Garden Update!

So every week I have been trying to take pictures of my garden's progress. It is fun for me to look back and see how much it has grown as well as keep a record of the plants for next time.

The morning after I planted (March 14th): 

 Week 2 (March 22nd): 

 March 27th I noticed my first bud on my squash! 

In 3 more days I noticed another bud popping up! 

Week 3 (April 4th): 

 

I put a trellis up for my cucumbers since they were getting tall. 

Some of the most fun progress to watch are the cucumbers climbing! The 2 pictures taken below were taken 4 days apart! 

April 4th

After getting the trellis, the cucumbers took off! 

April 8th

Do you see the difference in the height of the left cucumber?! 

The first bud! (April 4th) 

Squash buds!

Another view from week 3

April 7th: squashlings!

Tiny yellow bell peppers!

April 8th

Week 4(April 11th): 

My basil is doing better. 

I sprayed it with vinegar and water mixture to get the pests away. It worked on whatever was chomping at the end of the leaves. I also took off the half eaten leaves, which seemed to help it grow better.  Today I noticed I have a new pest that is making a hole through the leaves. 

Not sure what I am going to do when my climbing friend gets to the top! I am partially hoping they will just climb back down again! 

Mammoth Jalapeno is finally getting into the action!

I've had buds on my grape tomatoes, but now they are actually forming!

Big Bertha Red Bell Peppers are getting along well!

Better Bush tomato plant

You can see the garden a little better from the back angle. 

My grape tomatoes are out of control! :)

My cucumbers are growing SO fast! 

They have grown about a foot in a week!

The newest pest in my garden!

He looks cute, but I just read that grasshoppers can be a nuisance!

If you are wondering if I fertilized my garden, I have only federalized it once, last Saturday. 

Pest issues so far: 

- Strawberries are getting picked of the vine that attaches to the strawberry. It is getting eaten through. I have one quite large strawberry that is growing. If it makes it, it will be our second to eat. 

- Basil is getting eaten first by leaves bit off at the end, like big chunks. I think those have gone away and now it is tiny holes in the leaves. 

- Gnats are super bad around the garden. I do not think they are affecting the garden, but they are annoying to have when you are working out there. 

So in short: a recap!

Week 2: 

Week 3: 

Week 4:



It is such a blessing to be able to grow veggies and go out each day to see the progress! :)

Spring Break 2015!

Well, I have been staying very busy since January. Work has kept me busy and I've also been working on projects around the house.


The most recent one I am still giddy about!

Over a 3 day time span on my Spring Break I built a garden!

I've been telling Joey since we have gotten married that I wanted a garden. He never stopped me, but other obstacles halted those plans in the past. Finally in this house, we have the yard space, a good sun/shade ratio, and we also have great soil!


To understand where I received all the dirt, will be another post. Over Christmas break we built a patio!! We had awesome family and friends lend us a hand to dig out (with shovels) a 10 x 30 space. We dug down about 7 inches. All that dirt needed to go somewhere...so we dumped it behind our shed.

I did not take a picture of the dirt...

just picture a huge mound of dirt behind the shed

Well, as the weather started to warm up some I started thinking about my garden and what I wanted to plant. The biggest issue became what to do about all the dirt. 

The awesome thing about the soil we have at this house is that it is full of earthworms and grubs, meaning it is good soil. I knew I wanted to use it in my garden. 

Tuesday on my Spring Break, I started planning. It had been raining and more was to come in the forecast, so I relaxed and took that day to plan, research companion planting, and calculate how big a garden I needed/wanted. To my surprise, Wikipedia has a great companion planting guide! 

Tuesday

Wednesday: I dug two trenches in the pile of dirt and moved some dirt around .

Thursday: 

I dug out more of the trench  I ended the day with two blocks on the back wall completed and laid the front blocks of the right bed. 

It was a fun drizzly/rainy day, but I was determined to get some progress in between the showers. 

Friday: 

I completed both beds!!

That meant:

-Finished digging the trench in the back of the left bed

-Dug a trench in the back of the right bed

-Moved dirt to the corners that needed it

- Made a trip to Home Depot to get one more large cinder block and a half size

- Leveled the dirt

-Raked up the soil to loosen it. 

I moved all of the cinder blocks myself! 

Joey helped me load the first 12 in the car, but after that I unloaded those 12 and the 13 more that followed. 

When Joey got home that day, it was off to Home Depot!! 

I had my list in hand! 

We came back home and I got to placing the plants in their spots. 

By the time I got to planting the marigolds, I was racing the sun. 

I finished just in time. 

Finished garden (taken the next morning). 

One Week Later: 

 (March 22nd)

Left Bed

First Row (closest): 

- Big Bertha Red Bell Pepper, Jalapeno, Yellow Bell Pepper

Second Row: Lavender (experiment plant), 2 Basil plants

Back Row: Tomatoes! Normal size (Better Bush), grape on the right (Sweet 100)

Right Bed

- 2 Strawberries (left side) we are experimenting to see how well they do

- 2 Yellow Squash (straight neck) on the right

- 2 cucumbers in the back

Garlic Chives are planted in the left bottom corner. 

I planted Marigolds around the outside. I read that those are supposed to help with pests. Then I read in my magazine that it is a myth. Either way, they were on sale and they add more color to the outside of the garden. It is worth a shot!

