HSV Garden Challenge - May Update

Well, I am a week late posting this, but this is a more interesting post than it started out. It started out a lot like last month since May was very rainy like April was. It was getting REALLY old. The rain just kept coming. We had days full of thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Luckily we were fortunate and didn't suffer any damage. I pray for all those who did, especially those in Joplin.

Since I am a week late posting, I actually got my garden all planted! Its hasn't rained and we have had great weather! Our fields still aren't planted, but the farmers have been working like crazy around here!

So far during the Garden Challenge, I have learned that I have to be flexible. I am such a scheduler, everything has to go according to plan. Wellll, that hasn't exactly worked out for my garden! I ended up buying some window boxes so I could plant my strawberry plants and I also planted some in my flower bed so they could get going. I had tomato, zucchini and cucumber plants sitting on my porch waiting to be planted up until a couple days ago. I also learned that I should not grow my seedlings in our lovely, wet, old farmhouse basement where I hate going....because then I forget to water them! I ended up replanting some seeds but I had to go buy some tomato and pepper plants, which is fine - my pepper plants didn't end up coming up anyway and I don't mind supporting our local greenhouse. Next year I think I will use the dining room table for seedlings (as much as I hate that idea!). Or maybe hubby will get the basement fixed up a bit. ;-)

I am not sure what meal I want to make first from our garden, but I know I want to make Eggplant Parmesan and I found this yummy looking recipe for Zucchini Boats the other day so I will definitely be making those. Already have big blooms on my Zucchini plant! And we can't forget Zucchini Bread, yum!

As for Jimmy, we have read a few gardening books:

And we have done more activities such as this game from the Homeschool Creations Garden pack.

Jimmy has really been getting into gardening! He loves to help. He planted seeds and loved putting the seedlings in the holes and burying the roots in the dirt. He was so helpful with watering too! His little wading pool is close to the garden so he would take the watering can over and fill it up with water from his pool (no chemicals and I was watching the whole time!). Then he watered each plant. So cute!

Here is our garden's progression:

After sitting for 2 years

 Tilled once

Tilled again and partially planted

All planted! Shew, thought it would never happen! =)

Those little trees in the garden will be moved in the fall, they are some Arbor Day trees we received a couple years ago that I didn't get to move earlier in the spring because of all the rain! So they get to stay in the garden for a little longer. Hopefully I can move the bigger ones with no problems! We have some sweet corn planted in the dirt behind the trees, then everything else is planted in the foreground and to the right side.

Maybe someday my garden will look more like this *sigh*:

Source: lovemyearth.blogspot.com via Ali on Pinterest

I almost forgot, here are some of our strawberry plants in a window box on our porch, this will be interesting to see how they hold up!

As for the blueberry bushes, they are still growing happily in their containers. I think I have decided where to plant them, so they will be in their new homes soon.

I hope everyone has a great month of growing!

A New Turtle, a Drawing and a Stargazer

Where HAS Ali been? Well, I have been a busy little bee! Here is a little of what I have been up to.

Remember this post? Remember the part about the turtle sandbox? Well....I FINALLY found one with eyes (lol, I am pathetic I know)! A friend of mine told me about one last week, her friend was selling it for $5 and she didn't think it had eyes anymore, but at this point I didn't care. Just wanted to get one so Jimmy could finally play in the sand with his toys his grandparent's got him for EASTER! So we went to pick it up and it turned out it was in great shape and DID have eyes AND the lady selling it even threw in some of her son's sand toys & hotwheels cars he didn't want anymore. What a great $5 deal! Here are some pics of the little man enjoying his "new" sandbox:

Awww, yay! It has eyes! ;-)

Not sure he likes the feel of the sand:
Thinking the sand is alright, but still not willing to get too into it...he sat like this pretty much the whole time. I love how his little toes are all curled up!

Oh, cool, Daddy built a racetrack!

Ok, now remember THIS post? A LOT of you won't because it is from FEBRUARY! But anyway, I started this drawing back then...and am still working on it. Now you probably think, geez is she slow...but in all honesty, I have probably only worked on it for about 20 minutes MAX. I just haven't sat down and FOCUSED long enough to get it done. Another 20 minutes or so would probably be enough, so now I just need to git 'er dun! Oh yeah, here it is.

Not bad for not having drawn in I don't know how many years. I will have to do a post of some of my old stuff, I found a bunch of pics from my old geocities website, so I already have them on my computer. Maybe I will show them to you next week....


And finally, there was this post. And now there are these:

GORGEOUS! My beautiful Stargazer Lilies are blooming, ahhhh I just LOVE them! My very favorite flowers, they just make me smile =)

Besides all that, we went to a garage sale of a friend's on Saturday and got soaked in the rain, major downpour! Sunday we went to church and a chicken roast afterwards and then today a friend came over and brought her 2 kids and we had a nice playdate. It was great to be able to talk to another ADULT for once ;-)

Ok everyone, thanks for stopping by and I will hopefully be catching up on my visits to y'all's blogs in the next couple days, I am so behind and miss knowing what is going on with everyone! Have a great (rest of the) week!

Stump Planters

I have been looking for some big planters to put at the end of our barn on either side of the big door, where the barn driveway is. I mentioned this to my dear friend Angie and she said she had the perfect thing! Two hollow pieces of a tree they had cut up. She said I could have them, so my hubby stopped by and picked them up. The next day I lost no time filling them up with dirt and getting the flowers planted. Like my hanging planter, once the flowers get bigger they will look great!

Goodwill Party

Thrifty Decor Chick is hosting a "Goodwill Party" over at her blog. This is right up my alley, as I have been shopping there since my mom took me when I was a little girl and now I really find it hard to ever pay full price for ANYTHING. I love all the great ideas everyone has. They really help me have a better "vision" when I go thrifting.

Here is mine. I am sure this has been done a million times before, but I thought it was pretty cute so here is mine. I found one of those wire hanging fruit baskets, this one with two tiers. I think it cost $1.49. I have been looking for one for in my kitchen, but I want a 3-tiered one. I couldn't pass the 2-tiered one up though, so I found another use for it. I made it into a hanging planter. I spray painted it black, lined it with moss from the dollar store and then I added potting soil and the flowers. Here is the end result:

Once the flowers get bigger they will fall over the sides and look just gorgeous! I can't wait! =)