my garden man

The other day my husband asked why I haven't blogged about our garden (this is our 1st year planting a garden and our 1st full summer in our new home).  Aside from being super busy all the time I really didn't have an answer for him on that. 

So here it is.

My husband has done most of the work on the garden because my hands are often full with a baby. So the garden has been his labor of love.  And when I say labor, I'm not kidding.  The weeds crazy crazy fast.

I don't know how my 65 year old neighbor does it.

I'm the only one in this house who will eat a tomato (love them) and we have 4 large plants.  I'm thinking I'll be learning how to can next.

My second favorite tied with the pumpkins thing we planted was the lettuce.  I can't wait to walk out back and cut some for our dinner salad.

Oh, and I can't forget the cucumbers either. 

 Maybe we'll try pickling a few.

and the rhubarb...

I plan on making some rhubarb pie very soon

Closer to the house we have a ton of berries and some pumpkins, mint and cilantro. 

I really hope to get a few pumpkins.  Fall is my favorite season and having more pumpkins to carve or decorate with would be great!

This is berry lane.   We have june berries on the other side of the house as well.  I have yet to find a good recipe for the gooseberries. 

We are a berry happy family.

 I crack myself up.

And since I'm sharing with you all my husband's hard work I might as well throw this picture in there, too.  He put this swingset together with some help from my step dad in just a few days. 

He's so handy!

And this photo's for me.  I LOVE this little chair. 

Isn't she lovely?

my personal yard candy

or the start of it anyways. We are planting lots of flowers and watching old ones bloom again.  This time of year makes all those awful winter days of sub zero temps almost worth while. 

When we first moved here I never understood how people could spend all their time and money on flowers and gardens when they really could only enjoy them for 3-5 months total a year.  After spending 2 miserable winters in North Dakota and buying a home here I finally get it.  Infact I have spent most of my day working in the yard.

Remember my mailbox post? 

the address has been blocked out for our privacy

We put the decal on the new mailbox, put the new post in (the green post is our newpaper box), and even started planting a few flowers.  I think I may add a couple more flowers.  Any excuse to go back to the greenhouse.  I LOVE that place.  Maybe living here will help me get that green thumb I've always wanted.

yard candy

My mailbox was rusted and the paint was chipping on the wood post.  It was in bad shape.  We started keeping an eye out for mailboxes on sale and fancy new posts as the snow started melting.  It was a good thing we started looking early because we scored big time.  We found our post at Lowe's for $18 (originally $79).  The actual mailbox was only about $11.  That's under $30 for a complete new mailbox!  But the mailbox still needed something to make it pop and since we saved so much money we decided to splurge a little and buy the vinyl address decal pictured above.  You can get yours here. 

I would share a picture with you of my actual mailbox but I prefer to keep my address private.  I chose the same font and color as pictured above and it looks great!  I really wanted to have the street name included beause we live on a street corner.  It was easy to install and has a 6 year outdoor lifespan (which is probably 4 years in ND weather).

Now it's time to plant some colorful flowers beside our new mailbox!