I picked our first strawberry last Tuesday (17th)

How, you say? So fast? 

This little guy was growing on the plant at the store! 

However, we have more coming! Each plant has buds and a couple baby strawberries growing!

I checked the garden tonight. The tomatoes have buds on them. The squash seems to be doing awesome, there are multiple buds on each plant. The lavender is doing well and growing. The cucumbers seem to be starting to want to climb the trellis I have for them. No buds on the peppers yet or the cucumbers.  

The basil is getting bigger, but something has been munching on it. 

My clues: bite marks on the leaves and tracks in the dirt. I may net it soon, just so it can grow more.

Overall: I am so thankful that I am able to have a garden this year. I am so pleased that I was able to think, plan, and do a project like that. It makes me so proud when I see the garden to know that I did that! As crazy as it may sound, there were moments when I was digging and placing blocks, jamming to music I don't normally listen to (Nirvana...good trench digging music) and I was relaxed. The next morning after I planted my garden, I woke up early on a Saturday to go water. Something about that morning sunshine and watering plants. 

I am so thankful for the slow and simple moments in the garden and in life! 

The Best of 2014

It is hard to believe that 2014 is already over! I know people say that every year, however this one has flown by!

I remember last year with teaching, I was so excited to have "made it" to December, but this year...December seemed to sneak up on me!

I did not post a lot this year so there are many pictures I want to share!


January: 
-The year started out with us putting more finishing touches on our house. We moved in our house November 2013 and we are still loving it!
-Joey and I's 5th year anniversary! There is nothing more to say except, I am so incredibly blessed to have Joey as my husband! :)


March: 
- I got my painting on, I inherited paint, an easel, brushes, and some canvases from my grandma. I decided to create my first painting.

It's not perfect, but I like it! 

We also went to visit Joey's Dad. He had just moved into his new house, so we were trying to pick paint colors for the exterior. (Decided to go with a more white/cream color in the end)

After that, Joey and I went around Galveston and I got to take pictures with my DSLR:

April: 

My clementine tree started blooming! I ended up getting 5 clementines off the tree in its 1st year!

It had many more blooms, however I didn't want to the tree to be stunted in it's growth because of the fruit. 

We went and saw my dad sing with his band. 

I love seeing my dad sing and play because I know he likes it and has fun :)

 May:
- Tried paintball...fun, but I still have the bruise from it!

May the Fourth 

Oh yes...Princess Leia buns! 

Oh.My.Gosh! Comicpalooza was AWESOME this year!!

WE HAD STAN LEE VISIT!!

That's right! Stan Lee! The creator of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and most importantly...

X-Men. 

(see his whole list of 332 characters here)

Stan Lee was not even at the humongous Comic-Con in California(due to illness), 

but he was in Houston!  

For this nerdy girl, seeing Stan Lee was amazing!

 June:
 - I turned 26. Seriously do not feel like I have actually aged since I was 23.

Blue hair!

My first sewing project on the inherited sewing machine.

New kitchen window inserts

(they are a aqua blue, due to the green lights it looks a little different. 

I tried my hand at making another piece of art. 

This is going to go on a gallery wall in our master bedroom. 

August: 

- We went to Vegas! I love going in August, right before school starts. It helps me relax and it is like the last hoo-rah of the summer! Each time we have gone somewhere different and I love adventuring with Joey! 

This time we stayed in Mandalay Bay. 

We loved staying here! 

The rooms were nice, it had great amenities, and it was casual. 

The other amazing places we have stayed were great, but not casual. 

We went to 

This is a speak-easy styled bar. 

The entrance is hidden with a mall. 

The car is near the entrance of it. 

It was really neat! 

The Border Grill's brunch

If you are in Vegas and are very hungry...I recommend this place!

The Bacon Jalapeno PBJ...so delicious! 

We visited the Shark Reef in Mandalay Bay. 

It is one of my favorite aquariums! 

The MGM Lion

Sigfree and Roy's Secret Garden

It was okay, just very warm!

So Vegas has a new ferris wheel called The High Roller

It is the tallest one in the world at 550 ft. 

The whole experience was amazing! 

I highly recommend it! 

You get into these like giant pods (has AC, seats, etc)

and it slowly moves around. The whole thing takes about 30 minutes!

I loved going at night and seeing all the lights. 

This was taken from the Foundation Room at the House of Blues. 

Beautiful view!

First day of school!

 September: 

Mom and I took pictures. These are our selfies. Lol!

 October: 

Anberlin's Farewell Tour

Such an awesome band!

Such a great show!

They ended with "Fin" which is my favorite song by them!

We went birding with some friends at Brazos Bend State Park.

I haven't been there in a long, long time. 

We saw birds, alligators, and some frogs!

It is very beautiful there! 

 November: 

Lone Star Biker Rally

We love going because of all the great people watching! 

Our big Black Friday buy!

An inflatable hot tub!

We decided that this would be a good test to see if we would want to buy a real hot tub. 

We love it!

 December: 

Cooked my first whole chicken and used my dutch oven for the first time!

It turned out fantastic! 

Plus it wasn't as gross dealing with a whole chicken as I thought it would be.

The project we ended 2014 with...

A paver patio! 

It is still under construction since we just started on it this week. 

I am so excited about relaxing on the patio and watching the birds!

Happy 2015! I am excited to see what God has in store for us in 2015!