Gardening with my family - the payoff.

Earlier this year my husband and I decided to finally put our dream of raised beds and a picket fence for our front yard.  When he planned to take the same week off in February that our kids had off from school we figured it would be another mild week of our strange winter weather.  Up until then we'd had one short spell of unusually cold weather in November, followed by above normal temps. 

Then the week of planned garden renovation came and of course it snowed and was below freezing, turning what we knew would be a physically difficult job into an even more difficult job once the ground froze, the gravel pile froze and it was just too cold some days to do work.  But we knew that in the summer we'd be really glad that the hard part was done and we could then enjoy the fun part.

And we were right.  It was worth all that hard work just 6 months ago!  Now the payoff isn't only picking fresh vegetables, but the other things our family has gotten out of it. 

For example my hope that my husband would take on some of the vegetable garden chores so he could find some relaxation in standing and watering or pulling a few weeds (believe me, it can be relaxing).  I've seen him many times checking the garden, work bag still on his shoulder, before he's come in from his very long work day.  Last evening I looked up to see him grabbing a pair of garden scissors  from the front potting bench.  When I went out to see what he was up to, he told me he needed to cut the flowers of of the greens and lettuce so they didn't go to seed.  He said, "What's it called?  Bolting?"  Never did I think he would be that interested.  He's also been having a great time going out and picking chard and other greens to cook with.

Another great thing my oldest daughter said to me the other night was how it was fun to have a "job" that was going out and picking the green beans, patty pan squash and blueberries.  Her and her little sister laughed and were so excited as they found more and more to pick.  Much more fun that taking out the trash or cleaning your room I guess.

The garden is far from perfect, not quite everything went as planned.  I had hoped for more edible flowers, but not everything flourished as I hoped.  But I did get some pretty Dahlias, and they are as pretty as I thought they would look blooming among the greens.

We're still waiting for the tomatoes to turn red.  The Littlest Gardener occasionally will find a red cherry tomato and will feed it to me as I garden.  I've never been fed while weeding before!

I'm sure some would say the beds are overcrowded, but how could I say no to Sweet Pea when she went to the trouble of digging up the plants and bringing them home from school.  She started them in science class for a class garden.  She was very proud of the squash and tomato plants and they are all doing well.

Never would I have expected back when we started the garden project back in February, that Sweet Pea would use her Christmas Amazon.com gift card to buy 'Pumpkin Peppers' seeds.  She did that all on her own and was very excited to show me the seeds when they arrived.  Now the interesting ornamental peppers are starting to turn orange.

Something else interesting I've found, we'd never seen evidence of the garden fairies in the front yard before.  Now I've started finding signs of them this summer.  Guess they like the changes too.

Since we've finished our garden renovation we've also ended up with a whole other place to spend with each other and family and friends.  We've had many meals in our new eating space, as well as somewhere to just sit and talk.

So gardening in the front yard has had a better payoff than more gardening space for flowers and food.  It's taught us about new things, some we didn't even know we were interested in, a place for imagination and play and fun.  I hope you can find some of the same joys gardening with your family.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

The picket fence is finally white!

After two months of waiting to paint the picket fence, we finally got it finished today!  I started on it Friday and spent 6 hours painting, my mom came to help for a couple of hours and we had fun visiting while we painted.  Then Saturday my husband and I got the rest done.  I'm so glad all the hard part is finally done and it looks just like I pictured it would.

Gracie waiting for a visitor.  Luckily she's not quite smart enough to figure out that she could squeeze through, so we can never leave her out front alone just in case she realizes it.  She has been so happy to run around the front yard and stick her nose out to say hi to neighbors walking by.

Awhile ago I sprinkled Bachelor Buttons and Poppy seeds around and they are starting to sprout.  As it warms I'll sprinkle more annual seeds around the fence.

The arbor that my husband and father-in-law built is all painted.

The Littlest Gardener was following me along to tell me about the Ladybug she had found, the first we've seen this year.  (The hanging baskets with plastic are our neighbors, not sure what he's got planted in them this year.)

I love seeing the white fence now when I look out our front window.

We're trying roses in these large pots and we'll see how they do.  The ground here is probably not the best for roses, clay with poor drainage and this is where it starts to slope.

I can't wait until the fence is covered in flowers this summer!

We actually hit 70 degrees today and both my husband and I got a bit of a sunburn, I think we forgot how hot the sun can get since it's been so long since we felt it this warm.  It looks like the Easter bunny will be hiding the eggs inside, the rain is supposed to return tomorrow.  

Happy Easter!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Front garden update - almost there!

