am not complaining, I love it!

Since it is now spring, let's talk gardens!

Growing up, having a garden was one of my favorite parts of the summer. My mom has always planted huge gardens. I am talking 150 x 50 feet. She plants tomatoes, green peppers, hot peppers, jalapenos, cucumbers, onions, carrots, radishes, lettuce, cantaloupe and watermelon (you name it, she plants it).

When we go to visit during the summer, it is like having our own farmer’s market! We come home with bags of fresh vegetables and let’s be honest, there is nothing like fresh veggies. Sure, you can go to the produce section of the grocery store and get the “fresh” veggies. But there is absolutely no comparison to eating a tomato or green pepper straight from the garden.

This inspired us to plant our own garden. Last year was our first attempt. We sectioned off a corner of the fence and built the garden area, it turned out great.

The garden itself was OK. We got enough to make a couple batches of homemade salsa. We learned a few lessons like; you can’t plant tomatoes in the middle of the garden (when you have a small one) because they shade the other plants.

2011 Garden

I have been so anxious to replant it (with our lessons learned) and watch it grow. This year, we decided to start it from seed.

We went shopping for the goods and found the perfect starter kit and veggies. We planted hot peppers, onions, zucchini, cucumbers, green/red peppers and tomatoes (big boys, of course!). 

I planted the seeds last Sunday:





 This is what they looked like last night:





I am so excited!! Go garden go!

Happy Spring!