Outdoor Spaces

Monday, May 21, 2012


We are always outdoors doing something, weeding beds, planting, playing or mowing. I thought I'd show you what our outdoor space looks like now after all the work we did a couple of months ago getting the soil ready.

 Enjoying all these blooms now because soon it'll be so hot that they'll be gone.

We did a lot of work getting our raised beds ready.

Quite a difference a couple of months make don't you think?

We had an old timer friend give us some secret gardening advice.  The secret to a big, bountiful garden is FISH HEADS!  When we planted this year we added aspirin, bone meal, fertilizer, empty egg shells and a fish head to the hole, sprinkled a little good dirt then the plant.  Its worked!  Our plants are more than double the size they were last year.  Some of you may have already known this little tid bit but it was news to us and we're so happy someone shared this with us.

 
 Wow!  We've already gotten peppers, have bunches of little green tomatoes in there, green beans and squash.  I can't wait to make lots of homemade salsa this summer.


Weeping Willows are my most favorite tree.  We planted a couple last year and they have done wonderful.



So we decided to add three more this year.  The ones we planted last year were smaller than this so you can tell they've grown really fast too.  Can you tell I'm impatient?  Everything I plant must be fast growing!



I'm not quite sure what this plant is but I love the little white flowers.  We planted it next to our AC to help give it some shade during our sizzling summers here in Oklahoma.  It's growing fast so hopefully by June it'll do the trick.



Most of our Photina's from last year are doing good except for the three we had to return.  I'm kinda bummed because I was hoping they would all grow at the same rate along this fence, however now they take a nose dive down to the new ones.  Although, we tried this fish head treatment on the new ones so maybe they'll catch up!



We have a big front porch that just seems like its wasted space.  
 Sorry for the night time photo.  We have a favorite place in Branson that we love to stay at and it has a nice outdoor dining space where we eat breakfast when we are there.  I would love to add an outdoor dining set here.  I've been scouring Craigslist but so far no luck.  Cross your fingers for me that I can find a good deal soon.


We also have some love birds nesting on our back porch.  They obviously have the best of everything back there because they are eating all of Marley's dog food and having evening baths in his water bowl.


Sorry -- I couldn't get them to sit still for their close up, but there are babies up there.  So that's my garden/yard update for now.

So do you have a garden this year?  Got any cool tips you want to share?  I'd love to hear them.

5 comments:

  1. I'm so envious of you lovely garden! I have not gotten brave enough to try that. But fish heads would not be an exciting part of the process I don't think. Everything looks beautiful! Enjoy all of your fresh veggies when they come in.
    Fran

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey that reminded me..... I have heard of the fish head tip before too. I must tell my son to start *planting* his leftovers.

    ~Bliss~

    ReplyDelete
  3. Before anyone takes the "fish head" tip to heart, consider whether your area has racoons. I used this tip when I planted my flowers this spring. The racoons dug up every SINGLE ONE of the plants, took the fish, and left the plant dying on the ground.

    I have replanted my flowers a minimum of seven times. I quit counting at seven. The racoons have dug them up each time. After the second or third time, I moved the plants to different locations because I thought the fish smell remained on the dirt. I figured a new location would do. No such luck.

    So please, if you have racoons in your area, skip the fish and use other fertilizers instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Riley -- What a pain in the rear! Luckily we don't have racoons in our area but we do have lots of cats and so far so good. We put the fish heads pretty deep and covered them with more dirt before putting in our plants. I can honestly say that we will do the "fish head" trick every year because our plants are three times the size they were last year! By the way, have you thought of setting a live trap to catch your pesky racoon?

      Delete
  4. Racoons are not in season so not able to set any type of trap for them. :(

    ReplyDelete

I love getting comments, they make my day and I read each one! So, thank you very much for taking the time to leave one!

 
site design by designer blogs