What I've been up to lately

I have been so busy lately. I know... what else is new? Well this time I've been playing in the dirt. I'm actually working on two outdoor projects right now: landscaping and gardening. They are like two peas in a pod and they both have me by the ankles and won't let go. We've never really done landscaping since we left WA, partly due to the fact we've been building pretty much nonstop and just the fact there's not much time for it. Well I guess I got something started when I decided to finally plant those flower seeds I got. Then during the building blitz, my awesome friends from OH came and brought some perennials to plant in our flowerbeds. Well, that required us to finally make some flower beds. They got me jump-started and I've been going crazy ever since.

For me landscaping and gardening sort of blend into each because I constantly find myself being the practical type and planting edibles in my flower beds. As you can see in the pic to the left, I'm using naturally-occuring MO rock that we've collected around the property for a flowerbed border, and I'm using whatever topsoil I can find. In the pic on the left, the soil on the right is the most common MO topsoil: rocky, pale reddish brown in color, and just icky in general. On the far left where you see darker soil, that's what you get out of creek bottoms. I cleaned all the weeds and roots out of some dirt I collected in the bottom of the ravine in the horse pasture. Needless to say, the strawberries love it. I also planted a couple of white lilac shoots that mom and I picked from our neighbor's yard. (he has tons of lilac runners all around his bushes). On the list yet I have to plant a black currant, more strawberries, a bunch of annual flowers from seed, and some narcissus poeticus bulbs that need to be transplanted from the back yard. After they're done flowering, of course.

                                                                                                 My other big landscaping project I've been working on is making drain splashes for our downspouts. We had those nasty plastic things and they were getting even nastier... you know, they get broken and dirty and just icky. So I rounded up some nice flat rocks and made my own drain splash. It looks way cooler, I think. And it's acutally quite fun to assemble... sorta like a puzzle. I had fun with it anyway. I've made 3 so far, and I have a couple more to do at least. We need to install another downspout on the front of the house and I'm hoping we can do a rain barrel there instead of having to drain even more water into our yard. I think it just makes more sense.

Meanwhile back in the garden I have begun constructing my tomato fence cage trellises. I'm kinda figuring this out as I go, so it should be quite interesting. I'm trying to do this cheaply, so I'm using logs I cut down in the woods and as much recycled material as possible. Dad wants to buy some wire to stretch rather than using long sticks like I was planning, but I'm not sure my construction is strong enough for that, so we'll see (aside from the fact it'll take over 3000 feet of wire... that's a lotta sticks for that matter). This is going to be an interesting experiment at the very least, I think.

 Speaking of tomatoes. WOWzer my babies are getting big! At least, some of them. All the ones in my room that got put in my windowsil immediately have been doing super well. They're about 10" tall now. Other ones that haven't gotten as much light aren't doing as awesomely (pictured below), but they're still doing mighty well. I intended to plant some well-established seedlings this year, and so I shall do. I'm just thinking I may have to plant them slightly before the AFD because they've about out-grown their pots. I feel very inspired, though. I want to keep collecting these old plastic pots so that next year I can plant all my tomatoes in the bigger pots, and I'm sooooooooooooo hoping for a greenhouse so they can *all* get lots of good sunshine. Right now I have my window open to let them get some fresh air and a cool breeze along with some nice sun rays. These things just eat it up :)

So there you have it. My life as of late in a quick bloggy update. Soon I'll be planting more seeds and lots of seedlings! It's so exciting that spring is so officially here! :D