Prepping for the Cullen Garden

       We have had some gorgeous weather here the last few weeks and everything in the garden is starting to wake up and bloom.  My tulips in my front burm garden get taller and taller with each day; even our dogwood tree has blossoms all over it. (I don't think they will last til Easter) 

      Of course the last two days have brought thunder storm after thunder storm across our city and some cold 40 degree temps too.  The children have been spoiled to the longer sunny days and being cooped up inside watching it thunder and rain isn't their idea of fun.  It isn't mine either.....  I was very tempted to throw them outside yesterday and tell them to go play in the mud just to get them out of my house for a few relaxing moments.  No rain today but I think we will visit our wonderful children's museum.  They can run off lots of energy and I can relax and read a little.

 

Our vegetable garden spot.  Small but we pack a lot of great plants in there every year.  See the rosemary bush, we are going to move it over to another flower bed to make room for my vegs.  This is my oldest plant, when I first started gardening in my parent's backyard I planted this rosemary bush when I was fourteen.  It has been moved 4 times. 

A view of our very wet rainy backyard this past Saturday.  The tree in the foreground is a white crape myrtle and the other tree is our Johnafree apple tree.  See the lack of grass there on the bottom left, I will tell you about that in a bit.

What I have blooming right now in my yard:

Dogwood Tree (my sweet tree that my mother in law gave me from her yard 10 years ago)
Purple Tulips
Johnafree Apple Tree (my husband trimmed it back so I am hoping we will get more apples this year)
Jonquils
Wild Violets (Only because my sweet 5 year old brings me bouquets of them every day)  Of course when my real flowers go in the beds these get pulled out.  They are extremely invasive!
Azaleas blooms are just starting to open.

         Inside I started a little herb garden from a kit I purchased from Big Lots.  It was a cold, dreary winter day when I splurged in the hopes of a little green Heaven to sit in my kitchen window to help get me through the last few months of cold.  I was a little sceptical if it would actually work so I saved my receipt and hoped for the best.  Beside Burpee's had their name all over it so that made me think it would be a sure thing.  The kit was $5 and contained basil, chive and parsley seeds, seed starter dirt, two Miracle-Gro packets and it was packed in cute oblong metal tin.

Sure enough it all grew and did so well I had to go buy some peat pots to transplant some of the seedlings out.  I am super excited that now I have 9 basil plants and 3 parsley plants ready for my outdoor garden. 

I also bought seed packets of my three favorites flowering annuals.  These are always are in my flower beds every year:  Zinnias, Bachelor Buttons and Cosmos. 

I used a  Jiffy Greenhouse to start some of my flowers seed early this year. I sure hope my early prep work pays off, this is the first time I have used the Jiffy seed starter kit.

(Purchased at Lowe's Hardware Store: $8.97) 

My husband has been working in our garden plot for our vegetables this year.  This warm weather has him starting early too.  Huge plus for me because we are always a little late getting our vegetable plants out; but this year we are ahead of the game.  Our sweet elderly neighbor across the street gave us his tiller last fall.  This was something we have always wanted to purchase but it wasn't in our budget so we had to borrow a tiller every year.  Of course that meant usually fixing it first and giving it a good tune up and returning it better than we borrowed it.  Isn't that what your parents taught you, mine sure did. NOW we have our own, aren't wonderful neighbors GREAT! 

 

See that handsome little guy in the picture above.  He is the reason I have a patch of dirt where there should be Zoysia grass.  He will also be the reason I have no Zoysia grass in my yard this year or at least in the repeated circles he rides his 4-wheeler around and around and around my yard.  By the way if you are in the market for an awesome kid 4-wheeler I highly recommend the Razor electric 4-wheeler.  It has pneumatic tires (not those plastic cheap tires on all the other kid ride-on toys)  It cost a little more but it will also last!  It is rated for ages 8 and up but my 5 year old does just fine riding. 

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