A "here-comes-fall" type of entry

When I last updated it was to explain how studying for a pharmacy technician certification test was eating all of my spare time, as it should have. I passed the test in April, got my license and registration taken care of in May and by June I was officially a Certified Pharmacy Tech. I even got a new badge (and photo!) with the updated title.

I had so much free time and it would seem what I missed more than anything was reading, because I started doing it again with a gusto. Between May and now, early September, I finished The Magician King (second in the Magicians trilogy), My Side of The Mountain (a recommendation from Brian), Angelfall and When She Woke (a couple books sitting on my Kindle for a while), The Incredible Journey and even two comics: X-Men Season One and Wonder Woman: The Contest. I also started but did not finish Storm Front, the second novel of the Dresden Files. In mid- to late-July I started A Game of Thrones after meaning to for months, if not years. I'm about a hundred pages from finishing it finally and I'm enjoying it so much I've already ordered the next two books of the series from www.thriftbooks.com, where they were only about $4 each and shipping was free with an order over $10.

Aside of the Dresden Files book, I'm actually enjoying what I'm reading again. When She Woke is probably one of the most feminist things I've ever read and while I don't read to be preached at (I get more than enough of that on Facebook), it did give me several thoughts to chew on mentally, which I liked a lot. Angelfall was somewhat different than a lot of the young adult lit I read in its premise; yes, it was another dystopian novel, but the apocalypse was brought on by angels, so it's not a "man destroys himself" storyline again. The story lost me on the romance aspect though. I hate reading romance and shoehorning it into storylines for what should be a very good adventure series. It makes everything predictable and is one of my biggest pet peeves in YA (or any other) literature.

The Magicians trilogy has stayed kind of flat for me, so I haven't made any plans to read the final installment, though the TV series was very good from what I saw. The side-story of The Magician King, in which we find out what the main character's best friend had been up to after he left her to go to Brakebills in the first book, completely overshadowed the primary story line to me. Julia's journey was so much more intriguing than whatever Quintin was complaining about this time, so I feel the book failed its readers in this regard. The last novel seems to be following whiny Quintin yet again, so I'm not interested in seeing what happens anymore.

Now that I'm all caught up with the Game of Thrones television series, I'm even more happy to have started the Song of Ice and Fire book series. They are hefty stories and I don't think I'd have as easy a time comprehending them if I hadn't seen the show and already had some idea of the relationships between characters. So far, A Game of Thrones has been very much like the first season of the show, with a few differences here and there, so I'm looking forward to how the written story progresses from what I've seen in the TV series. Tyrion is as sarcastic as ever, so at least there's that.

Brian and I also had the idea to take steps to start the process of revamping our master bathroom. We bought a vanity on sale about a month ago (it has drawers!) and decided a paint color and bought a couple gallons last week, along with some hole repair supplies. Really all we have left to do is decide what type of flooring we want and acquire it. Neither of us have ever done a full remodel like this and we are anticipating the entire project, once we actually get started on taking things apart, to take a couple of months of time. But we are trying to buy the materials we need as we can afford them with the idea of not rushing into it and not going into debt doing so. It's a very small room though, so probably a good idea to start with to see how the process will actually go when we decide to re-do something else, like the bedroom or living room.

I will miss this one particular paint blob though. It kind of looks like a thoughtful cow...

I never got into actually gardening this year, aside of buying a $2 clearance mint plant on a whim at HEB. We started the process of building a flower bed out front sometime in May or June, but it was just too freaking hot to finish. Though we went and spent $200 on a tiller that has yet to leave the garage, we are going to try to hit it again once things cool off. Hopefully around the same time we will be able to spread some weed and seed on the lawn for fall too. I'll be damned if I let these stupid weeds - parthenium hysterophorus - take over EVERYTHING again. Geez they were relentless...

Also looking forward, we had a break in the heat last week! It's only getting into the 80s for highs lately and in Texas, that's good enough to start acting like it's finally fall. No sweaters yet, but I'm planning to set aside a day, probably in late October or early November, to focus on baking some of the pretty fall treats I pin to my Pinterest boards every year but never make. It worked well last Christmastime when I said "this day I am going to bake cookies," and it was fun, so I want to do it again in the fall. Pumpkin is obviously the favorite for fall flavors now, but I really like cinnamon and gingerbread, to an extent, so I want to play with those on my grand day of baking.

