Laundry room

Brett and I redid the laundry room the past week because last winter my washer froze because it was so damn cold in there! I can't begin to tell you how much I hate doing laundry in the winter time. But now anymore! well hopefully, I won't know until this winter.Before

After

After

We took the drawers out to make some more room

And painted the blue door white.

CORN!

My front flowers are coming along nicely!

Just this one section of my front planter looks good, I think, because its full. The other part is nice but the flowers are sporadic and look a little spastic.

front bed




pumpkins

Corn and tomatoes
I am really happy the first time I grew corn I will have corn! YEA!!

Garden

Here are some pictures to show that we have been doing something to the yard this year. We have let the weeds take over in some spots and other spots we are slooowly landscaping. I have an idea what I want to do but until we actually get the soil leveled out and the weeds taken care of there really is no reason to get more plants.

Corylus avellana 'contorta'

Harry Lauder's walking stick

I have always loved these trees and now I have one! This little guy and a rough transplating because it was at Brett's friend's house. We thought we wrapped it good but when we got home from driving on the freeway it had lost most of its leaves. BUT, I noticed new growth yesterday so he's going to be just fine!

flowers I grew from seed


More flowers I grew from seed

Gage's sunflowers

New parking strip

Can I just tell you how much of a bitch it was to get those rocks out there? They are the leftovers from the pond, we had a bobcat to move them from the pond to the side of the house. We used a 4 wheeler, a makeshift cart and our own muscles to get them from the side of the house to the front. But it was worth it. I think it looks great and no cars will crash into the house. (not that we have had a problem in the past with that)

The kids pumpkins

I went a little crazy with the seeds but I don't think you can't have enough pumpkins!

Veggie garden a month ago (I think)

Veggie garden today

I'm going to have a ton of tomotes, cucumbers, corn

I don't think I'm going to get many peppers

Next year I'm starting everything way earlier!

update on plants

So far so good. All the plants have sprouted finally. It was a little cold so the peppers just barely started.tomatoes

Another tomato

tall snapdragons

Chrysathumum

cilantro

So far so good!

All but one flower has come up and my two peppers haven't come up yet. I think I have been doing good. I am eternally grateful to my brother-in-law Jason. He let me borrow his timer for the lights. It was really starting to get to be a pain in the butt waking up early to turn the lights on and then at night when I am getting ready to get into my nice warm bed, remembering I didn't turn the lights off. So now the lights are on at 7am and turn off at 11pm. The cosmos and sunflowers were getting a little leggy from not enough light. Zinnias

Leggy cosmos

Snapdragons (one of my favorites!)

chrysanthemum and snapdragons

petunias and pansies

Scratch that.....

No planting this weekend....I'm getting a little ahead of myself. After doing some research all the plants and bulbs will not be making an appearance until after mother's day, just like everything else!! But on an up note! My chrysanthemums (one anyway) SPROUTED!! I hope they continue to grow well but not so fast they get to tall for the shelves.

I must be the best......

.....seed starter in the WHOLE WORLD! Ok maybe not the whole world. But I'm pretty impressed with myself. I went down to turn the light off for the seeds and noticed the alyssum was dry again so I started spraying them with a spray bottle and low and behold.....there was SPROUTS!!! I planted these babies on Saturday and they already sprouted! (not the picture below) Then I started looking at the other pots to make sure they were watered and THE COSMOS SPROUTED! That too was planted on Saturday! Only 4 days and they are already growing. I thought I was a little chilly down there and it would take longer but they seem to be doing great!

I also got a delivery today for the plants I ordered a couple of months ago. I got 4 trees, 51 bulbs and 24 perennials. Guess what we are going to be doing this weekend!

Tilling and planting!

If the weather holds up!perennials (3 different kinds, 4 plants each)
Bulbs

redbuds (my absolute fave!)

magnolias

I know its really hard to tell in the picture but in the bottom left is an alyssum sprout!

