Fall Porch Preview

Hey Everyone!

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend planned. 

Thought I'd pop in for a minute to say hi and to share a sneak peek of our Fall porch.

For those of you who follow me on Facebook and read my last status update, you know I had a little problem with my thryoid meds last month and it finally caught up with me...It through me out of commission and I'm slowly getting my energy back. 

Ya know it's bad when you don't even have enough energy to blog surf!

I have a LOT of blog reading to catch up on, for sure!

Enough about that... I'm currently working on decorating the porch for Fall.  I have a little project for the porch planned for today, so hopefully my craft room is stocked with what I need.

This year I brought out a wreath from a couple of years ago. My plan was to use what I had, so I could save some money. 

That was my plan....

....until I stopped by Walmart. I was there yesterday when the bins of pumpkins were just filled to the brim. The price for the large pumpkins was $3.88. The pumpkins don't count, because went in there knowing I'd be buying a few of those anyway. lol. 

But I hadn't counted on finding chrysanthemums...or buying so many...even if they were only $3.33 each.

I left with 4, then went back later that evening to get 6 more. 

So much for not spending any money decorating the Fall porch.

In my defense, I usually pick up a bouquet of flowers at Trader Joe's, but didn't when I was there on Thursday, so that made up for at least 1/2 of the mums. 

Don't ya just love how I justified that?

 Anyone else guilty?

That's all I'm going to share of the porch, for now. 

Don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the trees changing color and to when the yard will look like this:

One thing I don't like about Fall is all the leaves. This year, though, I can't wait, because we're going to make a huge pile. After shredding them and piling them up, we're going to just let them sit there and compost to make some good black dirt for our veggie garden. I discovered this last Spring after forgetting about a pile of shredded leaves from last Fall.

 Gotta love that kind of diy accident!

Why am I so happy about having a big pile of black dirt next Spring? Because I won't have to buy a bunch of bags of organic dirt from the big box store. Should save me at least $50. Ha! That will pay for the porch decorating.(justifying again...hehe)

That's all for now...gotta go rest (lol), then work on finishing the porch. Hope to be posting (and visiting) on Monday.

Pam

Fall Veggie Garden

I am so enjoying these cooler days, aren't you?

 We've had a couple of warm days, but the nights and mornings have cooled off to the point where you could wear long sleeves or a light jacket. My Fall veggie garden is all planted, except for another row of potatoes and I'm not sure if I'll get to planting those. 

The tomato plants are producing another round of good sized fruit and I've just harvested the first of the radishes I planted a few weeks ago.

The peppers are doing beautifully now. The sweet peppers didn't set at all while the weather was super hot. These hot peppers always had peppers growing on them, though. Not sure what I'm going to do with these since none of us like to eat them. I thought the seeds were yellow sweet peppers. Surprise!

They actually turn a pretty shade of red if they stay on the plant long enough.

The green peppers are about half way done.

I planted snap peas last month, as well and they are already starting to flower.

The marigolds did really well in the hot weather we had this summer. They have taken over the raised bed with the tomatoes and peppers. Look at all the buds that will be blooming soon. Now you know what to plant if you have hot summers!

The hot weather was really brutal on the lettuce I planted in the shade a couple of months ago. It didn't even grow large enough to harvest.

The romaine lettuce I planted about 3 weeks ago is finally doing well. Looks like this batch is going to make it. We had a little hot spell last week and some torrential rain last night, but fortunately I covered them with a wood frame with black screen. The little seedlings behind were just planted last week and are already coming up. Had I not covered them with a screen last night, they would have all been washed away in the downpour last night. See, I've learned a thing or two!

This particular kind of Romaine did really well in early Spring and it tasted great!

It's called "Cos" Romaine. It's crunchy and tasty, too.

I planted some broccoli plants, but am having a little trouble with those getting nibbled on in the middle of the night. Hope I get a few heads from the garden. I also planted carrots which are about 6 inches tall. 

A whole bunch of cucumber seeds came up in the compost pile, so I planted them. We'll see if they can produce any cucumbers before the first frost in November. It's a race against time.

Well, now you're up to date on the Fall veggie garden. Anyone else planting any veggies this Fall? If you're new to gardening, you can always plant some lettuce in a container. Lettuce is an easy cool season veggie and looks pretty as it grows.

I almost forgot that I will be planting some garlic in October! Better get some asap.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Pam