Fall also means Ren Fest is coming up. According to a video shared on Facebook, the fairgrounds were not horribly damaged by Harvey, so there's no good reason to expect the festival to be delayed. I have grand plans for a costume this year. Like, real plans: I've pinned and priced a few pieces from a costume site that is relatively affordable with great reviews, so here's hoping not to be rocking just the hat this year, but a full on outfit - and maybe persona?

And so there's a small "hello" and look into what's been going on lately. It doesn't include everything (I'm sure you were all here to hear about our trip to Oklahoma last month, my dabbles in Pilates or how much Supernatural we've been watching), but I missed the blogging experience and just wanted to get back to it again.

Here's a picture of Inky and I to send you off with:

And from the shadows of the interwebs...

Oh hot damn, I'm back.

Where the heck has Audrey been in the last six months? Well, busy.

The biggest task was a move. Yes, we packed up the house in Temple and moved to Killeen. By the time we got the Temple house fixed up and (finally) on the market, it was available a whole two days and saw two prospective buyers before someone decided they wanted it. A few more repairs and a month-ish later (late December) it was sold.

Obviously that takes a bit of time. Then we were sans internet for about two months while we got settled in. The water and electricity still has to be transferred to our names, but, you know, priorities.

I've also been reading a lot more thanks to getting into this Goodreads website. There are so many books on my "to-read" shelf now I don't think I'll really ever make a dent, but the yearly reading challenges give me a reason to try.

Something about a goal other people can see makes a great driving factor. I even surpassed my 2016 goal of 10 books!

I've also been studying for my pharmacy tech certification in both the downtime at work and on free evenings at home. We've been given access to an online course through our employer, and now that we have internet at home I should be able to run through it pretty quickly to hit my spring goal of taking the test.

Now that we're in January (aka pre-spring in Texas with the sun and allergies I've been seeing), I've been thinking about this year's gardening endeavors. With a new yard that gets quite a bit more sun than the last one, I'm thinking real seriously about having a strictly herbal focus this year. My basil from last year is still alive, but not enjoying the alternating winter-summer thing we've had lately, but the hardware stores already have their herbs for sale now, including some fennel I saw yesterday that I've never seen before.

So that's kind of where I've been and where I am now. I need to go shower before class, but hopefully this won't be the last update for another six months.

Audrey Update III: Garden Watch 2016, the summer of surprises

You really didn't think I stopped gardening, did you?

Sure, things have been hectic, but just because there's a lot less gratuitous plant photo-sharing on this blog doesn't mean I'm not getting my hands dirty this year.

I did decide to narrow my focus this time around. Aside of the two pepper plants that survived the winter, I figured since my talent seemed to lie in making things get really leafy I should focus on herbs this year. You know, stuff you want to make leaves.

It started with the Grow Your Own Cocktails kit I mentioned in a previous post. The blue borage started off strong, with lemon balm and a few others trailing slowly behind. Only a couple, lavender and mint, refused to sprout.

I shared this photo in a past update.

There were also cilantro, dill and basil from some seed pods among the great Porch Pot Upgrade.

Well, something ate the beautiful blue borage (the big-leafed one in the above photo). Slowly, too. I thought they were just dying at first, but the plant marker mysteriously falling over more than once lead me to believe it was rabbits again. Over the course of about a week, the borage was no more.

R.I.P. Blue Borage. :-(

The seed pod sprouts died off too, so I caved and purchased mint, basil and parsley at the store.

So happy togetherrrrr!

The cilantro seemed to be ok when I transplanted it, but quickly died afterward. But some odd sprouts came out of the pot that I just let grow to see what they'd become. I planted the lemon balm in the same pot as the thyme (which decided it wasn't worth growing anyway), and some more mystery sprouts also appeared here, as well as in the basil pot pictured above.

Pictured above: Lemon balm and definitely-not-lemon-balm. Below: not cilantro. 

All I can figure is the dirt I took from last year's tomato tree must have had more life in it than I thought, because I have tomato sprouts every-freaking-where now.

There's another sprout in with the not-cilantro that I still can't identify. It doesn't give off any smell I can detect, and the closest I can come to comparing it in my limited experience is to a potato vine.

Any input or insight would be appreciated.

The next surprise was a little sprout that appeared in the pot of dead rosemary from last year. It appeared in the beginning of the spring and didn't look like a weed. Turned out to be a flower that I've never bought before, but see every year in plant nurseries.

