It's My Flowerbed and I'll Concoct It If I Want To...

Concoct it if I want to... Concoct it if I want to... and I have! I don't care what anyone says. If you have some dirt you can do whatever you want with it! Face it. You have no plans for inviting Martha Stewart to your house so - just have at it and make yourself happy! Although - I could be tempted to invite the woman to my house - just to make her skin crawl. ;) As much as we love living here and feel so grateful to be blessed by all that we do have around us - there comes a limit. When you have this humongous covered porch that extends the full length of your house and stretches 10 feet deep - you wanna enjoy the views all you can. Right? Well - whattya' do when you have this monster of a barn sittin' sideways only about 50 feet from your eyeballs? You move it - which is what we've decided to do. Yeah - I know. But whattya' do in the meantime? I mean - we sit out here and look all around at so much gorgeous area. But when we turn our head to look one way or the other - it's like having a knat land in our eye every time that thing hits the corner of sight! Well - we all have enough going on during each day to drive us nuts. I decided to knock one of those little demons out of the way. Made no sense having this gigantic blank wall of barnwood stuck in the middle of our picture until we get the barn moved. It was time to break out the tiller! We made a peanut-shaped flowerbed. Well, okay - so the backside is flat. Whatever! And of course - me being me - can't have just your normal Martha Stewart "flowerbeds are only for flowers" crap going on. Besides - we're out in the country. As Alexis says - "Get over it, Martha!" This is MY flowerbed - and you can eat half of it! Well - she can eat it all if she don't like it. Ohhhh... did I say that? Okay - check this out. It's a picture story! It would be a heck of a lot easier if all of y'all were actually standing right here so we could whip this in a lot less time. But - your happy butts haven't made it up here! So, this is what you get! And remember - click on the photos to see larger views. Does that look like a barn? I think not! That's a view from the backside of the bed. The Blue Hibiscus wanted to say "Hello!" He's grown about two more feet already - after being released from his jail of a pot he's lived in since 2004! He's about the same height as me now! Knowing how tall he is - you see his neighbors from here. Well - the taller ones, anyway. The pot on the left has my Night-blooming Jasmine. I had one of these in Manteca and fell in love with it! So did the garbage man - but that's another story. I had to pot it because it'll have to come in during the winter here. But I cannot wait until we start smelling all that powerful sweet scent around August! My white Butterfly Bush is at the front. That' puppy is still in a pot - one of the projects for next year. In between the blue Hibiscus and the Jasmine you can see the 'torso' of one of my Sunflowers! Here's the one sitting on the other side of the jasmine. I've already had to stake two of these guys. Only one of the four are shorter than me! This is just a flower 'bud' that's about to bust open! These puppies are gonna be huge! That bud is already over 3 inches wide! Now we get into the edible parts. I have Cilantro growing down in front of the blue Hibiscus. Sweet Margaram is growing in front of that - kinda hard to see that. Immediately to the right of the Hibiscus I have Arugula growing. See the little flowers? This is one of the new fads being put into all those fancy salads. The big green blob of leaves is Basil. And that's Lavender on the right! Standing behind the Hibiscus - the three mounds are Savory. You see the Arugula in the right bottom corner - two mounds of Lavender and a bit of the Basil. See that pot of 'uh-oh' in the middle? That's a struggling nightmare. I gave up on trying to get Dwayne to help me get all of my potted plants into the ground this year. I'm having to keep them fed and pray until next year. But this little puppy is - Horseradish. He can be a problem and will require a very controlling bed of his own. They are extremely invasive - depending on how much of the root you harvest for your sauces! Best way to keep control is to hand over pieces to friends and neighbors. But ya' might have to fix up a sauce or spread and con 'em, first! The three little green spots beyond the pot of Horseradish are white Vinca. I just planted those about a week ago. Even looks 'country', huh! Wait 'till you see the other side view. LOL See the potted thing hiding behind one of the Sunflowers and the Evergreen tree (can't even remember what those are called!)