Fall Gardening

Sorry for the absence of posts lately…  it seems like things are picking up all at once around here, and it’s definitely cutting into my blogging time.   I had orientation today for the speech language pathology clinic, and we start class and clinic this Monday.  I’m not too worried about the class part but just the thought of clinic is making me sweat.  Anyways, I get my patient assignments on Monday so we’ll see how it goes!!

Back to the real reason for this post… our garden!  We are members of the employee garden at Jimmee’s work, and I thought I would post a few photos from our Tuesday planting.  I guess this is the time to get the fall seeds and starter plants into the ground so we worked the soil and added some extra manure/compost and then planted the new babies.  The seedlings aren’t very interesting, but I took some photos of what was left of our summer plants and of some of the other beds.

We have 6 people in our group, and this is our garden plot.  Jimmee is working hard turning the soil while everyone watches.

The flower bed area that is kept by the “master gardener”, I guess that’s what you would call her.

I’m so amazed at all the things that have grown this summer, even with all the crazy weather we’ve had.  Aren’t these baby watermelons so cute!?!

And a little pumpkin.

We are going back tonight to do some more soil work and finish planting.  I thought I’d include a list of our crops just in case you guys are interested.  This is what we’ve got going at the moment.

·         Cantaloupe – producing

·         Okra – producing

·         Zucchini – Sept 9^th

·         Sweet potatoes – Sept 24^th

·         Carrots (1^st planting) – Oct 9^th

·         Spinach – Oct 10th

·         Green beans – Oct 10th

·         Peas – Oct 20^th

·         Broccoli – Oct 30^th

·         Carrots (2^nd planting) – Oct 30^th

·         Cauliflower – Oct 30^th

·         Garlic – early June 2011

·         Onions – late Spring 2011

I need to get back to work on the house, but the idea of painting another room makes me cringe at the moment.  Maybe I’ll be in the mood this weekend…  I’m hoping!   :)

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Landscape Design

We finally have a plan for the garden in the front yard!!  I have been debating what to put into our new bed, but I really wasn’t sure how to put it all together.  I love to buy plants, and sometimes I can get a little carried away buying random ones at the garden center when they are blooming and beautiful.  Our wonderful neighbor is a landscape architect, and I was really happy when he offered to put together a professional plan that maps everything out for me- including what to buy and exactly where to put it.  I am feeling relieved that I don’t have to wonder if I’m picking the right things for Oklahoma City and for the amount of sun/shade on that side of the house.  Our neighbor’s yard looks fabulous all year, and he tries to only use plants that thrive in the OKC climate.  In other words, you don’t have to work 24 hours a day to keep them alive, which is great news for me since I am more of the lazy gardener type.

So here is the plan from far away:

I love the way it represents the plants and puts the colors in to match the blooms.  I wish I had a program like this!   He did such a great job!

Just in case you’re curious, here are some of the plants that are included in the plan.  I’ll put photos in of the highlights of the plan…

Red Rocket Crepe Myrtle on the left corner

Different types of Nandina surround the foundation.

Lots of Daylilies (the type is called Stella de Oro)

Four Hostas – Patriot is the type.  I love these plants because they get such pretty patterns on the leaves, and they like shade which we have an abundance of at our house.

We’re looking forward to planting after I get rid of all the weeds that have crept in the last couple of weeks.  They take over so quickly!  I’m hoping to stagger the planting since it will benefit my back and my wallet, but when it’s all in place, I’ll post the final look.  Until then, check back for updates about the kitchen and office renovations….

xo  anne

At Home in Houston

I took a quick flight down to Houston this week to see my family and celebrate a belated mother’s day, and it has been a wonderful week!  I always forget how beautiful and green everything is down here, and my mom does a really good job of keeping everything in the yard looking fabulous.  I thought that while I was down here I would post a tour of my parent’s house since there are so many great details and beautiful decorations.

Let’s start with the kitchen since that’s where everyone loves to be.

Flowers for mother’s day in a beautiful vase.  The little Chinese animal is keeping watch over everything.

This display behind the sink makes washing the dishes much more fun, although I still avoid washing them whenever possible.

I have always loved this bread box, and I’ve noticed that they are back in style.  Well, at least I saw Martha Stewart is selling a very similar version of this guy.

My mom and sisters usually make the snowflakes hanging at the top of the picture around Christmas and then hang them around the house.  It seems that we have built up quite a supply of these little guys and they are now on display in the doorway.

Here’s a close-up of them.

The window display in the kitchen with lots of little handmade hearts and butterflies….

Part of the living room area.

A flower painting that my mom did a couple of years ago.  It’s a little bit dark in the photo I took, but the flower looks like a photo itself in person.

The display when you walk into the door.  My sister, Zoe, painted the inside robin’s egg blue, and it looks so great with the silver pieces!

My mom redesigned the upstairs bathroom a couple of years ago, and it went from looking like 4 teenage girls had been sharing it for a few too many years to sophisticated and fabulous.

Here is their doggie lounging in the backyard with her new summer coat.

And some more garden pictures…

And the post wouldn’t be complete without some pictures of my mom’s favorite kitties!