The specific name escapes me, and the current bloom has wilted, unfortunately.

THEN came a surprise from a houseplant I bought nearly four years ago on clearance at Walmart in Killeen or Copperas Cove.

Thanks to technology I know this was on September 26, 2012. I can't remember it ever being so small.

I thought it was neat looking and a little research told me it was a natural air filter, so I made it mine. Then I left it outside one cold night and a lot of the leaves died. I was left with a funny pineapple top-looking plant.

Not a lot of filtration happening here...

Then a few weeks ago I noticed something. A small something.

Look at it!

It's re-starting itself! I'm going to wait for the mini-me to get a bit bigger, then it be a sad, choppy farewell to the pineapple top to make way for the new generation.

The pepper plants are doing well. We've gotten two banana peppers so far and there are two small bell peppers taking their time to grow.

 Banana pepper number three and the freshman bell peppers.

 Pests still abound, but I'm trying to be smarter than my competition if possible. You can see some eggshell in my herbs to deter snails, and I shared a photo of one on Facebook that somehow nabbed a mint leaf despite my efforts.

They're a real problem.

So there you go. There have been a lot of surprise plants and resurgence this season, as well as a fair amount of disappointment. Here's to the successes, though, and hope for continued victories.

I haven't died!

Holy cow. Spring officially started but Audrey has been silent? No needlessly detailed posts about my scatterbrained gardening ventures? No reflections on my current life status?

I didn't drop off the side of Texas. It's just been a busy couple of months. Since the visit to NOLA, Brian and I have both been busy with our jobs, including working several weekends for me. We helped some friends of ours pack up to move to Washington in February.

We miss these people...

Then I had my birthday a couple weeks ago (which was a really great couple of workdays and weekend off). I got myself a hair cut for the occasion, as is my yearly around-birthday tradition.

 Coworkers made me and the manager (we have the same birthday) wear sashes all Thursday. Friday I left early and chopped about seven inches off my hair. 

Brian and I took Acer to the vet the day after my birthday. We'd intended to go to the range in Pflugerville afterward, but getting the dog in to be seen took a lot longer than we anticipated, so we stopped in Georgetown and visited the first Second Saturday street fair of the year instead. We showed up late, so got some great deals on pastries from one stall.

This guy was promoting his school. But the claims seemed to be a bit puffed up. *badum tish*

This weekend we stayed at a seedy hotel in East Houston to visit a new satellite dojo of our club in Killeen. They have a pretty nice location and are just trying to gain some more members to study with. If anyone is reading this near the Highlands/Crosby areas and interested in tomiki aikido, here are the links to their Meetup and Facebook pages. It's a good group of guys studying the art but not neglecting the martial.

After a good three hours of playing with the katas, we got to meet up with some of my old friends in the Houston area, which I'd been needing for some time now.

I was thrilled to see Carlos, Steph and Matt (not pictured, as he had to go to work) This was taken in a parking lot around midnight, right before a security guard in a golf cart stopped to stare at us until we dispersed.

Before heading back yesterday we swung through Lufkin and Nacogdoches to get my pine tree fix. We got food at Pepper Jacks and, after some mis-routing from the GPS, ate at the lake. Brian found some twin pinecones he was very enamored with.

Aren't they cute?

Soo, now we are back home. I ended up with a surprise four day weekend because I'm scheduled to work this coming weekend, so I'm trying to get caught up on things. Once I'm through here I need to get cracking on the taxes and an oil change I'm overdue for. BUT, I want to ensure all that my gardening ventures will continue into 2016. These are some dated photos, but I'm still working! I'm actually narrowing my focus to herbs this year, and the Grow Your Own Cocktails kit I got for Christmas has been interesting for that.

This was taken Feb. 28. The big ones are blue borage, which are now in a big pot. Everything but the mint and lavender has also been moved to larger temporary or permanent homes.

I'm also trying some more kitchen scrap experiments. These carrot tops are sharing a pot with a single radish from last year that decided it loves the cool weather we've been having lately.

I also got a pink bush-like plant from Jacque for my birthday. It's currently shedding it's pink leaves, as it's wont to do, but should re-grow them over the next month. She also surprised me by anonymously dropping off a strawberry plant one morning last week. I didn't know where it had come from for two days. I'm kind of excited about strawberry plants. I've wanted them for a while, but just never got them for myself. I'll enjoy them for sure.

