Getting Planted uP At The Potting Shed

Greetings and Holykisses!

I know I haven't shared much of my life these days.
So ...today, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into my little place to be.

First; I'd like you to meet the gnome who's taken up residence around the potting shed.
We don't know eachother too well yet. But Addie likes him. And she's usually a pretty good judge of character.




Everything's been bloomin early this year.
The lilacs are done already, and the peonies are now spilling over in pretty pinks and whites.
Merry Bema, if you're reading this; that's the snowball bush you sent me up against the shed!
I need to give it a good drink of Mrs. Potter's bunnyberry tea this week! It's been working hard!
One of it's blooms found it's way through a crack in the shed wall so above my potters bench is one fluffy white snowball. Makes me laugh when I see it.

The English ivy is also growing by leaps and bounds inside the shed as well as is the Wisteria.
It's becoming a jungle in there! I keep trying to reroute the wisteria vines away from the door opening in the hopes that one day I'll get a real door! Most of the vines just find their way in through all the cracks in the walls. I really think the ivy is the glue that holds the shabby olde potting shed together.




So here's an overall view of our little garden.
Well; one of them. lol This is the area that when I'm not working, I like to just putter.

I've been diggin lots of post holes, setting railroad tie posts, cedar posts, t posts, and making fences from old gates, cattle panels and even some old dog fence that was left at my Momma's.
For the most part; now it's time to wait ... -and hopefully, get my tiller fixed too. haha I'm praying it's fixable! The motor runs great but the hoeing part bit the dust. Myguy promised he'd look at it soon but said from what all I described it didn't sound good. I so hope it'll be alright. I'm pretty attached to my workhorse.

We ordered from Gurney's again this year. One of my favorite things from Gurney's is the giant Gurney hybrid cantaloupe. It is so sweet and grows so well here.
I also bought alot of seed from Atwoods, Lowes, and Walmart too.
......I used to say "There's always room for one more flower." This year, ... somehow that snowballed to: "There's always room for one more garden." Yeah, you read that right! Because not only did I plant there by the potting shed, but also there's a bigger cornpatch behind the Red Tip Photinia bushes in that photo, and then made another garden area down by our barn, and ... yet another small one up at my Mom's old place. Now I bet you're feelin sorry for my old tiller too aren'tchya?


It's funny; as much work as gardening is... it absolutely delights me.
-- It seems like everything I look at ... I wonder "could I plant it?"
Like this olde minnow bucket. I saved the screened in part with the lid in case I find a cute ya know.. frog, toad, or cattypillar. But this outter bucket made a good planter for some tunies.
I just knocked some holes in the bottom with a big fat nail first.
I've learned a gal can plant chairs, beds, dressers, a blue toilet, graniteware colanders, concrete blocks, chicken feeders, chicken waterers, chamber pots, ... you get thee idea. If it can hold dirt... plant it! -- Then there's always the other idea that if it can't hold dirt,... plant it anyways... out in the garden. Things like pretty plates, typewriters, bowling balls, rusty farm machinery; you name it.. just plant it.




Rusty chains, and interesting objects find new life.
I don't know what this thing is.. but found it in the scrap pile.


Even this old metal case is now home to a handful of marigold seeds.
They've yet to make their appearance ... but hopefully soon.


This year's zukes are up, as well as the candylopes, tomato seed, corn, pole peas, onions, moon and stars watermelon, and..

the magic beans. It's my very first time ever to plant pole beans. Usually we just grow the shorter bush variety. This year, I want to go higher.


This is where I planted our biggest corn patch.
Myguy used to store his winter hay over here, so the soil is not too bad.
Last year we planted "Gotta Have It" corn from Gurneys and it was by far thee very best corn we ever had. So this year, we ordered more and planted it here, as well as another patch near the barn. I took this photo right after planting and the corn is now up.
You'll have to see the crooked rows one of these days.


I also ordered a small package of strawberry popcorn off Ebay. I really just want to grow it for decoration because the little ears look just like strawberries. But I didn't want to plant it right by the other corn in case it cross pollinated. So........ since the package was tiny; I decided to grow it up on my Mommas old place.

