Weekend Warrior

This weekend kicked my ass, emotionally, physically, mentally, I was beat! What better way to shake of the blue funk then by heading into the yard with my ipod and my thoughts. I felt like I did not get much done, but looking at the pictures, it seems I did! The flowers were from a friend, I love them. Not sure why, but Pink seems to be a color I have never really cared for, lately however, I am beginning to love it. That's freaking me out a bit, but maybe it's just all the change in my life right now manifesting through colors :).

This house has treasures hidden all over, especially in the yard. This is an old bird house that has been screwed do the fence in the corner for who knows how long. Many times as I sat in the yard, I thought to myself, "I really should go get that off the fence and fix it up." Something always got in the way of me doing it, rushing from here to there, just not having the time for the simplest things that take only minutes. I finally retrieved it this weekend, and to my surprise, its in much better shape than I thought! It has a fun saloon look to it, even used to have a little sallon sign on it, I'll have to fix that and give it a new name :). Other then that, I think the birdhouse will be just great the way it is! It has an old weathered look about it that I love!
I have had many let downs in the last week or so, some very big, some very minor. My seeds not germinating was a let down for sure, but on the bigger scale of things, not so bad once I really thought about it. I used a new seed starter this year, that I just did not trust from the beginning. When I was planting the seeds, the dirt did not feel right, smell right or hold water right. I knew I should not have used it, but did anyway. It's coming to my attention that this spring is quickly turning into the experimental garden, so chalk that one up to a learning experience, and move on. I tossed out all the old dirt and seeds, and started over. I still have a few weeks before the last freeze, so I started a new fresh batch, I'll will just have to wait and see if this works better. I know there are problems with my seed box this year, and keeping my garage warm enough over night has also been a problem. I will have to work on that for next season. Add that to the nasty dirt, and here I am back at square one just a few weeks before the last freeze (hopefully). (I've been researching hydro growing, and am afraid that looks like TO much fun....might have to post more on that soon)Once I got the seed box replanted, I moved on to what is going to be the herb and flower garden in the back yard. I worked out here for about 6 hours on Sunday and felt I did not get much done. After reviewing the photos I took, I feel much better about how much I really did get done. Moving from back to front, removing all grass, weeds, and other debris took a lot of time, I am pleased with the way it is coming out. Last year this was my entire garden, now that I have no big dog in the yard to worry about, I moved things around and will use this space for things that need some shade, herbs, and flowers, and use the rest of the yard for serious growing. I am very excited to see it all taking shape! These two shots are the before and after :) My body is hurting today after all the clearing of this space, but hurting in the best possible way!
This is the after shot. The grass was so long I ended up using my push mower to trim it back so that I could rake the leaves out of it, then I could get to pulling the grass and weeds. It was about a 4 step process, but it worked very well. The other project I worked on that I spaced getting photos of, was the concrete patio removal. I loaded up one very large truck load of broken concrete debris and took that to the dump, that pile is finally getting smaller, but man, was it a lot of work! If you look at some of the older photos you'll see that pile in some of the shots, I will have to go out tomorrow and get a photo of what it looks like now. :) I almost forgot to post a follow up to the sprouting post! They take a little TLC, but they are totally worth it! its fun to watch them grow, to check out the roots, and see them fight for their place in the sun! i think I am going to love sprouting! They also taste super yummy!!!

(note to self, need to work on a new funky gardeny hat!)