August Fields

window boxes and flowers

i filled my window boxes a couple of weeks ago and went a totally different route than last year.  
pink! petunias and potato vine. 

the front porch got a dose of pink too.

geraniums, diamond frost, vinca vine, spike and some fillers.

you can see the garden over the hill.  its all planted and blooming!  update on that soon.

our retaining walls have climbing hydrangeas and day lilies.

 more lilies.

boxwoods on top, climbing hydrangeas, purple coneflower and lilies.  for the past two years the dear have shown NO interest in these plants.

the back deck has pink….

and the back porch has pink!

the planters by the garage even have pink.

i had fun this year filling my pots.  i attended a class at a local greenhouse that where i brought in up to three planters and we filled them and learned tips about filling a pot.

texture, height and color.  sun or shade or both.  etc.

oh, and to be sure these all receive their adequate amounts of h2o “watering flowers” has been put on boone’s daily chore list! 🙂

the garden is rolling deep

like crazy amounts of zucchini and beans deep!  the basil has been going full force for awhile now.  the garden has been such a blessing.  not only is it yielding amazing amounts of vegetables but it is giving our family a whole other activity.  we are in the garden every day!  pulling weed, watering, mowing, and picking!

zucchini

beans

cucumbers

corn.  the far box was planted two weeks after the box closest to you in the picture.  this was so that all the corn didn’t come at once.  also our poor corn was leveled in a really bad storm last week.  look how well it has recovered!

so this was my kitchen yesterday!  i had planned on making zucchini relish but my mother in law came over and found the garden overflowing with veggies!  so she stayed and picked beans, snapped them, blanced them and put them in the freezer.

yum.

i did make zucchini relish (it had to set overnight before canning)

we also shredded most of this zucchini and froze it.  whew!

i’ll tackle the cucumbers today.

this basil was transformed into deeeeelicious pesto!

i did sneak a few cucumbers to make this easy salad for dinner.  shredded cucumbers, sugar, white vinegar and some water.  ohmyword.

i am using these two books right now to help me with canning and for my relish and pesto recipes.

how to build a 4 x 12 raised garden bed. plus garden pictures.

here is a tutorial for the 4’x12′ raised garden beds that are in our garden.  we used pressure treated pine.
for each raised bed we used:
2ea.  12in. x 12ft. boards
2ea.  12in. x 4ft. boards
4ea.  4in. x 4in. x12in. posts
screws
drill
muscles 🙂
these were super easy.  basically, line your 4×4 posts up with one board and drill.
enlist some helpers to speed things along…..
line up another side and drill into your 4×4 post.  i told you it was simple!
this is one finished raised bed.  we lined each one with landscape grade bed liner from lowes.

then brought in the dirt.  we used a mix of soil and mixed soil.  i threw some fertilizer in there too and raked it in.  it started pouring rain while my husband and i were filling/raking the last 4 beds.  i was a wet and muddy mess!

here is a close up of the gates before we added the mesh fencing and trim pieces.  
here you can see the mesh fencing that we (my dad and husband) stapled up.  my dad added trim pieces as an added layer on top of the mesh for a more finished look.
this picture gives a good overall view of the garden and the layout of the raised beds.  i’ve already started adding pots of flowers and the “crops” are growing!  i’m usually out there with the kiddos in the late afternoon….watering, weeding, and just adding little touches.  
little dubs found the water again 🙂  isn’t he a love?

the raised bed garden. close to completion.

we’re so close to being done!  
this garden has truly been a family project.  from cutting the wood, to filling the beds with dirt, to planting the seeds.
tomorrow we will be installing the fencing that will prevent the little critters from getting in.
when we first looked into a design that would emulate my inspiration picture, we realized it would take forever to build! the 8 foot fence height was mandatory.  i loved the dramatic feel of it AND it is high enough to deter the deer.
my dad came up with this design that was a bit more simple yet still very aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
you can see the beginning of the process here.
this little guy would find water in a desert!  he always finds the puddles….

and as you can see here deanie was having quite the time in front of the camera while my dad and husband were hard at work!

these kids are hard workers!

my favorite part of this whole project is that my children are making memories with their opa.  i know they will always remember opa building the garden.

it’s all coming together!

i’m so happy with the way the gates turned out.  we put two swinging gates in the front end of the garden and two in the back.  for safety reasons.

we have twelve 4×12′ raised beds.  i will do a more detailed post on that very easy process.

and that’s it for now.  tomorrow it will be done.  well the “structure” of it will be done.  i will forever be working on the interior grass, adding flowers and making it look lovely.