| We happened to have planted a few mostly dead flowers last year, and apparently they were perennials, since some of them have begun to grow this spring. So I planted a few flowers around them to supplement and add a bit more color. |
It's been a bit late in coming, but I wanted to share with you some of my new additions to my garden as well as to give you a little progress report on the veggies that I recently planted! With my seeds and bulbs having failed pretty miserably, I thought I'd stick with the transplanting method... So me and bf went out and picked up a few perrenials (columbine, poppy, lilly) and some annuals (pansy, marigold, viola) to put in some beds around the yard...but first it seemed like a good idea to clean things up a bit. The bf bought some mulch to help stop the massive weed issue, so after waiting a few days (probably too long), the landlords dropped off some weed killer and bf sprayed down the yard. We then got to work weeding and transplanting. After a little bit of work, I think the garden came out quite nice. It will be interesting to see if any of the bulbs I planted grow. In addition to our newly replenished flower beds, the veggies in our little garden seem to be doing very well! We have sprouts of beans and broccoli from the seeds that were planted two weeks ago. The peppers look great, and we have even managed not to kill the watermelon. We did kill the cucumber but managed to sprout a few seeds...and the strawberry is bigger, although looks like it's had a bit too much heat. With any luck we may actually have some produce this summer.
2 Comments
It's been a gorgeous few days here, downright hot even! While this is quite lovely, it is also long anticipated, and I can't really blame the bf for being antsy for our recently potted sprouts to get on with it and do something already! So since our pots have remained resolutely barren (and those that were green have since wilted) we picked up a few plants to transplant this weekend.
We bought a few container plants as well, just assuming we may fail to grow anything! I planted a hanging strawberry, and a tomato in a big container...of course I didn't get a chance to decorate all of these, but check out this quick post I wrote for your own inspiration on decorating your plain plastic pots!
We began by digging up the nasty side yard of our little rental house...of course, even though Bf called the landlord before we started, we still ran into a few unexpected burrows cables. To avoid damage and potentially sending yourself back to the dark ages, I recommend tracing out the intended garden area and looking for buried cables before you start digging.
After turning over a large (cable free) plot of land, we broke apart large chunks of dirt with a hoe, picked out all of the rocks and sticks and roots, and raked the dirt smooth. Bf made neat rows and we planted a few seeds and transplanted a few plants. The handle of the hoe turned out to serve as a nice measurement for seeds requiring 1-2 inches of soil depth. We added a bit of potting soil to cover the seeds and drowned them in water.
And now for the big reveal.... Ha! I promise to keep you thrilled readers updated on the progress, of course!
I have excellent intentions of making a dozen or more of these and hanging them on twine to look like lovely streamers. I had wanted to do this originally for Valentines, but lost all ambition (or got wrapped up in something else) and so I am only just now getting a chance to share this with you...better late than never, I suppose.
I think I probably added a few too many layers here, and some of the pieces didn't curl as well as I wanted but that's okay, it's definitely good enough for my grapevine wreath... and I envision many of them hanging in garlands. What fun things will you make with this technique?
I have been "closely" monitoring my seed starter now for a while now, and after my initial excitement at seeing little shoots sprouting from my newly planted seeds, I have subsequently killed all the tomatoes. A few days after finding my sprouts, I watered and placed them in the afternoon sun for a few hours. I then took them back inside and placed them in their original place atop the washing machine--wherein I failed to do anything else with them all week. Now it has snowed again, making me grateful that I haven't planted them outside, but certain that it is time to transplant! So I will be placing some of the sprouts in pots and hopefully can save some of these dead little guys! Of course, being a master procrastinator, I didn't get back to this project until several days after I wrote the first part of this post...by then, the sprouts were beyond dead--but I figured I'd try anyway.
Of course, having finally gotten the energy to plant my seedlings, I had to wait a few days before they could be placed outside...since I didn't want to kill them with frost...Eventually though, it warmed enough for me to set them on the little deck. Of course, I still have quite a few seedlings left over--so now I need to work up the energy to rake the yard and prepare a suitable place to plant some of them! (I am thinking I should have done that before starting the seeds....oh well!)
Today I want to share this lovely spring wreath that I put together recently. I used some paper flowers that I made from colored paper and a map that I printed from the interwebs. For some extra fun, I also added a "map-to-my-heart", which is hard to see in the above picture. To finish the wreath I attached a piece of burlap that I tied into a bow. For detailed instructions on making the paper flowers above, please check out my Plethora of Paper Flowers blog post. You can also find some great tutorials and printables online or make your own pattern from your favorite flower. To attach the flowers to the wreath, I cut and hot glued floral wire to the base of the flower and allowed them to dry. For a more finished look, wrap floral tape around the glue blob to hide it With the floral wire thoroughly stuck, it's easy to bend and arrange the flowers on the grapevine. Simply twist the wire through a few pieces of the wreath (being careful not to break anything off) and voila! Now when you want to change the wreath for the seasons you can simply detattch the flowers and redecorate as you see fit! Believe it or not, I also used floral wire to stick the bow and the heart (check out this tutorial to make the heart) to the wreath. To hide the wire, I bunched up a bit inside the center knot and slipped it through the wires of the wreath, wrapping it around the grapevine as with the flowers. You could probably also hot glue these into place, but I like the semi-permanence of the wire. Watch out though, the placement of the wire could warp the heart. Good luck and have fun!
|
The Clumsy CrafterArchives
October 2014
Categories
All
|