paintchips & cupcakes

Our temperatures have really stayed warm the last couple of weeks! We saw our first drop today. Bummer. And Boo. I guess Winter is inevitable, right?

I picked up some Fall bulbs (plant now, grow in the Spring) weeks ago and haven’t had a chance to plant them, the warm weather really bought me some extra time!  Finally, last weekend we all ventured outside to get them into the ground.  My goal is to have a year round cutting garden. There is nothing more sweet than having fresh flowers in and around the house. But not at grocery store prices. I would rather just go without than to dole out that sort of cash.

One of my Fall goals to help with all of that was to take a local Master’s Gardeners course but with all I had/have going on right now, it just didn’t make the list of priorities. So, I am still doing most of my learning by reading, reading, reading.

A list of some of my new recommendations (I will be doing some reviews on these this winter):

Garden Rules–The Sappy Synopsis for the Modern Gardener–Authors: Jayme Jenkins (blog and shop here) and Billie Brownwell.  Available here.

Four Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long–Author: Eliot Coleman.  Available here.

The Winter Harvest Handbook–Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses. Author: Eliot Coleman. Available here.

Anyhow, back to last weekend. We have this unsightly area in the front of our house that doesn’t get that much sun year round. This year honey-do trimmed down the front tree and exposed the area so we are hoping that little trick works. We put an assortment of bulbs under the whole area. These will come in around Spring to early Summer. Then hopefully I can carry on with my Summer and Fall cutting area as well as all of my vegetable goodies. This past garden season was one of my best! I still have so much to learn but the vegetables came in steady and strong. I also had a late Summer cutting garden. I would show you a photo but the Honey-Doster accidentally got weed and pruning happy and cut them all down. Whoops.  We also have our peach and apple trees and hopefully next spring/summer I can add some berry bushes.  I would also like to extend my vegetable growing season…my new book that I am diving into is all about greenhouse gardening. I probably am a couple years away from even thinking about trying it out, but a girl can dream right?

Now for more randomness—each year I start to feel a little insecure about my blog. Am I putting too much of myself out there? Am I portraying a false sense of life? That is never my intention nor my goal. There are many things I keep private, and for a reason. I really just want to have a place to be random on thoughts and mainly display what I love doing most–photography.  Last year I wrote up a full disclosure, so there is no need for me to go into a complete rant but I thought I would share in some of OUR reality.

This is what actually happened in our bulb plantings.  The girls started out super eager and helpful but then it quickly resulted into silly-ness and when the Princess decided to fling the bulbs across the yard–that was all that I could handle. Apparently, my reaction didn’t go over well–(I told her that she wasn’t being helpful)–she threw herself on the ground and began to cry–just picture the most dramatic episode ever. I felt bad about it. I really did.

Meanwhile, the firecracker was doing what she does—-creating her own little mound of bulbs on the grass (that we had to later go back and replant), swinging her shovel around in circles (nearly taking an eye off or 2), and going back over our plantings to dig them back up (that’s what she does).

All the while–Honey-Do was moaning and groaning that I was doing more managing than actual labor. Yeah. I know. Managing kids. Managing my camera. And managing the aesthetics of the garden. Give a girl a break, that’s a lot of work. 😉  (ps–don’t think for a 2nd that I don’t do the labor…every garden you have seen on the blog was built by honey-do but this mama did everything else—from dirt, to seed, to maintenance and care.)

I guess my point is that we don’t always dance around our house decorating, whistle while we work in the garden, and float on cloud 9 with happy thoughts.  On the contrary. We work hard. All the time.

I just like to show off the pretty stuff.

And right now I am dreaming of showing off some pretty Spring bulbs.