WEEDS - almost gone!

Alrighty, I am ALMOST done with the weeding project. All of the garden beds in the main garden are DONE.  Yay!  Still have some work to do on the paths and in the flower bed next to them, but this is good progress. And I also have the herb garden at the back door to finish.  But I'm excited that I can start some planting probably this weekend.
Here are some progress pics:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now that is MUCH better. :)  I left in some ground cover that I like back there. And I didn't mess with the stuff on the fence...yet.  Ok, gotta head out, but I'm happy with how it is coming along!

Almost Done Weeding!

I've only 2 boxes to go. Honestly I could have finished them this week. I just got incredibly lazy. Every time I would look out there it seemed overwhelming and I wouldn't even go out. Which means weeds had grown back in the other beds I had already done. I am REALLY regretting the horse manure. Yes, it was great to make everything grow, but the weeds it brought in are insane. Next year I may have to totally empty these boxes and redo my mel's mix. But there is no money for that this year.
Today I did 3 beds. There's only the herb box at the back door, and the old strawberry box left. And some weeds that are around the boxes, but my main concern is to get those boxes ready to plant. It isn't necessarily pretty out there right now, but it is functional!
So I did NOT meet my goal of getting them done by the 15th. However I am close and will finish them up this week. Besides, its extra calories burned, right?  :)
I'm not going to be planting all the boxes right away, I'm wondering if I should cover them with plastic to try to reduce all of the weed problems. And there are tons of these diamond shape bugs in everything. Will try to get a pic. They remind me of some sort of squash bug relation, but not quite.
Sorry to be so absent. I'm 4 weeks out of my show and my mind is on workouts & diet constantly.
Have a great evening! (ok, it's 10pm and evening is over...)

Heading out to weed!

Ok, I'm heading out RIGHT NOW to weed another box. I've got 6 done, and only 4 to go. I think I'll make my goal!! :)  Alright, there's still the pathways in between and stuff, but I'm happy with the progress.
On another note, if I'm scarce again for the next few weeks don't worry. I have a figure competition coming up in 5 weeks and it is taking over the majority of my time. I still plan to have the garden up and running mid month though.
Will take a pic of the garden and update tonight if it isn't too dark.

Progress Pic

On my way! Half way through the boxes now. Yippeee!!

I did leave the carrots in that one box. And I left the legitimate ground cover that I planted right there by the wheelbarrow. Right now its raining so I am not getting out in the garden today. Still, it's 8/3 and I'm halfway there so I'm really happy about that progress.

Dead Batteries

I need to replace the batteries in the camera so I can get a pic of my progress. I've got 5 boxes cleared so far. Yay! In FL this time of year it is hard to find a good time to be out in the garden pulling weeds. It is either ridiculously hot, or the mosquitoes are out. Of course, when I'm planting seeds it isn't ridiculously hot. Just when doing undesireable tasks, haha!
When clearing Jake's box I found some carrots growing in there so I left those behind. That way there's something that actually belongs there :)
I'm happy to see there are worms still in the boxes. But lots and lots of other bugs which I'll get a pic of.
Oh, and a pretty black wooly caterpillar was inching his way along one of the boxes. I did get a pic of that, but...dead batteries.
Ok, that's my catching up post. I'm trying to be better about blogging, but there's so much going on. BUSY!

Cleaning Up Day 1 & 2 - Shortest blog of mine ever!!

10 minutes yesterday weeding, and 10 minutes today. A little progress!!

Wanna see something really scary??

Remember that line from the beginning of Twilight Zone the movie? Well here is something really scary. A garden that has been neglected for several months. There's nothing to do in the garden from June - August. I haven't even looked back there in weeks. Today I went out to get a tan and WHOA - reality hit!  Ok, the grass in the yard is really long too but that's because the mower broke right before we went on vacation and we just got a new one. Will have to get the kiddo to mow that later tonight.
Anyhow, why would I post such a horrible pic of my garden?  For the same reason I post "before" pictures when I do a fitness challenge .... Accountability.  If I put it out there and say I'm going to do something about it I am more likely to actually do it.  I can start planting in mid August so that is my goal. I plan to have the garden looking neat and ready by August 15th.  Watch for nice neat garden pics mid-August. :)
Here are the ugly ones!
The main garden:

There, an extra large pic so you can see just how bad it really is!! There are 10 boxes hiding in there LOL. And a crazy wheelbarrow we keep forgetting to put away. I bet the legs are ready to rot off that sucker. Oh wait, they aren't wood. Well I bet the handles are ready to rot off then.

The herb box:

I promise that there are actually herbs somewhere in there...

Alright, there they are in all their glory. The messiest garden pics around. I'm going to start weeding today. Wish me luck. I hope I don't get lost out there....

