A Good Day Outside

We have a lot of good days at home. But the best days to me, are the days we get to enjoy it in a cleanish state, when we’ve accomplished some outside chores, and when I’ve got something really tasty planned for dinner. This day, many plants were put in the ground. Cucumbers, melons, tomatoes and flowers. The house was made cleanish. And we feasted. It was a good day.

We are still getting some chilly weather, so using my plastic cups and bottles as mini-greenhouses  helps keep the temp stable around my spoutlings.

This is my seed vault. I saw this great way to organize and protect my seeds from Throwback Road, please stop by this lovely blog, it is one of my favorites! I’ve planted all my veggies from seed this year, and since I was starting over in life (since moving from SoCal to TN), I wanted to the garden to reflect our choices too. No GMO, no frankenfoods, for this house. No pesticides or chemical foods either. All natural baby! If I can start drinking raw milk and making my own kefir and butter, then I can certainly make more traditional, natural and healthy choices in the garden as well.

My marigolds are only part of the garden that I’m planting along side my veggies to ward off evil bugs. I’m hoping to keep some thriving flowers mixed in with all the veggies, not only because it will be pretty, but because the flowers will serve as a miniature jungle home for the bug soldiers (lovely carnivorous bugs that will eat the nasty bugs that eat my plants). Come on bugs, work with me on this one…

We are renting this home and property and this is our first Spring here. It is fun to see what is coming alive all over the property. Off the front porch, we discovered a neglected strawberry bed. We spend a good deal of time weeding, adding compost and watering it and it is already thankful.

Here’s one of the finishing touches on the teepee that my Lumberjack built for the kids.

Here’s the view from the inside, hopefully, the green will start growing faster in the warm weather and the “walls” of the teepee with fill in.

She thinks she’s helping.

We gathered these stones from the field next to the house for the ‘entrance’ to the teepee. The ground is entirely stones under the topsoil. I don’t even know why the DIY Home Stores sell pavers here, they occur naturally every few feet.

This is one of the beans, a Scarlet Runner, we planted at the base of the teepee poles. The beans, and flowers, will make such a fun make-believe playhouse for the kids. I think the teenager will even enjoy this one. We chose Scarlet Runners because that is what Thomas Jefferson planted on his garden teepees to display their beauty. Since visiting Monticello is a dream of mine, I wanted to start dreaming in my own backyard.

Then we finished the day with Teriyaki glazed baby back ribs. I made baked red beans, potato salad and steamed corn on the cob to go with it and it was so tasty after an entire day working outside. Another good day at home.