garden fever, daniel daniel daniel

so every time spring comes around and i'm out getting groceries at grocery stores...i can't help but notice all the plants and pretty flowers for sale... the bulb sets, seeds, etc. i'm not even looking for it, but it's there. and i love gardening. i love plants and especially those that flower... and so every year, about this time (every year i say, because since we've been married we've had debt and no money to spend on plants) i start wanting to buy plants... but this year is different...why? WE OWN A HOUSE FOR ONCE!!! and all the pitiful "lanscaping" DR Horton put in needs a makeover...every time i look at it i shake my head and start thinking what i'd like to see instead... only, we are trying to get out of debt...dragging on and on. lol. so i must pass all the pretty flowers this year again! ::sigh:: for now i have resorted to carefully plotting and planning what i'd "love" to have my yard look like...i say that because i browse the nurseries online and fall in love with a bulb that is $10 a piece! WOOOW that's pricey. but most bulbs multiply... just give it time.

so far, i have in my mind what plants i must have, i just have to figure out how to arrange them...

here's a taste:

purple rose (lagerfeld i already have)

pretty pink rose

pretty red rose


new dawn climbing bush

liliac

first lady asiatic lily

purple iris (my favorite flower)

indian giver day lily

hydrangea bush

pink flowering dogwood tree (i actually found one at lowes!!!)

clematis vine

peonies - they look like roses!

delphiniums

alliums

agapanthus

so i don't have pictured...spider lilies (i remember these growing up!) fox gloves and various annuals...

i don't mind the maintenance of a nice lanscape, i love to be out in the yard, so i'm not going for just bushes...lol. i LOVE flowers. the more unique/beautiful the better. i also am gaga over scented flowers...love smelling roses, and infact i don't think i'll ever pick a rose unless it smells awesome! i hate flowers that stink. lol. of course, most of these i've never had before, so i don't know if they have a smell or not...but i love how beautiful they are!

so i guess i'll take a break from that to mention...i finished my garden boxes today! yay. minus the cage. seeds/transplants are in, so water, wait, and see...

oh, and daniel has hit the terrible two's phase. darn. that little boy was such a sweet baby...and now he's an abnoxious toddler who pitches these screaming crying fits when he doesn't get his way...ugh. i sure TRY my hardest not to let it phase me...just get done what i need to do so i can get to tending to daniel...

2 days ago i went to lowes to pick up some more humus and peat moss, and since we were in the garden section, after daniel became uninterested in the car part of the cart...i decided i would let him down to run (i promised he could if he put his shoes back on, and he did, so i had to reward him for following through) but since i had what i came for, i figured i'd follow him around and practice his obedience skills by calling him back when i stopped and making sure he listened... i was non chalantly browsing flowering trees, and that's when my eye spotted "dogwood" i looked at the tag more closely and the picture too...and YEP, pink flowering dogwood! this tree supposedly isn't sold here b/c it doesn't grow well blah blah, but they had it! then i jeked my head around to see where daniel was and.... that was all it took, he was no where in sight. i called his name, no sound...as i started briskly walking around looking for him, abandoning the cart...an associate stopped me and said "your looking for a little boy? i thought he was standing next to his parents, but he was...well he was over there" i was at the opposite corner of the garden center by this point where it meets the doors to go inside the store...and my heart is pumping fast...why why why did i let him out of the cart! so i'm running through the back of the store calling his name finding nothing while the associate was telling other associates she saw to look for him and call "code adam" (mising child) i'm just about to break down and cry at this point as i see no sign of him...it wasn't until i was by appliance/cabinets area that i see daniel running away from an associate that is following him... i run and grab him and she tells me he was back in recieving watching them operate the fork lifts..."we almost didn't see him" AAAAAAA....in recieving!!!! o that was enough for me... i didn't let go of him and he didn't fuss...it was a mutual feeling...glad to see him again...

