Inch by inch and....

Row by row, we're gonna make our garden grow!

We are trying once again to find the sunniest spot on our yard to grow a few things. This is our third spot/try and we have high hopes for tomatoes, basil, lemon balm, lavender, and thyme. Yay for our mini garden!

beautiful

I've kept up with having flower in the house most weeks...it really does bring a smile to my face to have fresh color around! And this time I was blessed to pick these from our peony bushes in our back yard. They were amazing. So THANKFUL for flowers...simple treasures.

Crepe Myrtle Murder

Stop the trimming...save the tree!

Okay so I am NOT a tree hugger, but it definitely does my heart NO good to see this beautiful tree being trimmed improperly. It just errks me...Crepe Myrtles are BEAUTIFUL trees here in the south and I wish that folks would trim to right. Sigh... Don't listen to the commercial companies, call a nursery or ask someone that truly knows how to care for plants/trees.

A quick lesson: see below-wrong way to trim. If you want a shrub instead of a tree, then dig it up and plant a shrub. Have you ever seen someone top a maple or oak tree? No. Look at all those knots where the tree has been trimmed, trimmed, trimmed. Normal trees should have smooth growing branches!

See this image? The correct trimming is to cut approx. 6 inches off each branch so that the seed pod is removed. The gray part shows correct trimming...

This photo is from somewhere in Dallas. BEAUTIFUL Crepe Myrtle's that have been grown and trimmed well.

Two reasons to trim well, 1-more flowers are produced when the tree is healthy. 2-the tree branches are strong enough to hold the heavy flowers especially when it rains therefore no branches snap off.

Gorgeous!

Love them!

And if for some reason you have trimmed your crepe myrtles a bit to much....I will still be your friend! But now you know for next time.

And my neighbor just had theirs 'trimmed'. I was going to mention something to her, but I think I will just keep trying to get to know her and be a good neighbor and not start a disagreement over trees. After all they are JUST trees. :)

Update: our garden

Here is our update on the garden growth! After about 14 days almost everything is up and growing. :)

We are excited and getting ready to put our seedlings outside!

step one of our garden

We are doing another garden this year and opted to try to start a few things from seed. Mostly because we want Katie (and Owen) to be a part of the process from seed to table. Normally we like to go to the State Farmers Market and buy some plants since they are easier to maintain and we love buying from the farmers. But we are trying our hand at our own this year. (we tried from seed two years ago and it pretty much failed so there is always the chance we will go to the Farmer's Market anyway, later on down the road. :)

And as you see, Katie also had some input into getting some other seeds...'princess' flowers! (the above photo) Katie and Daddy's date was to grow some flowers-so they are maintaining the mini flower greenhouse as well as the veggies.

Saturday morning we planted our seeds in a mock greenhouse. When I say we, if truth be told it was mostly daddy planting. :)

A few of the veggies that came in the starter kit. We are excited for everything to begin to germinate.
*Katie and I just checked and we already have flowers, lettuce and a bean coming up!
More updates soon.