Consoling Myself at the Garden Center...

Okay, maybe that was a SLIGHT deceit.  Or a plain lie.  I don't need to console myself.  Nothing bad is going on right now.  Baby girl is home, big girl is good, grandbabies are all healthy, happy and sassy, boys are being boys, and I'm home by myself on a Friday night, feeling a little sassy myself.  For a couple of reasons:

1.  I've had a great week at work, if you could call it a week--it was actually three days.  Details.
2.  Baby girl is home and healthy.
3.  She's having fun with her sister in law at a concert tonight.  Can't beat the company.
4.  My green beans have sprouted after only THREE DAYS!  I'm thrilled.  I even built them a "lovely" teepee in my front yard, which I'm sure my neighbors love.  But hey, I have to listen to them yell at each other and look at their naked kids in the yard all the time, I think they can tolerate a strange wooden trellis in my yard until the beans overtake it.
5.  I just fed my gardening addiction  preoccupation by visiting Lowe's.  I got a crap ton of great stuff and almost all of it was marked down---WOO-HOO!  

First of all, I spent $23.05--I am on what seems like an austerity budget at times so at times I find it difficult to feel great about my garden because there's so much I want to do and almost no money to do it.  I ALWAYS check out the marked down section of the garden center, and I've been very lucky there.  

I got four relatively nice marigolds (the fancy ones!) for .25 cents each, and a flat of not-so-wonderful (but still fancy!) marigolds for $1.00.  I will cut them back a little, give them a nice drink with some worm poop in it, talk nicely to them, and they will keep all the riff-raff off my tomatoes, which I paid full price for--$3.25 each.  (I'm anxious for more tomatoes--my summer plants have all pretty much burned up and the seedlings are still too little to plant).  

I also got four very nice looking but small blue salvias for .25 each.  I got two measly looking cucumbers for full price.  

Then I found a purple passion flower with some dead leaves clinging to the little trellis.  These are very expensive and butterflies and bees love them, this little one was originally 19.99, and they sold it to me for $6.00 due to my pointing out it's flaws (I'm sorry, passionflower, I really think you are very lovely).  I looked around for another one, but no cigar.    

Also, I'm sure I've never mentioned how totally cheap I am (throat clearing), but in the back of Lowes there is a cart where people can bring back those black pots that trees and large plants come in to be recycled, and they always let me take a couple (for free!) if there are any there.  I found three big shallow pots back there perfect for herbs and lettuce.  Or the top section of a stacked planter with herbs I'm tossing around in my mind.  And by the way, they sell these very pots (but clean, of course) for around $10.00 at the very same Lowes.  Crazy.

I also had dinner with my sister and her kids tonight, which was funny and nice.  All in all, a very good evening.  I think I'll read and go to bed now.  Look forward to the rest of my weekend.

Secondhand Sunday...

I went thrifting yesterday (yes, that's a verb).  I was looking for something specific, which is a big no-no in the thrifting world since rule number one in thrifting is that you will NEVER find what you are looking for, but nevertheless I was looking for some small wooden bowls or trays for my classroom.  Didn't find any.  Shocking, I know.  Instead I found two men's dress shirts, one pink, one purple that I am going to upcycle / remake into dresses for my adorable granddaughters.  They were half price, so I got both of them for $3.  I will cut off the sleeves and cut the bodies off under the arms, make a band from the sleeves for around the chest (elastic in the back, for comfort), gather the body a little, add straps to the top of the band and POW!!  Two little sundresses for my pumpkins for $3 and a little time.  They will love them--and I will take pictures when I'm done.  

I also had a fun lunch with Kaleigh and Mary Beth yesterday--it was super fun.  CPK--had the Barbecue Chopped Chicken Salad.  

On Saturday I went and painted my classroom (the alcove), and cubbies.  I painted them a lovely sage green, I think I'm going to love it.  It definitely looks different.  It's time for that classroom to belong to ME and not the former tenant.  I feel very personally about my classroom and it's time for me to own it.  This is the year I do amazing things.  I declare it right now.  

Doing a little laundry today.  I took a couple of days off work this week and next week, and I plan to enjoy them completely.  I'm going to finish my bottle garden today, and go swimming.  Just take it easy tomorrow, maybe cook a nice meal.  

I'm off to dig out my bottle garden--TTFN!