My attempt at a compost bin has been nice. As it's mostly old potting soil with the addition of kitchen scraps, I feel it kind of had a head start, and I've already been using it for repotting sprouts.

Two pepper plants from last year, one bell, one banana, have survived the winter and are growing new leaves. I'm hoping they'll to better now that they're a little older and, possibly, more established.

So here's to a slightly more narrowed focus in plants this year. Maybe it will help to be less scattered. I also got a pretty windchime for my birthday from Korri, I'll bet its rainbowy magic will do well for my little green experiments.

I really do love this. I just have to get up really early to get the sun hitting it favorably and haven't 

managed to do that since getting it.

Looking toward the 2016 gardening season

Well hello there, and good evening. It's about 10 p.m. two days after Christmas 2015. I'm getting groggy after traveling back from Fort Worth today, then jiving on over to Moody for a second Christmas meal. The new sets of purple cookware I received from my mom are sitting around the piano, along with the rest of the stuff I haven't bothered to unpack and Brian is watching Lethal Weapon 2.

I wasn't interested in watching a movie this cold, rainy evening, so I've been Pinteresting. Upon reflection on my Christmas gifts and hobby interests of late, I've had to admit to myself that I'm just one of "those" Pinterest people; the ones interested in cooking, decorating, sewing and gardening who are really only good at showcasing their best-looking results on the internet for others to aspire to repeat.

Don't pictures like this just make you sick? None of these appear to be 

returning in 2016, if it makes you feel any better.

 

My gardening ventures this year were mostly failures. Yeah, I posted a lot (and with plenty of enthusiasm) as I was getting started, but all I got were two bell peppers about the size of walnuts to show for everything. I didn't even bother taking photos of them, I was so disappointed. My tomato tree was kaput by September. About three rounds of radishes were eaten by rabbits before I finally got some to grow, then I never went back to check on the pot, so who knows what ever happened to them? The garlic bulbs died, the fancy purple flower plant died and the pea vine made two pods then also died. I managed to kill the first basil plant I'd had any luck with in two years about three weeks ago as well. Soo... yeah, I still have a lot to learn. 

 

 

I actually did shed some over some plants. What can I say, you get attached.

All of this said, I still found myself looking through the pins of others for wintertime gardening tips and ideas. I'm still dead-set on composting, but I need to find a way to convince Brian it won't be as stinky as he's convinced it will be. There are also grand-brainstorming-stage-plans of taking the raised bed from last year and converting it to a table-height bed to both move it into a sunnier location and avoid having my precious sprouts consumed by local vermin. 

With all the failures of this year, I am taking away some lessons. 

ONE: Fertilizer isn't necessarily just an indulgence.

With only one of four pepper plants making fruit, there had to be some reason and inadequate nutrients is my first guess. The plants were not as leafy as plants I'd grown in the past, though they stayed green well into November (one even made blossoms). I would like to try them again, but utilize epsom salt, as recommended in a variety of articles, and perhaps some liquid vegetable fertilizer on a schedule. 

TWO: When starting from seed, start way earlier.

Again with the peppers, I started my seeds in late February. It took until almost October to see fruit, as measley as it was. So this year I will locate and start my seeds in January. Plants are easy to keep indoors at that point, so I don't anticipate a problem waiting until March to move them outside. 

THREE: Buying established plants isn't something to be ashamed of.

While I enjoy the process of germinating seeds and nursing sprouts to become fully-fledged plants, I can appreciate the convenience of buying plants that have already been through the slow startup stage. It's really a crapshoot, in my experience, on which has a better success rate, so I might as well use up the seeds I have and buy plants for other items I'm interested in growing. 

So I have some starting pods a friend sent me last summer, as well as a few seeds that never made it to the dirt last year that I will try to plant next month (yes, I'm familiar with the "packed for" dates on seeds, but you never really know unless you try). I'll also try to plan for an update from raised bed to REALLY raised bed and attempt some indoor gardening with an herb set I received from the same friend mentioned above for Christmas this year. 

It's strange to me that failure -- even repeated failure -- in gardening has not caused me to shy away from the task. I go into it with the goal of produce in mind, but enjoy the process of planting and growing so much that the lack of results doesn't really ever bother me. I guess if I just keep getting a few victories each year, eventually I'll have that bountiful harvest everyone on Pinterest is apparently so adept at getting.

Here's the goal: actual amounts of food I can do something with.

