First, the giveaway winners for the Welcome vinyls are: Lethea Benson and my longtime friend and reader, Kathy. Congrats ladies, you’ll both be getting a Welcome for your front doors. I’ve already emailed you and will put you in touch with Jodi. Those of you who would like to order one for yourselves, we have a 10% off code which will be good for one week from today: VINYL10. I hope you’ll take advantage and get one for yourselves. The Welcome and As for Me and My House vinyls will be added to the shop in the next couple of days in case you want those too, in time to use the coupon code. Thanks so much for signing up!
Really, I don’t mind all that much that my hubby is growing beans in the front yard. I mean, isn’t that what people expect from those of us living in this great state of Alabama. 
I’m sure it won’t surprise a lot of folks at all and really, that’s where the best sun is in our yard. So, we do what we gotta do.
It worked so well last year, that he’s doing it again. Now, just a disclaimer. After those pole bean vines climb the fence, he will remove the wood and cover the plastic weed block with some mulch, so that will make it look a little better at least. 
Just for me, he planted some Blue Lake beans. My favorite and what I grew up on from my daddy’s garden.
Our 6 blueberry bushes in the front yard are coming along and we’ll have a few berries this year.
He made sure he planted LOTS of tomatoes this year and they are looking good, since he bought more mature plants to start with on these.
Our Kiowa variety of blackberries that we planted last year are really taking off on a growth spurt and are loaded with berries. They’re just beginning to get ripe. Yippee!! 
I have such fond memories of growing up and picking blackberries in the woods. Lot of chiggers later, we would have plenty to bring home. 
With this method of growing, chiggers should not be a problem. It’s like having our own blackberry patch trained on posts and wire. 
And the fruit is hanging there, ready for the pickin’.
These are going to be SO good. Click over to this post for a look at how they grow them at Petals from the Past, which is where we got our plants. They are HUGE, as big as a thimble.
More tomatoes in another area. These have further to grow. Hubby plants wherever he can find a spot that gets enough sun. We don’t have the best backyard for growing veggies, but he is making do.
This year, the hubs got really industrious and added some concrete blocks to the lower part of our backyard to catch even more sun. These beans should climb the fence just right back here too.
He planted all these from seeds and they’re all really growing towards the sun.
More pole beans under a tree and going up the fencing. At this rate, we’ll be covered in beans in a very short while. Beans and cornbread, it’s a great combo down South. 
I’ll keep you posted on our veggie harvesting this year. I’m really glad that my hubby has taken such an interest in gardening. It goes way back for him and he enjoyed growing things when he was little, following his Pappy around looking at all the things that were growing at his house here in Birmingham.
And it sure is nice to get home-grown food right from the backyard.
How about you? Are ya’ll growing things this year? I think more and more people are getting interested in growing food at home, to save money and to grow organically too.
Tell me what YOU are growing, I’d love to hear!
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Sharing an email I got from Glidden (and nope, I’m not getting paid for this, just passing on some good info):
With a brush attached to the lid and enough paint to cover 3 square feet, Glidden ready-to-go paint testers make it easy to get going on your next paint project. And we’re now giving you the chance to paint it forward with our Get Color Give Color giveaway. Starting June 1, log on to Glidden.com for your chance to get 2 free testers for yourself and give 2 free testers to a friend. June 1 – 7 while supplies last.
Now, that’s a great way to promote paint!
Thanks for stopping by! I'm Rhoda, from Atlanta, GA and I love decorating and DIY projects. Decorating a home doesn't have to cost a fortune and I've spent years thrifting at antiques markets and yardsales, finding those treasures that make a home unique. I'm here to inspire and encourage other women to find their own inner creativity. Won't you join me? 
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
The tomatoes and zucchini and yellow squash are planted. Still need to make room for cucumbers, green beans and I ‘d like to try a few pumpkins. Love the garden…hate the weeding.
Love that you are growing green beans in the front yard! You’ve got to go where the sun is!