well, i had to get groceries at sam's...i only had daniel with me since kat was still in school, so i wanted to get it done with just one kid... and he was staying in the cart.... oh, he was not happy about that! the ENTIRE time we were in that store he wanted me to carry him...well, holding a 30lb child and pushing a cart...it aint happening...daniel was gonna have to get over it. i would cuddle him but not carry him... he kept standing up and jumping on me, which was getting on my nerves so i strapped him in so he would sit...he quickly got out of that...so i just held his arm to make him stay sitting...yeah, that was all before i even got to pick up any groceries...so he proceeds to sream at the top of his lungs and cry and pitch a huge tantrum...for the rest of the time. i simply tried to shrug it off and keep telling him he had to sit in the cart, but by the time i went to check out...and he was dripping of drool and snot cuz he had worked himself up so much...i was done with it...i hugged him while in line (while he stood in the basket) and he finally shut up...and other customers were saying "ooo, he's happy now, he just needed a hug" and "he stopped crying! WOW" i just had to smile and laugh because that wasn't his problem...i tried hugging him and he would push me away simply because he was mad that i didn't want to carry/let him out of the cart...ugh. whatever. i am not the mom that gives their kids what they want just so they will hush... not happening. he needs to learn a lesson...kids sit in the cart for shopping trips...needless to say i had all my patience drained at that point... and he fell asleep shortly after he got in the car...figures. which is the reason i hate going shopping with kids. kathryn demands to be out of the cart and walking around, and she wanders off and touches everything, so i always have to be watching her every move, which slows down the process, all the while daniel is jumping on me to get out of the cart and be free like kathryn!!! and it's a big wonder why make my shopping trips as infrequent as possible. ah, missed getting cheese...too bad... ::sigh:: i've had a rough few days with handling daniel's tantrums...i still don't know the best way to handle him when he gets in the crying screaming foot stomping rages... i've taken to just sitting him in time out and putting him back everytime he starts fussing again until he stops...and trying to explain in a calm voice over his screams that this is not the way we behave. i don't even know how to word it...lol. "we don't do this" "we don't act this way" everything is so general. i guess a simple "no fussing" will do until he gets older. ::sigh::

on a positive note, i had daniel outside with me while i worked on my garden (in the side yard) and we heard big machinery noises...we went to check it out, and it was a big...scooper machine? idk the name of it, but the CAT machinery...it was knocking down parts of the fence where the road stops so it could get through...then it started tearing up some temp fencing DR Horton put along the sides of the road...then a big 18 wheeler came in with about 8 concrete sewer cylinder thingys....lol. the CAT machine hooked a chain to the concrete stuff and unloaded them off the truck...daniel just watched and watched. he even went a little closer and did his cute full hand wave to the men working. they got a kick out of him and the CAT machine man honked the tiny horn to say hi to daniel and it scared him so he ran away. teeheehee...but any time he is in the street and he sees a car coming, he books in toward the house/me screamin "uh no, uh no" all the while. i keep telling him GOOD JOB DANIEL! we run away from cars in the street! lol.

and he sure wishes he could do what i do to my garden...i only let him water the squares...he tries to dig...and rake...it's cute watching him try. the rake is so much taller than he is and heavy for him.

i'll be off to bed now.

always an obstacle to get past...

i have been wanting to post for a while, but with kids there's no telling when you'll get the chance. i have been trying to put my garden together.

there sure is a lot of steps i guess i just never thought about them before. it was so obvious, i just never thought about how much time each step would take.

to build a raised bed 4x4 first you have to find a good spot in your yard. not too sunny, but one that gets at least 6 hours of sun a day. also you want to make sure it is relatively flat. that helps to not complicate things.

so once you've found your location you'll need some boards 2x6 and up. i used 2x10's becuase i wanted to have an extra deep bed, but you really only need 6" of soil to work with...except for the root crops (potatoes, carrots) i got my 2x10x4' boards for free at a construction site...i had to do some cutting of course. so cut the boards to 4 ft or you could do a 4x8 box, but my boards were only 5ft, so without having to buy boards, i was stuck with building just 4x4 boxes. (can't be deeper than 4ft cuz you can't reach in further than 2ft on each side...trust me, i made my 1st garden 5ft and there was an ugly patch of weeds right down the middle that i couldn't reach...)

