My Urban Garden

The old wisdom when we moved here to Boise 23 years ago was not to plant your garden until the snow had melted off Bogus Basin. But this year the trees are already turning green and, though I can still see snow up on Bogus, we haven't  had a hard frost down here in the North End for weeks. It's very unusual this early, but I think spring is here to stay. 


The first flowers to bloom in my garden were the bright red and yellow tulips.

They fade away just as pink blooms begin to fill the yard. It was a happy coincidence that nature color coordinated my yard like that.

We planted some new Honeysuckle Trumpet Vines next to last year's Clematis. I wonder how far they'll all climb up towards the trellis this year.

 We also planted some new Hostas along the fence on the side yard. 

My Sage bush is the only herb from last year that survived transplanting. The rest I had to plant new.  I have Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme, and Chives so far, and this weekend I'll add Basil and Flat Leaf Parsley. 

My little vegetable garden is coming along slowly. My spinach is starting to look like spinach, and the tops of the red radishes are just starting to peak out of the soil beneath the green leaves. Tiny Romaine lettuce leaves are just barely breaking through the dirt, and the green onions are still spindly little reeds and growing slow as molasses. I've also planted some beets, carrots, and red leaf lettuces that haven't come-up yet.  

 My easy decoupage Popsicle stick plant markers have worked out great so far. The mod podge sealer is holding up well to the water, sun, and soil. 

I didn't realize the new gate had shut behind me one day while I was working in the garden on the side of the house, leaving Tucker on the other side.  When I heard some scratching and went to investigate, I found him digging in the dirt next to the gate, something he's never done before. I guess he was trying to dig under it to join me, and he looked so forlorn sitting there, I just couldn't scold him. 

Funny dog. 

Thanks for stopping by my garden today. I'd love to hear what's happening this spring in your garden.  

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Garden Stakes

I was finally able to get some seeds planted in the new vegetable garden yesterday. According to my planting chart, it's only warm enough here in Idaho for spinach, radishes, and green onions so far (at least of what I plan to plant.) It's been awhile since I had a garden, and I almost forgot to mark my rows. I remembered how hard it is to tell weeds from seedlings when it comes time to thin the rows, if you don't mark them.

So, as I scrambled around just before dark trying to find something to use as markers, I remembered I had some Popsicle sticks. I scribbled the seed type and date on them with a sharpie pen (don't ask me why the date) and stuck them in the dirt. 

When I went out this morning to see if I needed to water the garden, I thought those row markers looked pretty pathetic. 

 Now don't laugh. I went upstairs and made some new ones...

...with decoupage.

I covered the whole stick with decoupage medium, stuck a clip art image of each vegetable on the tip and covered that with decoupage medium too.

I'm hoping they will be waterproof and hold up in the wet soil, so maybe I can reuse them next year. (Ever the optimist.)

 C'mon, they're kinda cute, right?

I made a whole bunch of them so I can plant more of each of these vegetables every two weeks until it gets too hot (spinach, radishes, and green onions are considered to be cool season crops here in Idaho). That way this harvest will be spread out over a few weeks instead of ready to pick all at one time. 

I'll make some more garden markers for the other veggies I'll be planting when it warms up. 

Happy Planting!

{Someone asked me in a comment how I keep my inkjet prints from running when decoupaging. My black ink doesn't bleed for some reason, but the color on these did smear if I over-brushed the decoupage medium. Just had to be quick.}  

Note: These garden markers are working out pretty well so far. The only problem is that the rascally squirrels take them out of the ground, play with them, and don't put them back where they were! Little rascals!

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