Sunday, April 26, 2009

Getting the Garden Ready

After we got back from the Tulip Festival, it was such a nice day that I thought it would be a good idea to get the seeds put into the ground for our garden this year. Last year we tore everything up in the garden, turned the soil and got ready to plant more seeds this year, with hopefully better luck than we had last year with growing things. This year we planted squash, zucchini, lettuce, tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli and watermelon. We are also going to plant some white pumpkins, but not until later on in the season (so they will be ready in time for Halloween). Here is what the garden looked like after we had put all the seeds in the ground...








As you can see, Kira loves just hanging out by the garden. I couldn't seem to get a picture of the garden without her in it...at least until the dog next door started to get huffy and puffy with both Kira and Koda. Our neighbors have two of the most annoying dogs I have ever seen; they bark all the time and jump the fence and run all over the neighborhood...one even chases cars and has almost been hit numerous times. Anyway, Kira really does not like these dogs and anytime we are outside, the dogs next door start jumping up on the fence, which ticks both Kira and Koda off. I just happened to get a picture of them ganging up on the dogs next door...


Seeds are now in and have been getting lots of water this weekend from all the rain, so maybe our garden will be plentiful and prosperous this year. Wish us luck!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Tulip Festival 2009

Last Saturday, we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. This is something that I have been wanting to do since we moved here and this year I was determined to see it. It is supposed to be amazing...they plant over 250,000 bulbs around the gardens. People can just walk and tour over four miles of gorgeous fields, flowers and trees. I have to admit...both Jeff and I were impressed. But, instead of me describing everything in detail, we just took a whole bunch of pictures to share. I know this is going to be a post with about a bizillion pictures, but there are so many beautiful ones that I couldn't just pick a few.

We enjoyed the flowers...

















We also got some shots of the different structures in the gardens...
The carousel.



The gazebo.



The Italian Herb Garden with its amazing water feature.



The columns.



The amphitheater. There was a clogging demonstration going on.



The coi pond.


We even saw a bride having her bridal pictures taken.

We then toured the large rock formation. There were so many great pictures with all the waterfalls and great scenery.









Of course, we took a ton of pictures of flowers up close...these are some of my favorite ones.








Here are some more random pictures from the Tulip Festival...







It was the most beautiful, sunny day to just hang outside and spend the day looking at nature; it was a calming, serene and peaceful way to spend a Saturday afternoon.