Play Yard

Linking Up Today with  Fertilzer Friday

http://www.tootsietime.com/

Be sure and check out all the other great gardeners and walk through their gardens.

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We have a fun play yard but we are growing out of it. We decided to add a tire mountain - this is the party to get it started,

Painting Tires

Painting more of the play yard

Tires Finished

All Stacked Up

Here is a picture of the entire play yard - you can see the grass line where we expanded - still not finished, the heat has put a damper on working on it - we will work on it more when it cools down.  It is still fun and being used. 
In the back is the sound wall and the water wall.  
I will show those in another post.

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Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for stopping by!

Today I am grateful for my darling grandchildren who love me and want to play at my house!

Have a great weekend.

Year Round Greenhouse Gardening

Inside of the greenhouse - in the back are squash and tomatoes,  In front of that are cucumbers and peppers.  In front of that are carrots, lettuce and beets going to seed (on purpose).  In front of that herbs.  Strawberries along the walk way

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We got our greenhouse 1 year ago  - I have learned so much!  I still have so much to learn!

Going through a year with experiementing and working on this I have finally figured out how to make this work with my outside garden and how to make it so we have a continuous harvest.

Finally figuring out my schedule for Greenhouse gardening!

I am in zone 4.

Here it is:
---FEB/MARCH -plant cool weather crops in greenhouse, start some seeds
---APRIL - plant warm weather crops in greenhouse, start some seeds, cool weather crops outside
---Early MAY - cool weather crops outside - harvest cool weather crops greenhouse - plant warm weather crops in their place in greenhouse
---LATE MAY - warm weather crops outside - harvest greenhouse
---JUNE - weed like crazy - harvest some warm weather crops from greenhouse
---JULY -  harvest warm weather from greenhouse some cool weather from outside
---AUGUST - harvest warm weather from outside, plant fall crops in greenhouse - (have about 90 days from August 1st for unheated choose seeds accordingly)
---SEPTEMBER - harvesting last of  outside crops
---OCTOBER - harvesting last of warm weather crops from greenhouse
---NOVEMBER ---harvesting from greenhouse
---DECEMBER through FEBRUARY - only harvesting cool weather such as spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, herbs etc. I keep plastic and fleece blankets over them - enough last year to keep things growing and harvesting - water about once every other week

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 We only have about 6 weeks left of outside gardening here in Idaho - it has been a hot summer here, just like most of you. 

 

Today I am grateful for the cool of the basement on a hot summer day.

 

Happy Gardening! 
p.s. note to self - next year don't plant so many squash and tomatoe plants! 

What is Happening This Week in My Neighborhood!

Linking up today with Blooming Tuesday!

http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/
and Fertilzer Friday
http://www.tootsietime.com/

I know many  of you have your yards a blaze with blooms!  I love seeing what is coming my way.  I live in Idaho and we are just at the beginning of Spring wonderful happening.

Here are a few pictures of things starting to wake up:

Apricot Tree Filled with Blossoms

Please don't freeze for the next few nights!

  Bleeding Hearts - Brand New!

 A Few More Dafodills

 The First Tulips and Grape Hyacinths

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In the Greenhouse

Hosta Seeds are starting to pop up!

 Moon Flower seedlings peaking up too!

    Today I am grateful for the spring time burst of energy happening all over our beautiful area!

This Week - Snow Snow Snow Snow!

Linking up this week with Tootsie over at Fertilizer Friday
http://www.tootsietime.com/

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This week has been an up and down week in the neighborhood!  Monday we had snow.  Tuesday it was 70*. Yesterday it was 60* and today we are in a blizzard. Snow is actually drifting in the road.  Sheesh!

This week:

1. I finalized our play yard area plans. (Details next post written on Monday April 2, 2012.)
2. Some daffodils are blooming.
3. Cleaned up the Side Yard.
4. Planted a few more things in the greenhouse.
5. Shoveled the walk!

Here are a few pix:

Side Yard before cleaning - it was a mess - all the clean up stuff filled a pick-up. 

I let the leaves stay in the side yard to help protect my darling plants through the winter. 

 After cleaned and washed:

 Daffodils are blooming - a full month ahead of time.

Does this mean we will be ahead of time all season?

Poor Mother Nature - it looks more like Christmas this morning than it did at Christmas!  The weather is all mixed up here.

That is all for the week. Hope you have a wonderful Easter. 

Today I am grateful for Jesus Christ and what He did for all of us!

Plans and the Play Yard

Check out all the fun gardens on this weeks blog hop.

Linking up today with Blooming Tuesday!  Blooming Tuesday

Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage Tuesday Garden Party

Wednesday - Outdoor Wednesday Outdoor Wednesday

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I was totally excited to go out into the yard this morning and work.  The sun was shining - I opened the curtains and this is what I found....big change of plans! 

So I spent sometime doing some research finalized the changes I am making to the play yard - pictured below. 

(The date on my camera is off by one day - oops!  

We have 10 grandchildren, one is six and the rest are under four years old.  Most of them are boys and we have to have to have some more activities for them when they are here.

Here are a few of the ideas I am planning to do:

This is from www.thisoldhouse.com   I want to build a fort back in the right corner just behind the tires.

