Gardening & Journaling About It

Years ago I took a patterned paper tag pad I bought, and used the papers to make a garden journal. Snapped pictures, posted about it, and then kind of forgot about it. When it came time to use it, I couldn't find it! Classic me, in the crafty corner, putting things away and losing them. So recently, I accidentally found it, stuck in the wrong cubby and covered with envelopes. So now what? I'm using it this year to journal about my garden. Guess it was just meant to be.

First there'll be the baby pictures of my baby garden--seedlings on the greenhouse.

I'm also going to use the journal to draw my garden plan, plot where I'd like to put starts, and plan ahead where I will sow seeds straight into the garden. My spaghetti squash always seem to do better when the seeds are sown right into the open garden, the pumpkins too. And I plant basil seeds all summer.
 

I love putting beads or buttons on journal covers.

I'll use a couple of pages for the canning recipes I'm going to make with the tomatoes, and my favorite garden recipes like bruschetta, roasted cherry tomatoes, and fresh pasta sauce.

 I think I'll do better this year at keeping track of where I've planted different varieties of plants.

A day in the garden last year

I hope the journal will wrap up the gardening season with some beautiful pictures like this (my ongoing harvest last year). And I might press a couple of zinnia blooms into the journal. Hopefully it will be packed and so will the garden.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

A Morning on the Greenhouse

I am loving this fresh spring air and being able to enjoy my morning coffee on my greenhouse sunporch. It is not heated, so I'm never out there in the middle of winter--except to water all the plants: some that I'm overwintering, and others that just live there year-round like my aloe veras and Christmas cactuses. Our deck is torn down, and I can't wait for the new one! But in the meantime, life is good on the greenhouse.

With my oatmeal and banana and coffee, I stitched and watched crafty videos on my tablet. This is my busy basket that I throw things in to take into different rooms, depending on my what I'm doing.

 Minnie is my constant companion, and was right next to me.

I love my Christmas cactus plants - even though they only bloom in November and December. We always put a Christmas tree on the greenhouse - so it becomes very festive out there.

My seeds are growing! Happy happy! I have them on the sunniest, warmest end of the greenhouse next to a huge aloe vera plant. In case you don't know the tragic story of my biggest aloe vera plant, read it here. But don't worry, it has a happy ending, and that aloe vera plant became so huge, I had to divide it...so I now have two huge aloe veras, and a smaller one. Now, I may need to either get a bigger pot or divide that aloe vera again!

For this year's garden I'm growing varieties of tomato plants, squash, peppers, herbs and flowers--my usual. Our university has an amazing plant sale that's coming up soon though - that's where I get the unusual. Agriculture students grow a huge, interesting variety of plants over the year, and the school sells its surplus...best plant sale ever. If your university has an agriculture department, check into it and see if they have a plant sale. This year I'm on a mission for Purple Cherokee tomato starts and more of that wonderful pink lavendar!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

Got Garden Stash? How to Upcycle Your Seed Starting!

If you start seeds and do a bit of gardening year after year...you might have some garden stash to work with!

See tips on dashing your stash this year right here.

Whenever I purchase starts for the garden, I try to keep the sturdy little plastic pots and the plastic plant markers. These add up over time and they are the perfect thing to upcycle when you're starting your own seeds. They stack well, so they don't take up much room in my potting bench.

Clean out your little pots before planting fresh seeds

This is the time of year for my zone in the U.S. when I usually start my tomato seeds on my protected south-facing sunporch (aka my greenhouse) along with some herbs, flowers, and a few squash varieties. I don't go overboard starting squash plants because honestly, the plants that have done the best each year seem to be the ones that came from seeds sown directly into my garden around the first of May. That includes spaghetti squash, butternut, zucchini, and pumpkin. I've had some nice pumpkins the last couple of years!

I have a lot of seed packets from previous years, and my husband bought a few new packets for me last month. Sometimes the older seeds work just fine, and other times they've lost their magic. That's why it's good to start several and see where you are. But I save some of the squash, flower and cucumber seeds to also sew directly into the garden as soon as I can. I also have a mailbox garden, and I sew seeds into it very early--the first of April--because I can then cover it with a plastic tarp, and get the beauty of that little garden going very early in the summer. If you have a patio or deck, you can do the same thing in the pots out there by just covering them well with plastic. Seeds need that moist, warm greenhouse effect to get started. Be sure and water them before covering. Check them after a week or so, and when the little starts pop up, they are ready for the sunshine. If it's still getting cold at night, bring them in after dark. I can't do that with my mailbox garden, so I just keep covering them at night until the beginning of May when the danger of frost for my zone has passed.

I grew last year's mailbox garden from a packet of seeds called "Mailbox Garden"

After I get my seeds planted in the little plastic pots, I use a Sharpie on the plastic plant markers I've saved so I know exactly what I have. Then I water everything, and cover them with either plastic seed tray covers I have on hand from last year, or plastic shower caps from the dollar store.

