St. Patrick's Day Cards DIY

 In light of St Patrick's Day and my ongoing desire to create snail mail, I decided to get creative and craft a couple of cards for the kiddos. I shrunk a of a file folder down to make it card size on a copy machine. I then printed out some Irish St. Patrick's Day Stickers from Pinterest, that I printed on cardstock.

 I took a few tags that I cut out, taped them on added the sticker cut out, created a small bag of a "pot 'o' gold" (confetti and glitter), a parasol just because they love to get something interesting, drew a rainbow and sun, and to finish it off I melted some pony beads into a clover shape, added a stem and wrote a saying.

 The kids will love to find these in the mail box on St. Patrick's Day. Anytime snail mail arrives for them they are super excited knowing that someone is thinking of them.

Have a safe and fun St. Patrick's Day and enjoy all the Corned Beef and Cabbage!

DIY Faux Filofax Garden Journal

Since I am an avid gardener and love growing new things each year, I keep an extensive record of plants and flowers I grow. Every other year I have just used some notebook paper or composition books, but this year I decided to do something completely different.

I have to admit I have a LOVE for all things paper, snail mail, cards, stationary, envelopes, pictures, tickets, scraps of paper...I could go on and on. So with my paper love and an old 2008 planner I had I got to work creating my Faux Filofax Garden Journal.

 Working in the greenhouse, recording seeds planted, progress of seedlings, and just relaxing.

 I started by emptying out all the pages of the old planner. For the first page I cut down a page that used to hold baseball cards, now it has a few business cards and a little doodad thing for color. 

  Using the old dividers, created a template to create some of my own. I laminated them and labeled each tab with something garden related, contact information, and project ideas. I did this for the sides and tabs at the top.

I cut down notebook paper and blank paper to fit then punched holes and added it to the different tabs, then started taking notes and writing important information. 

As the garden and my business grows, I hope to have it stuffed with drawings, more contacts, pictures, all kinds of good things that come with having a planner/garden journal, maybe I will share in a couple of months just to see if the journal has progressed.

Hope you have fun creating one of your own, and get creative. If you don't have an old planner, peruse thrift shops, or just decorate a composition notebook or just staple some of your favorite papers together or better yet sew them together. I make journals for my kids by sewing folded scrapbook paper and blank printer paper sewn down the middle. It's super easy and fun!  

Enjoy, and please share some of your handmade garden journals in the comments!

Keeping Bees and Rainy Day Photos

What better way to spend a rainy day than taking pictures around the garden!

I would love to show off beautiful new office that is currently under construction, but the muck and mud that is surrounding it makes me shudder.

 I could never call myself a gardener again if I showed my unlandscaped yard, instead enjoy the lavender and below is some moss that grows on the fence between houses, always so green and lush when the weather is dreary.

 I do have some ideas for the landscaping though. We have chosen not to go back with grass and instead grow white clover. I am trying my hardest to get more bees into our yard. Funny thing, bees are a hobby. I absolutely love them. They are the most interesting insect to watch and study, I photograph them most everyday.

 In the next few years I am hoping to have a hive hanging in the tree out front to study them in a natural way. Taking honey in the spring, leaving honey for them through the winter so they have food to keep them nourished. No added sugar for the bees, it just doesn't see as nature intended. I also want to research and study  Colony Collapse Disorder, it interests me.

 Back to the garden. I have a set of these lovely mushrooms from the 70's hiding out and the Vinca has decided to bloom in this warmer wet weather. I have found the rain water refreshing and so have the plants.

Question: Do you keep bees? How do you keep your bees? Any tips on raising bees? and lastly, Where is a good place to start with Colony Collapse Disorder? 

Also, on a side note. Local people only, I will be posting the heirloom plants I will have ready for sale by June. I will also take orders for herbs, squash, and melons so stay tuned.

Beautiful Weather

When the weather turns spring like in the middle of February, I need to plant flowers to bring in color and cheer up a dreary garden.