Next to it I want a square that is a nature square. This picture is from: www.progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com

Next to it, right behind the treehouse I am going to put a 4x8 piece of plywood with astro turf on it that the little boys can drive their trucks on.  I don't have a picture of it.

I want to add a chalkboard to the back fence. This picture is from: www.blogs.babble.com

I am going to add a sound wall with a thunder drum.  This pictures is from  www.progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com  I am going to move the fence forward on the right side and make the sound wall the fence on that front side.  It will be about 4 feet tall.

Both pictures above are from   www.parqueparabrincarepensar.blogspot.com. I want to add this tire climb to one of the openings in the tree house.

On the left side  I am pulling the fence out and this will be the side of that fence - a water wall - it will face out so the water doesn't go into the play yard and will be about 4 feet high.  This picture is from

www.shareandremember.blogspot.com

I want to add a simplified version of this to the water wall that will just spray out when the hose is hooked up to it.

Where I pull the fence out, I am going to add this tire mountain - loe the bright colors and the fun the kids would have on this.
 

I already have a hopscotch in there - but I am going to let each of our g-kids decorate a block - this one is really fun - it is from www.nearlycivilized.ca

When it warms up a bit and I have the fence where I want it - I am gong to have all the little boys come over and help me paint - isn't this so great!

There are a few more ideas - I will take pictures as we begin the renovation.  

I told our 6 year old that when I finished the greenhouse we would start working on it.  Last week when I finished, he said to me, "So now we can start the new play yard right Mimi?"   How can you say no to that?!?!?!?

Thanks for stopping by!

Today I am grateful for new beginnings! 

Progress in the Greenhouse

Linking up today with Tootsie at 

http://www.tootsietime.com/ 
and
Jeanne at Blooming Tuesday!
http://msgreenthumbjean.blogspot.com/

Check out all the great gardeners in the Garden Blog Hop Today!

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I have never done seeds before like this and they are growing!  YIPPEE!

 This is the herb box - growing everyday...

 Look how much the chives have grown!

 This is the broccoli grown from seeds I gathered in the fall.

 These are the tomatoes  they are pretty happy.

 The entire greenhouse from the door looking in...

 LOVE all the green!

 My helper today....

 OOOOHHHHH

Love Love Love the color!

 Finally - I have a few daffodils blooming outside - not sure what to think - they are blooming one month before they normally do.

They are lovely and I love having them, but does that mean my whole gardening season will be a month earlier than normal? 

I would love anyone's suggestions about this.

Today I am thankful to be a part of all this energy exploding all around me as the earth comes back to life!

March in Idaho in our Yard!

Linking up today with Tootsie at http://www.tootsietime.com/ 
and GArden Bloggsers Bloom Day

If you want to see some amazing gardener's, check out these two links and take the tour - it is always amazing!

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This past week has been a busy week in our yard.
1 - I planted peas outside in the grow boxes. I saw the video linked below about planting peas outdoors in the winter and I wanted to try it.  It was wet and soggy and I just kind of shoved them in.  I am actually quite excited to see if they really do grow so soon.  I should have peas about the time I normally plant if it works and free up those boxes for other things.  It is great nitrogen boost to the boxes as well.   http://www.simplylivingsmart.com/2012/01/peas-in-by-presidents.html

2 -  All the boxes in the greenhouse are planted.  There are all kinds of veggies in there, as well as herbs. (Pix below) (Beans, pease, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and more.)
 
3 - We planted 18 flats of flower seeds.  I really have no idea what I am doing with this one - totally a new skill for me to learn. ( i have been reading lots of Tootsies posts about this!)  When I planted our side yard (pix in header above), full of  all shade plants and I had never done shade plants before that time. I studied and studied until I felt like my head was going to fall off.  That is how I feel right now about the greenhouse.  I don't know what I am doing!!! 

4 -  I saw this on how to re-grow store bought celery - very cool!  So I planted on - if it works I will do more.    http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/group/t...w-store-bought

This next week I am going to plant the flowers that need consistent 70* - researching the how to's on this.
 
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Here are a few pix I took on Monday - I would go and take some more to show the progress but it is a blizzard outside and I am a wimp. I will do another post in a day or so to show how much things are growing out there.
 

This is a pix of the herb square all cleaned out.  These are the herbs I have been using all winter.  They were planted in about October.  They look great!  So happy there.  I cleaned up a few and replanted Cilantro, Basil, Rosemary, Parsely, Savory,  and some  Radishes in the empty spaces. 

 This is the bean box.  It has blue lake bush beans.  The green things you see on the edge are onions. 

 These are chives.  When I was out there yesterday they are about triple the  size and height.

 This is one of my helpers.  You can see the milk cartons in this one that helped to keep the temps up in the winter.  I will leave them there until it warms up in late April.   Like I said I would go and take more pix, but it is pretty stormy out there.

 Here is another helper. We all had fun digging in the dirt on Monday!

 You can see the end of the greenhouse where we are putting the seeds we are propagating. 

Also look at the green in the boxes! 

It is awesome.

  

Thanks for stopping by!
Today I am grateful for our wonderful world that is coming to life! 

Also for a warm and cozy house.