so your boards are cut, now predrill holes for screws on one side in each board. line them up and put your screws in...the box is done! it will be heavy tho, so put it together very close to where it will be going...

next you put down landscape fabric to keep weeds from coming up into your awesome dirt... i went a step further and stapled the fabric to the bottoms of the boxes...i would advise you to get 4ft wide landscape fabric...it will save time. i thought i had picked a 4ft roll, turns out it was only 3... oh well. (picture of stapled landscape fabric to box below)

flip the box over.... and next mix the awesome dirt...

lay out a tarp (mine was 8'x10')

and add the ingredients (1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite) if you do 6" of soil, you will need 8 cu ft of soil for a 4x4. or approx 3 cu ft of each ingredient. it doesnt have to be exact, but don't skimp on anyone of these! here's why:

compost is organic and the perfect natural fertilizer...fertilizing done, one less step to worry about. it's better to have home made compost, but if you get it from the store, get different kinds to have a better mix of nutrients. i suggest compost chicken manure, compost cow manure, and humus...composted peat moss or something like that. chicken manure can be found at Naylor's Hardware, the rest can be found at any big hardware store like Lowes, Home Depot, Stine's etc.

peat moss is great for keeping soil light and moist. this will never be added again as it is a non-renewable resource, and we don't want to waste it. it decomposes rather slowly, so it should last a while. get the bales of either 2.2 cu ft (expands to roughly 4 cu ft) or 3.8 cu ft (expands to roughly 8 cu ft) depending on how much you need.

vermiculite - what the heck is that you say? it is this amazing resource that holds water like a sponge...literally. it is made by heating up mica rock till it explodes (like popcorn) and what you get is chunks of light airy vermiculite. the water fills into all the open spaces, which the chunks are full of. so this is very necessary to keeping your soil loose but water retentive. the only place i've found that stocks this in the 4 cu ft bag you need (cheaper than buying all the 4 qt bags to equal 4 cu ft) is Naylor's Hardware off of Old Hammond right next to Millerville. it is 25.99, BUT you'll never have to buy it again, and you won't have to water as frequently!

so, add the ingredients in the tarp (i suggest doing 1 box at a time, the dirt gets rather heavy) take one side of the tarp (it helps if there are 2 people to do this) and pull towards the opposite side making sure none of the dirt spills. the do the same with the other side. i was doing this by myself, so this didn't work out too well for me, not to mention it was very windy (oh yeah, wet your ingredients well so they don't blow away -peat moss and vermiculite in particular) so i would recommend NOT doing it on a day that is super windy...but none the less.

i ended up shoveling the pile into the box and, using a rake, mixed the ingredients that way... whatever works for you. after you have your dirt, make sure it is moist, so give it a good water (any excess water will just run out - so no overwatering will take place!)

so what were the kids doing all the while as i was working?

kathryn loves to dig holes in the dirt...Grrrreeat....rock box coming soon!

did i mention this little boy is in love with cars? cuz this is what he does all day long. a car in each hand, right where mommy is.

next add grids. this is a very important part of SFG (square foot gardening) it helps you SEE where your spaces are so you know where to put your plants (in the middle of the square, or 4, 9, 16 per square, depending on what you are planting) once again, i wanted to use what i had on hand, so i screwed in 1/2 inch screws 3/4 of the way down (to give room to tie string to) 12" apart (approx. it was more like 11.5") and tied nylon string around the screws to make a grid. melt the ends btw or they will fray.

next...PLANTS YOUR SEEDS!!! FINALLY!!! sigh. i love watching things grow, and have been waiting to get this done since winter...and the time finally came...i'm glad i started earlier cuz it took me over the course of a week to get this done! and i only filled in 1 box of dirt! i am doing 3 4x4 boxes, the other 2 are waiting for their dirt and grids and SEEDS! but the wind was too much to finish, so i am waiting. today is a good day to get it done. i'm also gonna do 1 2x2 box 12" high for my carrots and potatoes. i'm interested to see what i get, since my carrots in my poor soil garden looked quite funny.

