In the Garden

What a boring title.  I can't seem to come up with a better one for what I am going to post today.  Oh well.  C'est la vie.


I wanted to show what has been happening in the garden since some of my previous posts.  


My post on Friday Finds: Unknowns  was about unknown plants that I have found around the house.  


And my SIL (sister in-law) and my friend Kendra at Wherever Life Leads were right about the second plant.  It was a Lily of the Valley.  

 

I am still waiting for something to happen to the first plant I took a picture of:

It currently still looks like this, only bigger. Hmmm








The next thing I would like to update you on is the use of my pots that I decorated:
Click here to see the before of my Artsy Fartsy: Pots
Check them out now!

This hanging device is something I picked up at the Saturday Market in Anchorage, Alaska It has the official Made in Alaska stamp on it. 

What about our greenhouse and raised beds??  I thought you would never ask!

I am actually gardening.  Can you believe it?

 
 
We are growing broccoli, green peppers, red peppers, cucumber, carrots, spinach, leaf lettuce, basil, cilantro, parsley, oregano, onions, eggplant, and tomatoes.

I have already begun using the herbs and the parsley!  I love it!  It is so fun to be in the middle of making dinner, walk outside, snip off some basil, walk back in the house, wash it, and throw it in my dish!  

Fun stuff!  What is going on in your world?

~ Selena

Artsy Fartsy: Pots

I know I have been on a roll lately with this artsy fartsy stuff.  My hubby is probably saying, I wish she would find time to do the dishes.  


So I have been working on painting my terra cotta pots.  I had purchased a plain terra cotta pot from the nursery just own the street from us called Rosie's Gardens.  And was inspired by the painted pots and decided that I could paint my own.  So I did.  And here is the artsy fartsy proof.

First, I sprayed the pots with a spray bottle with a concrete stain.

First I used a color called patena.  AKA blue.

After letting that dry at least an hour.  Or in my case, a day.  I have limited time to do little projects with 3 kids and nap times only last so long.  Plus I had to get to those dishes ;-)

Then I sprayed a gray color on the pots.  Again allowing them to dry at least an hour. Or a couple of days ;-)

I decided it just wasn't enough.  I needed more on the pots.  So I painted some paisley and flowers on the pots using some stencils.

To finish them up, I sprayed them with a clear coat for a water-resistant finish.  And a little shine.

And walla!!  Artsy Fartsy Pots.  

I will post some pictures once I get some fun flowers in them!

Have you been artsy fartsy lately??

~ Selena 

Friday Finds: Unknowns...

Today, I I have found random unknown plants growing up around our house.  Since we are renting and this is the first spring we have been in this house, I have no idea what is going to come up from the ground.  So I am hoping one of you can help me out.

Here is the first  It reminds me of corn...

And the second:  I'm at a loss...

Let me know what you think.  When and if I get blooms I will let you know! 

Every Friday is dedicated to what I find.  I tend to do a lot of research on most big-ticket items before purchasing them.   Anything from cameras, baby car seats, to vehicles.  I also just wanted a place to share what I have found in my life.  Welcome to Friday Finds.

Friday Finds: Raise It Up

This Friday is dedicated to raised gardening.  A raised garden, is a garden that is built on top of the ground not in the ground.  Sometimes the soil that is already there is used and sometimes it is not.   It depends on your preference and the soil you have.  There are so many different ideas on raised garden beds.  Some are for decorative purposes, some are for those who have back pain, there some for teeny tiny yards, some for huge yards, some build them because they have terrible soil.  There is something for everyone.  You can make them small or big.  Or buy them ready to go.  You can have legs on them or on the ground.  High end or from old 2x4's.  For flowers, or vegetables, or both.  You can make it however your little heart desires.

From Scenery Solutions

Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens Colleen Vanderlinden

I am making a raised bed garden for a couple of reasons.  1. We rent.  I didn't want to tear up the yard and invest a lot of money into something I couldn't take with me if we were ever to leave this house.  2. I have little ones 3. I don't have a ton of time on my hands to take care of a big garden.

There are loads and loads of websites and books out there on raised bed gardening.  You could possibly go mad with all of the information.  Whoa, information overload.  I just want something super simple that a mom of 3 can take care of by herself.  What I have come up with is a conglomeration of a lot of different ideas.

I really like is a trough bed design from hex2006 on gardenweb.com Check it out: Raised Salad Box Design.

