What is this????!!!!???? Seriously!

I know I've been lacking in any kind of interesting post as of late.  Maybe because I've been distracted by this....

Seriously....what in the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks are these orange, claw like fingers growing out of the garden????  We have never seen these before, ever.  They have just sprouted...the last pic is of what I can only assume is the seed.  The seed is soft and squishy like a marshmallow.  It didn't smell like anything, though I can't really smell at all due to congestion...and yes, I know it's weird to smell stuff, but it's what I do.   It did provide a good opportunity to teach the kids that these are not in fact carrots or witch fingers and how produce grows and the unlikely nature of buried witches in the front yard.

Anywho....they're pretty creepy.  Any thoughts?

Urban Gardens

We have lived in our sweet, humble abode for 10 years now. Over the years we have gone from room to room, redecorating, painting, tiling, etc. No room, nook or cranny has been left untouched. In some cases, a room may have been touched more than once.

Our projects have also included the landscaping. The previous owners had done a fine job creating perennial gardens of bushes and shrubs (is there a difference?) and sharp spiky things that required very little maintenance on our part. What a relief, right? Well, I always thought that these garden areas made it look as though retired elderly people lived in our home, which is in stark contrast to the image I'm trying to convey by leaving hool-a-hoops, balls, bikes and chalk strewn about haphazardly. I mean, really, how many old people ride around on pink tricycles and leave beach towels hanging from the Dogwood in the front yard? Anywho, the point is that over the years we (and by we, I mean not me but Jay and his dad and his brother) have transformed the gardens into much prettier, younger looking gardens. I even know some of the plants names and don't always pull out the good plants thinking that they're weeds.



See? Not too shabby. My favorites are the butterfly bushes along the driveway. The picture doesn't really do them justice. But they smell awesome!!! I love it! And man! They make a lot of butterflies.

We have not tried our hand at a vegetable garden for various reasons. A) I don't want to. B) Jay doesn't want to. So, we were surprised recently when my Sister-in-law commented on our squash vine thingy. Huh? We didn't even know it was there. And the rate it's been growing is phenomenal. The kids just got to see the actual squash....check it out.


Pretty cool, huh? And it has it's own private space where it won't need to worry about being choked out by other pesky plants or weeds.....See?


Yeah, that's right. It's growing out of a crack on our driveway. Nice. We're going to see how far we can take this thing....

This, my friends, is an urban garden.