i covered my box with some fabric so the sun wouldn't zap the seeds to give them a chance to get established (and give me a chance to build that cage)

so why the title? well, before i built my boxes i was looking over at my previous garden that has sad small lettuce plants and bent down to find quite a few of the plants horribly infested with tiny black bugs!! i would say they look like aphids, but aphids aren't black. i have no idea what they were, but i took an empty spray bottle, filled a little soap and water and went to town spraying the plants...only, a few days later, the bugs weren't completely gone, and the plants leaves that had soapy water on them were dead. what's the big deal, right? i mean, that garden is done, i am no longer harvesting the lettuce (good thing) but to see bugs on plants only means i'm going to see bugs on the plants in my good gardens...bugs means...stunned plants, well, it's not good lets put it that way.

i was going to make a cage out of chicken wire to keep animals and birds out, but it won't keep out bugs... so what is the point? UGH! that was my problem last year...grasshoppers and leaf miners...and they ate away at the plants before the plants even had time to grow! so i came up with a conclusion...window screen...they sell it in 4 ft rolls (YES!) and so i will use that instead of chicken wire and follow the same steps outlined in the Square Foot Gardening book. it will be expensive, but i shouldn't have to make these cages again, they should last for years... so, to protect my plants, i think it is worth it. we'll have to see how it goes.

right after i had kathryn help me plant the seeds (she LOVED that) daniel decided to tramp through the garden! ::sigh:: i only saw the end of it, and disciplined him then, so hopefully that won't happen again. that's what the cages are good for!

anyhow, i can't wait to have this gardening thing complete so i can start growing plants, harvesting FOOD and feel complete. haha. j/k.

i also decided store bought compost is NOTHING compared to homemade compost...i had een wanting to start a compost for a while, but preferred to have something round to put it in to be able to roll it around for easy mixing...meaning faster composting...well. i can't afford to really buy anything being as we are trying to get out of debt and i just spent money on my garden soil... so back to the construction sites! i got some scrap plywood and 2x4's and after a bit of cutting and screwing the boards together, i had a box!!! it is HUGE! i did 3x3x3 and i'm not sure i'll ever fill that up on my own!

good thing there are tons of FREE things to add to it to make awesome compost full of nutrients for your plants!!!

starbucks...they save their coffee grinds and bag them for you!!! how awesome! i spent the last 2 days finding starbucks and CC's coffees to get all their free used coffee grinds....i got a bunch. lol.

spoiled produce from local grocery stores/fruit stands... not walmart...i didn't bother trying them cuz they can be so stupid about things...but win-dixie, any associated grocer stores...they all throw out spoiled produce (or stuff that is going to go bad soon) and will give it to you for free...or for $1...not so bad. there comes my question of...how do you get this stuff in small pieces without taking a ton of time doing it? (the smaller the pieces of things you add to the compost, the faster it decomposes and turns into compost) and when will it be done??

(all the produce i got from win dixie for $1)

i got creative. first i tried a shredder, but that took too long. so kathryn has been helping me tear newspaper and old phone books...

this is a shot of the cardboard layer at the bottom with the shredded paper on top...next we tore some newpaper and phone books... then produce...

as for the produce...i got a 5 gallon bucket, chunked a few things in there, got a 3 ft 2x4, and started pounding away! lol. it worked! it broke up the pieces even onions and garlic too. and it didn't take long. and i didn't have to get my hands dirty! just dump the bucket, add more, etc.

kathryn helping me add the bags of salad from windixie...she was a great helper!

and the coffee grinds just dump into the pile as well. my next step is finding a cow or horse pasture and with permission, scooping the manure and adding that. i know, how gross...but this is the main ingredient in gardening, and completely orgainic and FREE...so i am serious about it. i think it's fun figuring out how to spend no money on something (other than gas money) even if when it comes time to do it (scooping poop) i'm not as thrilled. it'll be worth it in the end (i hope) and i can teach my kids a valuable lesson. reduce, reuse, recycle... and of course, being self-reliant...growing their own veggies and making their own compost...

also, i will be looking for dried leaves to crunch up, and grass clippings and that is what will go in my pile. all free. yippee!