Your plants all look great! Before we cut down a huge privet to make room for a garden, we grew tomatoes in our front flower bed. They actually looked nice. Our garden spot is looking a little shadier this year and I may need to put some tomatoes out front again. Almost everything else is looking good – except for the corn that the bunnies ate!
I am so jealous of your garden, especially the berries. We have a sweet black lab that affectionatley tears up everything put into the ground! Here is hoping that next year will be different! When you wrote about chiggers I had a flood of memories from my summers in N.C.! No chiggers in Fl, just loads of mosquitos!
I will be here dreaming of blueberry cobbler!
LOVE seeing all of your growing plants! Those blackberries look AMAZING! I decided yesterday that we absolutely need strawberry plants next year – I think you may have just added blackberries to the list, too;) We have two blueberry bushes, but one was stripped completely bare by the bunnies/squirrels in the backyard:( We’ve done mostly square foot gardens this year and I’m so amazed by how they’re growing. I thought I was being too ambitious with the variety of things we have planted, but so far it hasn’t been too bad – the raised beds are controlling a ton and seem to keep it tame for me, for now;) In the boxes we have sugar peas, 4 tomato plants, arugula and mixed greens, chili peppers, sweet peppers, poblano peppers, leeks, green onions, beets, carrots, kale, swiss chard, potatoes, blue lake beans, spearmint, chamomille, balm lemon, rosemary, sage, lavender, tarragon, dill and a whole bunch of zinnias! Plus 6 other tomato plants that may or may not make it:) We’ve already started eating tons of the lettuce and I just saw a few of the tomato plants flowering, so now I’m getting so excited to be closer and closer to all of the goodness out there:)
wow! your plants look just amazing. i’d LOVE a garden like that but simply don’t have the space. best of luck (even though it looks like you don’t need it!!)
Okay now, I live in the South too (TN), but will have to admit, I’ve not seen beans grown in the front yard! How funny!!
Luckily, we have good sun on most of our yard, and a little bit of land to work with. We have two plots plowed up in the back, away from the house. One bed is just okra and in the other bed we have tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. Several tomato plants. We don’t do corn and beans, although we love them, but a little more time and work than we want. Hubby loves gardening too. We are lucky for the farmers’ markets in our area, we can purchase good, fresh produce for cheap, so what we don’t plant, we buy there. I love silver queen corn and the only beans for me are white half runners.
My family has always gardened also.
tina
Wow…looks like you will be having a feast of delicious homegrown goodies this harvest! We have the same issue w/sun and have to sneak the veggies in all over the place, too!
Look great!
xoxo Beth
Wow! I’ve never seen concrete blocks used to plant in, but what a great idea!
We’re growing tomatoes, beans, okra, tomatoes, and mint.
Hi, Rhoda
I love all your little gardens,, those blackberries are gorgeous,, Where we live now I didnt really think i had room to plant a garden but if i get creative the way your husband is doing I could certainly do it. . We do have a few tomatoes planted in buckets but thats about all,, however, my dad has a garden that my sister, my mom and I have been helping with this year,, He planted peas, beans, potatoes, onions(not sure if these are gonna make it), okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, radishes and squash.. I think thats all,, we’re already getting more squash than we can eat and we’re anxiously waiting for the tomatoes and cucumbers to start coming in.. I posted a few pics of my daddy’s beautiful garden on my blog.
Good Morning Rhoda…..and how nice to see my name up in lights LOL I am so happy….thanks and thank you to Jodi you two made my day !!!
We planted lettuce for the first time…Boston Lettuce, planted it from seed in April….it is looking great, can’t wait to pick it, we have one little bunny that hops around our yard and she’s not touched it !!! We will plant some tomatoes…..I love the idea of your pole beans and blueberries… your garden looks fantastic…..great idea using those cinder blocks Peter…..
