Polka-Dotty Garden

We moved into our house one year ago and we have done a ton of work inside and out.  We focused on all of the inside projects last summer and have been doing yard projects this summer.  The yard had very little landscaping so it's been really fun to clear out areas and add in our favorite plants.  I do not have a green thumb, but I've tried hard of the years to learn how to take care of plants.  I seem to have better luck with outdoor plants than indoor ones.

I thought I'd share some gardening tips with you today.  We are landscaping on a budget and have learned some things over the years.  We first landscaped our home in Mississippi.  That house had tons of shrubs and we added in tons of flowering plants.  The climate was so tropical (Zone 8) that it was amazing how well things grew there.

We are now living in Zone 6 so it's been fun to see what grows best in the Midwest.

What type of gardening do you do at your house??
Herbs?  Veggies?  Flowers?  Indoor plants?

Figure Out Your Yard:
If you are living in a new city, scope out your neighbor's yards.  See what is growing really well, take note of what you like or snap a picture and then plant your favorites in your yard.  Watch how much sun/shade each part of your yard get so that you'll know what type of plants to buy.  Most plants will tell you how much sun they need on their label.  That is super helpful when you're learning how to take care of plants.

We planted basic shrubs like Winter Gem Boxwoods and Euonymus.  We picked out some flowering shrubs like red Weigela, Rose of Sharon and I'd love to add in some hydrangeas or peonies eventually.

We planted all the flowers pictured above in our yard and they're all doing well.  I've only managed to kill one plant out of everything we've bought this season so I'm thrilled with that.  Here are the flowers in the picture above:

Scabiosa Pink Mist
Balloon Flower Platycodon Pink
Achillea Vintage Violet
Gaillardia Grandiflora
Coneflower
Crepe Myrtle
Phlox
Veronica
Coneflower

Most places have all of the flowers, shrubs and some trees on sale right now.  It's a great time to stock up on plants at half off if you have time to keep up with the watering.  It's obviously a hot time of year for many places in the country so go ahead and plant if you can commit to watering and fertilizing regularly.

Gardening Journal:
I started keeping track of every plant we bought this year.  I wanted to learn the names of the plants along with the details of caring for them.  I saved the plant tags from each plant and put them in my gardening journal.  It's so fun to flip through it and see all the things we're adding to our garden.  I think it'll be really helpful to keep track of what grows well (annuals & perennials) so we know what to buy more of in the future.

It also came in handy when we had to return a dead plant.  I had the plant tag, knew the price and keep my plant receipts in the back.

We focused mostly on adding perennials to our yard.  I wanted the most bang for our buck and knew that by adding plants that would come back year after year would be a great investment.  We have picked up plants at our local garden centers, Wal-Mart, Rural King, Lowes and Meijer.  If you're wanting to ask questions and learn about the plants stick to buying from local garden centers.  You can likely get a better deal at big stores, but it's harder to find knowledgeable people to help you there.

Potted Plants:
If you've got a patio or don't have a very big yard, pots are a great planting option!  Just figure out how much sun you're working with and go pick out some flowers.  My deck and backyard are pretty shady so things like Impatiens do wonderful there.  I love to put 3-5 different varieties of plants in my pots and group them together.  Water them regularly and they'd do great!  I also Miracle Grow them once a week.

Including Your Kids:

Mini tools from Target and Big tools from Amazon. 

My 4 year old loves to garden with us.  She's pretty helpful and loves having her own tools.  I scored her this set of garden tools on super sale from Amazon months ago.  They're metal and work really well.  She also has her own gardening gloves from Target Dollar Spot and both kids have their own tiny watering cans from Wal-Mart.

They love to help dig holes for plants, spread mulch, sweep, pull weeds and water with me.

We let everyone in the family have a say in the plants we buy.  I've found that they get more excited to help when they're invested in our garden.  It's been a fun hobby for us to all do together.



time to link up with my favorite Tuesday Talk ladies!
Join us with your best post of the week.

Beth at Our Pretty Little Girls | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Crystal at Hall Around Texas | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram  

Jessica at Sweet Little Ones | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Stefanie at Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, & Dylan Too | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Stephanie at Wife Mommy Me | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Becky at BYBMG | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Lindsay at Lindsay's Sweet World | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram
Sarah at Sarah E. Frazer | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Justine at Full Hands, Full Heart

Tina at Go Big or Go Home | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram

Whitney at Polka-Dotty Place | Pinterest | Facebook | Instagram0

An InLinkz Link-up

Polka Dotty Gardens

I am excited to give you an update on our gardens today!

