Tag: seeds

The Patch

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

I am trying not to make the same mistake I made last year by starting our pumpkins too late. The space that I would normally plant the seeds is where our watermelons are growing now so I had to come up with another plan. Pumpkins, like watermelons, need full sun. The only place I had that I knew might work was the back of the backyard. So I grabbed my pickax and got to work.

First I had to get all of the weeds and grass dug up and figure out how big I wanted to make the garden. We chose 3 different types of seeds.

It was so hard work and extremely hot. I got as much done that day as I possibly could.

Donny had brought the huge bag of potting soil out to the area when I got home from work so the next morning I was ready to start tilling up the area. I mixed the soil into the dirt that was already there. I decided to make two different gardens.

I had to come up with some type of barrier to keep the chickens out. They love nothing more than digging in fresh dirt.

I used our baby gate that we use when we have new chicks and a tomato cage that we aren’t using right now.

I pulled the garden fences from the front because we didn’t need them there anymore since the plants are big. I always think I can remember where I planted what, but I always forget. I took the seed packets, covered them in packing tape and attached them to wooden skewers. I’ll removed the barriers once the vines start growing. It’s amazing how long they get.

Ever since the neighbor behind us accidentally cut our string lights when they were cutting the trees down, I have wanted to put more lights out there. We found these solar lights at Harbor Freight. They are 66 ft long and are pretty bright.

It’s hard to tell in this picture because my phone takes such crappy night photos, but they look pretty good and stretch the whole fence length.

When I tell you it is EXTREMELY hot and that I’ve been working outside for the past several days, it’s no joke. This is how I have been looking most of the summer. My shirt is soaked in sweat and this is after the second shirt change.

I actually don’t mind the heat. What I do mind is my freaking carpal tunnel. I will be sleeping like this until winter.

My poor wrist brace has been through it. Whatever works.

New Patch

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

The main crop that I want to grow this summer is watermelon. I love watermelon, but I really only like the seeded ones because the seedless ones have become tasteless in my opinion. We planted seeds in both of the baby pool and there are some coming up, just not as many as I would like. I’m still holding out hope that it just hasn’t been hot enough for the seeds to all sprout.

When we were working on the garden on Thursday I had an idea to put another watermelon patch in. So that’s what we started and we actually finished it yesterday.

The plan was to use the boards, that we got for free, as the border and then plant more seeds. We went to Jake’s feed to get seeds but they actually had watermelon plants. They also had this cute chicken bar to mix treats for you chickens.

It was so tempting to not pick up more chicks because our girls are getting older, but we decided to wait until later in the summer.

We then headed to Home Depot to pick out the paint for the border. We knew what color we wanted and Donny made the final decision and it was perfect.

The color is Behr Classic Walz and it is the perfect shade of purple. You didn’t think we were going to get some boring color did you?

After I made sure the boards would fit, I marked the outline so I would know where to dig the trench and Donny would know how far to lay down the weed barrier. We layered the soil, organic garden soil, sand and then more garden soil on top.

I still need to level some of the outside boards, but I think it’s looking pretty good.

I also painted the outside border that I added. It’s not finished yet because I need to level it out more, but the pick axe I use is super heavy and I can only do so much in one day.

Donny and I were both beat after spending all day in the sun. We decided to go on a little date dinner to a place I saw on my social media that’s in Gilmer.

The special that night was the catfish plate and it did not disappoint.

It was only $9.99 and there was so much food I couldn’t even finish it. They also had free strawberry margaritas and you could BYOB if you didn’t want those. We will definitely be back.

One weird thing about me is that I love rocks. I have since I was a kid and one time when I was about 4 and was camping with my parents in Leakey, I filled our whole trunk up with rocks. My parents had to take most of them out so we would have room for our stuff and I remember being so disappointed. Anyway, anytime I’m at a place that has rocks I always grab a few of them.

Another weird thing is that I can’t just take one. There always has to be at least two because that rock will be lonely without another rock from where they lived.

Another picture of the zinnias because I just love all of the different colors.

Impatient

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

Yesterday I had to run to Home Depot to get the rest of the soil I needed to finish up filling the raised beds. The front garden is so shady that it takes forever for something to grow. I found out that Impatiens and Vincas do well in shade so I looked for some there. No luck so I headed to Walmart where, online, it said the flowers were available. I could not find any of those flowers inside or out. I did find some tomato plants. I do not like the beefsteak or any of the large variety tomatoes. I prefer Roma but the smaller tomatoes are so hard to find for some reason. I picked up the last two that they had. Even Home Depot only had the large variety. While I was there I also picked up some strawberry plants.

Strawberries in.

I really dislike buying plants and prefer to start them myself with seeds, but I was very impatient to see something growing the the gardens. I am nurturing my seed trays and making sure they get enough sun. I keep the lids on at night but I have to leave them outside just because we don’t have the space inside.

I added a few more seed trays to the bunch.

My celery is starting to grow. I just plant the bottom part that I cut off.

I don’t know how my green onions are still alive. I just left them outside during all of the freezing weather.

Since I have planted seeds in the raised bed where I normally keep the seed trays at night I decided to just line them up outside the border and hope no animal gets into them.

Two things really irritated me today.

I went to move the weed sacks and the bottom dropped out of the bigger one.

This is the biggest one that I just don’t know what to think about it.

The city is putting in new electric poles and changing out the street lights. The light across the street has been burned out for a few months. At first it seemed so dark but I got used to it and actually started liking it because we could really see the stars so clearly

The light that was there before gave off a wonderful amber glow like this one down the street.

Did they put that kind of light back in? Oh, heavens no. We got a blinding LED light that is turned the wrong way so it looks like aliens are trying to beam up my neighbors house.

I guess I need to be careful what I wish for because I did call the city to let them know the light was out. Why Longview why?!?

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.

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.

Garden Growth

On By thefunkyfrugalistaIn gardeningLeave a comment

We did not do a big garden this year. I got the seeds started late, but I am proud to say that everything I am growing is from seeds. Not a big flex to anyone who gardens, but it is for me because I’ve never been able to do that before. Everything I’ve ever tried to start from seeds, except the cantaloupe last year, has died.

This squash is in the enclosed garden. It should be ready in a few days. I’m embarrassed to say that this garden is half empty. We do have tomatoes, tomatillos (they came up from the crop last year) and cucumbers. I finally got around to weeding this area last week because it was a mess.

This is the before.

And the after.

I do love my little front bed, but it doesn’t get as much sun as I would like. The cucumbers are starting to flower along with the tomato plants so that’s encouraging.

Donny planted this butterfly plant a few years ago and this year it has really taken off. I can’t wait for the hot pink flowers to really open up.

I have always bought a basil plant every year. This year I decided to try seeds and they are actually growing.

We even have a corn stalk. A piece of corn from the bird feeder must have fallen down and sprouted. I thought it was funny so I just left it to grow.

Our hostas that did not do very well last year, and we even thought they had died off, are going crazy.

I decided to plant some avocado seeds and I guess now I have a mini orchard.

We had some sunflower seeds that we had harvested from one of our giant sunflowers a couple of years ago. Donny planted them in the backyard and they are doing their thing.

I’m still trying to work on the back corner, but we’ve just been getting so much rain lately, I haven’t had the chance. I did make a little bell wreath for the patio on one of those rainy days.

So that’s the outside update. Fingers crossed that everything grows.

Months ago Jackson asked me to get these two cat pictures from a thrift store. I loved them so it was a yes. Last night we realized that they reminded us of Queso and Bailey so I guess it’s like a little tribute to two of the best fur babies there ever were.