NaNoWriMo -- I have not been writing

I have not been writing, despite the zest I had two weeks ago to hit 20,000 words by the end of the month. Is it really that surprising though?

It's so easy for life to get in the way. To let life get in the way. Brian has been sick. I got a little sick. I'm in the middle of becoming a full-fledged employee at the pharmacy instead of a contract worker. I'm thinking about the upcoming holidays. We went to Ren Faire this weekend with friends. Yeah, it's easy to let things get in the way.

I did get a pretty sweet hat there though.

Someone I knew in college maintains a blog I've started to creep follow and is trying to accomplish a post-something-every-day challenge this month. I'm starting to wonder if she had the better idea. Prompts are much easier to follow for me than some open-ended "write something" challenge.

It's not that I'm completely devoid of ideas, I just don't have any that are cohesive or I feel the need to ramble on about for thousands of words. Or I feel like there's just so much to say, I'm too intimidated to start on them. For example, I've toyed with the idea of writing a major dissertation on where I feel I am in studying aikido; my strengths, weaknesses, goals, roadblocks, etc. It would fill a lot of space, yes, but would require me to make outlines and rough drafts and possibly publish in parts, and I just don't feel that engaged with the idea yet.

I also thought of doing a reflection on this year's attempt at gardening - yeah, the one I wrote so many blogs about then kind of stopped mentioning? Most everything died. I got two red bell peppers that were smaller than golf balls. I wonder if it needed the magnesium I saw about half a dozen articles suggest. My tomato plants shriveled (except the one random one I planted in the box that decided it wanted to be ground-cover but never make fruit; it's still green and happy out there). Rabbits ate two attempts at radishes. The third, container-attempt have had something chew on them, but in fairness have maintained foliage for a couple months. The herb tower dried up. The basil still looks all right, but I don't know if it will survive the winter. Aaaannnd... that's about it.

In regards to the hat above, it was the first step in my goal of building a costume for Ren Faire. Brian and I both agreed that we've been going for so many years, it was time to start dressing up. He can't decide between being a musketeer or going with a steampunk idea. I was bouncing between a pretty standard wench costume and a pirate. Finding this hat though kind of cemented the pirate idea. The rest of the costume exists perfectly in my head, I just need to find the other pieces in the real world.

Anyway, the point of that was that I also thought of writing out a complete character sketch for the pirate I wanted to be. If you're going to dress up, you might as well adopt a persona as well, right? I even started writing about her during a break in my new employee orientation today. The bones of a backstory with the barest traces of fleshing out.

Every time I try to write an actual story though all my inspiration peters out within a couple paragraphs. It's not that I don't intend to write much, I just can't seem to stretch it out. Blame the three years of journalism?

I suppose I have managed to write more, even if nothing is related. And I think about writing more now, but it's coupled with the frustration of "Why can't I think of more to write about??" Baby steps, I guess.

If I have learned one thing it was that I shouldn't even try to drink decaf coffee in the evening. I tried that first night I wrote something and I could NOT fall asleep. Sticking with tea or alcohol in the evening, methinks. Maybe this quote will spur my next writing venture:

Hemingway apparently didn't say this, but I'm willing to give it a shot (har) anyway.

Word Count: 713
Total Word Count: 4,722

Audrey documents her newfound ruthlessness... sorta...

All right. It's been a while since we checked in on the plants (because that's really the only reason for you to check this blog, I'm sure).
When I last updated, it was to share that I had to start over as almost all of my precious plants had been eaten by furry or slimy demons. It was then that I lost my ability to really see rabbits and slugs as "just other creatures trying to survive." I'm striking back now.

I posted on Facebook about killing a particularly large slug with salt on the porch. It seemed to delight everyone who read it (several friends at aikido commented on it during class, calling me "killer" for a short while). Now I can't pour a salt ring around my plants, but I'd been saving egg shells for a few months since reading about them being good for putting calcium into soil and at the same time repelling slugs and snails. I smashed them in a big old ziploc and sprinkled it around my bell pepper sprouts, which I repotted last weekend.

No more nasty slug trails around MY peppers.

One of my four remaining plants had begun to wilt before the transplant and has not perked up since, so I'm prepared for it to be a loss.  But the other three are leafy and strong and I have high hopes for their future. I feel particularly protective over these plants because they are the survivors. I raised them from seeds and have been very attentive to them. Acer tried to snack on the one that is currently wilting away, and he got a firm talking-to and finger wag for his actions.

