My window garden sees some light...

It has been 10 whole days since Malakai and I planted our window garden in preparation of the warmer days and the beginning of our outside garden. In those 10 days, we have had 6 or  7 days of rain, one day of snow/rain mix, and a birthday weekend, and Valentine's Day. :-) Most of the plants have made at least SOME progress. Others, I will have to try my hand at again next weekend. (Since I am off again) I was excited to find a pretty reasonably priced raised bed garden kit at Sam's Club. This will be my choice, unless I get some extra energy and time, and build one.  Below is my photographic overview of my window garden's progress... until the next check in!

Sweet Basil was one of the slowest starters
BUT, finally came to play. :-)

Both Tomato plants are sprouting correctly,
so keeping my fingers crossed!

my Thyme wasted NO time. LOL

Sage was one of those I was talking about.
They don't seem to want to grow.

the Rosemary just sprouted yesterday.

The photo isn't clear, but the Parsley is doing well.

I am excited at how wildly the Chives are
progressing. :-)

the Cilantro was growing downward into the dirt.
I removed some of the top soil, and they appear
to be going toward the sun now.

Cucumbers are the tallest. Eager cucumbers...

Lastly, the Orange Sun Sweet Pepper is
NOT growing at all. This is a sign that the
chili/pepper garden I should have started is
playing tricks on me now. Haha

EPIC WEEKEND! (sheesh!) and Arbor Day!

Seriously???

Dear three followers :-) I have been counting down to this weekend off since Pre-Thanksgiving. And do not get me wrong, I love the rain - I do. But, and it's a BIG one... this was my outdoor fun weekend. My digging up some dirt, planning the garden, playing with the dogs outside and lots more kind of weekend. As you can see by my lovely weekend forecast - this will not be happening. I was able to head to the store though. I purchased some seed packets, starter pots (that can be planted straight into the dirt come transplant time) and some soil. So get ready kitchen garden - here we go...

These are mainly the herbs that I plan to keep in the kitchen
And a couple of Kids Greenhouses. :-)

The kids greenhouses are Sweet Pepper and Cucumber. The starter pots have Sage, Rosemary, Thyme, Chives and Parsley. Malakai had previously picked out these 'Two Pot Grow Kits' that we got in Sweet Basil, Cilantro and Boy Oh Boy tomatoes. While shopping, I decided that on the patio, I am going to also grow a HOT & SPICY garden with lots of peppers and chili's. :-) I saw this cute one at Walmart, but I figured we can find a cute planter, and paint chili's on it. Just a thought. We still have raised beds, and lots more to get before its complete - but I am starting.

Malakai's 2012 arbor Day Tree

This brings me to Arbor Day. I do not recall Arbor Day being a big deal when I was a child. Now that I know the state of our environment, this saddens me. Malakai came home with a baby tree yesterday, and he is so excited to plant it. I do need to see what type of tree it is, so we know how to best care for the tree. Over 135 years ago, J. Sterling Morton set aside a day for his simple idea of just planting trees. I wonder if he knew that this day would be critical for our environment and for the future of our children. I am excited that Malakai is so excited for this important day. He is an avid nature and animal lover. He has this amazing heart, and that is probably my most favorite thing about him. I know that he will do great things. :-) Now, National Arbor Day is the last Friday is April - but, each state takes a different day to observe Arbor Day that better suites the act of planting trees. (Smart idea!) Mississippi takes the 2nd Friday in February to plant some trees. So, February 10th - we are planting this baby tree of his. I urge you to click on the link I have attached, see when your state is observing this day, and see what you can do to celebrate. Arbor Day Map of Celebration!  I cannot wait to use my homegrown ingredients in my Crockpot and Wok. Pretty soon all my topics will end up in one BIG pot... Until next garden blog...

Garden Plans...

I know, I feel like I have abandoned my blog already - BUT, I have not. Been working a lot this week. Have some days off this weekend, and will blog away. Planning my garden has been quite fun! I am toying with lots of different ideas.

Mason Jar Herb Garden

#1 - My Kitchen Herb garden.  I am in search for Mason jars of all sizes, because I just love the idea of a kitchen full of these cute little plants. And my kitchen window looks out my backyard, and I would love to make it so the backyard garden is visible from my kitchen window. This and the pond in the background will make me a happy camper. And when it warms up, and the horses come back around, we can feed them!

#2 My Patio Garden. This is my new plan. I have thought about adding some furniture to my back patio in preparation for the warm months of pools and whatnot. Well, I can utilize my patio for hanging plants. The small amount of research that I have done says that I can grow the following in a hanging style: Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, beans and peppers. This may be a crazy thing for me to say, but I have never had an eggplant. But, I will try them. I am also looking for some inexpensive plant stands to have some plants on the patio that do not require direct sunlight. At first, I was thinking ferns and those types. But, I have learned that lettuce and spinach will thrive in this type of environment, so I shall thy this on the patio.

At Lowes, for $15...

#3 My Backyard Garden. This will be the bulk of the garden. I have found these cute raised beds for kids. I am thinking of getting three, so each kid will have their own part of the garden. I think they would enjoy that! As for mine, I am still working out the plans, but I have the placement, and my list of seeds to get. And we are heading to Home Depot this weekend for a Kids Workshop, so I am excited to browse. Until next time!

The Beginning of my Garden...again...

This was the start of my WONDERFUL apartment garden.

The start of anything is a plan. So, this is my start. I was the proud Momma of an indoor garden when we were in the apartment last year. While my love should have been enough to have a harvest on wonderfulness, my heart was breaking during the close of my store (Borders) and the garden died. Not to mention, some jerks who found it humorous to pull out all my lettuce. JERKS. But, I now have a yard, and a BEAUTIFUL window seal looking out to the backyard that will allow me to prep, then transplant. I figured, if I blogged about this plan - I would feel obligated to follow through, Give my green thumb a shot.

What to grow? I am going to grow all the herbs I can imagine...

This was my old window garden... RIP

• Sage
• Thyme
• Cilantro
• Rosemary
• Basil
• Oregano
• Chives
• Parsley
• Mint

I am planning to have these in Mason jars in my kitchen. As for the outside...The possibilities are endless! I know the kids want to grow carrots to feed the horses that are next door at the pond. The others I am planning are:

my 1st attempt at lettuce

Outdoor window garden

Lettuce

Tomatoes

Peppers

Squash

Radishes

Strawberries

Green beans

Onions

                                                     Spinach

and Potatoes... I have read that these are very easy to grow, just require some love. We are gonna try these in a container setting first. I am so excited to start this. This is one of the main reasons I was so excited to move into this house. I don't have a day off for 8 more days, but I have the first weekend in February off, and I will have everything ready to garden ALL weekend. My oldest, Malakai loved to helped me garden in the apartment. Maybe, we will plant some pretty flowers so Alannah will get involved. Kal'El will just enjoy playing in some dirt. LOL... Until next time - pray for me to have some green thumbs!