Summer flies by!

I can't believe it is already the middle of August!  I've been very busy with everyone being on holidays at work.  But here is a quick update on all fronts.

I'm not posting any pictures of my garden now.  It didn't turn out as well as I hoped but I learned a few things.  One big thing, if you use wood pellets as litter the rabbit manure needs to compost.  Sadly I didn't think about this and the decomposing wood robbed my garden of nitrogen and things are pretty stunted.  I had to fertilize and it perked a few things up but still not where I would have like them.  My lettuce, swiss chard and parsley didn't really turn out.  They bunnies are very disappointed!  Carrots are coming along okay and the basil did quite well.  So at least the bunnies got something. I'm going to try digging some potatoes this weekend.  The seedlings I started indoors also didn't do well, I really needed some grow lights set up.  Oh well, there is always next year!

Knitting news, I'm working away on too many projects!  The major one right now is a lovely baby blanket for a neighbour.  I'll post a picture of the finished project.

I made one for my brother's cat and she loves it!

Still working on making running a habit.  I'm doing better than I have in awhile but I'm still not running as often as I should.  Now that the the weather is getting cooler I'll definitely try to get out there more.

Bunnies doing well, some ongoing concerns with Peanut and Charlie but nothing too serious at the moment.  Another benefit to slightly cooler weather is that the bunnies can get some more play time outside!  Hopefully I'll have pics to post soon.

Thanks for reading!
~Mel

Things are coming along nicely!

First we have a picture of the front flower bed.  Heavily mulched because some of the annuals are getting a little cooked by afternoon sun.  Some flowers are opening on the weigela on the right, it is very pretty.

Now that we've finally had some sun my veggie garden is really starting to get going.  Everything has started to come up but the potatoes.  I may have planted them a little deep, hopefully they still come up.  

 Here is a close up of one of the lettuce mixtures I planted.  Not quite big enough for the bunnies to eat yet!  My cucumbers aren't really turning out.  I thought I saw some tiny brown bugs on them.  Has anyone had this problem before?  They seem to be killing my seedlings, I've lost 2 and the third doesn't look too good.

Thanks for reading!
~Mel

They're alive!

I started some pumpkins, cucumbers and watermelons indoors.  The pumpkins and cucumbers have started to sprout!  So far no watermelons have come up, hopefully they will soon.

I bought some annuals to add to the front flower bed.  Snapdragons for the back, impatiens, alyssum and dianthus for the rest of the garden.

 Here is the garden before.

 I've planted the annuals around the edges of the garden.  I hope they do well.

I'm hoping to get the vegetable garden planted this weekend.  I need some sun to get it dried out.  I was working it up Thursday and it was a muddy mess.  So far it is nice today so hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to plant.  I hope everyone enjoys their long weekend!

Thanks for reading
~Mel

Gardening!

I'm going to try yet again to get back into this blogging thing.  I'm thrilled to be able to garden for the first time in about 10 years!  

First we have 2 tomato plants that I'll be growing in a container.  One is a cherry tomato, the other a yellow heirloom.  I hope they do well.   

Here is the garden.  Nothing planted yet, hopefully going to get everything in this weekend, provided it stops raining long enough!  I would have liked to have had the soil prepared longer (it has only been a little over a week) but it was just too wet.  So it may not turn out this year, but it's worth a shot.  I'm going to be planting peas, rainbow carrots, cucumbers, lots of mesclun mix, rainbow swiss chard, potatoes, basil and parsley.  I'm certainly a bunny slave since most of this is for the bunnies!  I don't even really like swiss chard or parsley.  To the side of the house I'll be planting pumpkins and watermelons.  I hope they turn out, I've never tried growing watermelon before.  If anyone has any tips I'm all ears,   

I've started some seeds indoors, although I didn't get time to get them going as early as I would have liked.  I think it will still be okay since I wouldn't want to plant these outside yet since there is still a slight chance of frost/snow.  We've had it all the way to June I think! I've got pumpkins, watermelons and heirloom lemon cucumbers.  I'm really excited about the lemon cucumbers, I hope they grow!

I'll keep posting pictures as I go along.  Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading
~Mel