A Bloom!

My garden is definitely taking its last breaths of 2012, but I woke up one rainy morning last week to find a beautiful surprise: A moonflower had bloomed on my trellis!

In the spring, I planted my morning glory seeds, as well as some moonflower seeds. The plants' vines are similar, so I didn't even think a moonflower seed had taken, but I guess it did. This garden gets a lot of sun and is drier, so my morning glories seem to take longer to grow and bloom, but I try year after year, anyway, and by the end of summer I usually have beautiful blue flowers greeting me each morning.

And despite trying to grow a moonflower in the past, this was the first year I was successful.

The bloom wasn't even completely open, but I made sure to snap a photo -- and run outside to sniff its heavenly fragrance! It smells so incredibly lovely. The bloom is so much larger than a morning glory, and so angelic looking.

Despite being late in the season, and having some cold nights, this little bloom managed to open and surprise me. But better late than never, right?

This moonflower sighting inspired me to do some research. Here's a link to 10 plants which only bloom at night, including the moonflower. You'll notice many of them are white -- how nice would it be to plant an all-white "moon" garden? The white flowers would glow in the moonlight. One of the popular garden centers near my home has always had a white garden -- this link has information on its garden and plants to buy for your very own white garden. I've always wanted to stroll on that property at dusk and see if the garden does indeed glow.

Apparently moon gardens are growing in popularity, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. (It's interesting what you can find out when you start Googling for a blog post!) Perhaps I need to start my own little moon garden in my backyard. I would definitely add little solar lights, a few white statues and a bench, to sit under the moon and watch the fireflies in the summer. Maybe next year? :)

Green Acres

My husband bought a tractor.

Well, not exactly a tractor, but I'm calling it a tractor. It's a ride-on lawn mower. It's a John Deere, which is why I jokingly call it a tractor.

Here's the back story. We have a two push mowers. One is better than the other. The not-so-good one has lived under our deck in all the elements. The week of Big Girl's birthday party, hubby was mowing the lawn to prep the yard. (Now, he HATES mowing. He has back problems, and we have a big nasty hill to push that mower up in addition to the rest of the regular yard.) So, he's mowing, and suddenly the mower just jerks and dies.

Eeek!

We do need a new and better mower to make this job easier. Mowing is the bane of all of our existences in this house. Why? Because hubby mows on a weekend morning and then is shot for the rest of the day. Kaput. And then nothing else ever gets done and we don't do much and the day is wasted.

We had talked about looking into a new mower for next summer. One of our cars should be paid off in January, which will free up some funds that can finance a new and improved mower.

When our push mower broke, hubby had no choice but to try and repair it. Over the course of several days, he researched and took it apart and bought parts and fixed it. And what do you know, it worked! Meanwhile he was browsing on Craigslist and saw this ride-on mower. It was $50. It didn't even start.

"I know it's crazy, but I'm thinking of buying it," he said. "Do you mind?"

He said he thought he could figure out how to fix it. From what was described, and with the amount of reading he had done on lawn mowers for our push mower, he thought he might know what the problem was.

I told him to go for it. It was a gamble, but I'd rather see him throw $50 away on a lawn mower that would possibly work than in our local casino. It was a worth a shot. And he said he could sell it for parts if it didn't work out.

Now, I'm no dummy. I know this mower is going to cost us far more than $50. But have you priced ride-on mowers lately? Outrageous. And this thing is a John Deere. A John Deere, people! At least it's a quality brand, right?

So now I have a disemboweled lawn tractor in my garage, grease and oil everywhere, and a husband stooped over an iPad reading a service manual nightly as he deconstructs and reconstructs a lawn mower engine.

He's a smart boy. I have faith he'll figure it out. And my husband will be happier mowing the lawn and the rest of us will be happy because of it.

Garden Harvest

The veggie garden season is in full swing now, with veggies ready to pick. Peapod Farm has hit a few road bumps this year -- my poor zucchini is not happy nor thriving, and neither are my peppers. My pickling cukes are almost done, but I have and continue to have a batch of green beans.

My tomatoes always seem to pull through and flourish, which is a blessing since we are a major tomato-eating family. I often laugh at the stories of canning tomatoes because ours would never make it to that stage. They disappear pretty quick because my husband and kids snack on them, or I make tomato/cucumber salad to have with dinner.