I grew up with an Italian Grandfather living nextdoor and we had an amazing garden HUGE….as a kid I thought everyone had one and now wish I had paid more attention….we had asparagus that my Great-Grandfather planted….beans, lettuce, rhubarb, collared greens, carrots, every couple years corn to name a few…..and tons of toms…..we had a pear tree, apple trees, and grapes vines….before my time my Grandfathers Father made wine…. instead of watching Mum (my grandmother) put up tomatoes in jars I wish I had listened to her and learned how to do it…..they ate from their garden and lived to be 91 in their own home…much like your Eleanor
Good luck with your garden…..and thanks again for all the work you put into your blog and your WONDERFUL giveaways….
All the best,
xo Kathy
We planted only 4 tomato plants this year. (Just the two of us)
We would love to try our hand at those berries. They look delicious!
We’ve been too busy redoing front landscaping.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor.
We are growing heirloom tomatoes in our front garden. I just hid them behind mounds of zinnias! You can’t even see them from the road, which is a good thing, since my hubby came up with the bright idea of using our kids left-over arrows (as in bow and arrow) as tomato stakes! We look like we’ve been attacked by a tribe of Apaches!
Oh, I just love all your gardens!! I would love to grow berries of some soft
This year, I’m growing tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, sweet potatoes, bell pepper, banana pepper, jalapeno and I think that’s it. I’m beginning to get blooms on most of them, which is super exciting! I’m only a second year gardner, but I think I’m getting a green thumb already 
Hi Rhoda
I guess you already know the answer to what’s growing in my garden, since you beat me on commenting LOL Your garden looks amazing! I can only hope mine will look that good
xo,
rue
I am sitting here drooling over your plants. No I can’t plant yet. Believe it or not, it snowed on Sunday with 3 1/2″!!! It is almost Memorial Day!!! I have the raised boxes ready to go, in fact when I get home to Big Bear from Vegas I will take pictures and post on my blog. Good thing my brother in law is growing a couple of things, that way I have my fix! But it is unbelievable!!!
PS love the concrete blocks, I may have to borrow that idea!
Definitely very lovely. I actually love that you have veggies out front!
Love the concrete blocks idea!
you have quite the variety of items growing. those berries look dee-lish! next year i would like to build some raised beds for veggies b/c our soil is very claylike. i am growing strawberries in a pot (just tasted the first one yesterday! last year the squirrels and bunnies got to them before i did), yellow peppers, and eggplant in a container. i didn’t know you could do eggplant in a container, but that’s what its tag says. it seems to be doing well, there is already a flower blooming. and the peppers look good too. happy gardening!
No fruit or veggies in my yard…just snakes! Have you seen my recent post? Grrrrrrrrrrr
I’d love to have some tomatoes. I grew up picking them right off the vines and eating them while sitting in the sunshine. Wonderful!
And oh how I love a good ole tomato sandwich…and BLTs too.
Hugs!
Kat
I make a delicious simple buttermilk cake recipe that I top with berries, I just love fresh berries and can’t wait to try your recipes too. I’m clearing out a spot today for hubby to garden, isn’t it great when they get involved? Yours has some great sized plants already! Happy healthy eating. Mary
Beautiful pictures, thanks for sharing your garden!
Oh how I envy your vegetables Rhoda. Every time I’ve tried, I’ve failed. I just can’t seem to find the time to weed and water, and I’m always left with the saddest little plot of dirt. I keep the farmer’s market in business!
But, I do grow herbs – lots and lots of lemon thyme (great for iced tea, chicken and fish), English thyme, sage, rosemary, mint and chives.
Rhoda –
Your plants look uh-ma-zing! I guess it helps when you can probably plant your veggies sometime in early spring! We just planted about a month ago and we’ve got broccoli, tons of herbs, tomatoes, and jalapenos. We’ve got a *really* small yard so we had such a small space to work with. One of these days….
Good work!
Lindsay
As a transplanted southerner, I love finding “southern” blogs! I’d like to have some time in your garden, reaping some tomatoes and berries! I have that same metal bird hovering around my garden.