Alyssum sprouts

More Alyssum sprouts! I planted them in a flat but can't remember what color order I put them in....guess I'll have to wait until they bloom

Cosmos 8 of the 12 pots have sprouts

cute little sprouts

Took me three days but I finally got it done!

I wanted to wait until the weekend before I started my seeds. I'm so glad I did! It took me forever. Each flat holds 36 of my little newspaper pots and there are 8 flats although not all of them are full. On Saturday I ran out of pots so I had to wait until Sunday morning to get the paper from my mother in law and then make more pots. I used seedling mix and the pots for everything except my alyssum. I heard it doesn't like to be transplanted so I'll just dig it out when I need it for my hanging baskets. I have 16 different flowers and three veggies that I started from seed inside. Some of the stuff I have to start outside once it gets warm enough. Newspaper pots with seedling mix
These are the veggies I will be starting once it gets warm enough. Our good friend Ryan will tell me when to start stuff. He has an awesome garden every year
Corn, pumpkins, cucumber for pickles, passion vine and carrots
The passion vine is one of Brett's favorite. I know it grows in WA but they sell it here so we are going to give it a try this year


Once the plants sprout I will thin them out and move some of the pots to another flat so they can breath a little

I ran out of seeds and are only using the first three shelves. Which is probably good since I crammed them in the other flats

Some of the flowers I started.

This is going to be such a great learning experience for me. I love helping things to grow and I think I'm rather good at it. House plants, anyway. The kids didn't want to help plant this round but I have extra seeds I'm going to let them plant outside once it gets warm enough. Khloe did pretty good last year with her flowers.

Finally!

Yea!! Brett is back with the camera! Ok so here's the cellar, yeah like root cellar. Kinda creepy down there but now that its cleaned up and has lights its really not so bad.On the left side of this picture where the cement is a little darker is where the boiler use to be.

In the corner is where the SUPER old water softener use to be

This is the old coal room. The square in the back towards the ceiling is where the coal use to come is. The walls and ceiling are black from the coal dust. The shelves use to have LOTS of jars of pickles and peaches. Some of the seals broke and the pickles were petrified. They looked like sticks. I threw those away and saved the 60+ jars that were empty. They just need to be cleaned!

Here's what the cellar looks like now! Thanks to my AWESOME husband and brother in law. I have shelves and lights to start my seeds. Jason is also going to give me a timer so I don't have to remember to turn the lights on and off.

I can't wait to start my seeds! I think its going to be this weekend

Mark one off the list!

Because it was such a GOREGOUS day outside, while the kids were playing I staked the tree! (it took all of 5 minutes) I also dug up some HORRIBLE bulbs that I absolutly hate. Other people like them but I think they look EVIL! They are called Alliums. If anyone wants some I dug them up and put them in a bucket. Some of the ones I dug up were as big as tennis balls! I don't think they are supposed to get that big!!

And alas no pictures because Brett won't be back until sunday night and I'm sure it will snow again and I won't be able to take pictures of my progress (as little as it is)

Growing

I have come pretty far in getting ready to start my own flowers. I have the shelving and lights (although the latter not hooked up yet), soil and pots and seeds. Now I'm just waiting for the lights so I can get started! I'm really excited about this. I will save money on flowers this year and have lots of color in my yard. We have tons of work to do in the yard since we mostly concentrated on the house last year. Here's a list,
1. level out the back yard
2. put in new sprinkler system (so all the new plants won't die!)
3. make new planting beds
4. till the beds we do have
5. remove old sprinkler system
6. sod the backyard
7. beef up the front yard grass
8. take out the two trumpet vines that are by the driveway
9. stake the tree I forgot to last year
10. plan out the veggie garden
11. fix the ponds (yes, as in two ponds)
12. plant a shade loving vine to hide the fence
13. plant the east side of the driveway
14. Screen in back porch
15. take out stumps of box elder maples
I think that's it for now, of course so things will not get done this year but I have the whole summer!
And no pictures yet! Brett took the camera to Arizona to watch spring training with his dad and two brothers!