Where we made her garden before; wasn't a possibility because it's now our winter hay lot and big tractor trailers pull in there. So outta the way; or "kittyquampas" as my Momma used to say by her old wooden shed, I dug up a little spot. Had to walk the tiller across 5 acres to get it there and it worked it's tail off in this little block. The soil there had never been tilled and the cedar tree roots made it rough goin! -- But; finally it was ready. This will be interesting because I planted the strawberry popcorn as well as Ruby Queen corn side by side right here. Who knows what we'll end up with. Hopefuly some cute stalks to decorate with this Autumn.

Lookin at her old wooden shed made me want to plant it. :)
It took awhile but finally managed to get all the old sheet iron ripped off the sides, and tilled all the way around it. You can't tell it from this photo but I also weed eated around that cement step in front of it and then Myguy helped me put some lattice up around the bottom. After that; I planted hollyhocks, zinnia, marigold, and seed from my sweet Aunt and Uncle. Lots of wildflowers, and colorful sunflowers.
I can hardly wait to see it come to life.

Myguy said he'd cut some boards to fix the ones that are missing on the shed, and I don't know about doors yet. But I can see some old rusty farm stuff hanging on the sides and maybe a barn star at the front. I could almost feel her looking down and smiling and spending this time up there brought back so many wonderful memories of when we planted her last garden together!
I hope to show you more pictures in the days ahead!




This one is kinda funny.
Yeah; you got it. I forgot to disengage the forward TILL lever for a short ways.
Adda girl just shook her pretty lil head at me.



Life on the farm has also had it's changes taking place as well.
Remember the two banty hens who set together for 21 days in this old watercan?
Well they hatched.


I started hearing peeps, and then waited one more day to take them all out.
One of the Mothers tried to kill me. (I was thankful for my leather gloves.) lol


This is the one who got me.
No surprise huh? She loves her chicklets!



With so many chickens I started running out of nest boxes.
This old vanity has been out in one of the sheds for so long, so ...
what the heck right?
It just needed a little turquoise paint ..
and some old hay. Walaa- instant nest box!



The girls love this old wooden chicken crate the most to lay eggs in.
They did start laying in the old rooster cupboard too that's in another corner of the barn.
I thought I added a picture of it here but it looks like I forgot that one. My Aunt Nancy gave me the idea to open all the drawers and doors on it and let them have it. They loved it! It's kinda fun to walk around and gather eggs out of drawers.

Because the garden is all planted and corn is just coming up; all the chickens but three little roosters are incarcerated to the big coop again. I really miss them, but until the plants get more established, they'll have to stay in their pens.
-- Back to planting.....



I replanted this pair of Bigdaddy's olde work boots in purple.
When dumping the old dirt out; one toad popped out.
Oh how I love them ole toads!


This Spring; I added another chair, and gave the one on the left a coat of turquoisey blue.




After taking the broken cane seat off this one; it was then lined with a chicken wire bottom and then placed the leftover cane seat on top of that before adding the coconut basket. It seemed to give it extra oomph. I add extra chicken wire for vines and wired bark with lichens on it that I found in the woods.


In the little bare spots, I added pretty moss dug from the floor of the woods.


Not painting this chair last year was hard on it.
I wish I could remember the name of the vine planted along the backside of it. It survived all winter long!


--This will be one of my upcoming projects.
We bought this fountain at a yard sale and didn't realize the holes in the bottom. It must have froze and broke.

While we were at Lowes we picked up an epoxy putty that after drying you're supposed to be able to even drill through. I hope it plugs this baby up and we can get it working again. If not; ... plant it right?! haha


In this other bed, are my Angel Mother's peonies.
It's loaded.


Here is a close up of one of the flowers from that bed taken just yesterday.
I wish you could smell this sweet fragrance.


-Finally got around to planting some plates to edge a few lilies and gladiolas.
My Strongheart gave me the stargazer lilies a few years back that are coming up right behind them.
He's told me that sometimes when several are in bloom; he can smell them all the way down at the mechanics shop!


Some of you know, I've wanted to plant a bottle tree for awhile now.
I kept putting it off because I didn't think I had enough bottles.
I decided to just plant it anyways and "begin!"

Some people use re-bar, but Myguy just cut down a little cedar tree in the woods for me.
He trimmed the branches leaving the little stubs to hang the bottles onto. In the bare places where there isn't a stub and there should be; I just nailed some long nail spikes into the trunk. It worked really well and I'm enjoying the hunt for more colored bottles now. I like the cobalt blue bottles and antique purple ones best.




Well that's the tour for today.
I'm leaving you with this dandelion to blow on.
Don't forget to make a wish!

Holykisses xoxo
Lea