Finding a home for the stars

When we transplanted the rosebush from Great Grandma's house, we took a couple of these little succulents. Now, I have no idea what they are called. I can honestly say I called them "Those little star plants that are everywhere next to Grandma's driveway" most of my life. Well, when Aunt S helped me get the rosebush, she said they were called hens and chicks. Needless to say, I could see Pooka loving them so Aunt S grabbed some. 

Little star shaped plant

Now, aside from putting one in a pot (that isn't doing so well), I had no idea once we transplanted the rosebush into the ground what to do with them. But I knew that we had this annoying little bed next to the garage that I can't get anything to live in. So we decided to try these and see if maybe, just maybe, it can choke out all the weeds.

A hole where maybe they can take over

Pooka and her friend K spent about 10 minutes one Sunday helping me plant these. They thought they were fun but they didn't need a very deep hole. Hopefully they transplant well there and I can write off that darn bed that does nothing but grow weeds. Plus, I think its definitely cuter than anything else we have tried.

Looks better then it did before

Remembering

When my Grandmother died, I knew the kids would not be able to go to the funeral. My family doesn't do "funerals" in a way most people do them, and I didn't want them to have those memories of their Great Grandmother. Especially since we had hidden her cancer from them. I wanted to find another way for them to remember her. Pooka asked for one of Great Grandma's rosebushes.  So Aunt S helped us come and transplant the rosebush.

The rose bush when we took it out of the ground

However, our rose bush did not have a very large root system due to where it was planted so we overwintered it in the garage while it was dormant and hoped we could keep it alive. Finally the time came to try and find a place in the yard for it. I wanted somewhere we could see it, where it would hopefully do well and give the kids a place to remember her. 

This little spot by the garage looked perfect. It was a bit small, but the concrete only goes down 2 inches or so, and eventually we will take the concrete out.  Daddy dug a hole on Sunday to put the rosebush in. I wanted to get it in the ground before the plant tried to wake up.

To Great Grandma From Pooka. 

Pooka wrote a letter to Great Grandma after she died. She wanted to put it in the hole with the rosebush to send her thoughts to Great Grandma. I told her it would be perfect. Brother was given the same option, but he didn't want to

We love you Grandma

Then we placed her rosebush in the ground. I am hoping it will survive, but I don't know for sure. I know the root is very small for that sized plant, but its standing on its own, the plant springs back when bent (doesn't break) so I am hoping maybe Great Grandma is keeping it alive for the kids. We have been using rooting compound on it to hopefully get the roots to grow. We made a special sign for the rosebush, but I am not going to show that here. Now to wait and see if it lives. I am just hoping the kids can find some peace in this little bush.

It has begun

A week ago after school Pooka and I decided to at least get the pea seeds in the ground. Now this year, I didn't start them inside and take them out. We just put the seeds in the dirt. It will be nice in a few weeks when I can send fresh sugar peas and blue peas in the kids lunches for school.

Home of the sugar peas

We started with the regular sugar peas. Those we planted straight into the ground in the front back bed by the deck where we have had peppers and tomatoes the last few years. Upside is that the pea plants will put back some nitrogen for the soil.

Home of the blue peas

Next we planted the new blue podded seeds in the containers. I was trying (maybe ineffectively) to minimize the cross pollination. I know Brother and Pooka really want to try blue peas. The location of the pots will most likely be moved, but at least its started and ready to go. I need to figure out where they will be moved too, and we may plant some watermelon in a blue bin under the peas. I will have to see how things are progressing.

Observing the seeds

Now, to be scientific, I had Pooka stop and observe the difference in the two seeds. I wanted to see if she could find any difference in them and similarities. Pooka ran and got her magnifying glass and got to work. She said the blue peas were "a reddish color, less wrinkley and stayed a bit more round as well a bit bigger." The regular peas were "white and looked squished and wrinkled, and were still a circle." Now we wait to see the begining of the plants.

Garlic everywhere

Spring is finally starting to really show its face. The garlic has just started appearing everywhere in the last few days. We have had wonderful rains that watered our pea seeds and have given the garlic a boost to come out and find the sun. I can finally begin to feel the truth of spring in the air.

Garlic anyone?

Pooka is excited to see real garlic coming up as well. Every day you can see her stopping to admire her herb and garlic areas as she comes home from school. She loves walking it to see what has started to look like it may come back, and what has grown. Daddy is excited since he finally used the last of our homemade garlic powder yesterday and misses it already. He asked if we could please please make more. I told him of course once the garlic is ready but soon we will have other things to get to work preserving and harvesting.

Life finds a way

Pooka and I found a surprise on Monday. We were walking through the garage and I looked over at the very poorly cleaned up garden supplies. Sadly, by the time we tried to put the garden to bed last year, our hearts weren't in it, and things got thrown in our yard waste/old recycle bin.

Anyway, Monday, I looked over at the recycle bin and on top was the big pot of chives from last year. The pot Daddy loved having full of chives for cooking with. It had chives in it and a price tag to something, (this is real life folks). Not just the dead chives from last year, but new chives as well, that were growing and somehow surviving since that pot had not really seen water and more then 20 minutes of sunlight since fall.

I moved the pot out into the front porch so it could get watered/rained on and sunlight. The seedlings look in decent shape for where they were. You can see they had reached for the sunlight outside the garage, and now they should start developing really well since they are outside. This is even better since I decided this year we are not growing our own herbs from seed. I will pay for those, but here is one I don't have to rebuy. Maybe next year I will overwinter it in the house so Daddy gets his fresh chives all year. We will have to wait and see.

Spending some birthday money

Oh how hard it is to be 6. Pooka got some money to the local home improvement store for her birthday in January. Everytime we would go to said home improvement store (which I admit was quite often), she would ask oh so nicely if we could go see if the plants were in, or if they had seeds. But sadly, nothing was in until about 2 weeks ago.

That was the day that Pooka, Brother and I went by ourselves and the garden center had a few plants. Not many, but the beginnings.  They had berry bushes. Now imagine a Pooka who has wanted berry bushes and her realizing she had enough money for them. Yes, I am sure you can picture the face of a girl trying to decide between black berries or raspberries. I had veto'd grapes and more blueberries since we didn't have space for the former, and the later we already had 3 of.

Once we got home, Pooka rushed to tell Daddy. Daddy took a bit more convincing that this was a good idea. In fact, I had to convince him with "Would you rather she bring home 2 raspberry bushes, or that same amount of money in small $2-3 plants we would have to find homes for?" He did agree, but asked that we keep it reasonable.

Birthday money well spent by a Pooka

That evening we went out, and Pooka picked 2 raspberry plants. As of right now, Daddy and I are talking about just letting them go through one year in a pot. A bigger pot yes, but a pot where we can contain them until we are sure where we want them. I guess I need to do some research on how to grow raspberries. Pooka has decide to wait and name them once we get them potted which is on the agenda for this week/weekend.

Rosemary oh Rosemary how we missed you

I admit it, I broke down. I was tired of using real conditioner, and really Pooka's hair looks so much better with our homemade stuff. However, I wasn't sure if our rosemary out front was even alive. So I broke down. I bought one of those little herb plants at the grocery store.

Rosemary from the grocery store

It was in fairly good shape, if a bit small. I just was hoping to get something to get us through until we can either figure out if the stuff out front is alive, or it can replace it. The plant itself, aside from being slightly root bound is in good shape. Daddy has already used it more then once for dinner. I think he misses having the fresh herbs to cook with as well. I guess this means spring has begun and plants are invading.

Welcome home rosemary