Laying in bed

So, the last time I posted someting like this, I was sitting in the parking lot waiting for an MRI. What I didn't tell all of you is that the reason I was having an MRI was because they were trying to rule out MS.
Thankfully, they have indeed ruled that out. They're still not sure what is wrong with my eye tho. I have to go back in 6 months for a check up. Let's hope that everything is better by then.
In about  2 weeks my parents will be here for Christmas. I'm actually pretty excited about this. It will be the first time I've celebrated Christmas with my momma in a few years. I miss spending time with her. We've gotten just about eveything we need to get, other than a cd player for Jillian and some stocking stuffers. We also have to get a coffee maker. We rarely drink coffee in this house, but my parents do, so we will have to get one for their sake! (Or... to save my own life! Lol)
Sam has a birthday coming up on the 18th, then we have Christmas, our anniversary, then Monks 13th birthday. He surely cannot be 13 already! It seems like just yesterday he was a small bundle of wiggly cuteness with no teeth and a great set of lungs. The no teeth bit didn't last long, but his cuteness never did wear off!
Ivy Hill is in her planning stages already. We have our seed picked, all mapped out, and planting/transplanting/sowing dates are marked on the calander. This year we're really hoping Ivy Hill will take off! I even started a blog for it, so, go check it out. I'll try to update things about Ivy Hill there from now on.

How does YOUR garden grow?

So, I've been chatting on this forum called The Easy Garden for some time now. They have some really great people there that are very helpful! I was having an issue with my big box bought tomatoes, everyone tried to help me solve the problem with their best guess. It was almost like a game of Clue... but nobody (card character or otherwise) died. One of the lovely ladies started a Weekly Weigh In to see how much food we are growing. While we don't have anything to harvest for a weigh in yet, I do need to start documenting the garden more!

You, loyal readers, know about Ivy Hill, our little patch of Earth to grow food. It has come quite a ways in the last few weeks! Here are a few new pictures!

Here's the over all. Corn in front, then pumpkins and watermelon, peppers and another mound of pumpkin and watermelon, cucumbers and beans, tomatoes and what should have been onions and carrots, Strawberries in the farthest bed and then behind that 2 blueberries!

Hot peppers! I'm not exactly sure WHERE we're going to put these! I'm leaning towards on the front porch maybe. If we plant them in the garden then our sweet peppers and hot peppers will cross pollinate leaving us with neither hot nor sweet peppers next year! LOL

Here are some herbs! We have basil, oregano, and cilantro. I believe these are going to get put out in the garden. I did notice a few more pepper plants trying to make there way thru the surface (we resowed about 2 weeks ago!) so I might wait a bit longer yet. If nothing else, I'll get some more bigger pots for them to be transplanted into. 

The newer tomato plants that our neighbor gave us. They started out rather small! They're getting pretty big now! I was pretty surprised! I can't wait to have some vine ripe tomatoes!! Mmmmm!!

Cucumbers are starting to look REALLY good! Of course, these are the only 2 that made it, but, I think for not having a CLUE what we were doing... I think we did okay with these! LOL I think we're going to go ahead and start a few more as well by this weekend. I want to direct sow, Sam wants to start them inside. I guess we could do both and see what works for us. (I'm rooting for direct sow! LOL) I also think that the spot we had designated for the "sprawl" cucumbers we might replant the herbs in. 

This loverly specimen (picture taken this morning at about7AM) now have a lovely yellow flower hidden in it's leaves! :-)

Sams watermelons! There were 6 flowers on this when I went to check on them. There are already a couple that have had their flowers fall off and have teeny tiny watermelons! So exciting! It's our first bit of "food"!

Some of our corn is starting to get tall! There are a few of them that are starting to really shoot up there and are almost hip level already! 

The 2nd round of plants are all (at least I think what will come up) up but are only a few inches tall. 

Our strawberries are doing REALLY well! Quite a few of them have runners! I can't WAIT for next year so we can actually EAT some of them! LOL

Here are the sweet peppers! There are a a few more that are popping up now... even tho we planted them about 2-3 weeks ago! Crazy stuff!! 

And of course the blueberries!! The one in front we got as a teeeeeeeeeny tiny lil thing the beginning of April. We then couldn't get it in the ground for a little while and they almost died before we got them in the ground. One died after we got it in the ground so we bought another from Lowes, which is in the background. Both are doing well actually. 

Our little grapes! There are 3 others just like this one, some as full, some not. I just love the contrast of green tho. The purple thing in the back is the dogs Kong... LOL 

Our apple heavy trees! I can't believe they're actually producing already! They seem so small, but this is the 2nd time that they've produced anything. I just hope that the tree is strong enough to keep all those apples up there! Maybe I'm not giving our little trees enough credit... but still!

Our lone pear is still chuggin away!! You go pear!!

I think the birds ate most of the mulberries this year. :-( It's okay!! Next year!!

Bugs marigolds!! They're doing pretty well. I can't wait for them to bloom! When they start to die I'll cut the flowers and save the seeds for next year. :-)

There it is! Things have done quite a bit of growing in the last few weeks since I posted pictures last. 

The Ivy Hill

For those of you that read my blog on a regular basis... know that I had a friend pass not but a few days ago.

I said that we named our garden after Lindsay and Sams daughter, Ivy. The Ivy Hill

I just wanted to put up some pictures I took the other day. I know it's not much, but it will be!

Front bed: strawberries
Right side beds: 1 onions and carrots 2 green and yellow bush beans
Right side ground: potatoes (will be planted) watermelon and corn will be planted in 2 weeks
Left side beds: 1 Tomatoes (planted, but not in this pic) 2 Cucumbers, 3 Red/Green peppers
Left side ground: Pumpkins (Monks) and Corn

View from the house

Apples!!

Our one lonely Pear. The rest of them were blown off with the tornado in April

We planted this mulberry bush about 3 weeks ago. When we planted it, it was a brown twig!!