I missed my 1st Bloggiversary!

I had it listed on my calendar as March 25th, so imagine my surprise when I sat down to write this post and went back to link my 1st post and saw that it was on March 1st! Seems like I can't keep up this Spring in any fashion! With my belated 1st Bloggiversary in mind, here's a link to my very first post, and if that didn't bore you to tears, here are some random shots of Spring taken yesterday... the suburban homestead is waking up!

Random bulbs (I'm not a bulb person, so I can't tell you what they are, I let my kids plant them so it's always a surprise when and where they pop up!)

I was stressing my 0% germination on some old chive seed I had, no worries, I had some winter over and are now growing like crazy!

Forsythia

Montauk Daisy

Blackberries

The biggest surprise: my potted Fig tree made it through the snowy winter with no protection and is budding out!

The shallots and garlic have resumed their growth, can't wait to harvest them as I ran out of

both last month.

Now, to celebrate, I am taking the morning off of weeding tomorrow (it's raining & cold anyways!) and working on hubby's "surprise" (that he knows about because I can't keep my mouth shut!). More on that later when he returns from sea.

A big thank you to all who follow me and my misadventures in trying to homestead in a military world - what an oxymoronic thing that is! I am so glad to have all of you to exchange advice, ideas, and just share our love of natural food & raising happy, healthy families. And I didn't realize when I started this how much I would learn about different varieties of veggies, and different climates, from the Canadian Border down to Florida & Texas and East and West Coasts... wow we bloggers are are prepared bunch if we have to move suddenly, aren't we?! Love and Luck in the Garden to you all this year!

Winter Kill & Weeds

Every day I tell myself that I am going to blog when I'm done with the chores... yeah, that! It seems they are never ending, and this unusually cold & snowy winter has left me with some scraggly looking perennials. Luckily, except for one lavender shrub and some Salvia, it looks like they may make a comeback, although time will tell if they are too damaged to look good anymore! Here are some of the things that have made me cringe...

This is my hummingbird garden. It's right below my deck and is a very visible and usually comforting feature of my yard. It is filled with Salvia, Catmint, Rosemary, a potted Sumac, ornamental grass, and water lilies. The top pic is the way it should look come summer, unfortunately I had to remove massive amounts of dead tissue and the bottom pic is the way it looks now! I think I will have to replace the Salvia, but will place some potted flowers there in the interim for the hummingbirds when they come. It is said that the same hummingbirds visit the same places year to year, so it is always exciting to welcome them back. I usually have several there every day but it looks like I may have to supplement with a feeder for the first time until the new plants get established. The little pond is also where we get dragonflies laying their eggs. I cleaned it out yesterday and found my 2 goldfish survived their 3rd winter, amazing, and we now have 2 frogs that have taken up residence!

I have been pulling weeds like crazy, and this picture shows nothing is perfect all the time! I think too many times I show a close up pic of something nice but crop out the bad, LOL! This area does have many perennials starting to show growth at the ground level, but I need to get the weeds out of the way to find them! This area holds ornamental grass, Clematis, Bee Balm, Oregano, Yarrow, Fennel, Catmint, Gaura and some other random beneficial insect stuff that I can't remember until it leafs out!

Got Weeds?

The above 2 pics are of the same area during summer, a big difference!

Found this pot in the upper pic that I think I had meant to throw in the trash last fall but never made it that far... good thing since the "dead" plant in there survived winter with its roots exposed and is now blooming - needless to say I quickly gave it a home (lower pic)!

Granny, are you proud? I did it, finally! I made this a kids project and they thought it was a lot of fun. The carrot napkins went in this past weekend and are under a board hoping for good germination. If you are wanting more success in germinating your carrots, check out this tutorial from Annie's Kitchen Garden, thanks, Gran!

We also purchased a large rack for our patio to harden off seedlings. I had a small wire one last year but it is falling apart and this one is better suited to being left outdoors. In keeping with my rule of everything having at least 2 purposes, this fit the bill well. In addition to hardening off my seedlings, during the summer I will fill it with container plants to act as a screen for all the meters and phone boxes the original builder was so kind to install smack dab in the middle of our patio - and as my husband demonstrates above, it can sleep our family of 4 in 12 square feet! Don't laugh... it's tempting! To be honest, it's larger than my husband's sleeping racks aboard ship, so with an added pillow, he's right at home. Speaking of, hubby went to sea again Monday night, only a couple of weeks this time, but the big deployment has been moved several times and now we are hearing May, it is frustrating since he was originally supposed to deploy in November, we have been in the "make no plans" mode for too long. Off to make use of this nice weather today... got weeds?

Motivational Monday!

...which is really my version of getting a blog post out there on a hectic start to the week to let you all know that I'm alive and haven't drowned in seedlings, yet...

Brandywine Tomato Blossoms in Summer

Every year I am amazed at the tiny little seedlings that will become this and overrun our spaces with jungle-like proportions, and taste sooooo good! Spring is here and I wish for copious tomato blossoms for you all!

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Here's some green:

Lazy American Version of an Irish Meal!

Yes, I know Corned Beef isn't Irish, but I can't find decent English or Irish bacon anywhere around here so it will suffice - at least I had fresh leeks and parsley! Besides with names like Erin, Finnegan & Lochlann I think it's okay if I refrain from wearing green and buttons that say "kiss me" and just get on with dinner already! I also know about the "no carrots" rule, but I'm not Catholic so I can get away with that one, too! But at least I didn't monkey with the Guinness. Hope you all have the Luck O' the Irish in your gardens, and don't forget to plant those potatoes!

Learned a new word today: "Femivore"!

Chicks with Chicks?!!!

Copied from the New York Times Magazine dated 3-11-10, interesting, and I guess this would include me since I am a stay at home mom whose family averages the same income as quoted! Not sure if I want to refer to myself as a Femivore yet, it sounds a tad angry man-hater-ish, lol... but it's better than SAHM! Now I understand my pull towards chickens!

The Story: (click the link)

The Femivore’s Dilemma

Katherine Wolkoff/Art + Commerce

By PEGGY ORENSTEIN

Published: March 11, 2010

Mood Lifter Monday - Remember the color GREEN?

click to enlarge for full effect "greeniness"...

Yay for green, Boo for mud!

If the first step is admitting you have a problem and need help...

HELP!

My seed flats are now officially staging a hostile takeover. It wasn't bad this past weekend with temps in the 60's and sunshine some were spending the days outside and it didn't seem so crowded - so I started more...

Then the rains came and now some of the cold hardy plants that could go outside are camped in my kitchen again and they are literally on every available flat space, even perched on stools!

Today has been busy with a sick kid and seedling chores:

Like this. Is there any of us that doesn't cry inside a bit when we have to thin out seedlings? No, I'm not crazy enough to have put a bunch of extra tomatoes in the cells, they are all tiny seed herb thinnings! A highlight was that I had enough Thyme trimmings from legginess to use for chicken tonight!

Lemon Balm, Verbena

One of only 2 Artichokes that I got to sprout this year - I hope it lives!

Don't you just love those little "mitten" leaves on tomatoes?

That's all for now, I am now heading over to wintersown.org and see what they know, LOL! My fire code for vegetation limit has been reached - I think I will be doing this for all my marigolds and more stuff I haven't even started yet... I WANNA GREENHOUSE!!!!! (she says like a whiny 2 year old...)