Spring Garden

We have been busy as ever around here but I am finally making time to post something besides my monthly picture pot. And that something is my always exciting annual garden post! Lol! Eric put in three new herb beds (top right photo) for me this year at the edge of the yard where they will get the most sun, cooking with fresh herbs is such a pleasure don't you think?

Echo's garden (top left photo) is growing pole beans, squash and sunflowers this year.

We planted two small plum trees this year and they have two tiny plums on them. Hopefully we won't manage to kill them as we have ever other fruit tree we've tried so far :-(

Our blueberries are finally starting to be more productive this year and it's giving me great hopes for future blueberry crops.

 This isn't a great picture but you can kind of see the bean tepees we put in for the kids (which have sugar snap peas growing on them). I'm also growing tomatillos, ground cherries, cabbage, cilantro and tomatoes in my raised beds.

My trellis garden has sugar snap peas as well and we have been enjoying them in stir fries and eating them frsh.

The magnolia tree has been particularly lovely this year so I had to get a shot of that in here :-).

And of course no post is complete without some shots of the kids ;-P I love this because it is so indicative of their personalities, Echo in her bare feet and Clover in her boots (that girl loves boots!).

Echo's Bunny Suit

Oh my gosh, I'm one of those moms that dresses their kids up in costumes and photographs them! My dad bought Echo this adorable bunny suit and I couldn't resist a spring photo shoot this morning. At least it's more tasteful than the pink bunny suit from a Christmas Story so hopefully she won't hate me for it later. Personally I think it's amazingly adorable. Babies are so lucky, they can dress up as bunnies (or any other animal they want) any time and it is perfectly socially acceptable!

Here is the amazing miss Echo in her fabulous bunny suit!

A Garden For Me!

I swear I don't even recognize myself. My whole life I have had pretty much zero interest in gardening, especially in growing my own fruits and veggies. My interest in plants kind of gradually snuck up on me, starting when I was in grad school when I began to acquire a few house plants. Well, since getting married and buying a house my gardening interest has exploded and I am super excited about my new raised bed garden that Eric built for me! I had limited success growing some veggies and herbs in containers on my back deck last year, probably because they didn't get enough sun. This year Eric helped me build a 4 foot by 6 foot raised bed in the front yard. I'm hop[ing everything will get plenty of sun there although we'll have to see how it goes once all out tress leaf out. I have big plans to plant all kinds of things in this garden but I am trying to keep it to things that I know are easy to grow like peppers and carrots. So far I moved my mint and rosemary from their pots on the back deck to the new front garden (this should give them lots of room to grow) and planted some radish seeds. Here are some pics of the new garden, I'm pretty stoked about it :-)

Garden in progress

Finished garden!

Mint freshly transplanted to the new garden. It's just starting to come back from the winter. 

Rosemary transplanted to the garden, hope it will grow bigger now that it has some space!

And last but not least, a new blueberry bush that my mom picked up for me at the half off sale Pikes had yesterday. This won't be going in my new garden but we will be planting it out front somewhere

close up of blueberries, so cute!

Spring-A-Ling

Oh goodness, such beautiful weather we are having today! I was inspired by the Springy weather to get outside and work in the yard this morning. I finally broke down and bought a leaf blower which I was totally opposed to until I moved in to this house and realized the MASSIVE amounts of leaves we had to deal with. Today I broke out the new leaf blower and actually uncovered a lot of little sproutlings that are coming up for Spring, so exciting! I am usually more of a Fall/Winter person but I have to admit that I am pretty excited about Spring this year. Here are some pictures of the Spring time happenings around the yard.

Little hosta starting to sprout, and a random mushroom

More hostas sprouting

Azaleas

Our vinca is starting to bloom and put out new leaves like crazy 

Autumn sedum coming back with a vengance

Daffodils in full bloom, they make me so happy :-) 

Lovely

More azaleas

Happy Anniversary To Us!

It is just over a year since we closed on the house, my how time flys! I still can't believe that all that paperwork and all the headaches that go along with buying a home are so far behind us. It's a great feeling to be settled in to our own home and we have been working diligently to pay off our mortgage ahead of schedule. It will be another amazing milestone to pay off the house but that is still a long way off.

Needless to say a lot of my short term plans for home improvements have been put on hold because of the impending new arrival to our family. We are putting away as much money as possible to save up for baby so that has caused us to slow some of our bigger projects. On top of that I am totally wiped out and nauseous all the time which basically means I have no energy (or desire) to do home improvement projects. Apparently growing a baby is hard work because it has left me totally exhausted. Oh well, it's supposed to get better in the second trimester :-)

Eric was able to find time to put in a new light over the sink in the kitchen so I wanted to post a picture of that to share with everyone.

We got this nice little pendant light at World Market, it is a big improvement over the ugly florescent fixture that used hang above the sink.

Other changes around the house all have to do with the coming of Spring. We've had such a warm Winter and I know things are blooming early everywhere. Our yard is no exception although we do seem to be a little behind Atlanta proper since we are little higher altitude and it tends to be slightly colder here in Marietta. Here are some of the things that are starting to sprout and bloom around the yard.

Daffodils coming up but not quite in bloom yet. I planted about 25 of them last Fall, it's exciting to watch them come up.

Azaleas starting to bloom but not up to their full glory yet.

Close up of Azalea blossoms, my white Azaleas aren't blooming yet for some reason.