Oh Heavenly Warmth and 4H County Events

If you follow this blog, then you are aware that I have been whining for a month now about how cold it has been. Well it is finally over, at least for now, and I can stop being a turtle, lol. I am so slow when it is cold, just like turtles and alligators. I need the sun to warm me up and get me going. Even though it has been warmer, today is the first day that the sun has really shone. I got to get out and baby my poor garden some yesterday. The cold did a lot of damage, even though I covered the most tender of my plants. Caitlin is getting her own garden project this year, for Science class. But, I will share more of that later, after we get it going today. I will be putting in tomato seeds, but they will be only out if it is sunny and warm, otherwise will hibernate in the semi warmer garage. I was given a Christmas Cactus, and it is already getting larger, so I think I will put that into my newest project, the tire garden, which is no where near being ready on a large scale. I still need two or three more tires. Then they have to be painted and filled with dirt. As you may be aware I throw out ends of potatoes and onions. The onions help keep bugs away, but also will just grow wherever. We have been able to pick and eat several onions just by throwing them around the other plants. We had one small potato, but we actually planted some eyes, and we will see how that works out. Our Milkweed are dead, but I went out and cut them all back, so hopefully they will return bigger and better.

This past Sat was our annual 4H event, called County Events. This is the first step to other events. Next is Districts the first weekend of May. Both kids qualified this year for Districts. If DJ wins first, or second place, in his Demo he can go on to states. He was not old enough in previous years. Caitlin can do Fashion Review, but not sure if she will, and can enter her already award winning photograph.

This week is a more normal school week, with hiking at the Springs on Wed.

How Our Garden Grows!

Sorry, I am bored with Music on Monday, might pick it up again next week, not sure. I get bored very easy, LOL! Anyway I thought I would share some of our garden success for this year. Any of you who have read this blog through the years, know that gardening is something I really enjoy, but am not particularly good at. One thing I have learned is that our soil, sand actually, really stinks for growing things. So I bought a bag of good potting soil, and when I plant something new it goes in the hole with the sand and the plant. I also have been adding organic materials to the base of the plants, to help enrich the soil and feed the plant. Potato peels, banana peels, egg shells, orange peel, and any other type of peel all gets put around the base of the plant. Left over coffee, and the grounds are also used. The coffee is especially important in keeping bugs from eating your plants. It is not 100 percent effective, but it does pretty good. Roses especially love banana peels. The potassium in the peel, gives them all kinds of nutrients. I did not take pictures of all the things we have growing, but I will try to get the rest in another post. In this post is my very large yellow rose bush, taken from above. It is a really cool shot. It has been flowering like crazy this year, and is getting quite large now. Then I believe is Caitlin with her sunflower plant. Walmart was giving away free sunflower plants to kids, sometime ago now. It was about an inch tall then. We are hoping it will flower soon. You can also see my hibiscus, which I killed but it is coming back now. It is very sensitive to cool temperatures, and even though we had a warm winter, it was cool enough to kill it. I will have to be more careful with it this Winter. Then you can see my poinsetta plant, which was a gift from a friend last Christmas. Normally they die and that is it. I took mine and planted it in the ground. At first it looked real sickly, but I have been babying it. I was told it will get real huge, like a bush, if I am lucky. Last is my tomato plant, which is getting big and full pretty fast now. I kind of wanted tomatoes by now, but it is just starting to flower now. I have to watch for caterpillars that love to eat the tomato leaves. Oh, and the banana tree. We bought a four dollar banana tree around Mother's Day. It is growing pretty fast for a tree now. I am told they are very sensitive to cold as well, so I will have to watch it come Winter. I love bananas, and hope we get tons. It won't produce for probably three years or so.