that's all the time i have for now. more to come tomorrow?

time for an update

yeah, i have a few things to post about, so here it goes...

kathryn had a bday party on Feb. 20th and i think it went well... i have a few ideas for improving next years. i decided to plan out some games (i had pictures, but can't seem to find them) so i had managed to stuff a fun size pack of MMs in a balloon...not easy btw, in the future i'll stick to starburst or something. but i had some balloons blown up with candy and some not, and they were all scattered amongst the yard so the kids had to figure out which had candy by popping them. i think the kids loved that. but once again...a fun size pack is a lot of candy...

the next game was the "toy hunt" i hand picked out some toys (all different) and wrote groups of 3 on a piece of paper, and the mom's had to tell the kids what was on the list so they could find it. i simply scattered the toys in the grass in a small area so it wasnt too difficult. i'll do more with that next year.

and lastly, i took out my old parachute i made...if we had more parents, it might have worked better when doing the "dome" but it was fun and the kids loved it. i know i did when i was a kid.

kathryn was a bit grumpy at first cuz Mimi wasn't the first one to get there...and after each person not being mimi came through the door, she got more and more sad...and then mimi came and she got over it and started to have fun with her friends. they loved the trampoline.

with every gift kathryn opened, i tried to get her to hug the person that gave it to her and tell them thank you...when she went to hug Kaiden, he gave her the one handed hug with a funny look and split. it was funny. boys don't wanna touch girls i guess. but the funniest thing yet was when she opened Aunt Jenni's present, after removing all the clothes in a disappointed manner and chunking them to Mimi, she got to the toys...pulled out the watering can and took off outside to use it! haha, didn't even want to wait to see what else she got. the girl LOVES playing with water, so perfect gift for her. she also got a no spill bubble dispenser, which really works!!! i dunno how, but the kids can tip it and it doesn't spill and it had plenty of bubble juice left. YAY for this!! cuz i can't tell ya how many bottles of bubbles we've gone through from them accidentally knocking it over and spilling them all.

what amazes me, is kathryn has such a good memory. we'll be putting on clothes and she'll be telling me who gave it to her...like today she was saying "mimi gave me these (pants) for my buhday!" "she sure did, how do you remember that?" anyhow.

this past weekend, john's Uncle Danny's brother passed away. we went up to lafayette twice once on saturday and again on monday... and i've noticed for the last few months, daniel has stranger anxiety bad...when there are too many people he doesn't know around, he flips out and won't let me but him down...well saturday was no exception. poor Aunt Mel, daniel still won't let her hold him...but Uncle Danny...no problem...yeah, he has a thing for men apparently. on monday at the funeral, Daniel walked up to one younger guy and wanted to sit in his lap...so he pulled daniel up and he sat! WHAT??? that's never happened before! then he walks up to an older man and waves after staring at him...lol. well, we got to the funeral home about 2 hours before the funeral was scheduled, and after about 45 mins, the kids wanted to run and be crazy...but it was raining outside... but i had the van, and it had a dvd player...so yep, we trucked the kids into the van and turned the movie on... Corine was thoughful enough to get Aley's 2 kids and Dee's little girl (all 5 and under) and bring them in the van too...5 kids...but we all fit! woo hoo for vans!!! they did really good...but then came time for the funeral to start and i was dreading trying to get the kids to be reverent and quiet... so we decided to just stay in the van so the others could get a chance to pay attention and not be distracted. Corine and i decided to go to McDonalds after the kids were saying they wanted more food... so we got chicken nuggets, chocolate milk and fries,and daniel fell asleep! yay. but here's a funny story:

(we're in a town called Scott which is small and unfamilar to me) and so we are heading back to the funeral home which sits right on a main street with parking right on the street (so to speak) well as i approached where i was parked, i realized someone took my spot, but just as i was passing, i realized the spot next to it was free not handicapped, so i stopped, but realizing i was too far forward to pull in, i was about to...and suddenly the person behind me honks his horn...right in front of the funeral home... only, it wasn't just a honk, it was him laying on his horn not letting up...i drive forward and go to make a turn around and he's still honking even as he passes me, and when i pull into the spot i realize he's still honking, and i say to corine "what a jerk! he's still honking!" when she points out "no, i think something is wrong, he just pulled over and popped his hood...i think his horn is stuck!" "WHAT! HAHAHAHAHAHA, serves him right for being so rude to begin with!!!" unfortunately, everyone in the funeral heard it loud and clear...so much for keeping the peace.

