Tag: plants

More Garden Progress

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

We have had the fenced garden for a couple of years now. It’s been okay, but always seemed a little messy. The dirt was always piled up in mounds. The stepping stones would end up buried. Part of the wood is rotting, but it will make it through at least one more season.

I was going to go get bricks to put up an inside border. It would have cost about 15 dollars which really isn’t bad, but since we are trying to use what we have I decided to cut some boards and use those instead. I didn’t like the plain concrete stepping stones so I painted them red. While those were drying I tilled up the soil and started spreading it out. After I dug the trenches for the boards and put them in I filled the space with mulch and laid the stones back down.

It looks so much neater now. The door used to close. For a while now we have used the rake to hold it closed. I bought some garden hooks at Dollar Tree. You get 4 per package.

Just looking at this picture I’m pretty sure I’ll be repainting the boards.

I used the other two to hang up the onions and the lantern.

Now I needed to get some seeds in the ground. I have tried all different kinds of plant markers. No matter what kind I get, they never seems to work. They either get moved, washed away or are just missing. I decided to make a diagram (poorly) .

The big blank space on the side is where the tomatoes will go.

I started filling in the planters with dirt from my really big pot and some others I’m not using right now.

I’m so excited because my seeds are starting to sprout finally. It’s a fine line between watering them too much and not enough. We got a new hose and sprayer. It’s still very stiff and hard to maneuver. I was looking online for a hose holder. The one that I really liked was, unfortunately $80 so that was a no go. I saw some free standing holders, but the reviews were not so great. There are baskets and pots that hold the hose also, but I just didn’t feel like paying what they were asking. Then I remembered that we have a huge pot that we have had trouble growing things in. My Jasmine died. My begonias died. So I thought this would be the perfect solution and it was.

I didn’t realize that you need to soak parsley and broccoli seeds overnight. So hopefully I will get those in the planters tomorrow.

The sun was out all day with not a cloud in the sky so that meant that my solar lights were getting all the charge they needed.

The lights make all the difference at night. I can’t believe how far this side yard has come.

So Much Better

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Ever since the fenced garden was built and we had the two baby pools plopped beside it drove me crazy. Then add the gargantuan grill that was so heavy I could never quite get all of the weeds pulled from behind it and it made me even crazier. I knew there had to be something better we could do with it. I started watch Tia Weston and her $1 house on Youtube. It is a great series of amazing DIY that her and her father did. Anyway, I loved what she did to her backyard and it sparked an idea in my head.

First of all I wanted to buy as little as possible and just use what we already had. When I took apart the wooden trellis I saved the boards. The fit perfectly as the garden edge and I decided to paint them red to match the bottom of the fenced garden. I already had the red paint so no extra money spent there.

While those were drying I finished pulling the rest of the weeds and digging the trench for the border.

I knew we had some weed barrier out in the shed so after I laid the border down I went to get the barrier. I think the garden gods were smiling down on me because the barrier was the exact width and length that I needed.

I figured out where I wanted the planters to go. I know the baby pools are not the prettiest things, but they work so well and since we already had them they didn’t cost a thing.

I used the two bags of mulch that I already had but I needed some more so Jackson and I ran to Home Depot. I picked up mulch, soil and some pansies that were on sale. I cut up cardboard that we had been saving to lay in the purple planters. I also finished the mulch. I knew I wanted solar lights, but Walmart didn’t have the same ones I have in the front. I almost bought some that just looked to industrial. I ended up with the glass crackled solar lights.

It turned out so good.

I found a box of the solar string lights that I had gotten when Big Lots was going out of business. I put those around the fenced garden. I haven’t done much work on that yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

I covered the pools with screens for nighttime because the cats will dig in them.

I love how bright the lights are. I now want to get these for the front. The string lights didn’t get a chance to charge.

This week I’m going to fill the purple planters with dirt and work on the fenced garden. I need to get some seeds in the ground by the weekend.

I picked up a pot that was out by the shed. It had ants in it and then got all over my hands and started biting me. I remembered that if you chew up purple nettle and put it on the bites it takes the sting out. It sure does! It’s classified as a weed, but there are so many benefits that it provides. I’m just glad I remembered that one.

