Beautiful Fall

 

It's been a long and very mild fall here in northern Utah.

 

I love the changing of the seasons and I

 

love this beautiful tree in our front yard.

 

 

Isn't she pretty?

 

 

 

The mums are blooming.

 

The porch is all decked out.

 

The weather's been so nice I've been able to leave the

potted plants outside this year.

 

But probably not for much longer.

 

 

 

And this cute little sweet pea is enjoying his first

fabulous fall.

I sure hope your fall has been as fun as ours!

Peanuts and Crows

One of our little grandgirls grew a peanut plant this summer.

 

She picked it out at the garden center, brought it home and planted it in a pot, watered it all summer, and last week she pulled it up and look what she grew!

 

 

 

Peanuts!!

 

 

Not usually a desert crop!

I saw these cute crows on Pinterest and thought I should make

a couple.  The undecorated crows are from the dollar store.

 

Then I just made them hats and necklaces and crowns and signs.

 

So fun!

 

Containers

 

I found a couple of new to me items to use as planters this year in the garden.

 

This vintage orange metal fertilizer spreader.

 

 

 

And this vintage red metal garden cart.

 

 

Both from yard sales and both under $10.

Starting Sweet Potato Vines

 

Last winter I read this post on the Always Fixin Never Sittin blog.

 

I thought it was a great idea.  I love to plant sweet potato vines in my window boxes and planters.  They have such pretty lime green foliage and are so easy to grow.

 

So I went to the grocery store and bought some sweet potatoes from the produce department, brought them home, stuck some toothpicks in them, placed them in canning jars filled with water, and let them sit in direct sun. 

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

 

 

 

And in about a month I saw little tiny, hair-like roots.

 

And then I waited.

 

And waited.

 

And waited.

 

For like three months!

 

And then, finally, I found a tiny leaf.

 

And then a few more leaves.

 

And then I had to wait til May 15th when it's safe to plant them outside. 

 

I planted the whole potato with just a little bit of it sticking out of the dirt.

And here they are today.

 

 

I started with four.

 

One got some kind of mold on it and one didn't produce any roots or leaves.

 

But I did end up with two pretty nice little sweet potato vines.

 

The foliage isn't lime green.

 

And I probably could have bought two nice little sweet potato vines with the money I spent on the four sweet potatoes.

 

 



Barn Stars

 

It's finally warm enough to get out in the yard and get a few things done.  I spent an afternoon last week repainting some barn stars I've collected over the years. 

 

 

 

 

Now they're hanging on our chicken coop that's used for

storage and not chickens.

 

 

The Mister made new doors out of recycled fence boards for the coop so we could store the riding mower in it.

 

 

 

 

This week I'm weeding all the flower beds getting ready for a couple of truck loads of mulch.

 

Even though we had a little snow on Monday night,  I think

SPRING is finally here to stay.

 



Blooms

 

 

After this long, cold winter the first blooms of 2014 are

making us so happy.

 

Happy Spring!

 



Forsythia

Last week I picked some bare branches from our Forsythia bush.

 

I brought them in the warm house.

 

I stuck them in a vase of water.

 

And look what happened.

 

 

A little bit of spring on this cold and rainy day.

Cement

 

Last fall we decided to save the old chicken coop that's on our property.  We installed a new metal roof and everything stayed nice and dry last winter.  Our plan was to use the coop for garden tools, mowers, the rototiller, and miscellaneous storage. 

 

This fall the Mister installed a cement ramp for all the heavy, motorized equipment that needed to get up into the coop.

 

 

He's also working on doors to keep everything dry inside.

I forgot to take a picture of the finished ramp...

 

Since we had to get a yard of cement, and the ramp wouldn't

need the whole yard, we decided to add some cement under the

gate into our vegetable garden.

 

And a walkway to our shed's patio.

 

 

 

 

 

I had to add a little something to the project.

 

This week I'll be enjoying these beautiful begonias.

 

Cause I'm pretty sure their days are numbered.

 

Potatoes in a Bucket (and a trash can)

Last spring we planted potatoes in a couple of containers.

 

Some red potatoes in an old galvanized bucket I found in a neighbor's trash pile.

 

And some russet potatoes in an old metal trash can.

 

Last week we pulled up the vines,

 

 

Dug through the soil...

 

And found.... POTATOES!!

 

And they're delicious.

 

 Boiled with a little butter and some salt and pepper.

 

It's the little things that makes me happy.

Containers

The Mister has spent a lot of time and energy installing watering systems.

 

There's sprinklers for the lawn,  a drip system in the vegetable garden, and more in the flower beds. 

 

Then why am I spending so much time each day watering by hand?

 

Containers!

 

 

 

 

 



Most of these are in the backyard.  I have more on the front porch!

 

 

Here in the wild wild west we don't get much rain.

 

Especially in the hot hot summer.

 

And last winter, in the mountains, we didn't get much snow.

 

So now we have water restrictions.

 

Hopefully next year will be better.

If it's not we'll have to cut down on our containers.