New Plants and "Easy" Stepping Stones

My new plants

Giant Bird Of Paradise

Calla Lilies

A vine that I just fell in love with! Can't remember what it is called

I have been wanting to do stepping stones in our garden, or more the path and have been dragging my feet about it. But when my Great Grandmother and Granddad both died this week, I knew that I wanted to make stepping stones to remember them. I found a kit for $9.99 at Michael's which included the cement, mold, and stir stick. I bought letter stamps specifically for stone and them some glass rocks. In the future all I will need to buy will be the cement. Which is $5.99. Not bad for something to remember loved ones with. I am also thinking of doing prayer stones.

What We are finding in the Garden!

First, I know it has been a long time. But that is one of the biggest lessons I have learned with a garden is patience! We are getting ready to paint our home and needed to move our compost piles. So my lovely hubby did. As he was dividing the soil up and turning it he came across this

I think it is a grub. For size we put it next to a milk cap. The thing was not cooperating and kept moving. What was weird was it was upside down! We have also been finding a lot more earth worms in our soil. When we started we never found any. I am not exaggerating! Zane has loved finding all these cool insects.

My last post I told about my new container gardens. I am happy to announce that there is growth! The first is the potato and then next two are my carrots!



I also wrote about getting roses ready for spring, but forgot to post the pictures. So here is what my roses looked like after I pruned them in the middle of January.
And here is what they look like now! Full of blooms and thriving. These are the first blooms. Some of them have already died but I know that every few weeks I will have a new batch. The white roses are always blooming and the others come in waves. My red ones are starting to open with the bright pink finishing their first bloom and the yellow and pale pink will be blooming in a couple weeks. I love spring!
My memorial garden is also thriving. I added steer manure in Jan or Feb and the flowers have just exploded!
There will be changes coming to this garden. I am not going to be doing much in the way of vegetables because of the low yield and high work. Especially in such a small area. I will still do veggies in containers but the side yard is going to be a flower garden. My oasis!

Books to get

There are many books that I have looked at and love, but they did not seem practical for me. One that I found that gave me great ideas, but again, did not fit for our backyard and climate, it was Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots. I loved the idea of a sunflower house, a pizza garden, and using containers for vegetables. However, I don't have the right square footage for the sunflower house and I had no idea what to plant and when.

That is when I found Desert Gardening for Beginners. What is great about this book is that it gives a step by step on how to prepare your garden soil, amount of watering, where to place the garden, composting, getting rid of Bermuda grass (which I so love!), and a chart in the back as to when to plant what and in what form (seeds or transplant). After getting this book, I discovered another book that corresponds to it and does have a lot of the same information, but has great ideas for gardening with children. It is Success with School Gardens. I know that there are many others. But with a very active three year old, I am doing my best.

When we moved into our home the backyard was nothing but gravel. VERY UNATTRACTIVE! With in the first year, my wonderful hubby moved the gravel, dug trenches, with the help of a ditch witch, put in irrigation, bricked the boarder, and seeded for grass! So the next summer we had a green yard. Next we added more trees on the back fence and sage bushes. I also tried to garden, with little success. I was a little discouraged. I did have gorgeous rose bushes that are thriving. I will give tips on what I do for my roses also. I have tried off and on to do vegetable gardens and flower gardens. But now I will tell of the trials and tribulations that I come across.

So here are pictures of what the yard looks like today. If I find any pictures of what it looked like when we moved in or while my hubby was working on the yard I will post.

My Roses (There are five Bushes)

The Side yard which is my garden. Right now there is broccoli, spinach, lettuce, and Basil. There are also flowers on the side closest to the house. This is my memorial garden.

Container Gardening, Tomatoes, Jalapenos, broccoli and beats (Learning on this First Time)Around the tree is my Herb Garden. Just starting to see sprouts