These pots are sitting in a foil roasting pan I had.

My husband built my potting bench many years ago, and it has served me well as gardening headquarters where I store everything and work with seeds pretty much from now until late in the summer. I just never stop planting seeds! I also try to overwinter some of my perennial herbs like thyme and rosemary. My greenhouse sunporch is not heated, so they've done pretty well this year. Happy planting!

A pot of thyme that spent the winter on my greenhouse

I've overwintered this rosemary for the last few years!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

Hanging Around the Prettiest Hanging Baskets

Everywhere I go in the summer, if I see a gorgeous hanging basket, I have to take a photo of it. I just have a thing for hanging baskets--little gardens in the air--and here are some of the prettiest I've seen lately.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Hang

My Mailbox Garden 2014

I love my mailbox garden. Ever since a drunk driver mowed down my original mailbox, I have never regretted spending a little extra and having my brick mailbox rebuilt by an artisan bricklayer with a roomy little garden bed.

Read the story of my mailbox garden here.

Every year, I've planted something different. This year, I didn't want to buy starts, I wanted to do it all from seed. Burpee's mailbox garden packet was just the ticket. I planted in late April, and used a plastic cover until the starts came up (for a greenhouse effect) and the result is this lush variety of gorgeous flowering plants and vines with even more to come. There are zinnias and things about to bloom--so I'll have to post an update!

My mail carrier enjoys it, and so do the regular joggers and walkers on my sidewalk, as they've watched everything grow.

And here's a tip--we have a lot of cats in our neighborhood. We custom cut some chickenwire which stays over the garden bed when it is not full of plants--otherwise kitties think it's a big ole litterbox! They stay out of it when we have all these plants though.

Thanks to a rainy/sunny spring and early summer, I haven't even had to water it that much--so it's just been pure delight from a packet of seeds.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

Tag Tuesday Garden Party

Happy Tag Tuesday! Visit the Tag Tuesday Blog right here for today's Garden Party tags. I've been spending my extra time in the garden lately to keep things going--and I love being out there with everything in full bloom. I would love to have a huge bumper crop of tomatoes for my salsas and canned tomatoes - and I want lots of basil, parsley, cukes, zukes, spaghetti squash, and peppers!

Click here for my five unusual garden guidelines.

Today's "Garden Party" theme is perfect for me, because every day is a garden party at my house. I take my coffee out there in the morning, I pick herbs every day, and I'm always pulling a weed or pruning a tomato plant. Therefore, I didn't have much time to make a tag--so I chose some beautiful scrapbook paper, layered on a dictionary snippet and sentiment, and an actual little photo I took of a wooden "seeds" sign. It's no secret I love to layer things--the only thing that's missing is a little stitching!

Have a happy day in your garden.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

Blooming Where You're Planted - Five Little Unusual Gardening Guidelines

My "salad crib" built from a simple wooden pallet

I have had some kind of garden in my life for the last 25 years--I'm not really counting my childhood because we always had a garden when I was growing up. The difference is, I didn't pay that much attention to it, sadly, and I didn't particularly like everything in it, except tomatoes and strawberries.

Grown from Mesclun lettuce seeds

It's more important than ever to have a garden. You are your own best source for growing fresh, organic food. If you have a pot of soil that you can throw some seeds in, let it have sun and water, then you can have a garden. Even if it's just fresh herbs. It's important. Do it. We've been dining several nights a week from our salad garden made from a wooden pallet. The flavor is amazing.
I haven't always had big gardens, and I've had my years of starting seeds on a dining table. Now, I have written, in my mind, my own little gardening guidelines--they are not your normal gardening guidelines for sure.

Better Boy tomato variety getting ready to ripen

1-Grow what you love. That includes what you love to eat, cook or just look at! To me, the taste of a fresh sliced tomato from my own garden is a taste of heaven.
 

Fresh basil - it's cut and come again!

 2-Grow with your garden. Grow your knowledge, your experience, and grow as a person. Taking care of your garden is like taking care of yourself. You will start to know what is looking healthy, what might be causing a problem, and who your plants' best friends are! Take tomato and basil--they are companion plants. Not only do they taste good together, they grow healthier when together.

When the birds get too excited about my tomatoes we hang noisy foil and chimes to keep them away!

3-Learn to experience your garden. I love the smells in my garden, the high-energy fragrance of rosemary and freshness of lemon thyme, and I love the stillness of the garden when I pull up a chair and sip some coffee there in the morning. It's such a great place to be--this outdoor room where I started most things from seed myself, and it's all alive, and fresh, and feeding my senses and my stomach! If you have a little kitchen garden outside, keep a chair nearby. You'll enjoy it.
 

A pink zinnia growing in the middle of some green peppers and cucumbers.

