Moonflower

When we were gathering supplies for our garden this spring, I picked up a packet of moonflower seeds for half off at the Home Depot.  They were full of promise with statements like “giant white fragrant flowers” and “easy to grow”, yet I was skeptical given my black thumb.  So, I threw a few in the ground around the back of the garden fence and almost entirely forgot about them until about a month ago when the vines finally took off.  And now, they are starting to put out the most stunning “giant white fragrant flowers” any yard of mine has ever seen.  They open as evening falls and smell simply divine.  I only wish I had planted them somewhere immensely more enjoyable than the far corner of our property!  I’m hoping it will over winter and come back next spring.  But if not, I’ll spring for another $2 packet of seeds.



As far as the rest of the garden, it is starting to look pretty scraggly, but is still putting out a healthy supply of sweet 100 tomatoes and more fresh herbs than I know what to do with.  My favorite is the lavender – I use it in my water and sweet tea and it’s heavenly.



I cannot tell you how excited I am to see the SUN today!!
xoxo

Summer Garden

We planted our garden back over the Easter holiday and have loved watching our little seedlings and plants grow over the last month! 



I found the little basket on clearance at Hobby Lobby and gave it a coat of turquoise spray paint to liven it up. 



We had a serious problem with voles last spring (not to be confused with moles.)  They gobbled up the entire root balls of most of our crop.  This year, honey dug way down in the dirt and lined the bottom of the beds with hardware cloth hoping that would prevent them from tunneling under.  So far, so good!  We’ve got cucumbers (they are so itty bitty you can’t see them), squash, okra, and strawberries in this bed.



Three tomato plants, red peppers, green peppers, chives, parsley and lavender in the middle bed.  The lavender survived the winter and is doing great!  I love to throw a spring in my water or sweet tea.

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And the last bed has mint, rosemary (both from last year), basil, green beans and three more sweet 100 tomato plants.



Here are a few more details.  Know that I am far, far from being an expert on gardening!
- Honey built the garden area last spring using three raised garden bed kits from Home Depot, giving us a 12’x4’ planting area.
- He constructed a basic fence of 2’x4’s and hardware cloth and painted it black.  We left a 3’ border on all sides to be able to easily maneuver inside the fence.  The completed size is 18’x10’.  The obvious goal of the fence is to keep out the rabbits and other large animals roaming around but it’s probably already saved our tender little vegetables one thousand times from stray soccer  balls and children in pursuit.
- We fertilize with E.B. Stone Organic Tomato & Vegetable Food and in past years have used Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew to fight those pesky garden invaders.  I found both at Atlanta’s Pike Nurseries.
- I labeled our garden tags with vinyl letters.

We’ve already been enjoying the herbs and positively cannot wait for the veggies to start to ripen up as well!

Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't send a big birthday wish out to my sweet nephew Jay.  I can hardly believe he's FOUR!
xoxo

The Guy We Didn’t Hire

I mentioned earlier in the week that we've been getting quotes from a sundry of yard folks over the last couple of months.  A couple (ie. TWO) have been great.  A few have been completely unimpressive.  And then there is the guy I knew we would not hire within two minutes of his rat-a-tat-tat on the door.  Here’s how it all went down:

Him: *knocks on the garage door*
Me: *annoyed that I can’t see who it is since he didn’t come to the front door like every single other non-friend visitor in four years* Who is it?
Him: Eric.
Me: Eric who?
Him: *in an annoyed rude voice* Eric from xxx Lawn Care.  Your husband sent me.
Me: *opens door*  Hi.  I couldn’t see you and I don’t like to just throw open the door.  Would you like to walk around the yard?
Him: That’s why I’m here.  *again, in annoyed rude voice*
Me: *At this moment I know I will not hire this man.*


A few minutes later…
Me: I think that my husband wanted the grass in the back aerated.  It seems to be coming in all patchy and he wants to give it the best possible chance.
Him: What kind of grass is it?
Me: I figured you would know.  I believe it is zoysia.
Him: If your husband wants to pay me to aerate your zoysia then I will do it.  I’ll do whatever he wants to pay for.  But I’ve never heard of aerating zoysia. 
*Just so y’all know, we looked it up and have had two other opinions – all say that aerating our grass would definitely help things.  Thanks for nothing annoying rude man.*


The unspeakable…
*The man’s zipper is down and it just happens to catch my eye.  For like 100th of a millisecond.  I SWEAR.*
Him: I saw you look down there.
Me: *O.M.G. did he really just call me out on that?????!!!!!  I remain silent.  I mean, what response would be appropriate???*
Him: Is my zipper down?
Me: *OOOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGG.  Why can’t he just look for himself?  I don’t answer.  I am way to mortified and uncomfortable.*
Him: *zips up his zipper*  Yeah, I’ve been having problems with that zipper.
Me: *Want to run inside and never come out.  Oh, and bless Honey out for sending this creep to the house.*

The icing on the cake…
Him: *He is assessing the trees Honey has marked with a pink ribbon to denote the ones we want cut down.*  Your husband is an engineer, right?
Me:  Yes.  Why?
Him: It’s just a gift I have.  I can tell by the way the trees are marked.  I’m just really good at figuring things out and knowing things about people.
Me: *I say nothing.  But I’m thinking … gifted, you say?  You mean, it wasn’t the Georgia Tech car tag, the Georgia Tech lawn chair OR the Georgia Tech golf clubs laying there that tipped you off?  I mean, there are approximately two majors other than engineering at the school.*


And while it was super annoying/awkward/creepy while it was happening, I’ve gotten a few good laughs out of it since.  This poor man needs some serious help with his business acumen and general social skills.


Bless his heart.
xoxo