My Weekend, My Garden...

...and my shitty dog.

Saturday, Jed and I were overcome with Spring Fever (not to be confused with the Creeping Grunge Jed has had for the past week and has finally shaken). We started out at the local gardening store where we bought a ton of seeds, compost and starter sets. So far we have seeds for 2 types of cucumbers (one viney and one bushy), carrots, zucchini, straight neck squash, watermelon, broccoli (even though I swore I wouldn't grow any more broccoli because my fear of being unable to remove all critters from in between the florets), 2 types of corn (we're going to grow a lot of corn this year), okra, green beans, sweet peas, 3 types of onions and 2 types of potatoes. I still need to get starter plants for the tomatoes (big and cherry), peppers (green, red and banana) and lettuce seeds.

How are we going to fit all of this in the garden? Well it is half again larger this year as it was last year. Now I just have to wait for the neighbor to till and then the planting can begin. (I left half of the trampoline in the picture so you can get an idea of the size. I'm going to be weeding forever!)

After lunch at Cracker Barrel, we wandered to Lowes where we bought new gardening gloves and some flowers. Jed had the flowers in the basket before I knew it and who am I to turn down a pretty batch of pansies? I was able to turn down the request of a Venus Flytrap though, at least for now. My excuse was that I have already killed one of those. I do have to admit it was harder to pass the orchids without picking one up but $24 is little too expensive for me to spend on something I will just end up killing.

We then headed home to do a little planting. We first planted the pansies which will adorn our front steps.

Next we planted some hanging strawberries that I had found the previous week. My plan is to hang them in front where I usually hang flowers (usually Million Bells). I've always wanted to grow strawberries but don't want them in the regular garden due all the rabbits and other critters. Plus it is easier to keep them watered at the house. They were a bit of a pain to get them planted in the bags.

We'll see what they look like in 2 weeks when I am able to hang them (have to wait for the roots to set). Here is what they are supposed to look like. I'm not holding my breath or counting my strawberries before they ripen. (Of course Jed woke up this morning and asked if the strawberries were ready yet, he wanted them for breakfast.)

While planting the flowers and strawberries, Jed was hard at work. (You can see how hard Newt was working too.)

Of course Hank was in the middle of everything, trying to help, trying to get us to throw his stick, trying to eat the water coming out of the hose. Be thankful that smellovision has not been invented yet. I tried my best to ignore the smell of cow shit eminating from his fur. The joys of living in the country is the close proximity of cow pastures and and owning a dog that loves rolling in it. Needless to say, when he started biting the water spray, I finally turned it on him and grabbed a bottle of dog shampoo, which was probably a wasted activity. He smells like green apples now but by mid-week, he will have had rolled in another pile. Good thing he is so darn cute! And considering all the dirt scattered everywhere, its a good thing Jed is so darn cute too!