Spring Is In the Air

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

I had an hour and a half to kill in Kilgore. Instead of hitting the thrift stores I needed to go to Dollar Tree and Walmart to pick up some items for starting our garden. But first I need to make room in my trunk. I had been hauling around two big bags of clothing donations for months. Luckily for me, there was a donation drop off next door to Walmart.

Because I was picking up three kids I couldn’t use my backseat so I was thrilled to find these bins to make room for my purchases.

In Walmart I picked up the seeds I needed. We decided to only plant crops we would actually eat. I also found a good deal on a huge bag of potting soil.

Didn’t realize that the picture came out upside down, but you get the gist of it.

I was also out of bird seed for my feeder so I needed to pick that up also.

At Dollar Tree I picked up these baking pans with lids. I’ll put the seed starter pots in them to act as a terrarium. I have had the seed pots since last year. I got them 90% off at Dollar General.

Dollar Tree had some cute flower pots. I needed some for herbs.

My best finds at Dollar Tree were these celestial metal art. This one is the exact color of our front door.

I loved this one, just not the color.

Nothing that a little spray paint won’t fix. I left the can so you can see how big these actually are.

It looks so much better.

I also did some weeding and looked to see if any of our plants are worth saving after going through winter. The hydrangea is budding. I was worried about that one.

The mint comes back every year.

My mums actually survived being dragged from the laundry room to outside about a million times.

I brought my peace lilies outside to do a little trimming on them, add some more soil and give them a good soak.

Also, here is a cost efficient, easy to make dinner.

If you don’t like Italian sausage you can substitute whichever kind you like. I took this picture before I added the parsley. Donny thought that the potatoes were pineapple. The whole dish was really good and it made enough for me to pack leftovers for his lunch today.

Day #81 & #82

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

Donny rarely takes vacation days. Even when he does he gets many phone calls and more often than not he has to go back into work at least for a few hours. This week he took Monday – Friday off. We had decided that we really needed to work on the yard, especially the backyard. That’s why these two days are one post.

On Monday I decided to weed the front beds and around the gardens. Luckily when I started it was early and the weather hadn’t gotten to unbearably hot. I still sweat a bit and our cat Monkey loves to rub against me and meow for pets when I’m weeding. Every. Single. Time.

While I was weeding I noticed that the house needed to be washed down. Every north facing house has a mildew problem when it rains and then gets hot and humid. Nothing that a little soap, water and elbow grease can’t fix.

I only have to do it a few times a year, thank goodness.

I had an audience while I was scrubbing.

One thing about Donny and me is that we can’t resist running some errands. We had to go to Walmart for a few essentials and found something that makes me so happy.

We had the carpet type floor mats that the dead grass just clung to for dear life. You can see the dead grass I still need to vacuum out. The blue is the same color as the inside trim on the seats.

I had been desperately needing some new gardening gloves since mine were getting holes in the fingers. Scored these on clearance for a buck.

Tuesday morning I started on the backyard. If you haven’t heard of Poke Weeds you are lucky. They have these berries that stain everything magenta and are poisonous. Well, we had a whole orchard of these beauties that we had to dig up.

I also found out, the hard way, that we had devil vines. That’s just what we named them because they look like harmless ivy vines but they have the most wicked thorns. I have scratches all over me.

With my trusty pick ax we got it all done.

While Donny was carrying all of our weeds to the front I started weeding this area. I only found one snake, it was a smallish grass snake.

Now we can start working on fixing the shed.

It was such a productive day.

Now for the sad news. We had been planning to go away for a couple of days either back to Lone Star or to this cabin I found near Tyler. Something held up back from making reservations and it’s a good thing we didn’t because one of Donny’s sales guys had to quit due to medical reasons. So, guess who goes back to work tomorrow? Which means he probably won’t even get his Thursday and Friday off. I’m trying to show some grace, but sometimes I have to dig deep to find it. It’s not Donny’s fault and he’s just as disappointed as I am.

