If you have been reading my blog for any length of time, you know that our attempts at most types of gardening here in our current home have been very lackluster.   When I do get things to grow, they get eaten by unseen pests (still don’t know what exactly it is that eats my basil and mint!), or what is more typical, they just don’t thrive!   Most would say “oh, you just don’t have a green thumb”….but I know that that isn’t true, because for many years at our old house I had a very large very successful garden.    I think that the biggest issue here is the soil.   The soil at our house is VERY poor, and I have paid a small fortune to amend the little bit that I HAVE gotten to successfully grow some things.  SO, I am going to try one more thing and I’m praying that the Lord will make this last effort thrive :)   I’m going to try my hand at square foot gardening.   My honey has agreed to build some garden boxes for me in our front flower bed.  I was surveying the area yesterday, and I think that I can fit two 4 x 4′ boxes and one 2 x 8′ box in that flower bed and still keep the rose bushes (we will have to keep them trimmed back, which is FINE with me!!!).   My plan is to do tomato plants, basil, and another herb or two in the 2 x 8′ bed.   One of the 4 x 4′ bed will be peppers, onions, japanese eggplant, and kirby cucumbers (or if I can find another “heirloom” variety of cucumber that will be good for table use AND pickling).   The other 4 x 4′ bed will be my “salad bed”….I will grow radishes, lettuces, other herbs, etc in that bed.    I would also LOVE to try to find a dwarf orange or dwarf lemon tree to put in the corner of the back yard.

I am really excited to start this endeavor in the next few weeks!!!!   Hoping to possibly buy the lumber for the beds in a week or two, and have them completed by the end of the month so that I can get my “salad bed” started.  Everything else will not be able to be started until danger of a late  frost is gone (late March-ish).

I found this article this morning through Crystal’s blog at Biblical Womanhood .

This article touches on exactly what I have mentioned in a couple of other posts here and here.    I do believe that God has instructed us to care for his creation.   Not only in the environmental portion of thinking, but also as in taking care of His most prized creation, the creation that was created in HIS image ….. man.   And what better way, in this day and age of poisons to kill bugs, genetically modified foods, chemically altered sweeteners, artificial chemicals in the majority of the foods that you find in the corner grocery store, to take care of “man” than to eat organic, natural, whole foods (as close to the form that God created them as possible).      One step further is to keep this creation in good physical shape….exercising daily, if you are overweight, getting to a healthy weight for your frame…..why do I believe this is important?   Because it is being a good steward.    And God shows examples of being a good steward in Christ’s parables and instructs believers to be good stewards of what He has given us….that includes life and breath in my mind!

I would welcome discussion here about what you all think too!  But, like Crystal mentioned in her blog entry, let’s play nice (and if you haven’t left a comment before, it will come to me to be approved, after that your comments shouldn’t need to be approved anymore).

This is one of the three insects that we found in our kitchen today.      The other two insects were same shape and looked exactly the same, except they didn’t have the red “shields”, they were all the grayish/brown color.    Can you help us identify this bugs?

The flower bed right outside my front door that has the rose bushes (and my basil) is in the process of being made into an herb garden, and I will also put some large pots of some sort there for some seasonal plantings.   Anyhow, I do not have an eye for garden design (AT ALL).    Would love it if some of my friends and blog readers would be willing to share their favorite photos, garden sites, etc or just give suggestions…… Here’s a photo of the bed…..

The bed is approx. 8′ x 18′.    And other than the roses and the basil in the front right hand corner, everything else is weed….I’m hoping to spend a few minutes out there this morning pulling weeds.      Would love any and all suggestions!

I thought I’d share some more of my garden (such as it is), and give my weekly update of my mint

In our backyard we have lots of shade trees and shrubbery, but amoungst that is a plum tree that has a wonderfully sweet and juicy variety of plums, and 2 years ago I planted a red raspberry “stick” (bare root plant), and it is just this year producing berries, such as they are   Here are some photos…..

Plum tree…

Plums on the tree :):

My raspberry bush:

Now to travel back to the front yard…..

Right outside my door are my cilantro….

and my aloe vera (used often for cuts, scrapes, burns, bites and boo boos)…..

If you look closely, you can see the “baby” plant shoots coming up…..

