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!
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!