July Garden Update



We replanted at the beginning of June.  Instead of starting again from seeds, we cheated and bought plants.  I felt it would be easier and the children would be see the garden growing right away.  It's been fun going out with the kids to check on the garden's progress.  They loved seeing how big the plants are growing.  And when we saw the first signs that veggies were growing they exploded with excitement!  I'll admit that sometimes I am the one most excited about the garden.  

Reusing junk

My dad is a collector of junk.  He likes to save everything, so our yard is full of stuff.  You can look out the window and see old barbecue grills, lawn mowers, metal scraps, plywood, decorative stone, etc.  I had three fire place grates just sitting outside my door.  I decided since he's never going to actually use any of the stuff he's saving "just in case we need it", that I would start reusing it.



fire grates before



my new flower garden

I just finished turning two those fireplace grates into beautiful planters.  I cleared out an area just to the left of my walkway.  Since they are obviously grates, I needed to come up with something to line them so the dirt didn't fall through.  Next stop the store, where I picked up a peva/coco liner ($5.96) and some flowers to plant.  The liners wasn't as wide as my grates, so I slid some flat rocks behind it to fill in the gap.  I already had potting soil left over from our Ostara celebrations.  The kids helped me pick out some flowers to plant.  We decide to go with annuals, since we weren't sure if perennials would make it through the winter in a raised bed.  I'll be looking into that for next year, since it would be nice to have our flowers come back every year.  The entire project cost me about $15.  And the best part is I don't have to look at those ugly fire grates any more.  Next year the kids want to paint the grates before we replant.  They think it will look prettier.



my birthday frogs



Since I now have the time to garden, the kids decided I needed garden decorations for my birthday!  I LOVE frogs.  Don't know what it is, but they are just so adorable.  My new garden decorations are some very lovely frogs.  A few years ago we had to dig up our yard, so we happen to have some slabs of concrete laying around.  I had my dad help me move one of them next to my new planter so my frogs could have a home.  This is still a work in progress.  I want to transplant some moss onto the concrete.  Thankfully my parents have a neighbor (at their summer campground) who has done this with her garden.  As soon as I get a chance to drive out there, I'm going to ask for her help.



beginnings of an altar



My final project, at least until I come up with some more ideas, is an outdoor altar.  I've always wanted an outdoor altar, but I didn't have any idea where or how I was going to make one.  Today all that just fell into place, while I was looking for something else to plant in.  I found my dad's pile of concrete bricks and a slab of decorative stone.  Put slab of stone on top of two bricks and you end up with a nice looking flat surface.  Yeah now we have our own outdoor altar.  It's definitely still a work in progress, but I'm hoping to put it to use next week during the Solstice.  The stone just gives me a good earthy feeling.

~Your Earthy Mom

Garden Update

Well it seems that our first attempt at growing a garden hasn't started off to well.  All of our veggies died.  *crying*  We were however very successful at growing weeds.  I do have several thoughts on the demise of our garden.

1. The weather wasn't ready yet.  I'm pretty sure that we put our veggies in the ground to early.  Even though it wasn't freezing out, it still did get pretty chilly at night.  My garden growing cousin has confirmed this theory for me.
2. We didn't have good enough dirt.  Being first time gardeners, we just used any old dirt figuring it didn't matter.  In retrospect I think our dirt didn't have enough nutrients to help our plants grow.  Thankfully my neighbor has some great fertilizer, that they use on their garden, they're willing to share.
3. I left right after the veggies went into the ground.  My dad was in charge of the garden while my husband and I were on our honeymoon.  I'm pretty sure that he took really good care of our plants, but I wasn't there to know how things were growing (or not growing)

Now that the rain has finally stopped.  (We've had a week and a half of rain)  I have been able to go out and weed the garden.  The weather is finally warm enough for our new seedlings.  Yes we planted more seeds inside to transplant outside.  So here in the next week or so we will try again.  Here's to us being persistent.  Think I may even say a little prayer over our plants to help them grow and thrive.

~Your Earthy Mom

Gardening an Family affair





Dumping the dirt

Our family decided at Ostara to grow a garden in our backyard this year.  I haven't had a garden since I was a young teen.  This has been a great experience for us as a family.  We started with finding the right spot and arranging boards into a rectangle shape.  Even Poppy came out to help with the project.  They boys love digging up the dirt inside the garden area, to get it ready for our plants!  We have an over abundance of tomato plants started.  Also ready for planting the cucumbers and zucchinis.  In a few week the peppers my sister asked me to plant and the green beans should be ready to move outside too.  I'm hoping the kids will stay interested in gardeing and continue to help out and have fun. 

They certainly have lots of plans.

• Monkey wants to build a fence to keep the deer out.  (Not happening this time, maybe next year)
• Potato has informed me that "We have to pull the weeds from our garden mommy."
• Ladybug and Duckling are looking forward to helping pick the veggies.



Ready to go!



  

Hope you enjoy the pictures of our labor.  And we hope to enjoy the fruits (rather veggies) or our labor later.

~Your Earthy Mom

Tiny tomatos

Late to Spring!

Spring time is actually here!  My family just celebrated Ostara last weekend.  We have been so busy with planning our wedding that the actual date came and went.  So being flexible with these kinds of things, we planned our celebration any way.



Tomato Seeds



Cucumber and Zucchini seeds



This year we did a split two day celebration.  Saturday morning was spent eating candies and starting plants for our garden.  We are planning to make our first garden this year.  So far we have cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  The kids loved getting in the dirt and planting the seeds!



Beginnings of a garden





Cutting Blackberries for dye



Sunday we made natural egg dyes for the first time.  This project was very time consuming, kind of messy, at times frustrating, and most of all Lots of FUN!  Grownups started with doing the cutting.  Our oldest wanted to help, so we figured why not.  We showed her how to use the knife safely and let her go for it. 



Pouring the Dye





After we cooked up each dye all of the kids helped with straining and pouring into bowls and cups.



Smelling the Dye



Onion Dye

Commence the egg dyeing extravaganza!



Beet Dye



Blackberry dye





Blueberry Dye



Spinach Dye







Onion Dye

Since this was our first time making the dyes, it was kind of an experiment.  Here's what we did.

• Fresh Blackberries - light purple - finely chop and boil in 1-2 cups of water then strain.
• Fresh Blueberries - dark/light blue - finely chop and boil in 1-2 cups of water then strain.  (one of our favorites)
• Fresh Spinach - very light green -  finely chop and boil in 1 cup of water then strain.  (we didn't like how this color came out)
• Onion - golden yellow/orange - Take the skins off two onions.  finely chop them and boil in 1 cup of water then strain.  (one of our favorites)
• Beets - light pink - We used canned beets and finely chopped.  We boiled the beets and the juice from the can.  (Next year we plan to use fresh beets if we can find them)

All in all we had a great weekend and are looking forward to watching our plants grow.  In a few weeks we should be able to move the plants outside to the garden.  Keep your eyes out for posts on how our garden is doing.

~Your Earthy Mom