I've also mixed up a jug of rabbit repellent made from water, red pepper flakes, garlic and dish soap. The recipe suggested letting it sit in the sun for a couple days to let the flavors and smells saturate in the mix. When I opened the jug to pour it into a spray bottle, I caught a whiff of just how rank it was. I've been spraying it on bean vines, pumpkin sprouts and a sweet potato sprout that poked itself up but apparently attracts bunnies.

 This plant has grown a fair amount since this photo was taken. There are actually the beginnings of buds on it now.

Sweet Group Shot! Meet the new sweet banana pepper plant and the regrown sweet potato sprout.

I'm also trying a second round of radish seeds, but may have lost them as well. I did not get the spray on them before something ate about 75 percent of them. But I still have lots of seeds left and the warm season isn't going anywhere soon.

After I lost a lot of my plants last month, I decided to let plants grow larger before putting them in the yard. My two pumpkin vines are weathering being in the ground much better since I let them bulk up before moving them. I did purchase a six-pack of tomato sprouts for my Topsy Turvy stand and they are looking very happy in their spot in the middle of the yard - the best place for them to get the sun they need. I had to move it from a spot next to the fence when I caught a squirrel eyeballing it from the fence post.

I'm getting excited about the garden again, even though it's spread throughout the yard and kind of at a point now where all I have to do is make sure nothing is getting nibbled on and everyone stays watered. I don't foresee any more transplants, so it's really just waiting on the blossoms to appear. Here's to rank rabbit repellant and sharp shards of slug deterring eggshells all doing their jobs.

Quick and dirty check-in

Hi there. I know nobody is probably checking this blog for updates, but I realize I haven't posted in almost a month and wanted to do so. I don't have a lot of time, so this will be picture-free.

My Facebook friends are aware that not long after I put a slew of seeds and sprouts in my garden, they were devoured by fiends unknown. Most likely rabbits, but I'm suspecting certain bugs and squishy things outside also played a small part. "Devastating" is only slightly too strong a word. I cried a little. All that work, gone in just a few days. With it being so late in the season, I'd almost resigned myself to buying some plants at Home Depot to replace them, but decided to give the pumpkin seeds another shot. My rationale now is to get the sprouts to be big enough that a few nibbled leaves won't destroy everything. There are two of them pushing up on the porch now.

I haven't replanted the radishes and a few spinach sprouts seem to have survived. The shallots haven't been touched and -- the most relieving point for me -- I hadn't put the bell peppers in the ground yet. I still have four of them, currently sitting on the surface of the dirt in a large houseplant's pot that I left outside for some reason. It's on the porch and kind of high off the ground, so the only thing knocking them over is the strong wind from all the freaking rain we've been getting.

Seriously, more than two weeks almost straight of rain we've had. When did I move to the Pacific Northwest?

Anyway, the lack of sunlight also killed the sunflower sprout from the seed kit my mom gave me for Christmas. The zinnias, likewise, didn't survive the transplanting. Either I watered them too much in their bags or they were too shocked from the move to the pot. I just don't have luck with gifted plants it seems.

However, I was gifted some other seeds after furry demons ate my garden. A good friend in Dallas saw my post and sent me a whole set of Miracle-Gro seed pods. Tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, herbs, watermelons, a really nice assortment. It still feels too late in the year to be messing with seeds, but I have put one each of spinach, basil and green bean pods into some dirt to see how they do. The beans already have a sprout, and I put them in the dirt on Saturday(?). I will probably hold on to the rest until next year, when I can get them started ahead of time. Yay for pre-preparedness! (In case I didn't say it enough, Thank You, Korri!)

So, I've lowered the expectations of, but not quite given up on, my horticulture daydreams. If I ever find time with my new full-time schedule, I do intend on buying some established plants, but I'd really like to wait for the sun to come back. The rain is nice and oh-so-needed, don't get me wrong, but I can't keep things alive on moisture alone.

In other news, Brian and I have fallen off the push up challenge wagon. We are both working full-time now (horray!), but it quickly took a backseat to us figuring out how to schedule dinner when he gets home after 5 p.m. and I'm not there until almost 8:00 p.m. But with two full-time incomes, we managed to get me a new car last week! Now we are both mobile!

Ok, I lied. One picture. I'm squinting because it was one of those weird "overcast-but-bright" days.

