Sprucing up the Manor

While Poot was busy cultivating our garden, I brought out some paint and decided to spruce things up a bit. Yard work can get expensive, so I wanted to use what we already had on add, but add some special touches to them. First up was our rusty flower pot stand!


I decided my bathroom trash can needed a makeover too. It is amazing what a little spray paint can do:


I love the green color of the stand with my pink flowers!


Next I thought it would be fun to paint some simple designs on old terra cotta pots we had laying around. Now I do not have the painting talent of my mom, AT ALL...but they didn't turn out too bad.



The garden is coming along and we have added some blueberry bushes. I love the idea of going out in my yard to grab fresh blueberries!!

Poot has been working so hard on the flower beds and adding rock pathways!

We just can't seem to get grass to grow in our small front yard, so Poot drew up a design to turn our yard into a cottage garden! I am thrilled!

I will make sure to keep updating our progress as we make headway!

XOXO
Amber

Gardening Love...

Spring in KC has been a little cooler than normal this year, so we are a little late in getting our garden planted. This past weekend we gave our existing garden a little face lift and extended it some. Here is what it looked like before we started our work:


After lots of cultivating...


we planted:
**2 cherry tomato plant varieties
**tomatilla's
**3 tomato plant varieties
**red peppers
**sweet banana peppers
**jalapeno's
**strawberries (these are back from last year and I can't wait)
**2 basil plants


We still have a few things we would like to add to the garden in the next few days, if the weather cooperates! I love being able to step out our backdoor and grab fresh vegetables for dinner.



To celebrate our hard work, we had some homemade salsa and chips with a beer! I will be sure to post some pictures when it is completed! Have you planted a garden this year? What are you planting? I would love to hear about it!

XOXO
Amber

How does your garden grow??

Our gardens are up and growing!!! We have a couple different areas desginated for our veggies. Our front little garden is currently growing zucchini, basil, and tomatoes. Behind this little garden we have a strawberry patch that has doubled in size from last year!

Our potatoes are growing like crazy in our potato bags!! We ended up buying two more bags so that we could try growing sweet potatoes also. We had enough for a fourth bag, so we decided to use our huge Ikea bag (cut some holes in the bottom)!So far they seem to be growing! I can't wait to eat them!!! I am a huge potato lover.

Our second little garden area is a square foot garden. Honestly, the last couple of years we have tried growing things out of this and we haven't been successful. Only a few things seem to thrive in it! We are giving it one last try and really trying to test out different vegetables to grow here. This year we planted several herbs (cilantro, thyme, rosemary,mint),jalepenos, peppers, radishes, lima beans, beets, and lettuce. We have never been able to get lettuce to grow and this year we are having the same problem! I hear that lettuce is easy to grow, so any tips would be appreciated!!

So far the radishes, cilantro, lima beans, and peppers seem to like this little area. We did discover that we have a mole back again this summer and he is loving this area! Ahhh!!!! I am sure he isn't helping the matter. Is it strange that when I think of a mole I immediatly picutre the mole in Fantastic Mr. Fox? Ha! Love that movie so much!

We usually have a third area where we grow watermelon, but we have been too busy to get them planted. I am thinking it might be too late now?? And man fresh watermelon sounds so good right now!

I will keep you updated on how things are growing around these parts. How is your garden doing?? I am getting anxious waiting for those tomatoes and potatoes!! Grow....grow....grow!!!
XOXO
Amber

Garden Prepping...

With the Spring like weather we have been having around here lately, I have been daydreaming about our Summer garden!!! I love mapping out what we are going to grow for the season and this year is going to be the best! I can just tell. I feel like I am really on top of researching different varieties of veggies to try and the best ways to garden organically.

To help with all the preperations I have been reading this book:

So far I have found some great tips!!

This year we decided we want to try our hand at growing potatoes. I can't even imagine life without them. I would eat them for every meal if I thought I could!! I spent a few days researching different ways to grow potatoes and decided that the best way for us would be to grow them in a container. I found this amazing kit from Gardners.

I ordered ours last night. You can purchase your own here. I will be sure to update you on our success once they are planted!

I knew I wanted to find some organinc potato seeds to plant and couldn't believe all the different types of potatoes out there. I stumbled upon Wood Prairie Farm. This is probably one of the most user friendly websites I have been on. Since this is our first attempt at growing potatoes, we decided to just try one variety this year. I decided to go with these...

You can purchase your own seeds here. I seriously can not wait to taste these! I also picked up some lettuce and radish seeds!!

I can't wait for my potatoes to arrive so we can get to digging! Have you started planning your garden? What are you most looking forward to growing??
XOXO
Amber