Work, Work, Work (in the garden)...

My goodness I've been busy this weekend.  I had a long weekend, so I had four days, but to be fair, all the work I did in the garden, I did in two days.  Here's my list:

1. Did a lot of "research" about what I can plant now in Orlando.
2. Fertilized the lemon tree--it's looking a lot better, thanks for asking.
3. Cut a bunch of basil to dry.  I wanted to try out drying it in the oven, but it got discolored, so I cut some more today to air dry and see if that works better.
4. Cut a bunch of lavender to dry.  Once it was dry, I crumbled it up minimally and put it into a jar--IT SMELLS AMAZING!
5. Decided that if it was so awesome, I should cut some more to propagate, which I haven't always had luck with.  This time I dipped the lavender stems right into rooting hormone and planted them into small pots.  We'll see how that works.  They are covered with plastic bags and resting comfortably on my kitchen window sill.  
6. Decided that since I was propagating lavender, I might as well propagate basil while I was at it.  Cut some nice stems and put those in water in same window sill.
7. Decided that since I was adding all these cute little plants to my window sill, some of my houseplants needed to be re-potted.   Re-potted a spider plant, and two Christmas cacti.
8. While re-potting, noticed that my little African violets are kind of...well...dead.  Dumped them into the compost pile.  Sadness.
9. Made my new garden bed, which is about 6' x 2'.  Made the soil mix for it and filled it.  Will plant beans and I'm not sure what else, maybe some flowers (?) in it.
10. After going to my brother's birthday party and collecting an obscene number of beer bottles, I thought it would be a good idea to add a little herb bed with bottles as the frame, which I've seen on Pinterest and liked the looks of.  So I started digging the grass out, and BROKE MY SHOVEL!  Picture below.  Now I have a half dug bed, a broken shovel and 75 or so beer bottles laying around my yard.  Classy, isn't it?
11. I made little seedling pots out of newspaper, and filled them with my homemade potting mix, they are ready to plant my tomato seeds in for fall (also squash).  I'm going to try squash again, even though I never have any luck.   Green beans will go into the ground--they don't like to be transplanted.

I'm feeling really good about things right now.  

Hmm, Weird...

The strangest thing just happened to me.  About an hour ago, I went out into the sunshine, puttered around the garden, pulling weeds, moving my pots around, etc. and I decided to actually ACCOMPLISH something (no, that's not the weird part).  A friend gave me some reclaimed wood quite awhile ago to make raised beds, and I have been too lazy to do it not gotten around to it yet, so I decided now would be a good time.  I rounded up all my tools and the deck screws that I need and started working.  Picture it, I'm sweating like . . . well, a virgin at a prison rodeo and I've almost got the darn thing put together, and I hear this loud noise--it's like a train.  Or an airplane or something.  I stop, look up and in the distance I see a torrential rainstorm blowing toward me.  Literally, the sun is shining on me, and about three streets in front of me, over the roofs I can see just a sheet of rain, and I can hear it coming.  Before I can even get my tools and stuff together, I'm soaking wet.  Weird.  It was like buckets pouring out of the sky.  Very weird.

Cue elevator music...

Now it's later...the raised bed is built, and it's filled with my special recipe soil mix.  (Not so secret--approximately 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 super duper special compost.)  I also mixed in a little bit of dried grass clippings and leaves at the bottom, along with cardboard boxes--they really kill the weeds.  The peat moss and vermiculite help the raised bed hold water better than just the dirt.  Key in Florida.  

Please ignore the messy yard around it, and the horrible steps up to my front door.  I'm going to fix the steps next weekend, and trim the grass as soon as I get done here.  I swear.  On the positive side, I got a lot of use out of the beloved wheelbarrow that the boys got for me for Mother's Day.  I ADORE that thing.  

I think I'm going to try to start tomatoes from seed.  It's time to do so in Florida, and I've wanted to do so for awhile.  In a few weeks, I will plant green beans in the new bed, and I've been thinking about making a natural trellis with some old narrow branches I have around.  (My inner hippie coming out again.)

I'm enjoying my four day weekend for Independence Day.  I've been reading a lot and gardening, doing a few little projects around the house.  I wish I could hug my sailor (Brett), but since he's being making sure we are all free, I will just think about him, smile and remember that our freedom isn't really free.  I hope everyone did something independent yesterday.