 

Hopefully soon I can find time to update with more photos, but I didn't want the silence to unnerve anyone. I'm just busy with life at the moment. :-)

Into the ground we go

As my Facebook friends learned yesterday, I finally got some compost for my garden.

Brian convinced me not to buy a dozen more plants while we were at the store, and we hauled the two bags (plus another bag of potting mix) into the backyard. My shoulders were, and still kind of are, hurting from Sunday's push ups, but I managed to turn the existing dirt, dump in the bags of compost, and mix them in with a hoe. I was extremely pleased to find a really fat earthworm in the dirt as I mixed it up. As the dirt in the box came from a store, I had taken to pulling worms out of weed roots when I pulled them from the yard and throwing them into the box. Most of them were pitiful, skinny things, but the one I found yesterday was a hoss. Something in that dirt is doing the worms right.

However, in mixing the dirt I did realize just how shady my little garden is in the afternoon. I am questioning how happy my mostly-full-sun-wanting plant choices will be there, so I first moved my five remaining bell pepper seedlings to the brick wall side of the garden. Their roots are not yet showing through the peat pots, but I figured this would be a good opportunity to see whether they will thrive or die in the partial shade of the area before I commit to putting them in the dirt.

Don't mind us, we are just taking in the view.

I was all ready to start putting actual plants into the dirt when I realized I couldn't even list everything I had to plant yet. So... I went to my notebook to make a list and draw a plan.

Believe it or not, I do have a rather organized way of approaching projects.

Brian helped with the planning, suggesting putting the pumpkins on the side so the vines could grow over the edge of the garden instead of just blatantly taking up space in the middle.

All I managed to do yesterday was put the five shallots into the bottom left hand square foot, park my long pot of garlic to the right side of the box and sprinkle the questionable-vitality spinach seeds into the top left hand square foot. I bought the seeds last year, if I remember right, and never planted them. Because I never throw anything away, I still had them and figured "what's it going to hurt?" to throw them into a corner of dirt. If they grow, cool. If not, no loss.

The first thing I did this morning was put some pumpkin seeds in a bag to germinate. This should have been done weeks ago, but with the stalling on getting the garden ready, timing was hard to get right.

 When we grow up, we're going to make pies!

With the pumpkin seeds on the windowsill, I set out with the radish tape. I smoothed out a portion of dirt and dug two trenches with my hands and lay the radish seeds in them.

 

I also put a single pumpkin seed in the top right hand corner of the box. Kind of to see which grows faster or stronger: separately germinated or in-ground germinated.

 A brave seed goes where its brethren ventured not.

I marked its spot with a rock, then put some water on everything.

 Apparently the early morning sun is stronger than I thought. At least when photographed.

So thus far, I have five sprouted shallots, one packet of possibly expired spinach seeds, two strips of radish seed tape and a pumpkin seed in the garden. The bell peppers are still parked on a wall, deciding if they like the environment (if they end up not thriving, I intend to put them in pots with the potting mix I bought and placing them in a sunnier position in the yard).

In less-thrilling garden news, I also bought a crutch for one of the plants I've been taking care of since I found it on the porch last year.

A friend told me it has "bat wing" in its name, but I can't remember the rest and Google shows 

weird things that don't look like this.

I also was excited to find on Sunday the mystery bulb I threw into some dirt on a whim is sprouting!

 

Yet another mystery plant. Anyone who knows anything about bulbs is

welcome to weigh in on this.

People think gardening is a "girly" activity, or that it's boring because of the patience required or it's a hippie choice because of the green/homesteading trend going around now. For the most part, I'm not as interested in flowers as I am in utilitarian plants (though I obviously have a soft spot for some pretty blooms). I find excitement in the progression of plant growth, not just in the end results. And I don't do it to try and provide food for myself -- while it's not an idea I'm against, I am just not good enough to rely on it yet, though homesteading projects like gardening and chicken raising do appeal to me. I garden because I like to see what I can help to create by providing dirt, water and food to a little seed or small plant. I like to watch something small grow into something self-sufficient. I like tending to an ongoing project.

Some pretty plants join the party

I bought more plants last week.

Yes, yes. I left work Thursday night. Brian was hanging out with a friend, so I went to Walmart to look at what they had.

Things were bought. Things were not regretted.

ANYWAY! I put a lot of my new plants into pots Monday. The herb tower is now a thing and I have two new flowers to join my old daisy (which also got a new, roomier, better-soil home).