Next year, I think Peapod Farm is in for an overhaul. I need to buy some weed barrier to put down before I plant, and I might even move the entire thing because watering it is a pain in the neck. We'll see... Next spring is a long time away, and we still have the winter months to dream about gardens and plants and plans.

Vermont Garden

When I was in Vermont, I came across the prettiest garden! It was a kitchen garden outside the Timbers restaurant at Sugarbush ski area's Lincoln Peak. I feel in love with its organized neatness, mountain prettiness, the birch trellises and the planting patterns. I wish my garden was this beautiful! Enjoy the photos and I hope you are as inspired as I was by its beauty.

Peapod Farm

The primitive-yet-functional veggie garden.
It's set way down in our backyard where we have room for it.

We planted the vegetable garden, a.k.a. Peapod Farm, a few weeks ago, on a very hot weekend. I hadn't touched the garden since the fall, and it required some attention.  A lot of raking and cleaning out was in order. After suffering tiny ant attacks, sweating gallons of sweat and raking my arms off, it was ready to plant. It took several hours to get it back to a reasonable shape, but so far, it's functional.

We planted our usual vegetable suspects in our four square plots. I follow, somewhat loosely, the "Square Foot Gardening" concept, with the goal to cut down on weeding and keeping everything compact. This year, we planted four types of tomatoes (can you tell we like tomatoes?): Better Boy and Celebrity varieties for larger tomatoes, and Sweet Olive and yellow grape tomatoes. (Big Girl is a tomato addict and loves little tomatoes.) We also planted Bush Pickle Cucumbers, Italian Large Leaf Basil, Zucchini Elite Summer Squash, Classic Eggplant, Red Night Sweet Pepper and Bush Green Beans. Yes, all that in those four boxes. I would plant more, but alas, I only have room for so much, right?

Off to the right side of the photo, you'll see big leaves -- that's rhubarb. It's actually rhubarb from my late grandparents' house, which actually originated at my grandfather's Pennsylvania farm where he grew up. I thought my husband killed it a few years ago, when it was planted where my former veggie garden was and he ran it down with his mower. But it sprung up again -- hubby, who loves rhubarb calls it a weed! -- and I moved it and here it is, surviving, a little piece of my family history. I love it for that.

Our little garden serves us well, and I jokingly now call it Peapod Farm, since in my dreamland I live on a farm. We get a suitable amount of produce from it, cutting down our vegetable costs each summer and allowing us to indulge in more produce than usual. I would love a larger garden, but that will come in time. Despite our prolific planting of tomatoes, we don't have any to can -- we eat every single one in this house.

I would like a "cute" garden, but right now we don't have much cuteness. We have a small net fence around it to keep out the deer, who like to visit for a midnight snack. And that white fence is front is actually an old thing my husband made for around our Christmas tree when Big Girl was little. It serves as a way to gate off the front. It's starting to get a little rotted, but it still works. Ideally, I would like a lovely little white fence around the whole thing with a charming gate and arch, but fences are an unnecessary expense in our grand scheme of things right now. Instead, I'm opting for function vs. fashion.

(But I do have a pig. Not a real one. A fake one. See the little statue in the middle of my garden? That's my pig. Petunia Pig of Peapod Farm. She's the guardian of the whole operation. I'd really like a sheep too. And another sheepdog -- a real one. And possible a chicken or two. Possibly fake or real. But I digress.)

As far as upgrading my garden "cute" factor? As I always say, a girl can dream, can't she? When it's time to afford some fashion to add to my function, I will. Here are some photos of veggie gardens in which I find inspiration, courtesy of my Pinterest board "In the Garden"....

Susan Branch's picket fence garden.
I love Susan Branch! Everything she does is cute.

Source: susanbranch.com via Kellie on Pinterest

Favorite move garden ever!
From "It's Complicated" with Meryl Streep....
I read somewhere that most of it was fake.
I still love it though, particularly it's pretty style and the teepee tomato cages.

Source: lamaisonfou.blogspot.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I would love to work in this space. It's inviting!

Source: homesteadrevival.blogspot.com via Kellie on Pinterest

A proper fence to keep out deer!

Source: sunset.com via Kellie on Pinterest





This is so cute but not practical for my yard or to keep critters out!



