planty plants

We were able to go to my parents house last weekend (and spend mother's day with my momma!) and I came home with a bounty of transplants from my dad's garden! Hostas, tomatoes, dill, bleeding hearts, rhubarb, some kind of vines, a pile of bricks, and a woven grape vine garland. Woot! On Monday I tackled the hostas and I've been working on the beginnings of my veggie garden! But more on that later.

 I wanted the hostas for a nice shady spot along the side of the garage. You can see I had two little guys planted there last year.

 Here's a farther back shot of the space. We still have quite a few plans for over here. Here are some of the things we have in mind:

• First, that black thing is the composter we bought off a friend for $10. I still need to get worms for it, but once it gets going we'll have lots of free compost!
• Buying (or more likely building) a shed for bikes and the lawnmower. We just don't have room for them in the garage! It will probably go just on this side of the composter to keep it out of sight.
• Make a rain barrel we can use to water all these plants. It will go on the other side of the composter, under the downspout. 
• Fill in the rest of the area with hostas or other shade plants.

We'll keep you updated on those and any other backyard projects this summer (maybe a pergola or grilling station?).

But back to the hostas. After my little helper was all napped up we got to work!

 I started by digging up the plants that were there before. Since I don't know how big our future shed will be, I only got four hostas and dug up a spot just big enough for them.

  I loosened up all the soil  with a shovel so I could get the plants out with the roots. (When I pulled the plants I shook all the dirt off the roots so I wouldn't be left with a huge hole.)

 Before I actually did any planting, I slid my hostas over (still in their pots) to find an arrangement I liked.

Once I found a layout I liked, I dug holes and planted these guys. I started with the biggest ones so I didn't have to worry about disturbing the smaller guys while I dug such big holes. Then I tucked the smaller ones in between.

Ta-da! I think this looks a lot tidier and more intentional than what was there before. And hostas are my favorite. :) These should all fill in quite a bit next year so then I'll have a better idea of how my spacing works and be able to fill in any weird gaps.

 Baby B was an excellent helper, as always. And he discovered mud. Which, along with brooms, now tops his list of favorite things. Fortunately he also loves baths. :)

What have you planted lately?

Just a Day

This one's for the grandparents. And great grandparents. And anyone else who needs a healthy dose of Baby B! I'll tell you know, this whole post is just a lot of pictures from a day or two at home with Baby B....

Baking a cake for his momma! How sweet! And wearing my necklace, but I promise I didn't do it. He put it on himself.

 Even without sand or water, he's already having fun with his new summer spot!

 Wowza. That is a curl.

 Is this enough green for you, Anna? :)

 "Momma, this pillow will go better over here. Trust me."

 "I know there is supposed to be water in here. I wasn't born yesterday."

 This stick should be big enough....

 Lunch break! He was eating a pear. When he was done I found the stem (in his hand) and the seeds. He is nothing if not thorough.

Not Baby B. Just my sad attempt at cinnamon rolls. But they were pretty yummy anyway. Interesting Baby B fact, though: He has started sleeping through most of the night, only waking up once around 4am. This is great, but has resulted in few naps and waking for the day around 5:30-6:00am. I decided I might as well use that otherwise unhappy time of day to make delicious breakfasts, such as these cinnamon rolls.

 New outfit (maybe a new day... I don't remember) and playing in the dirt. He kept climbing in the pot and perching like a little chicken, but once I got the camera he didn't do it again! Stinker.

 Brooms = the greatest thing ever. He passes a lot of time sweeping or watching me sweep.

Enjoying the emergency granola bar from the diaper bag. We have different ideas of what constitutes and "emergency." And yes, often his outfits clash this badly.

And that is a day in the life of Baby B. Along with intermittent napping & diaper changes, of course. Anyone else have/had an emergency granola bar? :)

$251.25

Say what?! Yes, we've done a lot of yard sale damage over the last few weeks. I know. But bear with me, because we had some GREAT finds! And if it makes it any better, this is from the last few weekends which included a neighborhood wide sale. :) Let's go!

$5.00 - Turtle sandbox that we will use as a wading pool for Baby B! I was hoping to find something with a cover that would fit in the corner of the patio, and this guy was perfect. Is it a little scary? Yes. But when endless summer fun is $5, you don't complain. :)

$10.00 - Sand & water table. Also endless summer fun for Baby B. Lucky boy! I do feel like $10 was a little high for this, but I made the mistake of setting my heart on finding one before yard sale season even began. Then when $10 was as low as I could talk them, I went ahead and went for it. Note to self: don't become attached to something before I even find it.

 $1 - Lego pirate ship, full of sails and pirates and cannons! I couldn't pass this up for only $1, so I carried it all the way around the neighbor hood sale because it wouldn't fit in the stroller. And because pirate ships make anyone look cool. And it was totally worth it because when Baby B found it in his room he was thrilled! And yes, most of my purchases this year will undoubtedly be for Baby B. I cannot resist him.

 $3.00 - Basket. The kind with compartments for silverware and napkins.

$0.25 - Decanter? Is that what it's called?

