5/28

I'm way too tired for good pictures today, BUT I got carrots, lettuce, peas, and basil planted. The super great news is that my tomatoes that I thought were dead seem to have revived themselves! So I transplanted all of those and now I have about 2o tomato plants. :) I also replanted of my parsley and my other basil.. tomorrow I'll do the rest of the parsley and the cayenne peppers. Then at some point after that, I'll do my squash, watermelons, and remaining cantaloupe. After that, I'll have to talk Jonah into making me a fence, or I'll just rig something myself. WOO HOO!

So here's what's in the ground right now:

Sunflowers
Gladiolus
Marigolds
Wildflowers
Cantaloupe
Corn
Green Beans
Carrots
Broccoli
Peas
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Basil
Parsley
Cayenne Peppers
Onions

Shew!!

5/27

I am hot, tired, sweaty, and covered in cow poopy. It was a GOOD day. :)

Today I started my veggie garden. I have 3 rows of corn and 2 of green beans.


Since I didn't feel like expanding my garden just yet, I planted broccoli here in the planter in the front. I'm not brave enough to put my tomatoes in the ground, so I just transplanted them to a bigger planter.

Then I planted a couple cantaloupe plants.



While I was about to empty out this planter which I had completely forgotten about, I discovered some marigolds! I planted them in dirt from my yard, so I didn't think they'd stand a chance. But look at the little guys!!



And to my further delight, I found these guys already sprouting in my flower garden! They're part of the wildflower mix, so I have no idea what they are. But I'm very happy to see them. :)


And I created myself a Bella-resistant compost enclosure. I needed something that would get enough sunlight and air, but where Bella couldn't get at my food scraps. I found a pallet in one of the sheds on the property and I rigged this set-up.



While I was doing all of that, the girls were doing this:


It was a good day. :)

Ghetto Fabulous SHOPPING!

So my budget increased drastically from $0.00 to $20.00! I took my crisp twenty dollar bill to the garden center at walmart, and with the help of my dear friend Kelly, I came home with these:


And these:


And these! 4 big bags o' poopy!



She plan is to plant the garden here:



And in the meantime, my tomatoes (I think they're pretty much dead, hence the starters from walmart), my cayenne peppers, and my parsley are in their foster home, here:
Yesterday we finally had a few hours of sun so I took advantage of it and finished my flower bed. Sure enough, my border is about as straight as Chris Colfer.I've planted sunflowers against the house, gladioli in front of them, marigolds in front of the gladioli, and wildflowers in front of the marigolds. I'll worry about straightening out the border later. Then again, maybe I'll just leave it. After all, it was born that way...


Weather permitting, tomorrow I hope to dig my veggie garden, plant some seeds, and spread my poopy all over everything. I also have an enormous pile of mulch out front that I'd like to put to use somewhere.

Oh, and here's my compost! I still need to poke some holes in it, but at least Bella isn't digging my food scraps out any more.


I'm going to use the planters to start some of my veggies, but I'm just not sure what yet. I also want to get some lettuce and strawberries, and maybe some basil, but I have a good start for now!

Frickin' Ridiculous

Ok, SO my back TOTALLY kills from lugging water up to my vegetable garden. Instead of buying a $10 50ft hose, my husband suggested that we move the garden. Jealous ladies? Sorry, he's ALL MINE. At first I thought the idea was frickin' ridiculous. But then I thought about it some more. Jonah mentioned before that I picked a totally random spot for that garden. I mean, it's not even LEVEL. So I started thinking, what if my cheap-ass, but adorable, husband is right?! What if it makes sense to have my veggie garden a little closer to my flower garden? A nice level spot.. I can consolidate my watering, fertilizing, and composting... ARGH. I HATE it when he's right!! So the plan now is to move my garden from here:


to here (we'll have to move the trampoline and/or swing set):
The good news is, I'm almost done with my flower bed! Just a little more weeding/bordering to go. My whole body just aches from all the kneeling, digging, lugging water, etc., so it'll have to wait until later this week. Besides, I want to have some fun with my family today! Also, Lowes is selling great soil+fertilizer bags for $3.74 a pop, so I can totally pick a few of those up this week. I think it will do miracles for my flowers and veggies. I've decided that Colorado dirt is just crap. :) In the meantime, have a wonderful week, my ghetto fabulous friends!

