A Garden Update

We’ve been busy gardening over in Spritzer Leyba Land, but before I tell you about the work we’ve done in the garden this spring, let me show you some photos from last summer.

See those bushes behind Miss Leyba? Turns out, they only bloom for two weeks each year and there they are, blooming and lovely! A couple days later all the flowers died and the bush transformed into a giant, overgrown hedge that blocked a view of the stairs… a super no-no when your toddler loves to sit there.

So, last May David ripped out the bush (turned out to be mostly dead with just a little bit alive on top) and we started planting a lovely little garden. Here it is today with several plants just starting to bloom and lots on its way:

David also built me a small raised bed for our vegetable garden. Here he is last year watering our newly planted tomatoes (that performed poorly due to the abnormally cool 2009 summer):

And here it is now with lots of sugar snap peas, lettuce, strawberries and tomatoes:

We also removed the bushes next to the veggie bed (behind David in the above photo). One of them had super sharp thorns and grew poisonous orange berries in the fall. The other “bush” was a spiky Live Oak tree that would grow to be twenty feet tall; definitely not a good fit for the space. Yes, there was a gorgeous rose bush, bit it was very overgrown, so we thought it better to start afresh with something new. Here is that bed today, a very work-in-progress sort of photo:

Those giant cabbages are from our winter garden; they just started forming heads, finally.

And here’s a photo of our little girl and AVID gardener! Trust me, I couldn’t be more pleased. We love working out in the yard together and I’m loving it!

(My, what a difference a year makes!)

I’ll post more photos as the summer progresses. We so enjoy working on the yard and transforming this house into a home. So glad you all are following along!

Bookshelves just for her

I’ve so enjoyed setting up spaces for Miss Leyba and all her stuff (i.e. books, wooden toys, art supplies, stuffed animals, and dress-up outfits!).

Here is one such area.

David built these shelves for Miss Leyba and then painted them with a non-toxic, no VOC milk paint in this playful turquoise (I LOVE it!).

The shelves are also super deep (and very heavy), so you can access items from both sides and we don’t need to worry about the shelves toppling.

(Believe it or not, we now have even more books crammed in there as I’ve recently discovered our thrift store sells 25ยข board books. I now stop by several times a week to pick up books. Yes, it’s become an addiction).

I had such fun arranging her things here… and now face the daily challenge of getting everything put away in its place. Luckily for me, Miss Leyba loves Helping Mama, so lately she’s been very amenable to clean up time.

Not that you can tell right now, of course. Our living room looks like a tornado flew through it.

Since I want to maintain my image as a domestic goddess (*cough*), I won’t bother to post pictures.

I’m sure you understand.