Suprise!

I have no idea what this is and how it came to be there, but look what I discovered while pulling out of the garage on Sunday:

There's a space between the concrete of our house/driveway and the concrete/driveway of the house next door. It looks like it's supposed to be a garden but the gutter also happens to run straight in to it. When we first moved in our landlord put in some latana flowers that I diligently came and watered every few days, during the weeks between when we'd signed the lease but wouldn't move in yet. I had dreams of lush flowers and beauty next to my house. Um yeah they barely flowered, they stayed close to the ground, and they basically looked like woody weeds. Thankfully Zoë's Dad, while doing yard work one weekend recently, pulled up most of the "dead and woody looking weed that's actually a flower" plant. There was some green growth at the front of the "planter" and we just kept it for the time being so there'd be something green and alive there. I really didn't like the bland green shoots/leaves but I figured alive and green was better than "dead weed". In fact I'd even been doing research on what plants might be able to live in that kind of environment and possibly investing in a few down the line. Well now I'm certainly not going to take this baby out. I'm curious as to what it is, how I can promote it's growth/flowering, and if I can grow more of it in that area....

P.S. The reason for the delay between when I "discovered this" and when I posted about it is actually only due to "technical difficulties" that I experienced when trying to upload and share the picture I took on my iPhone. Yeah it was no where near as easy as I thought it'd be. 

At least there's purple

When I was a little girl and we had to repair the house from a major hurricane (Andrew) my parents let me pick my furniture AND carpet. One of those was the wrong decision, namely the carpet choice. I wound up with totally rad 90's pearl plastic furniture with gold plate trim. That was the good decision (if you compare the two). The bad decision: 5 year old me chose PINK carpet. Yeah, and even worse my parents actually purchased and had that pink carpet installed. To this day that pink carpet is in my room at my parents house. 

Moving on from the pink, when I went away to college my Mom reminded me that I could choose whatever colors I wanted for my new dorm room decor, that I could finally get away from the dreaded pink. Thinking I was coming up with a somewhat original idea, I chose purple. I've continued to carry on my (new found?) love for purple to this day. I still have much of my dorm room decor, though I'm proud to say it's also accompanied by a lot of CraigsList finds. So while I enjoy purple, new and old, my house does not scream dorm room or 5 year old little girl. (I think Zoë's Dad would not let me make our home "5 year old little girl" even if I wanted to, thankfully I don't.)

So this love of purple has continued in to my gardening. Ha, there was a reason for that story! Amazingly enough most of my flower favorites are not purple (what!?! I know, that's crazy) I do tend to gravitate to pops of purple color when looking around the store at flowers. With a $10 off $50 purchase coupon at Lowe's today, we tried coming up with a few extra items (read: flowers) to fill up the $25 we needed to spend to use the coupon. While I didn't want to spend that much at the store we both knew the chances of spending $50 in one trip at Lowe's might not happen again until Christmas (and we get our Christmas tree there). We left with a bag of human/pet friendly fire ant killer goodness, a can of spray paint for the last tire planter, a big ole bag of potting soil (for the last tire planter), and 2 plants. Zoë's Dad insisted on getting a Kimberly Fern that he's going to try to split and plant around the front of our house where the big trees block almost all sunlight from coming through. 

We still needed a tiny bit more to spend, and as is always the case when that happens, we over spent. That's right I chose to purchased a $14 flat of Angelonia angustifolia to finish off the purchase. I tried to pull up more info on these beauties on my new iPhone to reason getting them. I found that they're perennials in zones 10-11, only problem being that I'm in zone 8b/9. We'll keep our fingers crossed and maybe if we're really lucky they'll survive the winter. If not I'm hoping $14 for 8-10 plants was a good enough deal for annuals. Getting past the money I'd just spent I went to work on planting said purple flowers. Remember those free containers from CraigsList? Well I was happy to finally put most of them to use. Of course the flat I bought was actually 2 rows and not individual plants. So off I went to vent off some anger through my spade and "splitting" the rows in to individual plants. I'll tell you what, those roots had built up good and strong and all along the bottom of the plastic temporary containers. It wasn't as easy to split them as I thought it'd be. But I did split them and now they have homes in individual pots instead of all together in a row. Even if they only last for this summer or part of this summer they'll give a splash of purple to the tire planter garden. 

Oh, speaking of my tire planter garden look at the growth of my wildflower seeds. I was especially worried when I hadn't seen any baby sprouts. But thankfully some time this past week they finally started sprouting. They're all teeny tiny but they're there. And if I'm really lucky they'll actually go from baby sprouts to seedlings and then flowers. 