? That's one of the two Patio Peach Trees that I've had since they were tiny saplings. Dwayne and I snagged them up from the bed at a transmission shop in Maryville back in 2004! Hey - we asked for permission, first! They put out the most beautiful flowers in spring. And they will put out peaches. But they're considered ornamental because the fruit is nil compared to its seed. So we pinch all those off after the flowers die off. Check this out... It's one of my Jalapeno bushes in the flowerbed. I have four more out in the garden. One of the storms we had last week blew it over and I didn't have anymore stakes. So - I improvised. Used a dead twig I found. Ta! Hey - it works! Yeah - I told you it looks 'countryfied'! Just ignore that mess with the pots in the back. More of next year's projects. This is the left side of the bed. I've got two dwarf... - crap! I can't remember what they're called. But they're two more lucky enough to escape their pots this year. That's a 'Black Knight' Butterfly bush on the left. Three more white Vincas that were planted last week. Hot pink Vincas in the bottom left corner. See the hairy little mound to the right of the sunflower? That's Thyme. That one came out of it's pot this year, too. I've had it since 2006. Went to prune it after I got it planted and missed picking up a couple of the cut sprigs. I now have Freebies. They took root! Go figure. Had I tried planting them deliberately - they would have croaked. Oh - and the little pink thing in front of it is a Geranium I had left over after planting the bed under the Georgia Belle Peach tree! I don't waste nuthin'! Heck - I even sent Dwayne to work with a few Tomato plants because I had more than enough and didn't wanna kill 'em! That's a bright red Pentas that I planted last week in your face! That Dwarf something-or-other to the right. And the second Jalapeno plant in the bed. And then there's this little surprise. The only thing that survived in this pot from last year was the Chives. So I thought, anyway. Got out there yesterday to trim up the Chives - something I had neglected to do until now. What I find is the two different kinds of Basil and new sprouts of the Texas Tarragon coming back - all from last year's plants. Now - here's the pisser. Had I bought the seed and tried to do this - Mother Nature would have burned me just for a good laugh. So now - here's the view from the porch! It's not the perfect manicured little flowerbed with the brick or the rock border. But what the heck! We're in the country!! Either way - it just goes to show you a simple fact. If you have any amount of dirt at your place - you can do anything you want with it. You can grow flowers and food at the same time! With the way prices and chemicals are going with the food supply in this country - it only makes sense to leave the grass for the parks and use your dirt to grow your own food! If you live in an apartment and don't have a yard - you can still get it done. And by all means - don't spend your money on expensive pots to grow your food. Go to a hardware store - Tractor Supply or Co-Op and buy those big round galvanized tubs that we all think of being used for bathing dogs. Get someone to drill at least 3 holes in the bottom and you're good to go. The guys at Tractor Supply and the hardware stores will usually do it for you if you ask! Lowes and Home Depot are usually good about stocking those things, as well. It's not too late to grow your own food. But NOW is the time to start getting ready. We are zone 6-7 here and we are to have our fall gardens planted no later than August 15th this year. You can go to www.parkseed.com to punch in your zip code and find out your zone number. Call a local garden shop and ask them when fall gardens should be planted in your area. The cheapest and most helpful way to go at it is to buy seed. Decide on what kind of fall/winter veggies you like and BUY THE SEED. Pass leftover seed to friends and family and get them to grow their own. One pack of spring mix lettuce seed cost me less than $2.00. I planted one row of lettuce. I've got lettuce coming out my ears. I'm sending Dwayne to work with Wal-Mart bags loaded with the stuff - sending it home with the gang at the hangar. It's the same stuff we're paying $4 per bag for in the grocery stores!!! Actually - it's so much better. The stuff I'm growing blew my mind first time I tasted it. I never knew lettuce could actually have so much flavor. I've always said - "Pennies add up." I will tell you this. Not only could you be saving money at the grocery store. You could be improving your health enough to save you the cost of going to the doctor. Think about it!