Ah Rats!

I dropped my camera yesterday and broke it!

Waahh! Boo hoo!

I NEED my camera.

I had to go over to my parent's house and borrow their camera to take pics of a recipe I was making. I was really, really attached to my camera. It was a Olympus SP-350.

I thought it did a nice job.

Waahh!

Building a Covered Bed

I found some 5 foot lengths of black pipe at the local Menard's store.

They are called black flexible water pipes.

I like them ,because they are precut and I can put them in my car without looking like an idiot driving through town with PVC pipes sticking out of my back window.

Although, I still buy the PVC pipes sometimes - seems like I can't avoid looking like an idiot - at least occasionally.

OK continuing with the tutorial!

I also used a few branches, cut into 8 inch lengths, to hold the pipe in the soil, but I think I may end up using some kind of bracket instead, because the hoops tend to fall over when it rains and the soil gets soft.

Stick, soil, pipe.

Cover with row cloth.

Planting Tomatoes

Before the plant sale I took out the plants that I wanted to keep.

The week after the plant sale was beautiful - sunny, 75F - perfect spring/summer.

So, silly me I planted all my plants.

Two days after I planted everything, we had freezing temps. For. The. Whole. Next. Week.

I covered everything, but the peppers aren't looking so great.

These pictures will probably be the peppers memorial service. Remember those beautiful peppers? Oh, yes they were just starting to live, so sad....taken in the prime of life.

This is how I plant my indeterminate tomatoes.

Dig a nice deep trench and amend with kelp (fertilizer) and crushed crab shells (calcium).
Put the tomato to bed in the trench and pull the soil covers up to its leafy chin.


Water deeply.

This is how close I plant my tomatoes.

Remember I grow my tomatoes up not out - so it works.

These are the covered beds I made - I'll show you how in my next post.

In these beds I planted the peppers -poor frosted peppers :(

In this bed the cabbage and broccoli are nestled. On the far right of the covered bed I have Golden shallots.

The bed in front of that has peas and onions.

More tomatoes.

More tomatoes!

The dearly departed peppers.

Really I am sad about this!

Broccoli and cabbage.

The Plant Sale Results

We had a plant sale on May 1st.

It was a success!

We opened at 8 am and sold out of 90% of the started plants by 10:30am.

I even sold some of my garden art.

The 2 most popular garden art items were the wooden plant markers and the painted rocks (which of course, I forgot to take a picture of).

We didn't sell very many raspberry or strawberry starts, but we sold lots and lots of perennials.

Some of these pictures I snapped before we started the sale. Then we were very busy and I forgot to take pictures, but I took a few after the big rush.

Cement Mushrooms

Bird baths and painted garden totes

Lots and lots of glass flowers and a few tea cup luminaries.

The $10 glass flowers sold out first, but a few of the more expensive ones sold too.

I priced them according to how much I wanted to keep them. I priced the ones I liked best higher.

I painted this tea cup myself.

It had a really ugly picture on it, so I painted it with Kilz premium, painted on my design and then sealed it.

I sold that bird house on the left. Amazing what some spray sealer and a PVC end cap can do!

These were the description sheets.

They told a little bit about the started plants we were selling.

All the little yellow strips say "SOLD OUT".

I took these pics near the end of the sale, when we had sold out of almost everything.

Some of the plants.

We had 2 full tables in the garage, with started plants, at the beginning of the sale.

Perennials $2.50 and started plants $1.00

Perennial table

Black and red raspberries

I sold a few jars of my canning. We also had bread and fresh eggs.

The crystal cup luminaries on the right we very popular. I sold a bunch of those. They were 2 for $1.75.

Plant markers $.50 each. I sold a bunch of the wooden ones. They had carrots, basil, thyme, lettuce, ect. written on them.

It was a great sale.

The weather could have been better, it was VERY windy and cold.

We are already planning for next year.

My New Bridge

I finally installed the bridge over the pond last week.

I have been working on the bridge for the last month, varnishing it and sanding it.

It was a closeout kit that I bought and put together.

I also finally have the rocks the way I want them and the waterfall.

The fish went back into the pond last week too.

Last Fall there were the big original 8 and close to 100 of their babies.

Now there are 7 big ones and about 25 of various sizes.

I have been feeding them every other day.

Last year I fed them about 5 times the whole summer, because I thought they wouldn't reproduce as much if they didn't have extra food i.e. they would eat their young. Yuck.

But they had over 100 babies!

So, this year I will just feed them and see what happens. There is also a frog in the pond, but I could find him when I had my camera.

Of course, now that I am DONE with the pond it's started to leak.

Argh!

Anyone know an easy way to find a hole in a pond liner?

The water level drops down to about 5 inches below the edge, so I have some idea of where the leak is, but there is a lot of rock to move to find the hole.

Catty likes the bridge.

The Ladies Free Ranging Good Time

If you like pictures of chickens, then you are in for a treat!

Lot 'o chick pics!

This is what I usually see when I go to visit the girls - 2 chunky white girls (cwg) free ranging.

Really, really free ranging.

Chicks on the prairie!

Then the next thing I see - Zela! (pronounced SAY-la)

She always comes running when she sees me.

She follows me around until I sit down and then she jumps into my lap for a cuddle.

She'll stay in my lap until I leave, if I get up she waits until I sit down again and then she jumps back up to get a hug.

Zela is such a photo hog!

Can she help it if she is so beautiful?!?

There's busy (bossy) Butter!

More of the flock - Zela, some CWGs, Lavender (on the right), Butter (way in the back), Zoe, Hawky and some red girls too.

It's funny, but I can pick out Zela, Butter and Lavender's voices from the rest of the flock, even in the dark.

Really Zela? Every picture?

Hello!

I love the CWGs face whiskers.

Hey! One of these things is not like the other...........

Lavender!

A CWG and Butter.

Gossip 'round the watercooler.

This Lady is a real snuggler, but I can't remember her name!

She's sweet, but jealous. When I'm holding Zela and not petting her, she will pull feathers out of Zela's tail until I pay attention to her!

Butter says, "See 'ya again soon and bring raisins next time."