Growing By Leaps & Bounds!

I knew our garden would grow while we were gone. But.....WOW! I didn't expect this! I guess I didn't realize how long we would be gone in terms of the growing season.
Our wonderful neighbors kept our gardens watered and I am eternally grateful.

This is what the gardens looked like before we left.

This is what everything looks like now. We were amazed!

My pot full of herbs.

The sunflowers are reaching for the sky.

It's like a jungle!

Beans, squash, cucumbers, radishes, beans, peas, tomatoes, basil......

Bed #2

Loving it and can hardly wait for harvest time!

Fish for Fertilizer

It's that time of year again! Garden time! Yahoo! I love it all. The planning, the planting, the maintaining, and especially the harvesting. Well, maybe I don't enjoy the weeding too much. But that's what the kids are for, right? Tee, hee, hee. This being only our 2nd summer in TN I'm still getting used to things. I miss the rich, free soil back home. There we decided how big our garden would be by how much of our yard we wanted to dig up. Here it's all about $$. We have to have raised beds & containers since the soil is like clay. This year we were able to add a second raised bed. Yay! After a trip to Home Depot I got started the next day on my planting.

That same night we bought the plants (Monday) I bought a 2lb. package of frozen fish at Walmart. (This is just one of the fillets.)

I partially thawed it and then cut it into bite-sized chunks.

One fillet I left alone for Sweet Pea's lunch. =0)

Next I went outside to see how my planting from last week was doing.

LOOK! My lettuce & spinach have sprouted!

Dave roped off the new raised bed. I wanted smaller squares so I used a stick to draw lines in the dirt.

I also planted some Petunias in my great, big planter.


Elvis generously added in some worms.

All done!

Now we have something beautiful to look at & smell when we relax on the back patio.

Here's the planting I did on Monday. It took quite awhile b/c for each I first dug a hole. Sometimes I needed to remove some of the clay soil on the bottom. Then I partially filled the hole with Miracle Grow soil. After that I tossed in a handful of the fish pieces. Lastly I put the tomato plant in and covered it up with soil. We now have 18 tomato plants & 4 pepper plants. I'm excited & hoping they all flourish & produce like bunnies! Lol!

Sunshine & Smiles

Now that spring is soon turning to summer we are enjoying more & more sunshine. The tornado season has passed, PTL, & the days are beautiful. Dave recently put up the kids new swing set. We were able to purchase an inexpensive one at Walmart back in late April. Boo, Elvis & Bugs have been having a blast playing on what they call their "playground".

Casey our oldest & only outdoor cat.

We are also enjoying watching our veggie & flower gardens grow. Here is the scene from 3 weeks ago. Yikes! Time has gotten away from me!

My lilies getting ready to bloom. I was thrilled to find these in the flower garden as I miss my lilies I had back in MA in my perennial garden.

Tomato plant

Rows of peas

Elvis & his bean plants

Bugs & his bean plants

Boo & her bean plant

More plants

Another pretty surprise in the side garden