Prepping for Blueberries

I'm finally adding the blueberry hedge to the yard this year! We need to get it built and leveled before we can put in the path, and the path is on my 2014 to-do list as well. So last weekend we started. We plan to put them in front of the fence to create a hedge and give us some privacy for the hammock shelter. Right now the chain link fence borders an open yard and faces the street. You can see all the neighbors from there, and they can all see us ;) But that part of the yard is also a steep slope, so we're putting in stairs or landings to help even out the grade. We got three levels in Sunday, and plan just two more and we're ready for rocks!

The blueberries and path are my big project for the yard this year, and he wants to put in a garden shed to house the lawn mower and all my "junk" ;)
Anybody else planning big changes to their yard?

Spring starts tomorrow!

I'm so excited! Spring officially starts tomorrow! Starting to see some signs around here, things greening up and beginning to grow again. Been going outside everyday to check on things, and start pulling the weeds that came back with a vengeance even after that freezing winter. I thought for sure the cold would have stamped some of them out.... oh well ;)
Here's a few shots of the things greening up for spring, what are you seeing in your yard?

The Asters in the Rain Garden are coming back!

See all the carrot starts?

And the lettuce starts...

The onions in the strawberry bed are doing great, and seem to be encouraging the strawberries to spread out some more too!

And the box of orange daylilies that the hummingbirds love is really starting to fill in. Might be the year to divide some up!

Pre-Spring Planting

So our February weather has been crazy! Cold and more snow than I've seen since I moved to east Tennessee, and then this weekend it's over 60! Not sure what's going on out there, but hope it evens out soon!
February is also the time to start seeds in the raised beds, so weekend before last we went out and filled the boxes with seeds, trying a bunch of new lettuces and greens this year, and even purple carrots! It's my goal to get more out of the garden this year, without expanding beyond the beds we have (except the blueberry bed we've been planning to install since last year).
We planted our seed potatoes, Red, Russet, and Yukon Gold. We love the Yukon Gold and have had great success with them before, but we added Red and Russet potatoes for some variety this year.

We also planted dill, carrots, broccoli, spinach, arugula, marjoram, parsley, cilantro, oregano, onions, rosemary, savory, and 7 different kinds of lettuce! We filled the beds that will house peppers and tomatoes later this summer with short-harvest lettuces, so they can do double duty for us this year.
I'll admit, it looks like we went a little crazy with lettuce, but it's the easiest veggie to grow and use, so we picked a bunch of new varieties to try, and we figure we'll re-order the ones that become our favorites.
Hopefully this warm weather sticks around and we see some starts soon!