A little further down the front walk, before you turn the corner to the driveway is my basil…..

And last, but certainly not least!  …..  My “I’m smarter than the snails” saga mint!

How is your garden growing?

But it’s done!   This is a job that has needed to be done for quite some time.  We borrowed a hedge trimmer from some friends and got out there  and  got the job done.   I SHOULD have taken a “before” picture so that you could see the dramatic difference, but I forgot to.

Week 1

Week 2 (a week’s growth, as well as the addition of another plant)

Week 3 (this is even after cutting some mint to use in a recipe last weekend!)

Yesterday one of my real life friends who reads my blog stopped by to drop something off for me (THANK YOU SO MUCH Momma, I had my first glass of kefir this morning and really enjoyed it! ) and she commented on how good my mint is looking. I laughed and said “You’ve been reading my blog” So I figured I’d post an update for you all….it is official…..

I am smarter than the snails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for me

The mint is looking fantastic!

This week I also purchased 3 beautiful basil plants, and got them into the ground this morning….

Yes, there are weeds that need to be pulled

Here’s what’s in the rest of that bed….soon to be more herbs, and Lord willing a tomato plant or 3

I’m determined that this year I will be getting my garden beds, and yard started into a beautiful eco-friendly place. But it does require a lot of work, and a good amount of money, so I’m going to babystep my way through it! I am determined to spend 15 minutes a day, each day, in the yard doing SOMETHING……

So, how is your garden growing?

Hi all,

Last week I posted a story and picture about my adventures with growing mint in our “new” house (we’ve lived here for 3 years now) . I THINK that I have finally gotten smarter than the critters in the micro-environment called my yard At least I hope so!

Here’s a photo after a week…..

Oh ya! I also added another mint plant….for Mother’s Day my family got me another mint plant (another peppermint), and a cilantro plant (photo below). Anyhow, the mint is really doing well, so far, in my window box. I go out and water it every morning, and check for critters (aka snails) and then I enjoy the greenery from my kitchen window while I’m at the kitchen sink…..here’s that view

And here’s the cilantro that the family got me for Mother’s Day…..I replanted it in a little pot that our AWANA Club Commander’s wife painted for us as a thank you for helping them with a meal when her hubby had open heart surgery in January.

Not a bad start to my herb garden, huh? Next I want to add a few basil plants, some oregano, rosemary, and lavendar. The flower bed that is right outside my kitchen window (you can see the corner of the dirt in this photo) is going to be my herb garden, as well as where I plant some seasonal things like lettuces, peppers and tomatoes. There are two large, mature rose bushes there now, and I don’t want to take those out…..they’ll be lovely with the herbs and veggies growing there.

Before we moved to the house that we live in now, we lived in the country in a small house on a cattle ranch for 11 years. About 1 or maybe 2 years into our living there I somehow acquired a mint plant. My next door neighbor there had a very very prolific mint plant and she kept hers in a shady area under a dripping faucet in her yard. So I did the same, I kept mine in a pot under a dripping faucet…..had the same plant for all the time that we lived there…..it was HUGE hearty, and DELICIOUS mint! I trimmed the plant back several times a year, and it was just perfect. We moved here, and within just a few weeks the entire plant had been consumed by snails!!!!!!!! Well, at least I think that is what ate it….not entirely certain. I kept it in a shady area, under a dripping faucet (ok, does EVERYONE have a drippy outside faucet, or is it only D and I that seem to find the houses with drippy outside faucets :)) and within a few short weeks it was decimated. I have tried mint every year since then, and it has all been eaten by snails or something. SO, I am hoping that I have outsmarted the snails…..I have a window box just outside my kitchen window. I haven’t used it since moving here 3 years ago, so I thought….well, the mint will be harder to find there No, it’s not under a drippy faucet, but I can go out and give it a good soaking each morning……. I bought a beautiful, young peppermint plant at a farmer’s market a couple of weeks ago. It has been in my kitchen windowsill since I brought it home (I wanted to enjoy it for a little while before possibly losing it to the critters outside again). This morning while watering the roses outside my kitchen window, I decided to go ahead and transplant it today……

Here’s my mint….I will update you all with it’s progress!