~May in a Glimpse~

I know they say, "April showers bring May flowers", but I think it goes more along the lines of  "Funky April weather brings May showers, and tons, TONS of bugs."

And by bugs I mean Inchworms.  Billions of them.  On plants, in the air, in your hair.  Everywhere.

And the damage they've been doing is awful.  Every tree is covered in half chewed leaves, and rolled up cocoons.  Which makes me thankful that my flowering plants are starting late this year from the winter, or I'd be spending every waking moment picking the gross things off.

And I promise that's the last of the worm pictures for now.  I just have never seen so many of them, and I'm hoping this isn't a sign on how the rest of the insect world will be doing this year.  If it is someone best be buying me a whole flock of Guineas and Ducks.  And then they better hire someone to take care of them too.  (Just in case that someone is reading this, and thinks I need a whole flock of anything right now.  ;p  )

May had been so full of rain that I didn't reach any of my gardening goals.  We were just excited for the few times we were able to get outside in between the storms.

Even Penny was excited.  But don't get me started on her.  She's been filling my days with getting tangled and stuck, or just plain out yelling, because a certain man around here has her so spoiled, that she's getting hard to enjoy.  But back to the garden....

Somewhere out there we have Zukes, and Cukes, Pumpkins and Squash.  Radish, tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, Spinach (which never does well for me).  There's kale, loofah, chard, sunflowers, popcorn, and two Raspberry bushes.  The only thing we bought this year were the two raspberry bushes, and a flat of tomato plants.

I don't really have any great expectations for success this year.  I'm doing everything against the books.  My seeds are all over two years of age, and stored completely the wrong way.  I'm not really companion planting anything, and I'm by no means following the right planting schedule.  It's all fly by your seat gardening, knowing that next year, with all the added compost, and care of the soil from this year, it's going to be ten times easier to work with.

And hopefully soon, with some extremely creative budgeting, I'll get some sort of fence up around everything so I don't have to plant ten times the normal amount to count for losses due to animals and small children.

It's amazing how much a small toddler foot can wipe out in a second.  (And don't you love the black eye?  This child has no grace.  She managed this injury while sitting in a parked trailer.)

For June we already have tons scheduled around here.  I'm gutting both children's rooms, repainting, scrubbing, the works, all while trying to finish everything outside too, ohhh and there's knitting too.

Time to get back out there!

How's your spring going?

~Emily

~April in the Garden~

I have this little plan in my head to do a wrap-up at the end of each month.  Maybe week by week photographs of the garden in progress.  Even if it still only looks like this:

Which I do suppose is actually a lot of progress compared to past years, where I'd still be digging out rocks, and making compost heaps, and constantly burning out snakes.  There's just not quite the progress that I would like to see.  I'd like to see a fence there.  And hay, and mulch, and my compost bins moved...  but at least there's these:

Things are growing.  And thank you God for radishes that pop up in the blink of an eye and make you think there's hope after all.  And thank you even more for the super seeds I have that survived 2 years of storage, in a ziploc bag, under my desk.  That's a garden on a budget for you.  Nope we don't have any tomatoes, but I do have this odd mix of loofa seeds from three years back we can plant.  ;p

And heck, if it all fails, at least there's one little girl, who refuses to leave the ponytail in her hair, who has had a dang good time in her mud holes.  You know, for the whole five minutes I can get her to sit down.  And she's only there to see if the berries (that we have yet to plant) have grown.

So there's some hope in that there dirt.  And the memories are already sprouting up.

And spiders.  They're popping up too.  Everywhere.  Still better than snakes or snow.

How's your garden growing?

~Emily

 

~Pretty Disasters~

Some days you can describe all the happenings between storms, and children, and animals, and everything else, with a quick photo of the one tulip that survived all the above, and actually managed to bloom, just to be plucked by the hands of a toddler, which apparently travels faster than the speed of a yelled, "NOOOOOO."

Pretty Disasters and all.  <3

~Emily

~Spring~

I think Spring has finally arrived!  After months and months of the hardest winter I've ever known, I can't seem to turn my face away from the warmth of the sun, and the freshness of the spring rains.  

I don't ever want to see a snow flake again. 

Honestly, I don't even want to be inside at all.  Except to clean.  Because I have spring fever.  And everything has to be clean!

And everything should smell like flowers... without the pollen.  But I'm not complaining because pollen is way better than ice.  

But you can keep the ticks, because apparently the winter of doom didn't slow them down one bit.  

Happy Spring!!!!

~Emily

~Flowers~

I've had a few ask if those "drawings" I had been sharing were really mine.  Or if I had gotten the paper pre-drawn at a store.  So just for the heck of it today I'm sharing a drawing I just finished, in steps, as it happened, and as I remembered to actually take photos.  ;)  I'll let the photos talk for themselves.  ~Emily