We are going to be talking about Olive's Fairy Garden & our gardens around the yard.

We have been working very hard on our yard for over a year now.  We had very little landscaping and lots of areas of the yard that needed cleaning up.  We are nowhere near done, but our yard is coming together nicely.

Olive's Fairy Garden:
We have the perfect, rooty tree in our backyard to build a fairy garden around.  I found almost all of the supplies back in the Spring at The Dollar Tree.  There are fairies, gnomes, homes, shells, flowers and more.  It's the cutest little garden and the kids play with it almost every day.  Fletcher loves the gnomes and Olive loves the fairies.

Garden Tour:
We are all invested in our gardens.  We all water.  We check on our flowers daily.  The kids count them and care for them.  Fletcher has been hard on some of the plants (stomping, picking and chopping) so we are slowly, but surely teaching him to love not attack the plants.  2 year old boys are WILD!!

I keep track of the plants and flowers we buy in my garden journal.  It helps me to keep a record of what we've planted, when we planted, where it came from and how well it is doing in our yard.  I love flipping through it.  An added bonus of the journal is that I have been able to learn the names of lots of new plants.  I keep the plant receipts in the back of the book in case something dies and needs to be returned or exchanged.

 Let's get started:

Tip: If your yard needs a lot of plants, focus your attention on perennials first.  That way they will come back year after year and you'll be building a great garden foundation for yourself.  These plants are so happy in their spots and most of them doubled in size from year one to year two.

We added hastas in several spots.  I think we have three or four different varieties.  I love the color they add to the landscaping.

Our Meijer store has a great garden center.  Tons of beautiful plants.  Great sales and great deals through their app.  We love their soil, mulch, gardening supplies and plants.  See those light purple flowers??  They are called Blue Moon Phlox and they smell AMAZING.  I'd never heard of them until this year.  I walked by the display and did a double take when I caught a whiff of them.  They smelled so wonderful that I had to buy them.

 These Red Prince Weigela are so pretty!!  They love full sun and are doing so well.

It's so rewarding to brighten up a spot with beautiful flowers :)  I can't wait for these hydrangeas to grow and grow to fill up this spot.

Potted Plants:
I followed my mom's advice and did pinks in the backyard and reds out front in my pots.  I love the colors.  I have always wanted to add sweet potato vines to our pots, but couldn't find them last year.  I searched everywhere.  Meijer came through for me this year and we have 5 or 6 sweet potato vines this year.  The vibrant green color is stunning!!  Impatiens love our deck so I usually stick with those.

My little gardeners watering our pots.  If you've got kids, buy them little watering cans.  They'll be the best helpers keeping your plants hydrated all summer.

What are you growing at your house right now??

Vegetable Garden Wins and Losses

Summer is over and it's back to school for my kids today.  We had a great Summer and are excited for a great year.  Check back tomorrow for a back to school update :)

In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy a 2023 vegetable garden update.

We have some wins and some losses and learned a lot of along the way.  It was so fun to see the kids learn tons of new garden vocabulary this Summer.  They were so proud to harvest veggies with us.

Wins: zucchini, okra, kale, lettuce, herb garden, green peppers, blackberries and keeping bunnies away

Losses: Tomatoes, corn, green beans from seeds and we're still waiting to see how a few things like watermelon and jalapenos turn out.  We replaced out first round of tomato plants and are hoping that the new Celebrity tomatoes work out better for us.

We have learned a lot and are working hard on composting to make our soil even better next year.  We are always researching - Can we compost this?  And checking into the ideal time for harvesting certain veggies.  We all look forward to checking on our garden each day.  It's been a fun hobby for our whole family to learn together.  I took notes in our garden journal and will be editing our garden plans for next year accordingly.

 

Gardening Highlights:

Many loaves of chocolate zucchini bread

Lots of okra - fried and slice up and frozen for soups this winter

Taco night with lettuce, jalapenos, sweet peppers and green onions from our garden

Bunches and bunches of kale for salads, sides and frozen for soups this winter 

Frozen blackberries for lemonade or smoothies

We did about an 8x8 garden this year and I think we'll go a little bigger next year so we can spread things out into sections a little better.  We also have a different game plan for keeping out weeds next year.

My favorite flower to see pop up in the garden: an okra flower!

We loved seeing bees buzzing all around our yard!

And Kevin gets a special shout out for watering our garden nearly every day since May.  We didn't get a ton of rain so this was key in keeping our veggies alive.  Thanks, Kev!

It makes Leo's day when our farmer neighbor is busy working in his fields.

How is your garden doing this Summer?