What's an umbrella have to do with anything?

Thankfully, the sun did come out and dry up a lot of the humidity today. It was quite the relief. It was dry enough for my husband to mow an entire yard full of dandelions and fill 3 huge trash bags with grass...er...weed clippings. If they were actual grass clippings, they'd go in the compost pile. Or at least some would. But I don't put weeds in there. I don't want weeds planted accidentally any more than I want them planted voluntarily.

We desperately need to just regrade the yards and save up the money for sod. I don't know that grass seed would even work. We mostly just have weeds or dirt in the backyard. It was like that years ago when we bought the house. Having dogs running back and forth for several years just made it worse. And now that the dogs are gone, the damage remains.

I need to look up what all needs to be done to regrade a yard. Maybe we could at least get that part done on our own. Of course, if we got sod for the yard, we'd attempt to install that ourselves as well. However, before we laid any sort of sod for the yard, we probably need a sprinkler system installed. That's even more money. So yeah. We have a yard of dirt and weeds. It will be that way for the foreseeable future.

While the hubby was mowing, I decided to paint a coat of Rustoleum on the umbrella planter my hubby and I made a few years ago. It was starting to rust through the rust-proof spray paint I painted it with when we put it up. I'm hoping the paint I used today with the brush will last a little longer, since it goes on thicker. I don't think I'll be able to paint it once the clematis really gets established.

We made it in memory of my dad who passed away three years ago and for my nephew who died just a short few months later. We planted a purple clematis at the bottom, so it could climb the chicken wire we stretched around the pole, because purple was one of my dad and my nephew's favorite colors. It's made of rake tines from an old hay rake that used to be used in the fields. They use different equipment now, but you can still find the rake tines from time to time.




We call it an umbrella planter, because it looks like an umbrella that's lost all the fabric, and all that's left is the frame. Daddy had made one in his and Mom's backyard, and I just fell in love with it. So it just seemed like a fitting tribute to his memory.




Daddy also loved to grow tomatoes, so I had to try my luck at growing upside-down tomatoes. We cut holes in the bottoms of 3 gallon buckets we'd gotten at the supermarket bakery and planted tomatoes to grow out the bottoms of the buckets. Peppers are planted in the top, so the soil isn't as apt to blow away in the wind, and we can have peppers, too. This picture was taken the first year we had it up right after we planted the tomatoes and peppers.

I'm hoping to get my tomato and pepper plants this week. If I don't, I don't know that I'll be able to get anything planted this year at all. The stores will likely be all sold out by the end of the month. Although, this Spring has been a bit cooler, so I may still have time. People tend not to get their plants right away unless it's consistently warm at night. There's nothing quite like losing a garden (hanging or otherwise) to a frost. It's just such a disappointment!

We have cut that stupid tree that's between the planter and the window down several times. We're hoping that the stump killer we'll be putting on it this year when we cut it down will kill the thing. We also will be cutting down a really tall tree in the backyard soon, too. It's the same type of tree, but it's not the most stable thing. We lost a rather large branch in a big windstorm last Fall, and we just don't feel it's safe anymore.

So with those trees all out of the way, my tomato and pepper plants should really take off. I'd love to get 4 more buckets and get all 8 tines filled with upside-down tomatoes this year. I may just have to stick with the 4 that are hanging right now, though. I would just love to have enough to can some. There's nothing like tomato soup made from tomatoes from your garden in the dead of winter!

Eventually, I'll have a large garden, but it may be a few years off. Still. It's fun to plan it in my head. What about you? Do you garden at all?