Are you ever just sitting somewhere enjoying a lovely scene and you think “I should take a picture!” That’s what happened last night while I was sitting out on the patio eating a popsicle. I am so grateful for our beautiful garden and sometimes I become like a proud mama with my camera …
it was getting dark so the lighting on these photos was weird and I was experimenting.
Here’s our garden last month if you’d like to compare: Our Garden – May 2010
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Posted by mahlbrandt
May is a beautiful time of year. I feel so blessed to have such loveliness around my home and my wonderful husband who loves to garden (and is teaching me to love it too.)
4 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Jason | Tagged: garden | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
A few weeks ago we had the first “harvest” from our vegetable garden: a handful of tiny, delicious strawberries. This weekend we shared our first small cherry tomato. Isn’t it cute? It was yummy.
The raised vegetable bed with 4 varieties of tomatoes, red peppers, green peppers, brussel sprouts, arugula and romaine.
Baby green pepper:
Better Boy tomato plant:
Looking forward to these in a few weeks! Thanks to our greenhouses, we should have an early crop!
The herb garden:
Raspberry bush:
Peach tree:
Yesterday we bought two blueberry bush stems on clearances at Lowes. Not expecting any harvest this year but I’m looking forward to blueberries in the future!
I forgot to snap a picture of the Key Lime tree Jason bought a few days ago. We’re also considering adding some more fruit trees this year to make a mini orchard – maybe pear and fig. I’m so excited to have all these fruits and vegetables right from our own urban backyard!!
2 Comments | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: fruit, orchard, tomatoes, vegetable garden | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
One of our azalea bushes in full bloom
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Posted by mahlbrandt
The Laren Brumley/Waterside show on Friday night was just the start of a wonderful weekend. We took a mini-vacation Saturday-Sunday with Laren and her husband Jeremy. First we went to IKEA Atlanta where we picked up a few things for our master bathroom renovation and met up with their friend Branton.
Exciting purchases, I know. The HULINGEN trash can (wrongly priced on the website … it’s actually $19.99) and the MOLGER mirror. From there, the five of us headed to Hiwassee State Park for a little camping adventure.
We set up our tents and cooked weinies* over the fire, baked beans and s’mores. We had a talent show featuring magic tricks by Branton (who J&L had talked up to us) and guitar by Jason (who J&L had talked up to Branton) and some singing by Laren (who we already knew was awesome).
•weinies = Louisianan for hot dogs
Sunday morning Jeremy and Laren cooked up a mean breakfast of buttermilk biscuits, scrambled eggs, fried weinies, pancakes and coffee. These two know how to CAMP!
We loafed around for a while after breakfast and then packed up and went out to explore the beautiful Hiwassee River in Cherokee National Park.
The guys — Jason, Branton and Jeremy — spent some time contemplating the meaning of their lives and the majesty of God’s creation.
Actually, they were all watching Laren and wondering which one of them was going to have to jump in and get her if she falls in. Jason was the first to say “not it.”
She didn’t fall in. Instead she found a big rock and took a nap.
We all did some more loafing around …
And searching for the pretty river rocks.
There were so many different colored rocks. I don’t know if I’ve ever really looked at river rocks like that before. Red, blue, green, orange, yellow, black, white. Gorgeous rocks! It’s amazing what you see when you take time to really stop and enjoy creation.
There’s nothing quite like a refreshing weekend getaway!
1 Comment | Art, Art: Cooking, Art: God's creation, Family, Family: Extended Family and Friends | Tagged: camping, creation, Hiwassee, weekend | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Nashville has all kinds of flowering trees in the Spring and Summer. As a Pennsylvania transplant I was in awe our year. After 5 Springs, I’m still awed by the beauty of God’s creation and the wonder of new life springing up.
I’m so happy to have this tree in our yard. It’s a Japanese Flowering Plum and I love everything about it – the pink flower petals that “snow” off in the breeze, the sweet smell, the dark bark and the deep red leaves. It’s 3 or 4 years old and this is the first year it’s really been blooming in all its glory.
Two summers ago we planted a peach tree. It had fruit on it at the time and after a few months we enjoyed about 6 bites of delicious peach. (They were tiny.) Last year we had too much rain and all of our peaches got black spot. This year it’s flowering beautifully, spring has been mild and we’re hopefully for a good turnout this year.
Not as pretty as the flowering plum but that’s OK — because this one serves a different purpose. Each one of those pretty pink flowers has the potential to become a delicious juicy peach.
4 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: flowering trees, flowers, our yard, peach, plum, spring | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
Our forsythia bush is too small to spare a few sprigs for a vase. While walking Lucy around the block the other night my heroic husband snapped a few off branches of a huge bush in front of an abandoned house. Back home, I stuck them in an empty glass Boylan soda bottle. I love how the yellow matches our throw pillows.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
Bradford Pears: you’re pretty but you STINK!
Leave a Comment » | Art, Art: God's creation, Art: Phone Photo Friday | Tagged: bradford pears, cell phone photography, flowers, forsythia, Phone Photo Friday, spring | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
There are flowering trees and bushes everywhere! I’m tempted to snap pictures the whole drive home.
Our neighbor across the street has 2 beautiful flowering trees in his front yard that we get to enjoy from our living room windows. The left is a magnolia, the right is a flowering plum.
We also have a couple of small Japanese flowering plum trees in our yard. This one is flowering more this year than it ever has before!
And some new pictures of our little mid-century modern ranch with our golden yellow forsythia beautifully accenting our front door.
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Posted by mahlbrandt
As I mentioned yesterday, we loosely followed Pioneer Woman’s plans to build a raised vegetable bed. We started out with six 2″x6″ untreated pine boards, 8′ each. (Cedar lasts longer than pine but since we’re not sure if we’ll keep the garden here for the next 10 year, pine will be fine.) We also bought a box of deckmate outdoor screws and a package of 18″ pine stakes.
After sawing two of the boards in half (to 2″x6″x4′), we predrilled holes in each end of the 8′ boards using a simple template. I held the boards together while Jason drilled the screws into place. First level of the frame is built.
We decided where we wanted the bed and then Jason mowed the grass down low in that spot. Next step, pound the stakes into place and screw the frame to the stakes.
The second tier of the walls can be assembles right on top of the first tier, which is now secured to the ground. First, Jason screwed the corners together, then fastened the top tier into each stake. This prevents the boards from warping and bowing. We hope.
PW doesn’t mention doing this but we like to create a barrier between the yard and the new garden soil so the grass (and WEEDS) don’t grow up through. A layer of black trash bags will do the trick.
Next step: DIRT. We bought up all the top soil that the Home Depot had sitting out – 11 cubic feet. I wanted to get at least 16 cu. ft. so we’d have 6″ of fresh soil. To fill in the other 5 cu. ft. we grabbed a few bags of Moo-Nure fertilizer and one bag of Nature’s Helper which “Saves Water / Retains Moisture” (I have no idea what it is.).
Clever bar code placement.
Jason mixing the cow poo in with the top soil and magic water saving stuff.
Here are our greenhouse frames (cold frames) made from old windows. We also have glass windows to set over the top to seal out the cool air. Hopefully the peeling paint is not toxic…
And here are our finished raised vegetable bed.
3 Comments | Art, Art: gardening, Art: God's creation | Tagged: homegrown, raised vegetable bed, vegetable garden | Permalink
Posted by mahlbrandt
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Graphic designer, MCM interior design enthusiast, wife to amazing guitarist and hard working realtor, mama—by way of foster care, adoption and biology—and follower of Jesus Christ.
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