Zoë insisted on being out in the garden with me as I was gardening. Of course like the little princess she is, as soon as she saw what I was doing she was done being outside. So she spent her time outside under the overhang on the deck. That wasn't the only thing she did while outside. No, of course she had to do her most favorite thing to do outside (newly discovered favorite, about 3 weeks ago): eating sunflower seeds/sunflower shells from the bird feeder that have been discarded and thrown to the ground from the bird feeder! That's right, if you let Zoë outside and she lingers even a minute more than usual you just know what she's doing. As far as we can tell it hasn't made her sick, but little 5 pound Yorkies are not meant to eat (large quantities of) sunflower seeds.

"Eating sunflower seeds and sunflower shells is my favorite!" - Zoë 

All done with that and still feeling like I had more I had to do while it was still the weekend I worked on the last tire planter that needed to be painted. We tried something different since the last attempt with regular spray paint was ... well it was less than stellar. We tried applying a made for plastic spray paint primer and then the spray paint. I can't quite tell if it worked real well or not but since I wasn't the one that painted it (thank you FAMU School of Architecture for teaching my boyfriend, through his many projects, how to spray paint well) I'll call it a success. See our newest addition:

 

Hello 2010 Garden, you're really starting to shape up to be beautiful!

P.S. Thanks to my amazing co-workers I've got a gift card to Native Nurseries burning a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately since Zoë's Dad is in crunch time for finishing off all his work (since it's due Wednesday) I realized I have to wait to use it for next  weekend. Which of course made me feel bad about spending money at Lowe's when I have a gift card at Native Nurseries. But some things are still cheaper and better to get elsewhere (Lowe's). Next weekend though I will be purchasing a pretty flower hanging basket, maybe a few more small flowering plants and whatever else looks good and I might actually use.

New, Re-used, and Updates

Veggie Garden Makeover

Considering I wasn't expecting to be able to accomplish much this weekend (I worked Saturday morning and then went to a friend's wedding Saturday afternoon/evening) we did in fact accomplish a LOT! Not a whole lot happened Saturday, beyond the aforementioned plans. But today, Sunday, we made up for lost time. While Zoë complained bitterly every 5 seconds (I don't know what she wanted, I don't think she knew what she wanted) and Zoë's Dad (Branden) was asleep I weeded the veggie garden, laid down some extra compost on top of all the rows, and then laid down newspaper. I felt extremely satisfied, I'd finally accomplished my long standing goal of setting down a weed barrier/newspaper. No more weeding, yay! Sadly, when Branden woke up and I showed off my handy work I came to realize most of my morning work was for naught. Yeah, newspaper dries and when it does it goes back to being lightweight and flying away with the wind. Instead of rows with newspaper looking amazing (to me at least) I showed off rows with newspaper randomly strewn around. 

 

 In 24 hours there were some dramatic changes:

On the left the garden on 4/10 

On the right the garden on 4/11

I quickly fixed this, with Branden's assistance. While I fixed the newspaper Branden racked the leaves in the front of the house: hello free/natural easily degradable mulch! 

"Leaves are my favorite!" -Zoë (The puppy that frequently finds a leaf, carries it around like it's the most awesome toy ever, and tries to hide said leaf from Mommy and Daddy.)

It looks rather messy and I'll have to monitor it closely over the next few days, but we may have made huge progress in creating a bountiful/healthy veggie garden!

The Bees are gone!

The following alert has been released: The Bees have left the premises! I repeat, The Bees are gone! 

While I was glad they decided to visit (and maybe make our yard a bit nicer with their pollination and everything) I am so glad they've left (especially the wasps)! I think now I'll finally be able to walk in our yard without total fears. Now if only our other yard nemesis would leave on their own as well: ants..... (fire ants, black ants, all kinds of ants all over, including the vegetable garden!)

Pictures of Garden 2.0

Here are some pictures of the second configuration of this year's garden! (As of 4/2/2010)

In the big container (from left to right): 3 white lightening eggplants, sweet basil and genoise basil, and a Ciudad Victoria tomato plant.

From left to right: Sunflowers (one strong and the other that is on death's door we just moved the day this picture was taken),  2 extra squash plants in a container, and our Veggie Garden 2.0

Garden 2.0 (from left to right): Row 1: Squash & Yellow Bell Peppers. Row 2: Watermelon. Row 3: Squash & Zucchini. Row 4: Pumpkins.

Zoë enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Veggie Garden: Take 2

Garden 2.0
It was somewhat inevitable, but basically all of the seeds we planted a few weeks ago did not take off. I repeat, the only sprouts of green from our labors of love rows were the pumpkins. And while we're thrilled the pumpkins took off (at least we did something right *happy dance*) that was the one we wanted the least, if only because we can't/won't use that until the end of winter! {cue the dramatic music, you know the "dun dun dunnnnnnnn"}

Trying not to hang my head in shame (my first attempt at being a gardener was not a success, though I never really thought it would be) we went to fix the "situation". So we went to Native Nurseries (for what seems like the 50th trip this spring already, but clearly isn't) and bought some great looking seedlings: watermelon, croon neck summer squash, baby bush zucchini, yellow bell peppers, sweet basil, Genovese basil (I don't know what the difference between the two is but I guess we'll find out), and white lightening eggplant (that's the only kind they had and while I'd wanted a Japanese variety I figured whatever Native Nurseries had for sale would be a really great variety). 