I planted yellow Violas in an old wheelbarrow tire that popped while we were moving concrete on a cold morning. A bit of a story, and quite funny, I keep the tire as a reminder.

Some beautiful lavender that I planted for the bees. I have many more bee loving plants in the green house: borage, dill and more lavender. Still too small to plant outside.

My small lettuce patch is in the cast iron sink we removed from the kitchen, the screen door fell off the hinges of the back door so I repurposed it into a planter with a few rusty leftover bits I bought from a welder off Craigslist. It sits on an old ice chest that I will add a burlap skirt to later in the season so you can't see it, I will post pics when done and all the plants are planted.

  I planted cover crop this season, a green manure or plow mix as it is referred to. It contains vetch, fava bean, some other bean and something else (very specific plant names, I know, but I forgot the other seeds). I do not till the gardens so when its time to chop it down I will weed eat it and turn the soil a few times to incorporate.

An empty bird feeder. I will fill it one of these days but the cats in the neighborhood already love our yard so I don't want them getting used to an easy meal. And I don't want to deal with the mounds of finch poop that will most likely sprout and cause me to pull more weeds. For now it will remain empty and just something to look at while out in the garlic patch.

What will you plant when the weather starts warming? 

Happy Valentine's Day and a Handmade Valentine Card

In the spirit of giving, which I absolutely LOVE to do (I get SO munch joy in my heart when I make and give something to anyone) I made a few Valentine cards for the kids. Just a simple file folder that I added a few found objects from around the house, leftover scrapbook paper,

a bookmark that I made, some small craft items, a love note and a $5 gift card to the Dollar Tree so they can buy FIVE things (they were super excited about this one)

I am now going to go hang out with the Hubs and watch a scary movie so I can cuddle close and share his popcorn. Have a wonderful Valentine's Day everyone!

Do you make something for someone special on Valentine's Day? What is it? Please leave a comment with a link to your craft and I will add a link in my next crafty post!

Wishing for Summer

It has been raining for 4 days straight. I am not used to this. I am a sunshine girl who lives in California, rain and I do not mix well. I understand it is great for my crops and the plow mix is sprouting like crazy since it is warm and wet. But I am still wishing for summer.

The sundresses

Delicious sun ripened tomatoes

The spicy chilies and fresh salsa

Running through the sprinkler 

  

And hanging my laundry 

Who else is wishing for summer? I bet a lot of you back East are wishing for warmer weather, I don't blame you.

Let me know what summer things you are wishing for!

Heating a Greenhouse

Back in November we finished building our greenhouse lovely, isn't it? I was super excited about all the things I could grown and overwinter because living in Northern California our winters are pretty mild.
Except this year.

I new frost was coming the next night, so I dug up my heirloom Cubanelle Peppers and Padron peppers and moved them into the greenhouse.

 I figured all would be well. I mean glass and plastic are great insulators and good enough to protect plants from frost, right? I was really, really wrong. My lovely peppers were dead and I was so upset.

After the hard freeze we had back in December was over everything in  the garden withered and gone except the thyme, parsley, rosemary, and garlic (thank God), we started researching all we could on insulating, heating and energy efficient heat sources. We found a few good ideas.

 As of now, I have a seedling mat keeping my new heirloom pepper seedlings, lettuces, lavender seedlings, borage, and dill seedlings warm enough. Next week I will be planting my tomato seeds, Mortgage Lifter and Hillbilly and maybe a few other varieties. When a freeze warning comes about I do fill a metal bucket with coals from the fireplace late in the evening and place a stone with a hole cut out on top for ventilation (my idea) in the middle of the greenhouse. The temperature in the greenhouse stays above freezing and everything seems to be growing beautifully.

Live and Learn, having a greenhouse is a lot more than throwing a bunch of plants in a transparent building and letting them be, it is a science.
After the spring planting is finished we have a few projects for the greenhouse to make it more efficient and better insulated.

How do you heat your greenhouse? Any ideas on this would be awesome since we are still learning!

Thanks
Heather