Brief garden update

Last night we laid the last stone and mostly flattened out the walkway in our front yard.  When it rains again, I'll go out and stomp on the stones to settle them better and hopefully even the path out even more.  This morning I bought some Miracle-Gro soil to mix in with the dirt already in the herb/flower plot.  The dirt wasn't doing a great job of growing grass, and I hit clay about five inches down.  I think it could use a Miracle-Gro boost.  I'll transplant herbs and plant some seeds and a tulip bulb this weekend.  Matt will be glad to get the herb sprouts out of the study.  Of course, I like planting things so well that I may start something new in the pots as soon as they're empty.

Before buying soil, I went out to the vegetable garden to weed and plant.  I planted one hill of acorn squash, one hill of watermelon, and seven pea plant seeds.  The zucchini and squash I planted last Wednesday have sprouted and are growing well.  My tomato plants are now taller than the surrounding weeds.  Purple hull peas and green beans are still looking great.  In fact, I think I saw the beginning of beans on the green bean plants.  When I go back to the garden this weekend, I'll need to thin out my rows.  I hate the thought of getting rid of healthy plants.  I'll try to find someplace to transplant them.  I'll take photos again before I thin things out so that I have a record of how well things sprouted.

I have a website!

There's nothing on my website yet, but I have one: http://www.natalieroliver.com.  I got a domain name and a web host and am now a website owner!  I'm pretty excited.  A year ago, I never would have guessed that I'd have my own site.  When there's something interesting to see on the site, I'll post about it here on my blog.

It's an investment ($35 for one year) towards my career as a website designer.  I've worked on two websites, but I don't have anything reliable to show people who want to see samples of my work.  The synod got a new website, so none of my work is on their site.  I designed the Luther Memorial site, but someone else is now maintaining it, and the changes that have been made don't reflect my design aesthetic.  So I got my own site so that I can display my own designs without fear that it will be altered by someone else.

I also want to learn PHP, a programming language that makes websites interactive, and access to a server is necessary.  Now that I have my own website, I have access to a server and can work on learning more to make even better websites.  Also having my own site will give me a chance to learn more about the behind-the-scenes part of websites so that I will be able to help organizations that don't have a site at all to get things set up.

So now my days will be filled with gardening and my evenings with website design.

Planting Addiction

I thought I'd show how my herbs are doing now since I shared a photo when my basil first sprouted.  The basil is at the top of the picture.  The chives are at the bottom.  The parsley I planted about a week ago is in the middle and is just sprouting.  The tiny pots on the left are marigolds that I planted a few days ago.  Everything is doing really well, I think.  They aren't big enough to use or transplant yet, but I think the basil and chives will be transplantable by this weekend.

This morning I had coffee with Beth and then came home and planted some more seeds in pots.  I planted the tomatoes and strawberries that I will transplant to hanging planters on our back deck.  I also planted two kinds of attractive lettuces, some mint, and more parsley in a rectangular planter I bought at Dollar Tree.  I plan to transplant these to the herb/flower garden.  I saved a corner of the planter for cilantro seeds, which I plan to buy today.  We need to get another walkway stone, and I want to get one bag of potting soil to enrich the front garden soil.  And I'll look for tulips and daffodils on clearance to keep Neil's tulip company.

I also have some more seeds to plant in the vegetable garden.  I got some pea seeds so that I can eat the raw pods and some acorn squash for soup this fall.  I've also got more summer squash, zucchini, and lettuce seeds that I can plant.  If I get up early tomorrow, I may try to get the rest of the veggies planted before it gets too hot outside.

So far I've probably spent about $25 on seeds and growing kits and another $20 on a shovel, other gardening implements, and a pair of gardening gloves.  $25 for the walkway and probably another $20 on another stone, some tulips and some good soil.  It would be a moderately expensive hobby if it were just something to keep me busy. (Golfing would be way more expensive.)  But we could easily save $100 this summer on produce if even half of what I've planted is usable.  Zucchini and herbs are crazy expensive, and I eat a lot of them in the summer.  And next year all we'll need are some seeds.  I think it's a good investment.