Trough Bed from Hex2006 on gardenweb.com

If you go to the site and read about this design you will find that you can conserve water from run off.  It is also at a nice height so you aren't hurting your back.  the plants are able to breathe really well, so as to promote growth.  You can make this as big or little as you like.  It will not damage the ground it sits on much, if at all.

I also like Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Garden.

Square Foot Garden

Creating sections within the trough bed would work great! Here is an example of the square foot garden you can order from Mel's site or make yourself.  He states you can "grow more in less space,"  with his method.  Reading his book, I am becoming a believer.  He says you can plant 4 plants per square foot.  He found that a little old lady and a big hefty man could both easily reach 2 ft.  So making a 4 ft. x 4 ft. garden area, that you can walk completely around without walking on, was the best solution.  After selling more than 2 million copies, I think this man has this down to a science.

To grow carrots, Mel suggests to build a 1x1 square ft. box that is 6-12 in. tall out of plywood.  Because carrots need deep soil.  Along with carrots, I would like to have romaine lettuce, spinach, oregano, basil, red and green pepper, onion, & Roma tomato.

Even Oprah has a thought on raised gardening.  She has a blog on Oprah.com called The Dirt.  Okay so it is her gardening club.  I don't really see Oprah having too much time to garden.  But you never know.

To do raised gardening you need to:

1. Find a good sunny location
2. Make sure you do not choose a location that floods
3. Decide the size of space you can take care of
4. Construct your bed - make sure it is level
5. Fill the bed with good topsoil and compost
6. Get in and get dirty with your plants!

Why Raise It Up?

• Raised beds warm more quickly in spring, allowing you to work the soil and plant earlier.
• Raised beds drain better.
• The soil in raised beds doesn't get compacted, because they are constructed with accessibility in mind.
• It's easy to tailor the soil for your raised bed to the plants you plan to grow there.
• After the initial construction process, raised beds require less maintenance than conventional garden beds.

Some websites to ponder over

• http://www.raisedgardenbeds.info/
• http://www.squarefootgardening.org/
• http://groundbreakingtips.com
• http://forums2.gardenweb.com
• http://www.oprah.com/home/The-Gardening-Club-The-Dirt

I hope that you have fun raising it up!

Please let me know what you think or what kind of gardening you will be doing this season!

DISCLAIMER - My thoughts and ideas are for information purposes only. This information is in no way meant to guarantee results, although I hope it does. :-)

Pick Up Sticks

Spring has sprung.  Although, with the hail that we just had, I am not so sure that I should be excited just yet.  But I can't help myself.  It has been 6 years since I have had a nice long spring.  While I loved living my adventures in Colorado and Alaska, spring was not quite what it is here, in Indiana.  Colorado had a small spring and Alaska went straight from winter to summer.  Or at least it seemed that way.  It was like everything bloomed overnight (well, some would say it isn't night just dusk).  Which was amazing in itself.  But a slower spring is nice.  You can watch each day as things begin to grow up from the ground, or on the trees, or bushes, or even on the farms.  Baby animals start to emerge.  I suppose in some cases we start to see more infants too.  Long winters will do that.  ;-)

[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Camp Challenge, Alaska"][/caption]

In Alaska, I worked with my husband as Camp Directors.  We lived, ate, slept camp. We were at a Christian Bible Camp called Camp Challenge.    Every May we would have a clean up party.  People who supported the camp would come out to camp and help rake, scrub, paint, and hammer everything back into place after the long winter.  Now that we have moved from that environment, I still find myself wanting to get out and clean up.  But this time I don't have a clean up party to come and help.  Although, I must say that my dad came one day last week and helped quite a bit.

Pick up sticks is the name of the game. I'm not so sure I liked that game as a child.  So to do it as an adult on a larger scale. Ahem, my backyard.  I'm still not sure that I like it so much.

We are renting a house.  So with renting, I suppose you have the choice to tidy up the house if you want to. Because it is not really your house.  You could just leave it as is.  Well, that is not how my husband and I operate.  We have to get our hands dirty.  The renter before us didn't do much, if any, up keep outside.  So we have begun the gigantic process of trimming, raking, transplanting, and trimming and raking some more.  I love our backyard for the space.  I hate our backyard for the space.

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Our backyard"][/caption]

So like I said, we have been playing pick up sticks.  Only it is in our backyard.   

I am excited to have our backyard oasis once it is all finished.  Although, we may need to call friends and family who love us a lot to have a clean up party.   Wanna come and play pick up sticks with us?