Oh My Garden!

It’s mowing season so normally I would complain about the rain but not today! Even though our grass grew 2 feet over night, that rain was also helpful in making the garden grow. Just ask Phil, every time we took the dogs out to potty (which is every 20 mins with these two 🙄) the potatoes got bigger! They were planted outside 2 weeks ago, along with spinach, romaine, carrots, and onions. We started tomato, cucumber, watermelon, bell and hot pepper, basil, and cilantro seeds inside. It was a slow start but they’re growing steadily now. This was actually the second round of seedlings as my first round were all duds. I checked the date on the seed packets to find that they were expired. Apparently, that actually matters 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

This first pic is the day we planted. Using a hand tiller is fun for about 30 seconds, if you were wondering. We had to add some dirt to the beds to get them full. 

Potatoes today. We only put in 7 plants, with the plan to get more the following weekend but that hasn’t happened yet 😔. 

Close up of a spinach plant. Phil suggested we make marks on the wood of where our lines were and I gotta say, he’s a smart cookie. When the plants start sprouting through the dirt they look inconveniently like weeds so that makes it slightly difficult to know what needs pulled and what needs to grow. If it’s growing in one of the lines, I’m leaving it alone for now. If it’s not in a line then it’s gone. 

I bought a cool (and cheap!) gardening kit at Target that was helpful with planting. Normally I’m the neat freak who likes everything to be just right but for some reason, I’m okay with my garden being kind of scattered. However, Phil insisted (and annoyed me about it last year 😒) that the rows had to be even so those sticks with the string wrapped around them made that easier. 

The cucumbers and watermelon are close to being ready to plant outside. Everything is still fairly scrawny so it will have to wait a bit. I’ll need to consult my WVU Extension gardening calendar to see when the recommended dates are for planting out. 

I’m going to be smart this year and trellis the cucumbers and watermelon so as to avoid the cucumber fiasco of 2017.  I bought two trellises and had them standing in the bed they’re going to live in but they kept falling over with the all the crazy wind. So I put my thinking cap on and came up with a way to secure them: pegs and zip ties. 

It’s not the prettiest thing ever but I’m hoping it will work. 

By the way, I mentioned that it’s mowing season and so there’s something I want to share with you all. If you don’t know, the photo below shows what a rabbit hole looks like and that is where the momma rabbits leave their babies. And baby rabbits so S.T.U.P.I.D. and will NOT move at the sound of a lawn mower. I may have told you all last year about my horrible experience with this matter. Accidentally murdering a baby bunny with the lawn mower is traumatic and you will not forget the feel of it on your hands as you push the mower over them 😳😳 *shudder*. So take it from me, please check your yard before you begin to mow if you live in a high rabbit traffic area. If you see the fluff, check the hole to see if they have vacated yet or not. You all know that I would rather there be far fewer rabbits in this world during gardening season but I don’t want to be the one to kill them! 😫 FYI, this nest in my yard was empty so hopefully they’ve found a lovely home in someone else’s yard 😉. 

Moving on: I found my first four leaf clover of the year! If I haven’t told you all, I’m stupidly good at finding them. I have no idea why, I just see them and most of the time I’m not even looking for them. My mom was the same way. 

At the end of last year’s growing season my hosta that I planted earlier last year looked pretty terrible. I thought that it was a goner so I dug it up, or so I thought. A couple of months ago I bought a cute frog garden decoration and since I thought the hosta space was vacant, I sat it in that spot. Well, apparently hostas are like my grandma’s fish and don’t ever die because it came back and just started growing around my frog decor 🤣. The first pic is from April 23 and the second is from today. They were getting a little crowded so I rescued the frogs and sat them to the side. They may need to find another home now. 

Speaking of crowding, Sophie has made a name for herself because of her inability to respect anyone’s personal space, but especially Sansa’s. She is lovingly referred to as the Little Shit. The following pics are all from different occasions through the past week: 

She can’t even sleep without touching her 🙄. 




This last one may look as though Sansa is being sweet and embracing the love that is shared by Sophie but I can guarantee you it is waaayyyy more likely that Sansa is just holding her down to keep her off lol. Poor Sansa. 

We got back from our walk on Friday and they were panting and hot and Sansa sprawled out on the kitchen floor to try to cool herself and what did Sophie do? Come and lay right beside her, of course, because body heat? I don’t know how to rationalize for that dog 🤷🏻‍♀️. 

They’ve had a rough couple of days because we’ve had company this weekend and having people here always wears them out. This is Sansa’s current state of being:

I’ve gotta say, I’m totally with her right now. I’m so tired that my contacts are sticking to my eyes. It’s time for bed. Have a great week everyone!