Bringing Annuals Inside

Summer is coming to a close which means colder times are on the way.  I've enjoyed my annual plants this year, but most of them are getting ready to be done for the season.  In the latest Martha Stewart Living magazine, they had a great idea: bring in your annuals and pot them inside! They may not last all winter, but this will at least give them a bit more life.  AND, you can enjoy looking at them from inside your home.

We tried it with a dahlia.  This little one is struggling to survive, but after a good pruning the other day {and removal of a very hungry caterpillar}, it just might make it.   I like its home on top of the entertainment center, inside a piece of cookware I scored at a yard sale this summer for $1.

Bradley built a trellis for me the other night {he made it out of furring strips--genius, he is}, took a Mandevilla that was in our side yard, and potted it.  It was blooming so nicely, but wouldn't survive even the Georgia winter.  The corner of our family room now holds a gorgeous plant.  We'll see how it does this winter.

Of course, any time you bring plants indoors you run the risk of something like this happening:

While I was making dinner the other night, I turned around because there was some devious laughter going on, and discovered that our 2 1/2 year old had thrown dirt all over the family room!  Let's just say I was thankful Bradley was home to handle that situation.

My awesome husband also found a great resource for plant care.  Clemson University has an online resource that you can use for your gardening questions.  He was able to look up the necessary environment needed for a Mandevilla to grow indoors.

Do you have any summer annuals you could bring inside?  

Update from the Garden

I shared with you on Tuesday my blogging dilemma:  the camera wasn't working.  Really, I just couldn't find the battery charger, and the battery was dead, so no camera.  We thought perhaps we left it plugged in at the hospital when Mason was born, so we were shopping for one at Costco yesterday.  We placed one in the cart, and then I remembered I had definitely used it at least once since coming home from the hospital.  So, when we got home I looked all over, yet again, and in a moment of desperation decided to look under my nightstand.  Aha! I found it!  Now I can resume taking pictures of moments like these:

and other less meaningful things that I talk about on this blog.   As soon as my battery was charged I headed outside to snap some pictures of our growing garden.

A few weeks ago I shared with you our Vegetable Garden with raised beds that we planted this year.  As a reminder, here is what it looked like at the end of March:

And, now look at it!

We are having SO much fun with this project.  Each night after dinner, we all grab a basket {minus Mason, who is usually wrapped across my front} and pick whatever is ready.  We've gotten tons of green beans, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, yellow squash, and cucumbers.  Here are some close-ups of what is to come:

Tomatoes, several varieties

Okra

Green Bell Peppers

Cantaloupe!!

Butternut Squash {great for making baby food}

Green Beans

Pole Beans

Cucumbers

Zucchini, and some Dill there on the right

Eggplant

Cherry Tomatoes

Raspberry Blossoms

Raspberry Plants from my MIL

I've learned a few things from gardening thus far:
1) Watch out for overgrown plants covering the walkway--there could be a fire ant nest below.  I stepped into a nest two weeks ago and got several ant bites on my foot.  Maybe the real lesson I should have learned was to wear socks and shoes.

2) Don't stand on the other side of someone who is doing this:

Pieces of earth will fly and most likely hit you, which hurts. very. bad.

3) My baby monitor reaches to the garden!  Yay!  This means I can go up there during nap time and still get some work done.  Who says having a newborn is nothing but nursing and changing diapers?

4) Working the land is very fulfilling!  It brings me such joy to see Bradley enjoying his garden, researching new ways to make our crops grow, and eating the delicious vegetables that have grown.

How does your garden grow?

Plans for My English Garden

Sorry I've been a bit absent this past week!  I came down with something last Wednesday, which kept me out of commission for 24 hours, and then we were out of town until Saturday.  Plus, my camera isn't working, which makes for a frustrated blogger!  Hopefully, I can remedy that situation soon.  In the meantime, I thought I would share with you plans for my little English garden.

There is a perfect spot in my backyard, a corner that sits right beneath my kitchen window, where I plan to put in an English garden.  What is an English garden you ask?  Well, my understanding is that it is an area that is just PACKED with flowers and plants.  My goal is to put in as many varieties as I'm able, mostly flowers that can be cut to bring indoors.  There are a few plants in this space already, but I've been hesitant to finish it because of our dog.  She likes to ruin my plants.  So, I need to come up with a way to keep her out so that my flowers can be beautiful!  These photos are my inspiration.

I loved it when I found this one, because it includes a Japanese Maple.  I have a small JM in this space already, and wasn't sure if that could remain.  This picture helped make my decision.

Source: travelvista.net via Lauren on Pinterest

Do you see that tall blue/purplish flower on the left? That's called Delphinium, and it's a gorgeous flower. My mother-in-law gave me one for Mother's Day, so it will definitely be added. Daisies are also a must, and I have some of those to put in.

Source: thingsthatsparkleblog.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

My space isn't large enough for a pathway, or a stone wall, but I loved this grouping of flowers. Just look at all the different varieties!

Source: landscape-design-advisor.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Better Homes & Gardens even had a plan for an English garden, so if I get really stumped I could just follow their design.

Source: bhg.com via Lauren on Pinterest

And, to keep the dog out? Well, maybe something like this, but I'm not decided yet.

