Here it is, winter again. We haven't left the house in three days. I have a cold, too, which has probably been a bigger factor in us not leaving the house than the snow flurries and frigid temperatures. So, here a few pictures from summer. Allan built me a beautiful hanging post for my upside down tomato planters. Brother-in-law, Morgan, helped him set it in concrete. Here a few of my Roma and grape tomatoes.
In September, I decided to attempt a straw bale garden bed for fall plantings. Did I mention that I am a very amateur gardener? ;-) I got a few little lettuce heads (no I'm not talking about my children-ha!). They never got very big, though. As Allan joked, they weren't even big enough to cover a hamburger if I put all of the leaves on at once!
The kids liked this big pot! I attempted to plant carrots in it, but a certain little assistant picked all the seedlings. I then attempted to plant radishes, but like the lettuce, they never got very big. Guess I planted them too late in the season.
I do much better w/ plants and seedlings than seeds. Here, Michaela helping me to water this beautiful arrangement of petunias and verbena that I got at the Briarpatch and kept on the porch to Allan's shop.
So, I have mentioned before that Allan got me a CompostTwin tumbler for my birthday/Christmas last year. It has taken some practice. I made the mistake at first of using way too many leaves. Soon learned that they take pretty long to break down! A co-worker of Allan's was nice enough to give us her riding lawn mower before she moved, so we used the money we had set aside for the mower to buy a chipper shredder. Most of my initial efforts came out looking more like mulch, so that's precisely what I used it for!
We had a considerable amount of rain this fall, which sprouted these beauties we didn't see last year. Found out they are called spider lillies, also known as Hurricane lillies because they only come up if there has been a lot of rain.
At the risk of Allan killing me, here is a picture of him enjoying one of his favorite past times.