 $5.00 - Clothes for Baby B. Some for this summer, and some warmer clothes to grow into. I generally have a rule of no more than $0.50 per item for baby clothes. I know that if I'm patient I will find plenty of people selling for that price and it keeps me from buying more expensive things than I need to. But I did falter with the outfit on the left. It was $1 per piece. But it is immaculate and Baby B will be ADORABLE in it.

 $2.00 - Books. There were 3 other books but Baby B had already ran off with them by this point. They were Clifford & Curious George books.

$4.00 - Winter coat for Baby B. I'm not sure what a good price is for a children's coat? But this one looked brand new and all the coats I saw that day (in the neighborhood sale) were $3-5 each. Either way, it was certainly better than buying one new!

$0.25 - Cute t-shirt
$0.25 - Glass jar for succulents or some other small plant.

 $5.00 - Pile of clamps. We're always wishing we had some! Hopefully these guys we'll be just what we need.

 $0.50 - Basket. I'm going to try spray painting it. I'll let you know how it goes.

 $10.00 - A pair of chairs. They need some TLC, but I loved the shape and thought they would be perfect for our dining area. They are nice and solid too, so they should be here for the long haul!

 $1.00 - A small bowling set. I thought this would be cute in Baby B's room, and he already wants to play with the bowling pins. (they are like 5" tall, nothing he can fit in his mouth!)

 $4.00 - More clothes for Baby B! And a maternity skirt for me. Don't get excited, I don't need it yet. It was only $0.50 so I bought it for someday. :)

 And while we're on the subject of Baby B clothes, my Aunt Cha Cha (a yard-saling pro. she teaches me everything I know.) got Baby B a ginormous box of super-cute clothes! Jammies, shirts, pants, lots of sizes, even shoes and snow pants! Thanks so much, Cha Cha! This is a huge blessing!

Have you been doing math this whole time? Feel like things just aren't adding up enough to reach the total? Well, hold on to your hats because we made one big (and super exciting!) purchase this weekend!

$200.00 - A new fridge! Yep, I hit up an estate sale first thing Friday morning and found this guy in the kitchen just begging to come home with me! So I took some measurements, made a quick call to my Mister, and made a deal. This guy is stainless steel, almost new, working perfectly, and fits exactly into our fridge space. I like to say that if you go to enough sales you are bound to get lucky eventually, but I think this was a straight up blessing. I'll be sure to post pics as soon as he is moved into place!

Yard sale season has started full speed for us! So I think we'll be taking it easy the next few weeks to recover. :) How about you? Have you started hitting any sales yet? Any good deals or great finds? Anyone planning to have a sale of their own this summer?

The Magic of Mulch

We've been using the nice spring weather to start getting our yard back into shape with things like weeding, trimming the bushes, and finally fixing up the flower beds in our front yard! When we moved in there were already flower beds sectioned off around the light post and trees in our front yard, but they definitely needed some love. For your viewing pleasure, the "littlest helper" montage.

 I know. It's amazing we get anything done with all that cuteness around. But back to the actual work, starting with the light post. There were a few clusters of small daylilies already planted around the bed that I really like, but last summer there were so many weeds and so much grass we couldn't tell where they ended and the flowers began! So far not much of that stuff was back up, so at my dad's advice we tackled that mess before it got out of hand again. We started by pulling the weeds that were there, then my dad dug everything up around the flower just to loosen up the dirt and what not. Then we put down some landscaping fabric which is supposed to help keep those weeds out! The fabric was from Lowe's and has a supposed 15 year warranty. We'll see how that goes. :) Anyway, we covered the whole bed with the fabric, cutting holes around the flowers. Then we covered it all up with mulch. The mulch is great for making it pretty... and keeping weeds out and moisture in.

helping gramps with the mulch

Here is the finished product. Well, finished mulching. I'm really hoping to find an edger at a yard sale this summer so I can clean up the outer edges of the bed as well. But for now, it's done!

 We did the same thing around our trees, too. We planted these cute little hosta guys last year, but lost them among the weeds too. Now they are the stars of the show!

Total cost for three flower beds:

$19 - landscaping fabric (we only used a tiny bit of the roll and plan to use the rest on our garden! Yes, this is the year I get a garden!)

$10 - four bags of cypress mulch

Total - $29

So it was a small chunk of change, but it did wonders for our curb appeal. Now I just have to give the rest of our bushes a spring trimming. (especially my burning bush. apparently those grow crazy out of control if you let them. I don't want to let them.) We also plan to (eventually) repair/replace/paint the light post because it's kind of an eye sore. Then if we can keep the lawn mowed, we will be in good shape. :)

Fortunately we had a lot of curb appeal going for us when we moved in with new windows, siding, and roof. Not to mention the nicely landscaped yard that just needed a little tidying. The trees (crabapple?) bloomed earlier this year and now we are enjoying the lilacs right by the front door. It smells SO good when the door is open. I'm waiting for the blooms to die off before I trim this guy.

 I don't know what this is, but it's starting to bloom too! It's really convenient that someone already planted things that bloom throughout the season. ;)

That's it for our latest curb appeal adventure with the magic of mulch. We'll keep you posted on any advances in the bush trimming or lightpost fixing categories. And if we ever take the carpet off to the steps. Ha! Yes, the only carpet we have left is on our steps, both inside and out. :) I really need to get you some full outdoor pictures. :)

Anyone else giving your yard a spring cleaning?