Confessions of a newbie gardener

Friday, April 25, 2014

Took a walk tonight

Today was pretty great! I got to meet the sweetest infant, who I will be babysitting over the summer, and he napped on my chest for at least 30 minutes while his momma got to eat in peace. Then I drove around and picked up seedlings from friends in my local north Austin gardening group. Then I upgraded my fitbit to the flex and took a walk with my amazing Husband. Let me gon into more detail.
On Monday, I will begin watching Killian for My friend Mary, he is 5 weeks old, and the sweetest baby ever. She came over to introduce him to me, and we went to Starbucks for a treat. While there, I held him so she could eat, and he just burrowed into my chest and fell asleep. Rhe deep sleep of a loved and safe baby. I can't wait to hold him un my arms again! And I got Tobago off my tomatoes! As any gardener will tell you, showing off your hard work is the best reward.
The. I went to Cindy's house to pick up seedlings, I got zinnias, and oregano for me, and picked up son other plants for Gina, then I went to Kelly's, were I was gifted several hyacinth plants. They are hardy and ready to go into the ground! Then inwant to Jennifer's home and picked up teeny tiny little walnut seedlings, which I will plant in the front yard to eventually Give us shade. Thenn I headed to G inas house to drop off her portion of my haul, plus some extra transport pots and seed starting trays to help her out!
When I got home around 6, my hubby wanted to gonahead a few things from the store, and I ended up purchasing a new fitbit, the flex. Since it is non my wrist maybe I won't lose it. Any who, we got home about 9 or 10, I got the new fitbit all set up, and Lee had leftovers for dinner, and we went on a walk. It is hard for me tonstart exercising, but once I do, it is even harder for me to stop. We walked just under 3k steps in less than an hour, a bit I over a mile, all throuf h our beautiful neighborhood, and I smelled so many amazing flowers! I smelled honeysuckle, jasmine, red, white, and pink roses (different scents believe it or not!), and someone is managing to grow a magnolia tree! I would know that scent any where!
I saw round shrubs, which I adore, and a lot of great garden set ups. I am new, and only have 6 pots of flowers right now, but eventually I want to have a huge garden of glorious blooms. :)

I hope everyone else had a lovely evening as well, and that you remember to stop and sniff the Plants around you. It makes the day feel complete!

Thursday, April 24, 2014

story time!

Hello world! I am a new gardener. I started this year, my husband and I purchased our home almost one year ago, by it was really too late in the season to plant anything. And to be honest, I didn't know I wanted a garden. I mean flowers sure! But the previous owners left me tons and tons to simply sit and enjoy. But this year I lost my job, and had a lot of time on my hands. And you know, anything to get out of dishes for a few hours right? Son I started small. I bought 99cent olants from HEB (local grocery store) and some premium gardening soil.
I got myself a cheap shovel and went to work removing the grass from the plot I wanted to plant in. I purchased habaneros seedlings, gypsy pepper seedlings, a squash seedling and 2 tomato seedlings. I will post the pictures of then and now. I started this process about a month ago, and am hooked.
After I planted those I sort of ignored them for a few weeks. Other than the every few days watering, I didn't really go out and enjoy them. Then the most amazing thing happened! GuysI had a baby tomato growing!!! So I took more of an interest. Then it hailed. I covered them and they were perfectly fine. But I was worried all night about these plants. Haha!
So now that I had my baby tomato, I was desperate for more. I wanted fruitful plants! I went to Johnson's backyard garden and I got 4 more tomato plants, 2 tomatillos, 2 king Arthur pepper, 2 basil, 1 parsley, and a watermelon. I got them on the Saturday before easter, and planted them in pots on minday night. By Wednesday I already had tomatoes on these new plants. They apparently REALLY liked the soil, dillo dirt, composed mixture I planted them in.
Any way, here are the pictures!

this is the plot I dug in my yard. It is not square, but I did it myself and I am proud.