4-Grow diversity in the garden. Beyond companion planting, I've always found that mixing flowers in with herbs and veggies seems to make everything thrive even more. This year I am so focused on growing a lot of tomatoes for canning that I just didn't have as much room for a cutting garden. So I just stuck my zinnia seeds here and there wherever I could find a spot, and they seem perfectly happy! Also, marigolds are the guardians of the garden, they are full of antioxidants--plant them here and there around the corners!

5-Cut and come often! I have four Italian Parsley plants, because I make herb bouquets often and snip from this stuff every evening for pasta, salad, sauces...it just adds that incredibly fresh flavor. I'm always snipping the basil, throwing a cucumber in a salad, or slicing up a fresh green pepper. When the tomatoes start ripening--I have plans! Of course, we'll eat the cherry tomatoes right off the vine, every day, slice up those big boys for salads and dinner, and then I will can probably dozens of jars of salsa and whole tomatoes--my favorite  thing. I'll have tomatoes to cook with all year, and plenty of salsa to eat and share. It really makes it worth it all to take care of your garden plot in life. Whether you have some pretty pots on a rooftop patio or a real kitchen garden, having a garden is very zen, natural and oh so good for you. It nourishes the soul.

The first pepper of the season!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

A Little Early May Garden Gossip

Growing leek starts

I don't know why, but I love the idea of garden gossip. We do not think of our gardens as a drama filled place, at all. The garden is so calm and peaceful and refreshing to us. But if we pulled back nature's curtains, we'd see a lot of crazy drama and hustle going on behind the scenes to give us this beautiful, serene place to look at, enjoy, and harvest. 

I have a lot of little pots of plant starts right now--they are hardening off outside. I'm sure they were mad at me at first, putting them in the harsh glare of straight sunshine, at the mercy of the wind. But if they survive, they get stronger and ready to go in the big garden for a chance at full bloom. (it's just like people)

I've started a lot of seeds--speed up the camera on a seed being born..very dramatic. Here are two pots of leeks I've started. I tend to just throw them all together and let them fight for a spot in the sun. Later, I'll do the painstaking work of separating out each start and planting it in one of my raised beds. Later, I'll have delicious leeks to put in soups, stirfrys, and wraps for months!

Mesclun mix seeds growing

We created something special for our baby mesclun lettuces--a salad crib! My husband built it out of a wooden pallet and now it's a great weed-free bunny-free zone! Sorry bunnies. I still think you're cute.

Salad crib

Joseph loves to go out to the garden with me.

Tomatoes grown from seed, getting ready for the garden.

A pot of lettuce I bought for a dollar! It's cut and come again!

Gorgeous plants I bought from the agriculture department at our local university.

This time of year it's easy to find the basic plant starts at lots of stores and little greenhouses. But if you want some of the more unusual varieties, maybe your area has one of those year-round established greenhouse businesses, or check your local university. Ours has an agriculture program, and every May, for two days only, they sell all the extra plants that the professors and students have been growing. Our agriculture building has an awesome greenhouse on the top floor--it's really fun to go up there and shop for plants. And they have lots of unique and hard-to-find varieties. This year I bought some pineapple tomatoes--they will have red and yellow stripes and are very sweet. I can't wait!

A little ole basket of impatients I over-wintered on the sunporch

A tiny old tree waiting for a yarn bombing

So if we can get a lot of our plants into the big gardens this weekend, we'll be right on our schedule. The starts--both the ones I've started and the ones I bought--are doing great. We will have a thunderstorm to get through later this week (my little plant starts are scared!), and I've got hoses to hook up. Right now I'm carting out watering cans and babying all the starts in their pots. It adds to my workout! And of course, it's still not too late to buy more starts if I need them. I'll plant several spaghetti squash seeds--they always are heartier from seed--and of course I scatter basil seeds all around the tomato plants...they're companions. Then I throw in some marigold seeds here and there to diversify and marigolds protect everyone...they are naturally full of antioxidants! (they are in some cat and dog foods for health protection) Oh, and I have a little dead cherry tree right by the garden that is just waiting for me to yarn bomb it! Now that will be dramatic.

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow

Herb Plants on My Greenhouse

Over the winter I had started a teeny tiny Italian parsley plant on my greenhouse sunporch. In spite of what a bitterly cold winter we have suffered through, and my greenhouse is not heated, this parsley plant has grown quite healthy! Yay! (this thing was so tiny, no kidding)

Tonight I'm snipping some to toss into a pot of hot linguine with a little butter, Italian dressing, splash of soy sauce, fresh tomatoes, a little garlic, and parmesan. Yum! Quick and easy meal--that's how we roll!

There's actually a little dill plant growing in there too. I'm dangerous, the way I toss seeds around!
Last summer I rescued a tiny rosemary plant from the garden and brought it in for the winter. It's getting bigger too. So glad. I love rosemary!

Eat, Write, Dream, Stitch, Grow