Hello everyone! We’ve had an absolutely gorgeous weekend here in St. George! It was over 70 and sunny all day yesterday. I am so sorry if it’s cold and miserable where you’re at. I feel for you. But I know deep down in my heart…spring is on the way! 🙂
There are few things in life that make me happier than planting flowers. I’ve been scouring Lowe’s for weeks waiting for them to get just a few flowers in stock. After my son’s Valentines Day party on Friday, I was finally able to pick up two packs of purple stock, a pack of yellow pansies, a larger lavender, and a pretty purple daisy looking plant that I can’t remember the name of. I had to wait till Sunday to plant
everything because my husband and I were doing a lot of yardwork all day Saturday before our big Valentines Day date at The Painted Pony. And we didn’t have any potting soil so we stopped at The Home Depot Sunday morning to pick up a bag of soil and some seed starting products for my husbands vegetable garden.
I only planted a few small pots for now. Everything except for the lavender probably won’t survive our hot summers so I’ll be replacing them around May with more heat resistant flowers. My bigger pots all have jasmine in them right now and I’m crossing my fingers that the jasmine survived our record breaking cold winter. Jasmine is probably my favorite plant. The flowers are the most fragrant, beautiful smell you can imagine. Pure jasmine oil is extremely expsensive because, according to Wikipedia, it takes a large amount of flowers to produce a small amount of oil. Interestingly, the flowers have to be picked at night because they are more fragrant after dark. If my jasmine plants survive, I’ll have to remember to go out at night and see if the flowers are even more potent. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a large jasmine vine on a patio like these to sit out at night and enjoy the spring weather?
I want to create a dreamy patio this summer because we will be spending a lot of time at home with a new baby coming. And I love our backyard and spending as much time as possible outdoors in the warm months. What would your dream backyard look like?
Along with the flowers I planted above, I also pruned a little rose bush my husband and son gave me last year for Valentines Day.
I call this “The Little Rose Bush That Could” because I almost threw the poor little thing out last year. I didn’t get it planted as quickly as I should have and it didn’t look like it was going to survive but it has been so healthy ever since I stuck it in this pot in the west facing sun and produced beautiful little roses all summer and fall!
Jason’s Vegetable Garden
My husband has been working so hard in his vegetable garden. He tore out his raised beds and decided to do the entire garden directly in the dirt in order to gain more land.
Look at that beautiful dirt! 🙂
He spent so much time ammending the soil and installing an automatic watering system…and on top of all that he is going to do his plants from seed this year…something he’s never done before. He found a company called Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that sells rare, heirloom seeds. None of the seeds have been genetically modified and he can reuse the seeds from the plants year after year.
www.RareSeeds.com
He spent a few hours yesterday starting the tomatos and peppers inside in these little flats which turned out to be a very tedious job…
Peppers and Tomatoes do better started indoors because they like the warmth during the germination process. Maybe one day we will have a greenhouse for this process!
I can’t wait to see the veggies and melons these seeds produce!
My Favorite Garden Gloves
I am going to end this post on how to keep your nails and hands looking pretty while you garden! Just like when you work inside, if you want to keep your nails and skin pretty while you work outside WEAR GLOVES! I love these FoxGloves one of my sweet clients gave me last year. They don’t protect from thorns but they are super slim so they are so easy to work with. And they come in the cutest colors!
I love my pretty pink garden gloves 🙂
They really are the perfect fit!
Are you a gardener? If so, what are you doing to get ready for spring and summer? I would LOVE to hear about your garden!
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you’ve had a wonderful President’s Day Weekend!
Tootles–Anna
