Garden Club: Last Plants Standing

Well, all the other potted starter plants died, but these sweet peas and ...who knows what, are still going strong!

Last weekend I actually saw a sweet pea flower blooming! Yay!

Garden Club 2013: Phase Two

Lucy and I planted our second round of Grow Kits that she got for Easter etc. This time we had poppies, forget-me-nots (again), strawberries, and cilantro. So far everything has sprouted, but the poppies look like they might not make it, the forget-me-nots look the heartiest, and the cilantro is the tallest.

More updates to come!

May Flowers

One of the things I loved about this house when we were house hunting were the beautiful roses bushes and pomegranate bush in the back yard. I love flowers, and the rose is one of my favorites. It is both a beautiful flower as well as my namesake, and I am glad that I could share it with Clara.

Growing up I knew a boy named Tracy and never felt like it was a very pretty or feminine name. But Rose was my middle name- my special, beautiful, name. Tracy Rose. The Rose redeemed me, and gave me a sense of pride. Whenever anyone asked my middle name it sort of felt like revealing a special and beautiful secret.

I'm not that great about maintaining our rose bushes or helping them thrive, but despite my lack of skill and watering they have been coming back every year and I have been enjoying their blooms and amazing fragrance every summer.

My little Clara Rose.

Ready to graduate from Newborn to 0-3 Month onesies.

My favorite newborn outfit for Clara. 

First Pomegranate bloom of spring!

Lucy likes to dress herself and often chooses to wear this dress backwards because she can only button the back buttons when they are in the front.

Patch of weeds = free landscaping!

Clara being the recipient of a LOT of love.

Lucy likes to pick these weeds flowers and put them in a vase for the kitchen table.

Lucy loving being a big sister.

Garden Club Update: April

Garden Club: 2013

Another year, another attempt at growing some stuff. 

It's been a few weeks since we planted and the forget-me-nots are in the lead, followed by three or four sprouted sweet peas, one daisy sprout, and no chives. 

The daisies got knocked over and Lucy decided to "play" in the flower pot that contained all the chive seeds outside. 

We need to get more soil and bigger planters to transplant the seeds that have survived. 

So far, so good! Better than no sprouts last year!

RIP Chives.

Garden: 2012

When we first moved to Texas three years ago I was super excited to start a garden. For Valentine's Day 2009 Zach bought me roses, seed packets, a big bag of dirt, and those little starter dirt pucks that you add water to and they pop up to become mini planters. (Who doesn't love those?)

I planted an assortment of herbs in my pop up planters and waited in anticipation. Fast forward to two weeks later and all the dirt pods looked like they had spores growing on them. Ew. Disappointed, they got tossed out and the remaining seed packets were stashed away on top of the fridge.

Be still my heart. 

The original  stash from Valentine's 2009.

This year I decided to try again and decided to just plant them directly into some random pots that we inherited when we bought our house that were filled with soil.

I filled one pot with sweet peas, and another pot with chives. It seems like every other recipe I try calls for chives, and I never have any on hand. Growing up we had a big batch of chives in the back yard that was used often for dinner.

Sweet peas are one of my favorite flowers. They smell so good and are so pretty.

Who knows if anything will even grow, but I figured I would at least try and see if I can enjoy some fruits of my labor. Maybe if it works out I will start to branch out and plant a few more pots.

Left: Chives    Right: Sweet Peas

Here's hopin'!