"Pansy is my favorite!" -Zoë  (As in Pansy the dog at Native Nurseries. Who Zoë goes on a hunt for every time she's there. They don't play, they sort of sniff each other and then Pansy walks away, probably thinking "that little thing is crazy!" All the same, Zoë's favorite is another dog, whenever she gets the opportunity.)

We tried to stay rather true to the original garden, in actual plants and location. That way if by some miracle the seeds do take off (what they took a vacation to the Caribbean and will come back later?) we'll just have extras of things. That's a much better scenario than if we'd gone completely different than the original plan, could you imagine: "Honey, I think that's a cucumber growing in between the watermelon!" Of course I couldn't help but deviate a bit, though I think it's perfectly acceptable for zucchini and squash to mingle in the garden and well given the chance I just had to try to growing my own bell peppers.

A few grueling hours in the garden (again) and we've got a second version of the garden. This time though there's green growth all around! And funny enough the pumpkins (the only seeds that took) are about the same size as the seedlings we bought! I'm not sure if that's funny funny ("haha") or funny sad.....

An amazing discovery & The Bees

A few days ago, out of no where, The Bees arrived. Honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hornets, etc. They all came at once and have swarmed our Holly Tree. I can only assume there are sweet sweet flowers there that have called to them. If you step outside it sounds like you've stepped inside of a bee's nest. They seem to come once it's sunny and/or hot out and leave at night.  

It's ALIVE!

I discovered them (The Bees) when I went outside to check the status of the tire planters surrounding the deck (I expected there to only be weeds as I'd not touched them since last summer when I planted things inside of them to begin with.) Instead of made 2 discoveries: (1) The Bees had arrived (more on that in just a minute) and (2) The Black Eyed Susans had in fact taken last year! I feel in love with Black Eyed Susans last year and promptly bought a large container of them for my garden. Alas I could only afford one and eagerly waited for flowers. I had weak looking green plant in the tire planter for the majority of it's life in my garden. It only bloomed for about 3-4 weeks somewhere around July/August/September (I just can't remember). To say it was a disappointment is a bit of an understatement. I'd read it was drought hardy, once it had established roots. Well I internally cursed it and thought, guess I'll try again next year. Well to my utter amazement, look what I found!

So apparently it did take, it did establish roots. I can only hope this year it blooms quicker and for much longer than last year.

Now back to today's horror story...

The Bees

Naturally I have an intense fear (phobia?) of bees, or rather anything that flies and has a stinger. I have been known to run and scream (or just cry out loudly) when I cross paths (or look like I'm about to) with a bee. So as you can imagine I've been trying to prevent this from being a traumatic experience. I've taken to a mantra of "Bees are good, they're great for Mother Nature. Bees are disappearing, I can't hate them. Bees pollinate and make things nice. Bees are good...." It's mostly worked. I'm not as afraid of them as I might normally be, instead I just stay insanely still and pray the leave without stinging me. (Now once they leave, as I hope against hope they will, and I encounter a bee on its own well then I don't think I'll maintain such a calm attitude.) But back to now, I'm mostly fine around the bees, but then a wasp/hornet will swing by me and I'll run (as fast as I can while trying to NOT get stung, aka slow motion speed) straight in to the house. 

So with that in mind, picture this if you will: I am reading a book on the couch (the 3rd Sookie Stackhouse novel) and turn to Zoe's Dad (Branden) and say, "Honey there's a large bug on the wall over there." He looks over and says, "Yeah I guess so. I think it's a bee.... wait it's a wasp." I did remain in my seat, I did not jump off and run away like a crazy lady. Sadly that wasn't an option as I'd have to cross the wasp's general direction to run away to any other room. Instead I stay seated while he investigates. I calmly direct him to appropriately large objects in the room he could use to try to get it out of the house (hello broom and dust pan). Now when this thing flew off the wall and went within 5 feet of me I reacted. I'm not saying it was the best reaction, or one that'd make sense to someone else. But I reacted in the only way I could think: I hid beneath a blanket (a knitted afghan with lots of holes) from the big bad wasp. Yes, I am a big baby. But yes it did make me feel safe. 

 I walked in to the "Red Zone" as it is to try to take photographic evidence. Sadly, I don't think you can actually see the bees. But if you were there when this picture was taken not only could you see hundreds of little bees running around but you'd have heard them loud as can be as well!

And that is the story of how Branden and my mother's quilted afghan saved me from a wasp. I told Zoë she'd just had a near death experience but I don't think she understood how close to death we both came.