The straw bale gardens are doing great. The cool season crops are starting to come in and hopefully soon we'll start to see some of that bounty.
(yeah, we look a little redneck....)
I have planted several things in the bales. Then I planted 72 more starts of various things. People always ask me what I've planted and I'm like, "What HAVEN'T I planted??" Peppers, beans, peas, lettuces, loofah (I'm pretty excited about trying this one!), several types of tomato, flowers, peanut, cantaloupe, etc, etc, etc.
And THEN when all of that was done, I got this package in the mail that I had sort of remembered but also sort of forgotten about.... I had signed up to do some trial growing for the University of Tennessee. They send you two types of the same plant and you have to chart and keep track of ow well they grow and which produces more, etc. So then I got an armload of MORE seeds. (slaps palm to her forehead.) I *may* have gone a bit overboard this year! ha! Now I'm trying to figure out where to plant all these...... but hey, at least when I go in, I go all in!
I lost my beloved gardenia. The one I've been caring for and nursing for the past 5 years. I stuck it in the ground last year and it did great. But it didn't make it through the winter. I thought it might since they grow so well in Georgia but I talked to a master gardener friend and she said they don't won't make it here. sigh. I'm so sad about that!!! I actually could kick myself because had I known that, I would have kept it in the pot and brought in inside for the winter like I've been doing.
But these poppies came back! So that's something.
Mom and Dad came at the beginning of the week (more about that below) and we used Dad's trailer to get 2 loads of dirt for the front garden. I was going to try to get by without it, but since this area used to be grass, the clay is so compacted nothing was going to grow there.
I made 3 rainbarrels and placed them around the house. I was pretty excited about this as well.
Tulips are another thing that don't grow 'great' here. I bought these bulbs on clearance last fall and decided to try them out. They are just starting to come in and look beautiful. Who knows if they'll come back next year. (I could dig them up each year and keep them in the fridge, but I'm too lazy for that.)
The kids had spring break this last week. Since Lee's break doesn't match, we always stay home.
Meme and Papa came for a few days though, which was really nice! I didn't get any pictures (why??? I don't know....) Our hot water tank had started leaking and once I figured out what the leak was from (I originally thought water was getting into the garage because of all the rain we'd had) I called to get their opinion.
Dad to the rescue because he could do it for nearly a third less money than what was quoted by the electrician. I don't have a single picture of any of it, but here's our shiny new tank. It's a 12 year tank, so Will enjoyed doing the math of how old everyone would be when the tank reached that point. He's a whiz at math problems in his head!
While they were here, Dad and I took off to get dirt and Mom taught Tyler how to make eggs. He's been so excited about it! I think he makes them almost every morning..... which is fine by me!
We had a great time with them. Aside for the hot water tank, Dad worked in our upstairs a little. The next big hurdle up there is the HVAC and that's going to be $$ so we are at a small standstill. I have a guy coming out this week to see what we need to do... where he recommends putting registers, intakes, where to run the ducts etc. We'll take that info, see how much we can do ourselves (aka Dad) and go from there.
Mom and I stayed up until 3am the first night. We hadn't talked to each other in awhile as we've all been really busy. We also did a little gardening, we went out to eat and just hung around.
The rest of spring break consisted of a screen day (so the boys would stop asking about it) and then we went to the George's house to play with Lola and Abram (and so I could hang out with Sherry.) Lola has a hoverboard so Amy and I took a try on it. I didn't die, but I was afraid I would definitely break something! (Thank goodness I didn't!)
We also met some friends at a park with donuts but it was so cold that day that we were huddled into a ball while chatting and letting the kids run around. Kids are never affected by the cold!
The boys are playing soccer this spring. It's been a bit cold so I haven't gotten many photos. I'll try to get the boys in their uniforms next week.
They both LOVE to play goalie. We have no idea why. Mom laughed at Tyler when he said, "I got to play defender AND goalie at my game. It was like my luckiest day!" Will was a bit uninterested Saturday... until he got to play goalie. Lee is assistant coaching Will's team. The boys are on different teams (different age groups) but they usually play back to back of each other.
And the saddest thing about spring break was when Anna called telling me she tried to get a recipe off my somewhatplanned blog and she noticed it had been hacked. That led to the hosting company taking it down and there it sits. I took it down and I'm not sure if I'll bring it back up. I loved doing it and heaven knows it was so. much. work. But let's face it, I wasn't consistent and never really made enough money to keep it going. (Because of my lack of consistency.) So I'm sad about it, but I'll take a break for awhile and give it some time before I decide what to do.
And THAT was spring break! We are having a 2 days cold spell, so I'll be covering all my plants again tonight. This time of year is always iffy in TN. But hopefully the warm weather will be back soon! I love spring!
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