Source: thischickcooks.net via Kellie on Pinterest

The Posie Gets Cozy garden. Everything she does is adorable, including her first veggie garden.
I love following her adventures with this. She planted a lot from seed.
There are even better photos of the garden growing on her blog right now.

Source: rosylittlethings.typepad.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I hope your veggie gardens are coming along.

Thanks for visiting Peapod Farm!

Finally!



Not fancy, but functional.


For years, I have been wishing for some boundary to our front yard. Our grass just runs right into both next door neighbors' yards, and not like I want to seem un-neighborly, but I would like a little privacy every now and then.

And the need for a boundary is greater now that I have two active twin toddlers who need a visual reminder of where they can and can not go.

So, after years of talking about it, and dreaming about it, we went out and purchased plants to put on our property line. I would love a little white picket fence, but our neighborhood isn't a fence neighborhood, and the fences are much more expensive than some greenery. And even though I would have liked some very high-brow boxwood hedge, we went with a quick solution that we could afford:

The very common aborvitae.

We bought a bunch of small ones -- very small -- but because they are small they will likely establish their roots faster and I know they will grow like weeds, since aborvitae seem to do. Someone remarked that it will be years before they provide true privacy, but it's OK, since I know I will blink my eyes and they will be 6 feet tall.

We managed to get one side of the yard planted this weekend, and it feels like a major accomplishment after years of talking about this. Hopefully the other side will be tackled by next weekend, although it's going to be a very rainy week for us in the Northeast. But we are halfway there, and after a few bags of mulch, the sides of our yard will be definitely defined for the little ones.

In other garden talk, I was so happy to see that "My Yard Goes Disney" returned to HGTV on Friday night! We love watching this show as a family, and Friday's premiere episode was definitely a very cute design that our whole family loved. They made a mini-golf course in the backyard! It was adorable and someone our family would love. The course even had an outdoor train track and a castle doll house. Love, love, love!

You can see more photos of this "My Yard Goes Disney" makeover at
 http://www.hgtv.com/landscaping/magical-backyard-makeovers/pictures/index.html

The show is on Friday nights at 8 p.m. We set our DVR and watch it as a family and always enjoy talking about whether this would be a makeover we would want or not. This one was definitely one we would want! (You can see some past episodes' video here.)

Rocks in the Garden

One of my currently mostly-green gardens.
Hopefully morning glories and moonflowers will be spreading up that trellis soon.

I adore garden decor... Little statues, birdbaths, stepping stones, etc. are so fun to add to a garden and add some personality. (I say that with caution, as one doesn't want a circus of garden statues in one's yard... but a few cute touches here and there are nice to break up the greenery while waiting for perennials to bloom, right? :)

Garden decor can put a dent in one's wallet, so sometimes you need to be a little creative. The little space in front of my beat-up bird bath needed "something" but I didn't want to put another plant in this garden.

The solution:

Rocks. That's right -- rocks! Rocks totally rock, right? Little stones add interest and texture and are -- wait for it -- FREE! Anyone with a child knows kids love to collect stones and rocks and all things nature, so why not put those buckets filled with rocks to good use. Most of these are from trips and travels and beaches and rivers and dirt roads. They fill in a space. They add some interest, with varying colors and shapes. (See the heart-shaped ones?) They stand-out on the mulch. And they look like a path to the ol' bird bath and give it a little more pizazz than being lost in the sea of green.

I always loved how Diane Keaton's character in Something's Gotta Give collected white beach rocks. Such a simple thing, but easy as well. So if you have a bucket or jar or bunch of rocks somewhere, give them a home in your garden. In the fall, put them back in your bucket so they don't get lost under snow and leaves, and in the spring, plant a new patch of rocks back in the garden.

Garden Dreams

One of my gardens, June 2011

It seems that spring has officially sprung, as they say. For a little while, I was not sure if we really were here yet; our winter in the Northeast was so mild that I kept thinking that we were going to get an Easter snow or something. But we didn't. And it seems that the good weather will be staying now.

Every year, at that first glimpse of spring, my thoughts turn to the yard and gardens and outdoors. I always have grand plans, most of which are not executed due to two obstacles: Time and money. But nevertheless, a girl can dream. Pinterest has been a great source of dreaming about gardening, among other things, so I've been pinning and pinning and dreaming and dreaming. I know some plant purchases will be in my future, particularly for the edges of my front yard, for some much needed privacy for the neighbors. And I will like do some "house cleaning" of the garden, moving a few things, tidying things up, etc.

