The newest additions...

...to my garden!  Thanks to my free money from Swagbucks, and a major revamping of our budget (thanks to Dave Ramsey, more about that in a later post) I was able to pick up a couple of things that I've been wanting for awhile. First, my new rain barrel, or the fancy name "rain harvesting system"

And then my new compost bin:

I love them both!  The rain barrel fills up with just the slightest of rainfall.  Obviously this year we are getting tons of rain, so I don't need to use it very often.  But I imagine that won't last all summer.  The composter is a three-chamber system so I can have compost brewing at three different stages at the same time.  I considered a tumbling composter, but you can only put your materials in till it fills, then you can't add anything more till the compost finishes.  In some locations that could take all year.  I've only been using it for a month and my compost is ready to be moved to the next chamber so I can start some more.

And here are a few pictures from my "garden"

My hydrangeas in full bloom!  I forgot to add the acid this year so they are pink, but still gorgeous!  The yellow flowers are buttercups, and they have been in bloom for almost 3 weeks now.

Here is a small side garden, we call it Alexandria's garden because of the plaque and bench.  It is completely shaded so it's not all that pretty.

This is my tiny little garden.  The three large plants are raspberries, on the side by the brown fence are three tomato plants.  The other plants are 2 butternut squash plants, a watermelon plant, potted strawberries, and there are two containers of sweet peppers that aren't in the picture.  I also have a new blueberry bush not in the picture.   And here's on last picture, my tomato plants!!