As I was sorting through my pictures for this post I could hear the movie that the Littlest Gardener was watching, 'The Princess and the Frog' (a very cute movie that takes place in the south) and the song that was playing was "Almost There" (click here to hear the song).  It seemed like the perfect song for how I feel about this front yard project that we've been working on.  We really are almost there!
My husband's family was here for the past 5 days, and what a great visit it was.  As I mentioned in my previous post my father-in-law was a cabinet maker and my husband spent a lot of time helping in his shop while he was growing up.  They had a lot of fun working on this project together.  I know my husband learned a few new tricks from his dad too.  Apparently rubbing soap (bar soap works best but liquid will work too) on screws makes drilling them into wood easier.

The set up in the garage.  I had an idea of how I wanted the arbor to look and told my FIL.  I got the inspiration from seeing a pergola he had built for his older son that lives in California.

The only time I got nervous was when I looked outside and saw my 77 year old FIL on top of the ladder as they shortened the posts.  Here they were figuring out what length they wanted top to be.

The finished arbor.  They primed it in the garage to make painting it a little easier later.  This way there will only need to be one coat of paint applied.

I love how it turned out and can't wait until there is a rose and or Clematis growing over it.

The proud builders.

The gate from the driveway.  We plan to put a couple of pickets up on the right side, but that can be done another day.  That way the yard should be pretty well enclosed so our dog can be out there with us and not tied up like she usually is while we're out front.

The old washtub I shared the other day is almost full of water from all of the rain.  I think nature decided for me that this will be a water garden.  A couple people mentioned they had a problem with metal washtubs getting too hot for a water garden, but I'm pretty sure our weather stays cool enough that it won't be a problem.

So, as you can see from the pictures we really are almost there.  All we need to do is give the fence a nice coat of paint and we're done.  Except for the planting, but that will be fun, not work.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

The front garden in March.

I shared pictures in my previous post of how the front yard is progressing.  I was unable to show any of the front yard at the end of Sunday because it was dark when we were finished.  Yesterday I lucked out with another nice day, and so I made the most of it.  I was able to get some more clean up done, pruned the roses and unburied the plants from the soil that had been dumped on them.  It felt so good to be out there doing the fun stuff rather than the hard work that we've been doing.

As you walk out the front door this is what you see.  The entry garden is on the left.

I was inspired by Jenni's spring containers on her blog and made a trip to the nursery so I could get a couple planted.

The mostly shade entry garden.  I finally got the Hellebores and Sarcococca planted.  I've got lots more to do in this bed, but at least it's not covered in pine needles and leaves anymore.

This used to be part of the big front border, now it is it's own separate bed.  There's lots of empty space in here just waiting for plants.

The other side of the bed above still needs some work.  The weeping cherry is getting close to blooming.  Many of the shrubs in here are starting to leaf out.

The other side of what used to be the big front border.  I guess I need to come up with names for them now.  This might be called the hummingbird and butterfly garden since so many of their favorites are in this area.  Our neighbors have pruned their Weeping Willow into an "interesting" shape.  He's trying to keep it small, but I think they chose the wrong tree for that.

From this side of the bed you can see the two pear trees.  They need to be staked badly, but both look to be close to blooming.

Looking through the two beds.  I can't wait until they are overflowing with flowers.  Even though I took out the middle of the bed, I feel like I have more planting space now.

My husband's family is coming at the end of the week.  I was hoping more would be blooming, but the garden is still behind.  Hopefully now that the weather is starting to stay a little warmer the plants will start growing faster, I'm anxious to see some more flowers!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

More front garden progress...

Sometimes the amount of work there is to do seems so easy and like it won't take too long, but then reality sets in and before you know it you're in the dark.
There was not a minute of free time for us this weekend.  We all woke up early to watch Sweet Pea's team play their last basketball game of the season.  Her 7th grade team beat an 8th grade team by 11 points and she played great, a fun way to start the day for sure.  As we drove up to the house we saw a dump truck parked and waiting for us to dump the soil we ordered.

Luckily this is what the sky looked like when we drove up and stayed pretty much that way all weekend.

Here are the 8 yards of soil we ordered.  It smelled so good!  Nothing like the smell of good soil.  Those piles didn't seem so bad at first, but after 2 days of shoveling it seemed like it would never end.  And when it was dark and we were still shoveling it on Sunday I didn't care how good it smelled anymore either, I just wanted it gone.  And it had to be finished since it was blocking my car in the garage.

One of the jobs my husband did was to put these edgers in along the driveway and sidewalk.  One reason was to make the edge look nicer and the other was to raise the soil a few inches.  I really like how it looks.

The soil underneath is mostly clay so the extra depth will hopefully allow to mix the good soil in some when planting new plants.

The smaller bed was filled by the end of Saturday.  I plan to grow Scarlet Runner Beans on the trellis.  On the trellis by the fence I moved over a Clematis that had been in the front bed.

We ran into some problems with the larger bed which took time we weren't planning on.  My husband had reinforced several places along side the beds, but it still bowed out a bit when it was filled.  We had to dig out soil along the edge and then reinforce it even more.  This was filled by the middle of Sunday.