I've started the tidying while doing the dreaming, so I thought I'd share some of my favorite things for the Peapod Garden Plan 2012, as I will call it.

Of course, decorating is leading my plans. First, I need to make this:

My Flower Pot Person will be much cuter than this one. I swear.

Source: the-artistic-garden.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I have been coveting a Flower Pot Person in my yard ever since I spotted one at the Cherry Hill Cottage. Her flower pot lady is so adorable! (You MUST click on the link to see Toots. I will be making her twin, apron and all.) I have yet to get out and buy all the pots needed to make it, but this year might be the year. I just have to figure out where they will be sitting in my yard permanently, since once you make one, it's pretty difficult to move it.

And how fun is this:

Sittin' pretty!

Source: re-nest.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I used to have a similar thing in my front yard garden. The chair was painted red, but it rotted from being rained on so much. I love the colors in this, and I think I need to find another old chair to put in my garden again. And I need to figure out how to keep it from falling apart.

I need to spruce up some shady areas of my backyard, so I've been pinning shade ideas a lot. I need low maintenance, because I don't want to be trimming and clipping and weeding any more than I already have to do. Hostas clearly fit that bill, and I'm thinking planting different varieties in an area for interest might be nice. And don't they cover up a wide area pretty sufficiently?

Hostas, hostas, everywhere: Get a few, keep dividing for many!

Source: americanhostasociety.org via Kellie on Pinterest

Here's another pretty shade shot. I love the little accent wall. Did I mention I love stone walls? I do.

Source: flickr.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I also have this disgusting ugly hill in my backyard that is not landscaped. When we moved here when we were married, the woods came practically right up to our house, right where this hill now starts. My husband cleared back the woods considerably, mostly so we could have room to do stuff in our backyard, like put in a swing set for the kids, have a garden, etc. The result is we are left with an ugly hill with weeds growing on it. I want to landscape it, somehow, but the budget is too tight to spend thousands on the retaining walls and bushes of my dreams, not to mention that it would be a huge job that I cannot undertake with two toddlers. I'm forever thinking of ways to create a low-maintenance and attractive solution to this problem. I recently pinned this photo:

A pretty landscape for a hill

Source: houzz.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I love the rocks at the very bottom -- we have a lot of large rocks at the bottom of our hill, and this might be a way to incorporate them into a plan without moving them too much! I love the different colored shrubs on the hill too. I'd like to get started on our hill re-do sometime in the near future because, honestly, when I am in my backyard with the kids looking at that hill, I want to cringe. I hate looking at it. There are a lot of things I would like to change about my house/yard, but most I can live with and "prettify" on my own. This? Ugh. Despise! Disgusted! I need to fix it somehow without breaking the bank so I can be proud of my backyard.

And speaking of rocks and stones:

Rocks and curves and textures add interest!

Source: tradgardsflow.blogspot.com via Kellie on Pinterest

Rocks rock! This pic made me realize I need more stone, more rocks, in my garden. Little stones, big rocks, rows of edging rocks... It just makes it all look so interesting. I'm planning on digging in my rock pile this spring and putting them to good use. Plus rocks, when found in the yard, are very friendly to my garden budget. They are free! But that said, I'll probably purchase a few bags of rocks too to put in little spots here and there. (Mental note: I must pin more pics of rocks!)

Of course, since I am in the dreaming mode, I have to include MY DREAM SHED. A photo of this shed has been on the front of my fridge for years. Years. When the Family Handyman issue arrived with this on it several years ago, this became my dream shed and I never looked back. Nothing has ever topped it for me. Someday my wonderful husband will find it in his heart to build this for our backyard. I've saved the plans. I guess I just need to save the money.

The Schoolhouse Shed, which fulfills all my Laura Ingalls Wilder Dreams.

Source: familyhandyman.com via Kellie on Pinterest

I have a million other pins to tell you all about, but I think I'll save them for many other posts as I get ready for my garden season. I can cover veggie gardening, fairy gardens, a pet memorial garden. I'll get to them all. And I'll likely report on all my garden experiments throughout the year. Stay tuned, and look for another garden post later this week.

Want to follow my Pinterest board In the Garden?
 You can find it here.