I started by bringing everyone outside and test-driving a couple pots.

First I wanted to work on the herb tower. I only bought three live herbs: lavender, sweet mint and rosemary. There is also a packet of chives seeds that I haven't yet attempted to do anything with.

You may have noticed the pots full of bottle caps in some of my other photos. My mom alwasy taught me to add rocks to the bottom of a pot for drainage for plants. Living in apartments the last few years, rocks weren't always easy to find. But I drank a lot of sodas.

Exhibit A.

I started saving caps from soda, shampoo, milk, juice and coffee creamer bottles, as well as whole empty energy shot and liquid water enhancer bottles. They are a good, lightweight option to add a drainage element for container plants when rocks aren't easy to come by. I guess it's also kind of a "green" option, but that wasn't my thought process at the time.

Anyway, I put a layer of the plastic bottles at the bottom of a large terra cotta pot. I filled it with the potting soil I also bought at Walmart (mixed with the less-good soil from old plants), then checked to see where a smaller clay pot would fit on top of it.

It was originally going to be centered.

Then I actually read the instructions on the lavender and mint peat pots. They said to remove the bottoms of the pot and leave the pieces in the hole that the plant was going into. I used a pocket knife to carefully rip off the bottom of the pots.

 After I got them into the edge of the large pot, I decided that placing the second pot, where the rosemary would go, a little off-center would look better and leave some more room in the bottom. So that's what happened.

View from above.

 I put the rosemary, which didn't come in a peat pot, into the top and admired the work. I think it came out looking pretty sweet.

Like I said, I also bought some chives seeds, and I'm trying to figure out if I want to put them in the spaces of the herb tower seen here, or give them a separate place to call home.

But with the herbs done, I moved on to the two flowers I bought.

I'm not usually an ornamental-plant type of person, but these two had really pretty purple flowers and one was kind of a trailing type of flower that was also labeled to be heat tolerant. It was an easy sell.

The last hanging pot I had was buried in the garage, but it had a built-in drainage tray, so I didn't have to use more bottle caps. :-)

When I pulled the plant out of its plastic pot, it looked like this:

I know a lot of store-bought plants are cramped in their pots, but I always feel kind of bad when I see how crowded they get. The roots were too tight together to really pull apart any (I tried), so I just had to make sure it had room to spread out in the new pot.

I'm so enamored with these kinds of plants.

Next came the delphinium. These were on display outside the garden center and I literally spent a few seconds lusting after the blooms the way most girls would lust after shoes. Just look at the blue-on-purple color scheme going on here.

It reminds me of those galaxy pictures you see online.

I didn't take photos of the repotting of this one. I'm sure you get the idea by now. Plus I was listening to a YouTube playlist on my phone and you may know how the music stops if you try to do anything else, like take a picture.

 Since I was on such a roll, I also brought out the old sweet potato vine (I'm thinking it's dead, but not entirely sure) and my gerbera daisy to join the fun.

Gerbera daisies are supposed to be one-year plants, but I've had mine for three now. I bring it in in the winter, where its green leaves whither and die off, but new green sprouts come up. It was sending up some new greenery when I realized how slowly it was growing. It has been in the same pot for a while now, so I moved it to a larger home and replaced the old, tired soil with some fresh stuff.

It kind of looks like size overkill, but trust me, this daisy can get pretty big.

The rest of my plants are still doing well. The garlic got some fertilizer and the pepper sprouts, celery and mystery bulb get water regularly. Once the roots start showing at the bottom of the pots for the pepper sprouts, I'll move them to the garden bed, where I hope to see them flourish. The final step I need to finish before moving anything to the ground is adding some compost to that soil. I will also need to get the radish and pumpkin seeds started, and buy a banana pepper plant for Brian. I'm still contemplating tomato plants, but that can wait, as they won't be starting from seed.

Also! Speaking of mystery plants (the bulb hasn't changed much on the surface) the mystery sprout I put in the corner of the garlic pot poked above ground!

What ARE you???

I hope everyone else's spring projects are shaping up, if you have any. And in case anyone has any misinformed thoughts that gardening or repotting are clean activities, I'll leave you with this reminder that it's easy to take photos of only the good-looking angle and results

Here's to a happy, green spring for everyone. May you be as happy this season as Acer was laying in and nibbling on the grass while I was working.