Last year my container garden was a success, mostly. I still struggle with my green thumb and every year I keep trying. I think it more has to do with not having time to put the attention that I really need to in it which is why I want to keep working at it. Like last year I wanted to do another container garden since our house is built on foothills. The ground is full of rocks and really poor soil, something I know I could make work but I just don’t have that type of energy in this time of my life.

​For now, the containers work great and my new garden table makes it super easier to plant. I planted some more grape tomatoes and added some squash and strawberries this year. Thankfully my blueberry and blackberry bushes survived, I just added some fresh container soil and they are already getting fruit blooms! I am already trying to talk Jack into building me some wooden garden containers so I can plant even more next spring!

As with my barn board table, I reused an old breakfast bar and some of my grandma’s barn wood to make this awesome garden potting table. After sanding two pieces of barn boards, I glued and screwed them to a leftover piece of plywood. I then used the same 1x2 trim that we used on the table to trim out the tabletop.

I also used the trim to make the shelf on the bottom. I started by building a box that fits snuggly between the metal sides. I then equally spaced pieces and nailed to create the top of the shelf. I preferred this over a solid shelf so dirt could fall through.

The next step was to stain and seal all of the wood; I used the same stain color (American Walnut) as the big table so they matched, since more and likely it will get used as a bar during parties. To finish it off I added three black hooks to hang garden tools from.
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I am really excited to have this project finished and have it in my beautiful garden area!

I’m totally in love with my new garden gate! I’ve thought it would be so cool to have this section of the yard gated off and plant a garden there. I also thought it would help keep Andrew out of the orange tree with its thorns and keep him in the line of sight while we sat on the patio. The other side yard got fenced off when we finished the replacing the fence last March. However, Jack wasn’t as excited as I was when I asked him to do this “quick” project. I then quickly realized my little project wasn’t going to be so easy or cheap as I originally thought. Jack being the ever perfectionist and doing it right mortality made me realizes it was going to be a lot more work than first anticipated. I just thought we would buy some premade fence panels, add a couple of wooden posts and be done. Nope, but I am glad we took the time to do it right. We first purchased two fence panels that were eight feet long each, then measured out the post locations. Jack was wanting to rent an auger as we had done in the past, but I decided to at least see what I could do with the post shovel. Much to my surprise, I was quickly able to dig three out of the four holes (the fourth one we needed to wait on). Jack was shocked to see that they were done and was able to cut the metal posts and set them in concrete that night. The next day we anchored the panels to the post and I dug up the fourth post to finish off the main portion of the fence. Jack built the gate by using part of one of the premade panels and framed it with 2 x 2 for additional support. We chose black hardware for the latches, handle and hinges. To finish off the new beautiful garden gate we bought an arbor for the entrance and much to my dismay I had to dig two more holes to set the arbor into place. Jack attached the other side of the arbor to the metal posts.
 
The gate is so pretty and I can’t wait to have a garden inside of it one day!

​Although the Fourth of July just passed, we planted a pumpkin patch today. My aunt started the seeds last month and they were ready to be transplanted into our raised flower bed.

The best part of planting the plants today was watching Andrew play in the garden. Hopefully, the soil is in the right condition since I’ve heard pumpkins are hard to grow!

​This is my first attempt at them so we shall see if we will be craving Jack-O-Lanterns out of our own pumpkins or not this fall.