Source: lowescreativeideas.com via Lauren on Pinterest

What are your favorite flowers? Any ideas for must-haves that I should include in my new English garden? I'd love to hear your suggestions!

The Vegetable Garden

One of the things that my husband and I both enjoy is gardening, although, I do have to say he does a majority of it now that we have children.  We planted a garden last year, but it was right after we moved in, and there wasn't as much planning and preparation as there should have been.  Once the fall came, Bradley took quite seriously the task of researching gardening in our area, looking at seeds, ordering seeds, and even starting to prepare the ground for another crop.

A few weeks ago he took some time off from work and spent almost all of his spare time making some beds for our garden.  We are blessed to have an easement behind our fence, which borders a large piece of property that doesn't get used.  It's our requirement to maintain the easement, so rather than just leaving it bare, we decided to make the most of it and plant our garden there.  

Bradley did a little bit of research before making these beds, but most of his design was purely from his own head!  He amazes me!

You may notice some red paint on the wood in this picture.  When you shop at Lowe's or Home Depot, be sure to look for carts of discounted wood.  A lot of the wood he used for our garden was marked down to $.50 or $1 or so.  These pieces may have some imperfections, but they are perfect for use in a garden.

A majority of our beds are framed with wood, but there are some areas that are simply marked with rocks.  A friend let us pick up a truck load of manure from his horse farm so Bradley incorporated that, and some hay, into the soil.

This is the second level of the garden.  I love walking in the garden at sunset!

Some yellow squash are already starting to do great.  Bradley started everything from seeds this year, and so my dining room table has been a greenhouse for the past month.  I think it's well worth it, though, to get this many plants from a packet of seeds that costs less than $2.  You can't beat that!

Cherry tomato plants going strong!

This trellis is for some cucumbers that Bradley is trying out.  Apparently they are climbing cukes, so it will be fun to see how they take off.

 Not only does Bradley work on the vegetable aspect of the garden, he also tries to make it fun for the girls {and convenient for me} by building bridges for us to walk across the drainage ditch.  Our neighborhood is still being developed, so we often find scrap lumber and wood pallets in various lots; we try to put them to good use.

As I said this garden is behind our fence, so it's quite a ways away from the house, and the hose.  The other day, Bradley dug a trench through the yard and up into the garden so that we could bury a hose and have a water source right in the garden.  This will make watering so much easier.

I originally wanted to make some pallet art out of these pallets, but Bradley snagged them first and made two bridges.  I rather like his invention!

 Here are some more plants that are almost ready for the transplant to the garden.

We're praying for a bountiful crop this year!  It really is satisfying to 'work the land' and see the fruit of your labors.  I'm so thankful for Bradley and all the hard work he puts into our yard.  Thanks, honey!


Linking to Centsational Girl's Garden Link Party

My First Canning Experiences

I've secretly always wanted to live on a farm with lots of land for vegetable gardens, an orchard, chickens, and fields of wildflowers.  Maybe I'm living in the wrong era, but going out everyday with my basket and apron to collect eggs and pick the latest produce from the vine, sounds wonderful!  My older sister used to tease me about this saying I would end up 'making my own baby food, having a garden, homeschooling my kids, and wearing Keds and jean jumpers'.  Well, I do make my own baby food and I have a garden,  we're still debating about homeschooling our children one day (I think this same sister is contemplating the same!) but the Keds and jean jumpers have not and will not enter my wardrobe!

When we planted our garden this spring I was so excited thinking about all of the tomatoes, beans and other items I could can.  Well, our beans were attacked by bugs and all died; the tomatoes are growing like crazy with tons of flowers, but only a handful of tomatoes, and our cucumbers were mostly bitter.  So much for my great ideas of learning how to can!

I did have just enough cucumbers to make one batch of Bread and Butter Pickles.  My Grandmother always had pickles and relish at her house, from my Grandfather's garden, and to this day these are the only ones I like!  She graciously gave me her recipe (sorry I'm not sharing it here) and I've already eaten a whole jar!

Because our garden isn't producing enough this year, I decided against purchasing canning equipment right now.  But, I have learned that it's possible to can some things with just a stockpot.  My freezer is running out of space for freezer jam (check out the strawberry freezer jam recipe), so I decided to buy some peaches and make some cooked peach jam.

In order to set the stage here, I have to explain that our windows were open on this particular day of canning. The morning temperatures had gotten down to the 60's, so we decided to open up and save a little money on our electric bill.  This is a big mistake on the day when you plan to can something!  Our house was almost 90F when I started the process and it didn't cool down one bit!  We closed our windows the next day.

Everything went pretty smoothly until the jam that I was cooking spilled over the pot onto my cooktop.  Now, there is sugary jam caked onto my favorite burner.  Any suggestions for how to get it off?  I've tried warm soapy water and baking soda.  

Next time, I'll be sure to use a bigger pot.

We now have six jars of homemade peach jam in the pantry and I can't wait to try it!  

I used the recipe inside of a box of Sure Jell fruit pectin for cooked peach jam.

My first experiences canning went fairly well and I'm looking forward to maybe finding some tomatoes somewhere to work on trying spaghetti sauce and salsa.  

Have you canned anything this year?