Progress :: Raised garden boxes

 A lot of progress was made over the weekend. 

Yea!! 

We have three new raised plantar boxes all set and ready to go.  The third one is hiding behind the bushes and is closer to the back of our yard.  The orange stuff on top of the soil is just the leftovers from juicing.  We have been juicing off and on for a while and now I have something useful to do with the leftovers.  I am going to let if dry out a little on the top, then turn it over and mix it in.  We have about another week before our little seedlings are ready to be planted.  We planted our other flat of seedlings this past weekend also.  

I hope we have enough room.  

We made two smaller boxes, one is 4 ft x 3 ft and the other is 4 ft x 5 ft.  Our big one is 7 ft x 3 ft.

Everyone helped.  

Andy pretty much made the boxes and the kids and I attached the weed screen to the bottom.  Any time we let the kids use a hammer they are so excited.  There was some teamwork going on between the kids which makes this mama so happy to see.  

This is how we made our boxes.

We used 2 x 8 pieces of wood for a little more height.  

Andy put the first level of the box together with outdoor screws, then we put 2 layers of weed screen on one side of the box using small roofing nails that we had leftover from another project.  Any small nail with a bigger head or a staple gun can be used.  I really didn't want the grass or weeds coming through, that's why I used two layers of the weed screen.  Then we flipped the box over and put the second level of the box on top.  Andy used a 2 x 2 piece to put into the corners to keep the two levels of the box together.  You can see the corner piece in the picture below.  

 Then it was time to fill them up.  

This was such a satisfying project.  

I can't wait to see how they look mid summer!

Baby seedlings!

The time changed and as far as I'm concerned, it's spring.  

The birds are making their nests on our porch again.  We had 85 degree weather this past week and I have a lot of growth with my little seeds that I started for my garden.  

Yea! I'm so excited.  

After not having a veggie garden last year, I am getting serious this year.  I decided to go with seeds this year.  It seems like their is more of a variety and it's kind of fun.  Oh and way cheaper, especially since I plan on having a lot bigger garden.  I used the Jiffy Greenhouse and it was really easy.  I now have 72 little plants.  I have another Jiffy but I haven't planted those yet.  Next week!

 So far, I have swiss chard, spinach, serrano chiles, jalepeno chiles, red onions, and green onions.  

I see a lot of salads and salsa this summer.

There are 12 plants of each.  

 I accidentally left them outside last night and it got pretty cold.  They look ok today.  They are like my little babies right now.  Taking them in and out of the house.  Making sure they aren't in direct sun.  Yikes!

The kids love seeing how much they have grown.  

I get pretty excited also.

I still haven't built the raised beds yet, but I did clear the space for them.  I better get busy.

macrame plant hanger

 sometimes just doing one teeny tiny little project can make my day.  this summer we were busy busy and i had to put a lot of my creative energy on hold.  today i was able to squeeze a 2 minute project in and i plan on squeezing in a few more.  i bought this macrame plant hanger at an estate sale about 6 months ago.  i wasn't exactly sure what i was going to do with it but it kind of just made me smile when i saw it hanging in a living room with two huge plastic ferns covered in dust sitting inside.  it was pretty ugly to say the least.  i remember my mom and my aunts having a few of these when we were young...maybe this is what drew me in.  my friend thought i was crazy as dragged the beast out of the house.  it had a really long tail on the bottom that had frayed and collected dust.  i cut the long 2 foot tail off right away and hosed it down in the backyard and that is where i had left it until today.  i found an empty pot and a plant in need of a home and put it all together.  there wasn't a whole lot of creativity that went into this hanging, but i like how it turned out. 

the best little helpers...

these guys love having our little garden.  they can't wait for our tomatoes to turn red and ripe for the picking and neither can i.  they sure do love pulling an onion for me when i need one.  best of all they love to water...everything, including each other.  when is that warm weather going to come back around?

Easy New Table Topper

 I love the look of all those glass container planters you see everywhere so much and I knew if I searched hard enough around the house I would be able to make one of my own.

 I found a glass vase that hardly ever gets any use and I had the kids collect some gravel from our gravel path in our backyard.  The gravel helps the soil stay well drained so the plants won't get root rot...plus it looks pretty with the different layers.

 Next we bought a couple of the smallest succulents.

Lastly we borrowed a little bit of soil from one of our garden beds, planted the plants and we were done.  Oh, we did add a couple of smooth stones on top after this picture was taken.  I think I am going to be on the lookout for more glass containers.  It was so quick and easy.  After we made it, I realized I could have just clipped some pieces of succulents from the ones we have in our yard...next time.

Anyone can do it...

 We haven't had a decent veggie/herb garden in years.  At our last house, Andy made me an amazing little garden with raised planter beds where we planted more tomatoes and squash than we could eat and fresh picked herbs were a plenty.  Every year for the last 5 years that we have lived at our current home, I have told myself we are going to have an amazing veggie garden but sadly some attempts were sabotaged by Yosh and other years we didn't even try...until now.

 I have never started a veggie garden this early in the year but with our mild temps I am keepin' my fingers crossed that my little plants will thrive and we will be able to eat off the fat of the land.

   This past weekend I decided it was now or never for our little garden.  I was keeping an eye out for a little wood for our raised garden bed, when I passed a local business that had a couple of pallets in a big dumpster.  Bob, the owner, was nice enough to help me load them up and get them off of his hands.  Don't worry, the dumpster just had concrete and wood in it.  It wasn't too dirty.  It was a little more work tearing apart the pallets than I had anticipated, but I used pretty much every piece of those pallets.  I think I scared Andy a little when he got home to find me going crazy with a skill saw and a couple of hammers, but I think he was also a little impressed that I was able to bang these little beds together and that they were actually pretty sturdy.  He is having a hard time admitting it though.  That's okay, he doesn't have to admit it...I know.

I had the best little helper with all of the planting and she did a really good job.  

Today when she got home from school she said, 'Mom, can I pick the tomatoes?'  

Awww, if only they really did grow that fast.