Best,
Bonnie
The cinder block planters–brilliant! I may try it with beans and/or cucumbers. I’m afraid it may be to late to start them, though. The weather here in Northern California has been unusually wet and rainy. I couldn’t put in my tomatoes until last weekend due to our very strange weather. Your garden looks fabulous!
I’m in a small, two-bedroom apartment, and my patio has barely any room to move. But never fear – I’ve still managed to plant a zucchini and some herbs. I’m just totally jealous of all the wonderful planting you’ve been able to do.
We were spoiled when we lived near my MIL. She always has a large garden and generously shares the bounty. We still get her fabulous homemade jams mailed to us. We planted two tomato plants and one pepper in pots this year . We have to keep them on the deck to keep the deer away.
xoxo,
Sherry
Rhoda, Oh my I love this time of year bc I can actually grow some tomatoes that don’t taste like store-bought-cardboard! I do a garden every year and once again, have it planted. I should start to get some good crops in the next week or so. It’s very exciting to me! I’m a garden nerd!! Yours looks great! And only in the South would you see a garden in somebody’s front yard.
I can’t wait to see the produce. You will have a lot this year for sure everything is doing good and healthy. Happy Wednesday!
Red Slides
I am attempting my first food garden. I read a book over the winter on growing food in marine climates so theoretically I am prepared for anything. I planted radishes, cherry tomatoe, sun gold tomates, scallions, cascade peas, lettuce, and strawberries. So far, I have harvested lettuce and radishes.
I also made a pea trellis that the peas seem to really like. Here is the link the the trellis (http://uffdaprojects.blogspot.com/2010/05/project-pea-trellis-part-2.html)
I get so excited everyday to see the growth. The spring has been cold in Seattle so far, but the peas and radishes are loving it. Plus the rain barrel keeps full with the rain.
I hope your harvest is huge and yummy!
Hi Rhoda! Oh, your plants all look so wonderful but you had me at the Blackberries! These are just my favorites. As a little girl growing up in Alabama I would just walk across the street and pick the wild blackberries. I probably ate as many as I brought back to my mother to make blackberry cobbler with!
Thanks so much for popping in and your advice about the hydrangea blooms.
Be a sweetie,
Shelia
I don’t have a new blog post yet…but of course I want to stop by to see you anyway! Your hubby’s garden looks GREAT! I think it’s AWESOME that he’s growing the beans in the front yard where the sun is best!!!! Seriously!!! More power to him!!! Besides, it all looks pretty and green and full of LIFE and if someone has something nasty to say about that, send ‘em to me and I’ll SWAT THEIR BEHIND and tell them that they are THE SOUTH END OF A NORTH BOUND MULE for being judgmental. To have food is wonderful. To be able to grow your OWN food is MORE wonderful! You have a beautiful home and growing something to nourish yourselves are two fantastic things!!! There are people , a GAZILLION people, who are dying of hunger right this second around the world and they’d gladly plant every single spec of ground around, near, on, up, down, inside, out, etc. of where they live (heck, I’d bet some would even live AMONGST the rows of food or let a bean or tomato plant or two snake up around their legs and bodies if it meant they could FEED THEIR CHILDREN) just to be able to eat.
I can’t help but think that God smiles down upon those folks who have farms and who have gardens. I know, I know, being Miss Farm Girl from the No Stoplight Town In Kentucky makes me quite subjective….but that’s okay, right?
My husband and I are growing lots right now….still not as much as we want, but we just moved into the “mini mansion” (we got the deal of the century/didn’t use realtors to be able to afford this house) and started the garden last year. We have tomatoes, carrots, corn (the corn didn’t turn out for squat last year…BUT….I used up the dried up little cornettes–that’s what I had to call those tiny little ears in fall decorating)…lots of lettuce types/winter greens including kale and spinach, squash, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic and we’ve planted peach trees, blueberries and blackberries, though they have yet to yield fruit. Oh, and strawberries this year.