The last panel was put in place!  We ran out of time to finish the gates, hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have a few hours to finish that and the arbor.  Then all that is left will be to paint the fence white.

While my husband worked on drilling holes in the concrete to set the last two posts, I started  filling up the raised beds on our side yard.  The only mistake we ever made over here was using pea gravel around the beds rather than crushed.  It's impossible to wheel anything over pea gravel so all the soil had to be carried in using large tubs.  That was quite the workout since all four beds needed a good 6 inches or more of soil.  All I kept thinking about as I carried the tubs was that I won't feel guilty eating lots of chocolate tonight!

All the beds in the front yard got a nice new layer of this good garden soil, which has quite a bit of compost mixed in.  It was dark when we finished so I don't have pictures of the finished beds.  Tomorrow is the last dry day predicted so I need to go and unbury all the plants that had soil dumped on them in the dark.  What a relief to have that done!

I was hoping we'd get the gates up this weekend but we ran out of time and daylight.  I'm still very proud and excited about what we got accomplished.  Now at least I can get planting!
Luckily the girls both got to do something fun while we did the hard work.  Sweet Pea went to see "Gnomeo and Juliet" with her friend and the Littlest Gardener went to my parents home.  When my Mom brought her back home she brought us homemade meatball sandwiches and apple crisp.  What a great way to finish the weekend!
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Doesn't everyone put fences up in the snow?

I complained in my previous post about the cold and snowy weather that we've had.  We tried to work around it the best we could and are just so happy that we got so much done the previous weekend.  It's frustrating when you have the time and the supplies but don't have the weather.  I'm sure we could have gotten everything finished by the end of this weekend had it not been record breaking cold weather.  But enough of the complaining, instead I'll focus on what we did get accomplished over the last several days.

We have one of the grow lights up (and a heat mat) and started seeds on February 22.  Within two days we had seeds germinating, including the tomatoes and cantaloupe seeds from Diana.  After this picture was taken we started 2 types of Sweet Peas, and Dahlia seeds from Alison.  All four of us have been checking on the seeds on a regular basis.  I plan to get more started in another week or two.

A few days ago knowing it would be too cold to work outside, we thought we'd paint picket panels inside the garage.  We got almost 4 done and decided it was just too cold for that.

 We awoke to snow on Friday.  So of course we thought we'd start putting up the panels.  Doesn't everyone go out and start putting a fence together in 30 degree weather?  We got a few panels up and decided that would be enough.

 At the end of Friday we'd put up three panels.  Saturday we worked in the cold again and got three more panels installed.  Actually two of those had to be custom built by my husband because the slope was too steep to use the premade panels.

And this is how it looks right now.  I'm very excited with how it's turning out.  The slope on the far side of the yard made for lots of challenges getting the fence installed.  Our yard slopes down to the sidewalk and then down to the left when you face our house.

 The view from the "court yard".  Soon there will be a gate and arbor where the tall posts are.

Today it was in the low 40's while we worked.  It was surprising just how warm that felt after the last few days we worked outside.  The rain started pouring after we finished today.  I can't wait until the whole fence is painted.

If all goes well next weekend we hope to get the last panel in, the two gates up and the soil in the beds.  We're still hoping we can have it all finished before the in-laws are here the weekend after that.  The fence painting will have to wait for a couple of months or until we get some warmer and drier weather.

All words and photos property of A Gardener in Progress.

Fence posts are in!

We were able to get much more accomplished than I thought we would today.  According to the forecast this was going to be the last dry day for awhile and then it looks like we'll probably see some snow for a few days.  Now I don't mind if it snows since we still have next weekend to finish.  My husband dug all 12 post holes by hand since we had to be careful of cable lines that we knew were near by.  (Make sure you have all utilities marked before you dig, otherwise you could make an expensive mistake.)  Luckily they were marked correctly and we never found any as we dug.

 There was lots of measuring done between the sidewalk and from post to post so that it will be evenly spaced.  Good thing my husband was in charge of that part because I get too excited to get everything done and forget about spacing.

 Just setting the posts in the holes was exciting to have an idea of how it would look.

 Here are those same posts set in concrete.  At this point we did lots of leveling to be sure the posts were in straight.

 We'll be putting two more posts in on the walkway to the house.  They will be installed with special brackets and screws that go right through the concrete.

 The two tall posts will become an arbor and a gate.  Our yard slopes downhill to the left as you're looking at the house which made getting things even a little tricky.

The fun part of hanging the picket panels and getting the soil in the beds and around the fence will hopefully happen next weekend if the weather cooperates.

The Great Backyard Bird Count finished today, but we really didn't have a day to spend much time counting which is too bad since there were a lot of birds out today.  I didn't get a chance to take any pictures either.  We only had about 15 minutes each day to really count which is the minimum time, but we'll still turn our results in.   There weren't any unusual birds for our area and as I predicted we saw lots of American Robins.  I'll try to put our count up sometime this week.