Common Sense Living

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Well, last weekend was a washout. So was practically the whole week. Frustrating, isn’t it?

Quite a few people have written in and mentioned that they are planting their own vegetable gardens this year. For one, you’ll save money. And then you know that your vegetables are truly healthy. And, nothing tastes better than the salad you just picked out of your garden. If you haven’t done it before, you really should try it.

My sister called me over tonight. Under the guise of bringing spaghetti – of course, and visiting.  Plus, I had the strawberry pot she needed. Oh, and she had gotten her plants from Michigan bulb – and would I help her get them planted before they die?

At least I got some tomato and brocolli plants out of the deal. When you order, they send you six plants, which is a lot for 2 people – so we split things.

I like to plant early girls and beefsteak tomatoes so I have fresh tomatoes longer. Beefsteak tomatoes are still my all time favorite. Love ‘em! How about you?

But with all this cold and rain, all I’ve gotten done is getting the bed cleaned up and worked the dirt some. I’ll get out there tomorrow and at least get these plants going. Hopefully we won’t get anymore frost! I mean, it is May for heavens sake.

My sister had a lot of questions, but I’ll tell you – I’m not a gardening expert. I can tell you about planting easy fast stuff that’s easy to take care of. You know that’s my lifestyle.

You know how to get the best answers? Read what they put on the website or in the catalog. For the most part, they tell you everything you need to know to be successful. And if the plant dies, they’ll replace it. They really do.

I think the biggest mistake we all make is trying to plant something that needs full sun, in an area that doesn’t get full sun. I know I’ve tried to pull that one off a number of times. Rarely works.

If you follow the directions, the plants usually do great.

I’ll never forget the first year I ordered from these sites. I had new construction with no landscaping, and a corner lot. I decided I would put tall hedge along the back, and lilacs down the side. Imagine my surprise when I basically got boxes of sticks! But, I followed the directions, and planted the sticks just like they said – while all my neighbors and my husband laughed at me.

They weren’t laughing the next year. I had a beautiful yard full of plants and flowers. So there!

I had one landscape designer peek into the yard when we were having a garage sale. He was really surprised. He said that he had never thought of using some of the plants they way that I had.

I had evern tried to find irish moss that year to plant around the patio block. I called every nursery with no luck. One designer even got snotty with me, saying that everyone else was trying to get rid of it. Now you see it in all the catalogs. Guess it wasn’t such a dumb idea afterall.

If you don’t mind some losses, play around and experiment. Just remember that if it needs full sun, you want to make sure that it gets full sun for a good part of the day.

One trick I used was to plant my roses and tomatoes where they got morning sun. This way they weren’t getting scorched during the hottest part of the day. And when it started getting cold, the morning sun would warm the plants up and they lasted longer. I had tomatoes and roses far longer than anyone else.

One other thing I did was to plant just a few lettuce seeds every week. Then I had fresh lettuce all summer.

Oh, there are some things I’ve tried that I won’t try again – like corn and pumkins. And I don’t have the room or the time to do a full blown vegetable garden with carrots and onions and such. My grandparents used to grow green onions. They were good. Maybe I can find the room….

Peppers are easy, and there are so many different kinds.

Even when I lived in apartments, I had pots out on my balcony. I’ve got to have my home grown tomatoes!

It’s great fun for the kids to go out and pick the salad. I still have memories of going out to the yard to pull up some onions, or pick some tomatoes. For soem reason, that kind of stuff just sticks with you. And I figure if it stuck with me, it will stick with my daughter and hopefully she’ll pass it on too.

And for all these years, we’ve been ordering from these sites -

Gurney’s 

Henry Field’s  (my favorite because they have my favorite tomatoes, and other veggies)

Michigan Bulb (my sister’s apparent favorite)

SpringHill (good for unusual items and pre-planned gardens)

Can you taste those July BLTs! Now that’s dinner With home grown lettuce, tomato and brocolli? Yum!

Oh my goodness – look at the time. It’s been fun sharing my garden daydream with you – but I’ve got to get to sleep!

Talk soon!

Carole

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Woo-Ya! Finally a beautiful weekend.

I’m so excited, aren’t you?

What will you do?

Throw open the windows, throw on some good music and finish your spring cleaning?

Do some yard work?

Work in your gardens?

It’s been so cold I didn’t even think aobut ordering my tomato plants. It’s the perfect timing in my area. I’ll be able to get thiem in the ground around Mother’s Day if I make sure to get htem ordered this weekend.

I’ll be heading over to Henry Fields and ordering Beef Steak tomatoes (67966), and Early Girls (14115), and some brocolli seeds (66170) - , and lettuce – the Simpson Elite (11980) because it holds up the best and tastes yummy. Then I’ll be able to head out the door and pick my salad fresh! So Good. I can’t wait!

 I might wash a couple windows, or clean up the beach – whatever hits me. What about you?

Make it a point to enjoy these first great days!

If you haven’t finished your spring cleaning – here are the articles to help you -

Spring Cleaning – Phase 1

Spring Cleaning – Phase 2

If you want to have some fun planning your gardens – here are links to popular garding/catalog sites – (if you order through these links, I make a few cents)

Gurney’s

Henry Field’s

Michigan Bulb

SpringHill

I’m so excited. Can’t wait to get outside!

Have a great weekend!

Will it ever really be spring? Oh sure, we get a couple teaser days here and there, but…

In my neck of the woods, its going to be cold and rainy this weekend. But there is one thing I like to do that seems to brighten my mood and assure me that spring is indeed right around the corner.

The gardening catalogs are here!

I can’t wait to get outside and start messing around with the gardens. It really is a soothing hobby. It gets you outside in the freash air, and you get a little exercise too! I can’t wait for the fresh smells of flowers. And later, the great home grown tomatoes and other goodies.

Yep, its time to start planning and ordering!

Even if you’re not particularly a gardening fan, its still fun to flip through the catalogs picking plants and trees that you’d like to have. This year, Michigan Bulb had some really interesting new plants.

The Egret Flower was the first weird new thing to catch my eye. Neat, isn’t it?

My daughter likes the Rainbow Butterfly Bush.

They really had quite a few new things this year. The lobster claw plant, the dancing dolphin vine, the purple people eater angle trumpet. They have the re-blooming lilacs!

And what’s with all these gargantuan plants this year? I don’t like those. How about you?

I love lilies, but I don’t like the new lily trees. But I guess they’re really popular, so I must be in the minority.

Michigan Bulb also has already put together gardens. You buy the whoe kit-n-kaboodle and plant by number. That’s kind of cool.

If you’re stuck in the house today – wander over to Michigan Bulb. You can find any of the flowers I talked about by entering the name in the search box on the left.

I would get the catalog. It’s free, and it’s really fun to just sit and flip through it.

And if you sign up for their email list, you’ll get special sales.

If you find something neat that you like – come back and tell us about it so we can all go look. Something fun to do on a rainy day!

Here’s the link again – Michigan Bulb

Have fun!