The Potting Bench and a Look Around the Garden and Yard

Hey y'all! Hope everyone is having a nice spring day. It's gorgeous, here, in South Carolina. Mid 80's, no humidity and plenty of sunshine. I've been outside, today, planting flowers and poofing some things. 

Cliff and Sawyer built my potting bench Saturday. Holler! Cliff built it from boards that he salvaged from an old dock that we found submerged in the lake, in front of our property. Originally, I wanted to use the boards to make a table for an outdoor kitchen area, but there's construction going on in that area right now (Cliff is having a shop/garage built). So, we decided that the old dock would make a great potting bench instead. 

I took a lot of pictures.....so, I'm just gonna let you go ahead and take a look around the garden and yard.

 I love that Cliff is teaching Sawyer to use power tools....he sure won't let me use them. LOL!!

 He's almost finished. I was so excited!

 And here it is....my potting bench! It looks a little bare right now, but I'm not finished with it yet. Cliff is going to put the cleats back on that once held ropes to tie up boats and I have some cute little hooks to hang on it, too.
I'm, also, thinking about putting a chair and umbrella there to the right of the potting bench. You know, so a girl can relax in the shade for a few minutes after doing all that gardening.

 The shelf is the perfect place to store things up out of the way of my work area.

 See that metal colander hanging there on the right. It's one of my new finds. I have a smaller one just like it that I use in the house, but I'll use this one to gather my vegetables.

 

 There was a lot of planting going on here this morning. 

I have a new friend...do you see her? She's Glory the goat.

 Oh, and I also have chickens in my garden. This is Marvin and Matilda. It would be nice if they would help fertilize. Ha!

 Around the yard, the Day Lilies are starting to bloom.

 The hanging basket is up for Mama Bird to enjoy, when she comes home.

 I'm planting these Dianthus tomorrow in the side flower bed.

I absolutely love purple flowers!

Speaking of loving some flowers.....Glory gives new meaning to stopping and smelling the roses or in this case, Zinnias. 

 

The garden is doing great! Lettuce and carrots. I've already picked the lettuce, twice.

 The Lone Ranger....the only sugar snap pea that came up. I need to go back to the drawing board with these. I think I should have planted them earlier.

Or maybe I should have just hooped the sugar snap peas in the compost bin. Everything comes up in there....with reckless and wild abandon. These are pumpkin seeds. I'm letting them do their thang. 

Oh law! There are those chickens again.

Happy day! Talk soon!

~~**Laurie**~~

I Might Be Declaring War

Do you know Joey Feek? She was the singer that lost her battle with cancer last month. She loved to garden and would start seedlings in egg shells. This winter, while lying in her hospital bed in the her mother's home, she asked her family to save egg shells for her to plant seeds in. That's where I got the idea to try this experiment.

I collected egg shells for several days....washed them, poked a hole in the bottom for drainage, put the potting soil in and then planted sunflower, geranium and zinnia seeds inside. They came up and looked so healthy. I kept them under a lamp light, kept them moist....basically babied them until they were big enough to plant. I had enough to plant at the beach and the lake and the cool thing is that you just plant the whole thing, egg shell and all.

The results of the experiment.......

The Lake:
1) Lost one sunflower to the cold weather, two weekends ago. The other two look good.
2) Lost all the geraniums to the cold weather, two weekends ago.
3) Lost only 3 or 4 zinnias to the cold. The many others are still small, but looking good.

The Beach:
1) I only planted geraniums at the beach. They were on a covered porch and not bothered by cold weather.  They were looking so healthy and cute.

However, I came to the beach today to find that every ding dong geranium planted in the egg shells were dug up and strewn around on the porch. Dead....every last one of them. Egg shells and dirt and dead geraniums everywhere. What in the world?

SQUIRRELS!

They make me so mad......in more ways than one. I know some of you think they are cute. No! Don't be fooled! They are a pest, a nuisance and probably from the devil.  I might declare war on them.

I was so mad, that I didn't think to get a picture of the mess. I'm back to square one with the geraniums. And for sure, I won't be planting seeds in egg shells anymore.

Cooling off,

Laurie

Sweet Little Girl At The Farmers Market

 The perfect place for a perfect bouquet......

....of Zinnias, one of my favorites!

I love going to the farmers market and I had the chance to go to Greenwood's Farmers Market Saturday morning. As I was pulling into the parking lot, my eyes were scanning the booths to see if my favorite farmers were there when I happened to see this little girl, about age 9 or 10, approach a lady walking by. I heard her ask the lady if she would be interested in her last bouquet of flowers. The lady wasn't interested and walked on by without as much as looking up at the little girl. The little girl looked so disappointed.

This made me remember the times my girls sold lemonade on the sidewalk, from the lemonade stand their granddaddy built them. Lemonade selling was a serious business, back in the day. My oldest daughter would take the phone and phone book out to the lemonade stand and cold call people (she was only allowed to call family and friends) to come buy some of their lemonade. I don't know where she got that idea, but I'm pretty sure she would make a great telemarketer. HaHa!

Back at the farmers market, I parked my car and grabbed my veggie bag and proceeded across the parking lot. The little girl spotted me and ran around her table and to meet me and asked, "Ma'am, would you like to buy my last bouquet of flowers for $4.00 so I can go home"?

Well, my hearts strings did a little strum right there at the farmers market. How in the world could I say no to this sweet little girl? I wouldn't, of course.

I said, "Well, yes, I would love a bouquet of flowers. Oh and they are zinnias, one of my favorites". She was so happy. I pulled out my money and handed it to her and then I asked, without thinking really, "Would you mind if I left them sitting here on your table until I check out the vegetables inside"? And, just as she looked up at me with those big brown doe-like eyes that was desperately wanting to say no, I remembered that she wanted to go home. I said, "Oh that's right you want to go home. I'll just take them to my car". She had placed the flowers in a tall plastic cup full of water. I asked if she didn't want to keep her cup and she said, "No, they are for you to put in your cup holder in the car". Sweet and thoughtful.....

After placing the flowers in my cup holder, she and her mother met me as I proceeded back across the parking lot to purchase some fruits and vegetables. She looked at me and smiled and said, "Thank you, ma'am". My heart melted as I basked in the blessing of that sweet little girl's smile.

Laurie

Something's Always Blooming

Zinnias...planted from seed. They did wonderful. I'll definitely plant them again.

Geraniums.....planted in pots. They love the sun and heat. They've done well.

I'll, also, plant these again.

Canna Lily.....these were planted by the previous owner of our lake house.

I really don't care for them that much. I dug them up because they blocked our view of the lake from the den. But, have mercy, they don't go easy. Apparently, I didn't dig up all the rhizomes. And they love the sun and heat, too. They're blooming their heads off!



For this flower lover, it's all about the blooms! I have been pleasantly surprised that there's always something blooming at the lake. Although, I have sad news to report......after returning from my Wyoming bike tour, I have lost several shrubs that were planted last fall. Take it from me, until they are well established.....water them every other day, if possible. Soak them once a week. This is where I failed. The sprinkler system is not enough to keep them alive. I was hopeful. But, not being able to baby them for a month in this very hot, sweltering, inferno of a summer we are having proved to be detrimental. So, I've chalked it up to a learning curve. I'll replant this fall. Cliff is adding a new watering system dedicated to the flower beds, so we should be good to go.

Wishing you many blooms,

Laurie