BACK FROM ARIZONA…

Well, I’m back from Arizona. (Actually, I’ve been back for a few days – I’m just now getting around to posting this). I was totally amazed at how much the Butterfly Garden had changed in a week! WOW! The purple sage plant just went wild and would you believe that I already have a Black-Eyed Susan that has bloomed? And the plants have just grown so tall! Even the Water Garden is looking pretty good! (Yes – I missed all of the Iris blooms. I guess I’ll see them next year.) Here are a few pictures:

The Vegetable Garden is looking good, too – but it just seems like it’s not growing nearly as fast as last year’s. The peas and carrots are getting big, as well as the pumpkins. I’m really surprised the cucumbers and sunflowers aren’t farther along. Jason says that the tomato plants are already getting blooms on them – but they’re not that big yet? We are supposed to have rain Thursday night and Friday night, so hopefully that will get everything a boost in the growing department. Here’s a picture of the Vegetable Garden and the pumpkins:

PURPLE IRIS

How exciting that the purple Iris that Jennifer gave me is just about ready to open! I’m excited to see what it looks like! Of course, I leave for Arizona on Sunday and will be gone for a week…I wonder if the Iris blooms will still be open when I return? Here’s a picture of what it looks like today:

We’ve gotten a LOT of rain, this week! I’m sure our plants will really start taking off now that they’ve gotten plenty of rain and sunshine! With the exception of the Iris, I really don’t have too many other changes to speak of. The plants in the Butterfly Garden are getting bigger all the time. The vegetable garden is off to a slow start. I may try to get a picture of it tomorrow, before I leave. Here’s a quick picture of the Butterfly Garden:

Well…that’s all I have for now. I hope to have plenty more updates in the near future!
 

COLOR IN THE GARDEN

Over the weekend, Jason and I picked out some flowers to add to the Butterfly Garden. It looks much better now that we’ve filled in most of the empty spots. The plants may look small now, but keep in mind that they will fill out in just a few months. (Just look at the first section of the garden – remember when they were just itty bitty plants?)

Also, Jason put two goldfish in his water garden. They must be really scared, because we haven’t seen them all weekend! (Thus the reason why I have not posted pictures of them.) The water plants are doing really well, though. The water lilies are already opening up and it’s only been about a week since we put them in there!

The vegetable garden is still looking good. (I didn’t get any pictures yet – there haven’t been *that* many changes!) Jason did give the plants some vegetable food yesterday, so I bet they’ll start taking off real soon. At least, when he did that last year, that’s when the plants started growing like crazy. I’m looking forward to seeing some changes.

Anyway…here are our gardening pictures from the weekend:

 

 

And I know this isn’t really gardening-related, but I thought it’d be fun to write about, anyway. Jason purchased a big kite on Saturday. While we were relaxing in the backyard yesterday, he thought he’d try it out:
 

SLOW START

I’m sort of skipping all of the prep work that Jason and I did. It’s boring to write about and so much easier to talk about things going on presently, than to have to go back and try to figure out what happened when, etc. So here’s where we’re at:

About two weeks ago, I planted the seeds in my butterfly garden and they’ve slowly started to sprout up. The thing is, I’m not getting as many sprouts as I’d hoped…and a lot of what’s popping up look like weeds. So, I’m starting to lean towards going to the nursery and buying a few flowers to fill in the many empty spaces that I have in there. I may give it a little more time…but as of right now, I’m not too pleased with the results. The 5 plants that Jennifer gave me are doing GREAT! They are already about 3 or 4 times the size they were one month ago and they look so green and healthy! They are almost the same size as the existing plants I had from last year! Here’s a quick picture:

The vegetable garden is doing really well! The sunflowers, cucumbers, peas, carrots, beans and pumpkins have sprouted many seedlings. The squash and corn are a little on the slow side, but we have to remember that they don’t get as much sun as everything else. Everything is looking very healthy! We did have an incident, where a pepper and bean plant were chomped on by a rabbit. We didn’t know it at first, and thought the birds had gotten to them, prompting us to put up old CD’s to scare away the birds. But a day or two later, I actually saw the rabbit in the yard and he squeezed through a hole in the fence surrounding the garden and started chewing away at some of the plants. I chased him away and we mended the fence and haven’t had any problems since then. (He was so cute and I hated to have to shoo him away…but he was eating my favorite pepper plant!)

 

 

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INTRODUCTION

This is just my way of journaling the progress of my butterfly garden and Jason’s vegetable garden. We’re not super great at this and right now, we’re just taking it one day at a time and trying to learn from our mistakes. But we’re having a lot of fun in the process and if anything else…it teaches us patience as we wait for our gardens to G-R-O-W!