Weekend Projects

We have been busy this weekend trying to tie up lots of loose ends around the house!  It seems like there are so many different things going on at once, and I’m hoping we can get some of them done and move on.  I think the number one priority was to eliminate the dirt pile, but that seems to be impossible.  We still have quite a bit left, and I may have to resort to a “FREE dirt” sign in the yard.  There are ominous rain clouds in the sky right now so the we may not have much of a pile after tonight.

Here it is staring at us through the bedroom window.

We made some progress on the front bed, and I’m hoping to get some advice about what to plant from our neighbor who is a landscape architect.   His yard looks great, and he has a really nice mix of different plants rather than just the usual evergreens.

Here are some photos of the progression.

Here is the final bed- oh, and did you notice the last remaining shutters that were clinging to the house hoping to survive a couple more months are now gone!  and so are the spider colonies that were behind them.  Someone stopped me one day and asked me (very seriously) if we thought it would be the new trend to have just one shutter on each window.   I didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea so they are now gone.

It’s hard to see it in the pictures, but we finally have one lone peony open!!  I’m hoping to have a bouquet in the kitchen later this week. :)

The other thing we’re working on is getting the floors prepped for the refinishing.  We’re hoping to take out the floor furnace in the living room before refinishing the rest of the wood next week.

Here is the ugly furnace I hope to not see for much longer.

We are going to have to pull out the actual furnace part that’s underneath the grate so Jimmee had to crawl under the house and disconnect the gas and the other pipes.  Here he is emerging from the crawl space.

I was really happy, in fact elated, that I was not designated to go under the house and search for these things with the roaches and spiders.  I’ve seen my share of those things lately, and frankly I’ve had enough of them for a long time.  Jimmee did a good job, and he made it out safe and sound  and had very little anxiety about the whole thing.  Now hopefully we can get the wood replaced and get on with the refinishing!!

That pretty much sums up the weekend for us…  Jimmee is off to Arkansas now, and I’m going to attempt to study for my last final.

To all the mothers, especially my mom and Jody, I want to wish you a HAPPY mother’s day!!!   I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing day!

Onto the Front Yard

At this point, the backyard is looking pretty good, despite the fact that there is no grass.  I planted grass seed and put a layer of dirt over the top of the seed (since we have quite the surplus!), and now I’m just waiting to see some sprouts.  You have to keep the seed really moist while it germinates so I’m doing lots of watering and trying to keep the animals out of that area so the seed stays where it’s supposed to.

I thought it would be a good idea to get started on the front yard while I was in the yard work mode.  Gotta keep that momentum going!  I found more of the stone buried in the backyard- there is no end to this stuff- so I decided to use that in the front yard too.  It kind of matches the stone of the house so I thought it might work out.

Here is a pic of the front garden area prior to tearing anything up.

Here is a close-up of the part that I want to tear out- the multi-colored, bulkhead-like border to the garden.  I don’t know why it bothers me so much, but I think it’s because it looks so stiff and also because the colors don’t go with the house or the plants.

I really wish she hadn’t anchored these things in concrete, but I was able to get them out anyway.  I think it already looks better at this point, and you can see the peonies!  One of them opened up this morning so I think more will follow when the sun comes out.

And the start of the new bed…

This is as far as I got yesterday, and today or tomorrow I’m going to enlist Jimmee to help me get the rest of the dirt moved.  I don’t think I can move another load at this point.  I look at the pile, and sometimes I envision myself with a cane and white hair still moving loads of dirt.  I think I had a dream about that last night, and I woke up sweating and nervous.  That pile just looms right outside of the bedroom window.

I’m excited to do some more plant shopping next week, and this time I will have more options because the front gets a lot more sun.  It seems like there are so many more options for full/partial sun beds than for shade, but I still love those shade plants.

Okay, well I’ll leave you with a picture from our neighbor’s yard.  Their clematis is blooming, and it looks so pretty!

Backyard Garden

The garden is done (at least until I buy more plants), the dirt is half gone, and I am pooped out!   I planted the last couple of plants this morning, and took some pictures of the finished product.  The backyard definitely looks 100x better, but I don’t know if that’s saying much because it was probably about a 1 on a 1-10 scale before the garden.

So here are some the plants I put in:

some astilbe and bright green sedum (suggested by my mom) which look really nice together and some baby coreopsus – i think that’s what is was called.  They are just babies right now but will grow really quickly.

A couple of hydrangeas called “blushing bride” that will have really pretty light pink/cream colored flowers.  This one is just starting to get some flowers on it.

I thought these rhodendrons were really pretty, and they will have tons of flowers next spring and stay green all year long.

Here is the somewhat finished garden… it’s still a little empty but will fill in as the summer goes on.  I planted a bunch of hostas (just the roots) that should come up in the next couple of weeks.  I don’t know how well it will work, but I thought it was worth a try!

The roots look a little creepy… but that’s how they came out of the bag.

I have one final photo from our front yard of our rose bush that’s blooming.  It has so many bright pink blooms that I just had to include it with the gardening theme.

Hope you’re all enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

ps  the picture at the top is one of our peony buds!  they are about to pop open, but i thought it was so cool to see all the layers that will be petals in a couple of days.