besides that, this weekend i totally blew my "calorie budget" with all the good food that was around! i just hate passing up food that i know i won't get again for a long time!!! hahah. so i nearly gained all the weight i had lost...i was at 146.8 on sunday. by wednesday (i weigh myself each night before i go to bed) i was down to 143.6!!! i have been doing great this week staying under 1400 calories each day...and i everyday i've seen a drop of at least .5lbs!!! that is crazy! there is nothing like seeing the numbers fall daily to keep you motivated to keep at it! i've also made sure my sugar intake was minimal (obviously to stayunder 1400 calories!) i have had no dessert but have been trying to make sure i eat healthy things, like fruit and veggies for snacks. they are low cal and good nutrition. it is working for me! i haven't been working out everyday per se, but just the daily running around that mom's do seems to be good enough.

this is a funny thing for me. i've never weighed this much ever (besides being prego) so i've never really had to "watch" what i eat. i always ate whatever i wanted when ever. i also used to be a lot more active. with gymnatics that kept my muscle mass high and lots of energy burned. well, those days are over, and i finally am drawing a line. i don't want to be overweight. i want my body to feel good, not aching and heavy... and yeah, i've been saying i ned to loose weight for a good 2 years now, but never made any lifestyle changes...so nothing ever happened...except i got bigger...gain a little more weight and suddenly none of my clothes fit me (in the hips/waist) i can't afford to buy new clothes, so after a few attempts to exercise more that yielded no change in weight or body mass...i decided it was time to look at what i was eating...i always knew i was probably eating too much, but i love food. i also LOVE sweet stuff. just seeing a nice glistening donut makes my mouth water and i give in. i want it...i don't want to be without the sweet stuff... and that has been my biggest struggle. saying no only makes it harder to stay away... until you get something else on your mind...

i keep telling myself, i'll eat it another day, just not today. if i can just hold out till tomorrow, then i can eat those yummy millionaries (candy) and candy bars... well, i can't do that. i have to change my mind about wanting sweets and choose to not want them... the whole issue with sugar and articles and studies done on how it's addictive etc. i think it's got me good. but this week i've done great. even when my sweet cravings popped up, i ate an apple and another time a banana...and that seems fine. i have been keeping count of my calories and that really helps me to see how i'm doing, with what balance of nutrition i am getting. i read an article on yahoo about 5 foods you should eat everyday...

check it out

basically they say

1. dark leafy greens
2. nuts
3. onions
4. whole grains
5. yogurt

it has some good pointers there. i'm going to try that.

so today i feel like i got so much done! i feel like a strong woman! woohoo. i decided i was going to cut the plywood to make it fit in the attic and make space to store stuff up there... man, you don't realize how heavy a 3ftx8ft piece of plywood is until you are trying to get it through your attic around all the hanging wires and ductwork! it seems like the electrician could've done a better job with having the wires out of the way...ugh. i got a little bit done, but i ran out of 2x4's and i'm gonna go get some at the construction sites tomorrow...all free. besides that, i also cleaned out my garage...WOOHOO! it's so pretty! i was organizing all my boards i shanked from the houses being constructed down the street, and one board was a 3/4 in thick 12inx12ft MDF board...NICE~ just what i need for my bookcase i want to build! only it wasn't enough, so i'll have to go get some more... but i got an itch to cut the boards to size for the bookcase so i did! i have 3 shelves and 1 side. it's not so easy working with a hand saw trying to keep your lines straight holding the saw in one hand, and holding the board still with the other...that saw is a good 10 lbs! ...when i'm ready to finish i'm gonna see about borrowing FiL's miter saw. well, next post will have a ton! of pictures... for now, this will have to do.