Sorry, I'm Still Going (& Growing!)

Ugh, so sorry I haven't been here. I just saw a comment from Granny checking on me. Thanks Granny for caring!!

I am a bad multitasker LOL. If I'm doing one thing I tend to neglect another. I have been getting in shape for summer and my mind has been on workouts and fitness. I've started up my jewelry making again and that is taking up my time as well. I also work part time for a personal trainer and do her customer service and website stuff, plus put her blog up around in different places. By the time I'm done with that and with blogging my fitness stuff I'm just worn out from blogging LOL.

My garden is still going, even though we're moving into the stage of "too hot and everything wilts and dies". I've harvested a ton of peas and lettuce, purple pole beans and herbs. The watermelon in Jake's bed is surviving. We need to water it way more for sure. There's definitely weeding to do, but for the most part it is going well for this time of year. I think I will get out the curtains again this year to try to have peppers throughout the summer. That worked great last year. I'm skipping squash at this point because I've had it with squash bugs, they drove me nuts last time around.

Anyhow, I'm still alive!!! :) I will try to be better about checking in because I know I worry about people when I don't see them posting and wonder if I'll ever know what has become of them. And I need to get better about checking in on you all too!!!

What's up?

Just a quickie post here :)
What's up in the garden?
Broccoli - this is from seed I har\/ested from one of my plants last season - lots of it coming up "" Will ha\/e to thin these and plant them in other places.
Spinach showing its little sprouts
Pole bean peaking through the dirt
Radishes - i don't eat these but they always grow and I need that satisfaction of seeing something grow in the garden LOL
Green Arrow Peas poking up
Sugar Snap peas - yep, coming through
And early girl tomatoes
Looks like a bush bean or two coming up
Maybe, possibly, finally the black seeded simpson lettuce I ha\/e planted for 2 years that ne\/er comes up LOL
We'\/e had rain e\/ery other day and sunshine in between, and cool weather but no freezes. It's looking pretty good so far this season :)

Anyhow, that's all for now. Excuse my crazy typing but my 1 key that has the exclamation point with it is not working, nor is my letter between "c" and "b" so I'm using these slashes to make capital \/'s LOL.
Ha\/e a super day

3 beds planted today!

I am happy that I was able to plant 3 beds today. The herb garden at the back door was first on my list. It is so convenient. I would really love to put some boxes outside my kitchen windows and remove the screen so I can just open the window and get what I need LOL. I know, that is SO lazy :) . But there isn't enough space. So at the back door will have to do.
I put in thyme, rosemary, cilantro, basil (holy & genovese), oregano, parsley, dill, and two more I can't remember LOL. I only have 9 squares in that bed.

The other two beds were filled with: spinach, rainbow carrots, jade bush beans, purple pole beans, green arrow peas, sugar snap peas, ithica lettuce, black seeded simpson lettuce, salad bowl lettuce, golden cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli (packman that I harvested the seeds off my own), walla walla onions, some unknown pkg of onions, brandywine tomatoes, early girl tomatoes, cukes, sugar baby watermelon, and herbs planted throughout some extra spaces.

It felt so good to be out in the garden again. I have missed it. I got so busy throughout the fall and winter, and all of the holidays and gatherings that go with it. Plus the garden wasn't producing so I was very frustrated. I thought I was going to be so on top of things last fall but apparently not! My mind was completely on Jake's diabetes diagnosis and it really took us a while to get into our new routine. However, I'm ready to take back the garden!!

Hope you all have a great weekend. I will continue to clean up the rest of the beds. I've got 8 more!

I'm Still Alive!!

Yes, I'm still here and alive. My garden - not so much. I have completely neglected it since Fall. Today was my first day out tackling the overgrowth of weeds. I spent 5 hours today topping off a few beds with some more compost and garden soil. I pulled weeds - yuk, hate that. I raked up mulch. And I carried twenty nine pavers, weighing 51 lbs each, about 75 feet, to create a nice little path through the garden. I could use about 20 more to get it the way I want it. These were free because my dad was getting rid of them. There's still about 5 or 6 more at their house I need to pick up. Then I figure I can buy one a month and have the path all like I want it by the end of the year. I still need to clean them but am very happy with the results so far. There will be much less weed growth with these things in place - they are huge and take up a lot of space.


On my way in I noticed a few things that survived the weeds and the freeze. I figured I'd grab a little radish for the bunny on the way in. Uh, yeah, this is little??

LOL. So I decided that was a bit big for the bunny to have. I gave him some of the leaves though. He tasted them a few times then determined they were worth eating. He can be a little picky.

Tomorrow I will go out and do some more cleaning and hopefully have the garden back in production this coming week. Time to plant some seeds for spring harvest.

I need to check in on you all and see how things are going!