Day 2 of Ghetto Fabulous Gardening

Hello my Ghetto Fabulous friends! I would like to take a moment to thank you for all your support and advice. I can't tell you how much it means to me to have dedicated friends like you guys. I am so grateful for all five of you. :)

Now, onto some ghetto fabulous gardening. Today I decided to start my flower beds. I was thinking about using more tree branches for my borders but then I had an apostrophe*- for some reason, there's a whole bunch of brick border on the side of my house where we store our junk, here:



And I figured it'd work jes fine for my flower beds which I want to put here:


It took me about a kajillion hours to dig it all up, but I did it!


And three hours later, this is what it looks like now:



I'm hoping to finish the rest this afternoon, but I'm running low on plastic forks and paper plates, so I figure I should probably wash some dishes today.

Once I finish getting the ground ready and putting my border in (I SUCK at straight lines, so that should be really entertaining), I want to plant sunflowers against the house and wildflowers in front of the sunflowers. I have gladioluses (gladioli?) for out front and I'll see what other more glamorous flowers I can find on sale once Jonah gives me some $$.

That's all for now!!


*apostrophe: what Jonah calls an "epiphany"

Welcome to Ghetto Fabulous Gardening!

Hi and welcome to my brand-new blog! School is out and summer is just around the corner. This is my first summer not working, and my first summer living on 25 acres! Both of those firsts have lent themselves to a third first: my first GARDEN! WHOO HOO! I looked into raised garden beds, soil, seeds, etc. and estimated that the materials to start my first garden would add up to about $200. My current gardening budget is $0.00. I decided NOT to let money/ignorance stand in the way of me growing my first tomato. So I started googling. Apparently the next best thing to a garden box, is a mound of dirt. I can TOTALLY do a mound of dirt.

So today I decided that I had spend enough time planning, and it was time to start digging. I took out my little hand trowel, found some tree branches to mark off my garden area, and I went to work. I had started out some herbs and tomatoes in little planters on my window sill (gifts of the ex-next-door neighbor) and I transplanted them. I also found a bag of seeds the ex-neighbor had given me, and I planted all my herbs and veggies. Right now, I haven't worried about the mounds. I figure it's okay to start out flat for now, and as my seeds grow, so will their mounds. Besides, why do big mounds have to be better? Why can't flat be fine?! Some people actually prefer a flatter, more athletic-looking garden.. but I digress..

THIS is the result:



I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those planters. I have gladiolas started in one and marigolds in another, but I'm thinking of doing flower beds here:

and here:

As you can see, I have a LOT of work ahead of me.

So as far as the veggie garden, I currently have planted basil, chives, parsley, tomatoes, cayenne peppers, bell peppers, and cucumbers. A friend has offered to come over next week with some seeds for squash, pumpkin, and melon. I'd also like to add lettuce, broccoli, green beans, corn and peas. Yes. I said peas. As long as they're in the pod, they're just fine with me. :) I'm sure I'll be expanding my current bed, but as far as today goes, I really just wanted to get some stuff in the ground.

When I showed Jonah the picture of my garden (he's at work), he texted me back right away saying "nonono, I'm gonna build you a REAL garden," but I'm not holding my breath.

I didn't have any landscape cloth for weeds, I didn't have any lumber for a box, I have no idea how to build a fence for animals, and had no cash for soil/fertilizer. I'm making do with what I have and I'm excited to see what happens! OH! And in the big blue tub is my compost pile! It has weeds, grass, twigs, roots, and food scraps. I'm going to find a way to put some holes in the tub so the compost can get enough air, and I'll be turning the compost by hand. But shoot, I am the Ghetto Fabulous Gardener, after all!