Everything's Coming up Roses

Except that I don't actually have any roses!



There's more than this out there, and it's all coming up nicely.

Monday we (my Nice friend and I) planted a few more things in the garden. My spaghetti squash seeds had arrived in the mail, along with some free cucumber seeds. In the top end of the garden we made a few hills against the fence and planted the seeds. They should be up in a few days. I also planted some morning glory along the arch we made in the gateway to the garden.

There are hills there, promise.

I was tired of waiting for more dill to sprout up as well as my parsley, so I bought some plants and added them to the planters. I also put in some cinnamon basil.  My strawberries came in the mail yesterday, so I filled the bed with them.. For now all I really have to do is water and feed everything.

Top pic-basil (and mushrooms I can't eat)
Middle pic-Italian parsley and dill (a few chives too)

Strawberry plants

Now that the guineas are no longer a problem, the broccoli and peppers are doing much better!  We are still waiting on the grass to sprout.

All those little specks-Bermuda seed.

More Pics to Come

We spent last Thursday and Friday cleaning up in the yard and planting some new flowers.  My veggies are rebounding from the guinea infestation.  Now, just to clear things up, most of my guinea info came from books and magazines.  They all tout the great benefits of them for the garden.  Well, I have solid proof that they aren't always beneficial.  Anyway, it was an experiment that will not be repeated.

We moved our brooding house (now the garden shed) a few feet and then we sprigged the area and spread some Bermuda seed.  Since we down-sized the garden, we put the fence back up and made an arch of sorts in the gate opening.  I'll grow some morning glory on it.  I'm still waiting for my sweet potatoes and strawberries to come in.   As soon as they do, 'll get them planted and then the garden planting will be finished!

I'll get new pictures posted  soon.

Oh yeah, I spelled broccoli wrong in my last post.  Just letting you know that I do know how to spell.

Promised Pictures....A Few Days Late

Busy

Today I hope to get most of the rest of the garden planted.  I also hope to keep the guineas out of the garden.  Don't let anyone tell you that guineas are good for your garden.  They are lying!  They have stripped my brocolli to nothing and they are now working on the peppers.  They are going to have to go.  Oh, and they are eating my strawberries as they ripen.  Not real happy.  I will get some pictures posted tomorrow.

Guinea Eggs and More!

Our guineas are finally laying.  We've been getting 2-3 eggs from them a day.  I'm really not sure how many hens we have because they won't let us get close enough to be able to tell them apart.  We do have 9 total guineas.

Guinea eggs compared to a chicken egg



There are also other signs of life and renewal around.  My irises are starting to bud.  Last year I only got 2 flowers on them, but this year there are already about 3 times that many buds.  My strawberries are blooming and I already have a few strawberries.  My basil is poking through, finally.  I also have what I hope are cosmos starting to sprout.  It could be weeds or even dill (there was dill there last year), we'll wait and see.  My pansies and violas are looking good, although it is windy so you cant really tell from the pictures.  My broccoli is also looking pretty good.  My lime tree is starting to leaf out, so I guess I didn't kill it after all.  A Nice friend came to help plant that last week.  A couple have died, but it should still be early enough to plant some more to replace it.

Irises

A tiny strawberry

A cosmo?  Can you see it?

Violas

Pansy

Lime

2 rows of broccoli

Basil.  No, really.

This is the Good Stuff

It's not oregano...

...it is basil seeds.  What?  You were thinking something different?  Shame on you!  Before I cleaned out the whiskey barrel yesterday, I cut of the seed heads off of the basil.  It is lemon-lime basil mostly.  I have three bags of it and one bag of a mix that I am not sure of the varieties (lemon-lime, sweet, and Genovese is what I grew last year).  If you want some drop me oa note in the comments, I've used all I plan on this year.

Busy Day

 After a trip to town for some herbicide and whiskey barrels, I returned home to get a little gardening done today. It was a cold day, especially since we had temps in the 80-90's last week. The first thing was some clean up on the back deck. This is where I like to grow my herbs. After a few years of annually buying plastic planters, I decided it was time to go ahead and invest in the whiskey barrels. I might get a couple of years out of $15 plastic pots, but the one whiskey barrel that I have is about 7 years old and still holding strong. So out with the plastic and in with burned out oak. They smell really good too!

So I filled the barrels, first with the old potting soil from the plastic pots and them with some sand. On top of that I put potting soil and and garden soil. Then I mixed up the soil and sowed some herbs: Genovese and sweet basil, chives, flat-leaf parsley, and dill.

 We had more clean up to do in the yard. We once again had leaves to rake. By we, I mean Elijah. Now I will be able to spray the weeds and mow.

One thing that I hadn't planned on needing to clean was the inside of the car. Next time I need soil and whiskey barrels, I'll use the truck.

We also have a few new critters around. Our neighbors have a new nanny and kid. baby goats are so cute! We found the snakes, by we I of course mean Jeff, while raking leaves. They were so cold they could barely move. Now they are in the house in our old lizard tank. I think they like the warming rock.

After cleaning out the old whiskey barrel, I sowed the lemon-lime basil seeds from what had been growing last year. The plants in the green pots are my lemons and lime trees. I tried my best to freeze them out last fall, but they are budding back out. Unfortunately, they did take a step back.

Here are some of the plants that didn't make it into the ground today. The broccoli will go in Thursday, hopefully and the rosemary I will pot then as well. The strawberries will go in as soon as we rework the strawberry patch.