What I've Been Up To

I've been up to my eyeballs in woodchips! FREE woodchips! Thank you Ameren (power company) for dumping an enormous amount of woodchips onto my driveway. I think used 1/20th of them, or less, to surround my garden. Now that the garden has a path around it, my final step will be to add the soil & get planting! A new idea of mine is to add a tall Rubbermaid shed for all my garden tools. I think I'd like to put it against the fence, on the right side. It's been kind of a pain to haul all my tools in & out of the garage for this project.

Looks like the weather is going to be rainy & cold this weekend, so I may have to wait another week or so before I get any more of this project done. Almost there!!! (And the total cost of this project has been under $100 so far!!!)

The Bed is Built

What a busy weekend! After getting some good advice & doing a little more research, I decided to go with a 4' x 8' garden. First I bought some weed control cloth to lay down. Even though I measured the space, I was a few feet off, and I was NOT going to buy another roll for just a few feet, so I improvised with a section of a plastic drop cloth. (I didn't even have large, black plastic bags - oh well!) Here's a shot of the area - you can see the plastic here. A big THANK YOU to our friend Gary G. who loaned us his electric saw so we could cut the wood. I went with cedar - a little bit more expensive up front, but it resists decay.

It helps to have a great, wonderful, fantastic, smart & strong guy who will give up a good chunk of his day to work on a project for you. Thanks to my husband, Dwight, for a great build this weekend!

Yay! Finished box! Now I just need dirt for inside the box & woodchips to go around it. I also was informed by someone very close to me (see above pic) that I did not do a great job getting the ground level, so he suggested that I soak the ground around the box & then walk on the box to get it set in the ground.

I hope to have this thing all finished and ready to plant in a couple/few weeks. I can start with my spinich, that I have been growing inside from seeds & then add a few more veggies. The picture makes my garden look kinda small, but I think it will be manageable for me this year & if I feel like I need more space, I can always build another box! More pics hopefully soon!

Craft Project Time - Make a Recycled Frosting Container Planter

I have a huge spider plant. I love these plants because they grow little baby plants that you can cut off of the "mama" plant & repot to grow a new plant. First, cut off one of the "baby" plants & soak it in a glass of water for a few days until the roots appear.

Next, make yourself a yummy cake & then clean out a frosting jar & remove the label. The lid is the perfect size for a saucer. Turn the jar over & use a hammer & nail to punch some drainage holes in the bottom of the jar.

Next, decorate your new planter. I chose some scrap material & hot-glued it to the jar, but you could use stickers, colored paper, etc. Be creative!

Finally, add some dirt & your plant and, viola! You have a fashionable planter made out of a recycled frosting container!

Paper or Plastic? Neither!

I love my reusable bags. Helping the environment, by reducing the amount of plastic in our landfills can be more than practical - it can be fashionable as well! Besides the basic grocery store offerings, you can get bags to support a favorite sports team, or even promote good art, like my 'Starry Night' bag. Also, whenever I use my 'Target' bag, I get $.05 off of my order. It may not be a huge benefit, but it's better than nothing! I think that's my focus for this whole "greener" thing - a little bit is better than nothing!

The only problem that I have with my bags is that I forget them at home half of the time!!! I'm getting better at this, but it is so frustrating to get to the grocery store & realize that I left them at home. I've tried leaving them in my van, but when they're full of groceries, have to take them inside & then they get left there. I need to be more disciplined!!!

So what do I do with all the plastic bags I've collected? Here's what they mostly get reused for: dog poop!

Progress!!!

This weekend, I finished the initial phase of my vegetable garden: clear the space, trim the bushes & plot the layout. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but I put some metal rods in the 4 corners & then laid out some wood to get a sense of the space. When I measured it, it turned out to be 7 feet wide & 9 feet long. That was a little bit bigger than I was thinking, but it is aesthetically pleasing for the space. As long as I can find some 2x4's that come in a 10' length, I'll be OK. I went to Lowe's & priced out some of the wood, but it was for 8' long boards. Next weekend is build week - I need to buy the lumber & get started! I'm really getting very excited about the garden & even though pulling weeds isn't my favorite chore, I had a lot of fun working outside this weekend. I will probably enlist Dwight's help when it comes to

putting the boards together - it's been a loooong time since my Theatre Stagecraft days & I want to be sure to get this project right!

I also e-mailed the Town of Normal & they have free landscaping woodchips for residents when available, so I will be checking back with them next week, as they didn't have any right now. In the next couple weeks, I need to figure out how much dirt I will need & where to get it from, so that I can be on track for planting in a few weeks! I hope I still have this much excitement for my garden after the plants are in!