Soon I’ll post more about the garden with more pictures.
I love trying new recipes with adding garden stuff….like putting kale on homemade pizzas (along with sweet potatoes sliced thin, too, and goat cheese and onions…..YUM!)
I will say a prayer that your yield is wonderful this year! Growing a garden always makes me appreciate Thanksgiving more. Seriously. It can be hard and so many things can ruin a crop. It’s perspective giving!!!
Love in Christ,
Lana
I just went through about $30 worth of paint test samples. Sherwin Williams has the best. For the same price they give you nearly a quart of paint! Love SW!!!
Yes, I’m growing tomatoes and lots of herbs and arugula. Love having my own herbs.
Yum! Blackberries! They look delicious already. My mom wants to come over and plant some veggies in my yard. I’m not sure what we’re planting yet. This makes me excited to think about the yummy veggies we could get.
What a beautiful garden!!
WOW. I wanna be your neighbor and BFF so you’ll share all that yummy homegrown goodness with me. Beautiful and so delightful!!
We are growing our very first vegetable garden ever! We live in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah, near Park City. Our growing season is short, so we don’t get to plant til about now! We have a few things in right now and they are doing well despite the fact that it has snowed on them three times the past week! We built 6 4×4′s w/ 2×8′s – according to the directions in the book All New Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Barthololmew. We bought Vermiculite, compost (6 varieties), and Peat Moss. We mixed a 1/3 of each on a tarp and filled each garden box. Then we divided up each garden into 16 12 inch squares and planted our vegetables! We are very excited to see what kind of harvest we will have!
Your garden looks beautiful! It’s
Congrats to the winners!
Your garden looks amazing! We skipped our this year. Hopefully next year. I have a hard time with the birds and squirrels eating everything :/
Your berries look delicious…we planted our first garden this year using the square foot garden method and have had lettuce for a month now. We also planted tomatoes, green/yellow bell peppers, celery, peas, beans, strawberries, cucumbers, corn, watermelon and cantaloupe. Oh and scallions. We have just been entranced by it all and marvel at the growth each morning!
Can’t wait to eat more of it as it ripens. Connie
That was fun touring your garden! Everything is looking delicious! No veggies here….YET….:)
I really like the concrete block idea. We can’t get too creative to give our veggies their best start. I’m trying for all organic this year. So far, so good, but the bugs and worms haven’t arrived yet. I have a few pics up on my blog.
Also, I grew up in the Bham area and just returned last week for a quick nostalgic tour of my old house and school and church. I forgot how gorgeous Birmingham is in the spring. So fun!
Thanks for your great blog.
What a great way to use concrete blocks! We have a pile in the backyard from the previous owners and I was wondering what I’d do with them!
We just picked up our strawberry + cucumber plants and are ready to get them planted. We went with a black heirloom variety, a golden and two cherry tomato plants ~ I can’t wait to start eating them!
We’ve planted a few veggies in our garden: serrano peppers, bell peppers, zucchini, squash, cucumber and tomatoes. Unfortunately, the squirrels are eating the blooms on our cucumbers, squash and zucchini so we probably won’t have anything to show for our (very small) effort. We’ve already been able to harvest a few tomatoes. We have a lone bell pepper growing but no serrano buds yet. I don’t think they’re getting enough sun so we may dig them up and plant them in containers and put them where they’re able to soak up more sun. Our yard has a lot of shade.
Your plants look great and I hope you have a great harvest in the end. Thanks for sharing.
You are so lucky to have a hubby to plant these veggies for your household. I love how people are using their property for useful things.
Wow. . . you are going to have a ton of veggies! We have some lettuce we planted a while ago that we are already eating, and just put in tomatoes, squash, and peppers. Fingers crossed that everything grows this year.
I loved looking around your yard! I actually just posted some of our yard today. I would love to plant beans in the front yard. It looks awesome even when there are no beans on the plant! If I were walking by your house, I’d snitch one!