Happy Birthday, Mom!!!

I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday today!

**hugs from me and Bug**

We love you!!!

Green Thumbs?

Our beautiful spring weather has awakened the dormant gardener within, and the sight of all those beautiful new plants begging to be adopted at the local home and garden centers are not helping the situation much. Even the local flowering plants have gotten in on the act...

As we are seasoned gardeners (well, maybe just me, and not really seasoned per se...), we were itching for some great weather to help bring about the transformation of our front patio from ugly bare concrete (and moss, too!) to a lush urban garden, with lots of foliage and blooming flowers.

Now, we aren't one of those swanky rooftop gardens in New York City, or even able to foot a large budget to buy completely grown plants to just put in their proper place for maximum eye candy, so we just did what we could to brighten the place up a bit...

Here's our step by step guide for creating a patio container garden.

1. Get a big container!
The bigger the better if you want lots of plants....

2. Fill it with dirt.
Yeah, and don't forget to make sure there are enough drainage holes, and rocks in the bottom to encourage good drainage. Make sure you get a nice fluffy kind of dirt (like a good compost) so the roots of your plants don't get all compacted...YUCK!

3. Add plants!
Make sure that your plants can stand the amount of sun and/or shade that the location you pick for your container garden will afford them.

We chose some small bushy patio tomatoes that will make nice small salad fruit, some green bell peppers, and some herbs that I LOVE to cook with: Lemon Thyme (good on porkchops) and Basil (yummy pesto!). We added the lavender because it smelled sooooo good. : ) The garlic I had in the kitchen, and it had started to sprout before I could use it all, so I decided to plant it about 3 weeks ago. For 3 weeks, those are some mighty big stalks....

In the next update, we'll include information on our Urban Corn Experiment.... : )

Letterboxing

We have been having lots of fun with a new adventure! It gets us outside like geocaching, but not nearly as high tech. I like to think of it as art in the outdoors with a bit more brain power and puzzle-solving thrown in for good measure. All you need to start letterboxing is a book to log your finds, an inkpad and signature stamp, and the clues to the nearest letterbox. You can find information about it at www.letterboxing.org.

Here are a few of our favorite finds:

Rose of Aberlone
Belknap Bridge
Boiler Bay
Bunch of Bunnies HitchHiker
Camp Adair
Cougar
Diver
Devil's Punch Bowl (now missing)
Girl Scouts of America (Logo, Brownie, and Try-it stamps were carved by me)
Huli Mon (also carved by me)
Magnolia
Pinky
Sahalie
Sisters (carved by Bug)
Split Maple
Strawberry Hill Wayside
Sturgeon
Worm
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Want to know more? Jusk ask!