But we did find this cool wind chime lol

Day #40 – Sprucin’ It Up

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I had a few things on my to-do list today that I wasn’t exactly looking forward to but they needed to get done. I needed to mow first and because it was 79 degrees at 9 am this morning the morning glories were still open. Unfortunately the humidity was at 73.

I knew I needed to start laying the pavers. First I needed to paint them. I would have loved to do a bright color, but the only paint I had enough of was the warm cinnamon. That works.

Next I had to lay them out and dig out the rest of the grass and dirt to try and get them as level as I could.

This took quite a while, but it was so satisfying when it was finally finished.

I brought some rocks from the backyard to the front to just add that little touch to the all gravel part.

Nothing ever grows in the small pots I have hanging by our front door. Since we’ve had some good luck with wandering Jew I decided to try them there.

While I was planting those I noticed our house numbers were looking a bit faded. Since our house is old I didn’t want to completely take them off because who knows If I could even get them back on so I just used a black sharpie.

So much better.

The last thing I had on my list was to pull out the dying cucumber vine, stake up the tomatoes and plant the pumpkins sprouts and marigold seeds.

See the little cat on the left? That’s Monkey and every time I’m pulling weeds or planting anything, mainly when I’m a sweaty mess, she has to come and rub all over me.

I hope the cloches keep the pumpkin sprouts safe until they are bigger. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Day #2 – Side Garden

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn 100 DaysLeave a comment

I accidentally woke up at 5 am. I made coffee and waited for the sun to come up.

When I went to let the chickens out I noticed our Morning Glories are blooming.

Since this is day 2 of day 100 doing what needs to be done to make my life better, I started weeding the front beds. We have 2 gardens. We consider the one in the front mine and the side one Donny’s although they are my plants in it.

Donny has been busy, busy, busy at work. That means long hours and getting home every day after 7. So I felt it was up to me to get the side gardens in shape. Plus I googled when to plant pumpkins in our zone and we need to have them in the ground by July. I have no idea where we are going to plant them because they take a LOT of room. This is what I started with.

Such a weedy mess.

After almost 4 hours this was the result.

I twisted dragged the hydrangeas to the front because they were burning up where they were. I moved all of the random sunflowers Donny planted, some of my avocados and plants that didn’t have a home where the hydrangeas were.

I weeded the enclosed garden, but once plants start bearing vegetables they get big and take over. I feel like I accomplished so much today that wasn’t on my normal to-do list. That side garden is looking so much better. There’s still a lot of work to be done in both the front and back, but I feel if I can work on it everyday it will get done.

There was no rain in the forecast at all so I was surprised when the dark clouds blew in and it started pouring. I’m glad it did because it cooled everything off and filled up our rain barrel. I’d used quite a bit of the water in the gardens.

Because I cannot get over how patient O’Malley is with Ruth:

She’s a little stinker.

Let’s see what Day 3 brings.

Dig In the Dirt

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

There’s been a task that I have been putting off for a while. My plants were getting too big for some pots and the pothos was getting very leggy and not looking its best. Here are what the wall pots looked like before. I had to go back to find a picture, but the peace Lily was just so overgrown and the purple jew was just past its prime.

We had to run to Home Depot to pick up some more potting soil and I found the cutest little indoor plant to replace the purple jew. I was able to separate the peace Lily and replant it in two bigger pots and still have some for the wall.

The peace lilies are in shock right now, but should perk up in a few days.

I had to give the pothos a major trim.

Since they are so easy to grow, I saved the good parts of the vines and planted them around the house. Hopefully they’ll take. It’s rare that they don’t, but we’ll see. It looks so much healthier now. I wish that I could plant it in a smaller pot, but it’s already so well established I’m afraid that it wouldn’t like it.

And y’all, it was HOT outside today. I was sweating, like pouring down my face sweat. It was only 85, so I can only imagine what the actually summer temps are going to be like. There was one saving grace. It’s what help get me through when all of Longview lost power during the heat wave of the summer. Those were the longest days ever, but this helped so much.

Best flavor ever, Tigers Blood. It’s just coconut strawberry, but it’s SO good! Thanks Zippy J’s!