Paint, Plants and Dirt

Oh what a beautiful day it was yesterday.
I just had to take advantage of the wonderful weather.

So outside I went
with empty Nesquik, beans, dog food, and tomato sauce cans,
plus 3 cans of spray paint.

Lime green, yellow and teal.


Spray, spray, spray.

It really is a good idea to take off your rings when painting.

I got so jazzed about doing this job that I forgot.

What is interesting is normally I do not wear my rings

around the house, just to much to mess them up.

We had plans to go out on Sunday, so put them on and forgot 

to take them off.     Sigh.  

Good news.....the rings cleaned right up, good as new!

So after painting my cans, and myself, I began to plant.

Are these not cute.  Little cactus

Tomato plants

Aloe and Hens and Chicks
(Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge).

Next step is to add twine and little labels, these
are all being donated to a fund raiser here in our town.
I love how they came out.

 

Just to cute

God Bless you and this country.

The Deal With Teal

The Deal with Teal

and 

Playing in the Greenhouse

Oh my what a beautiful day it was today

I could not do anything but spend it outside.

Spinach, lettuce, sage, basil, green peppers, 

pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelon,

parsley and nasturtiums were planted.

Beds dug in preparation for 25 asparagus crowns

and 

Teal spray paint.

You must know that Teal has become a favorite color around here.

To most that may be no big deal, but it is here

because I am not a blue lover, except for my blue jeans that is.

So when I found Teal and realized I love it, well

you can imagine.  

Now I have Teal glasses for my summer drinks (well really any drink)

 Teal crystals on my candelabra

a Teal shower curtain and now Teal hanging planters

I also got these sweet spring colors when I bought the Teal

these are slated for a different project, but I will

just have to get another can of Teal paint, because

painting the planters was to happen today.

The planters before..........Teal.....just a bit ordinary.

Now doesn't that look better.......

Hanging to dry......I still have 3 more to do, but need more paint

going to town tomorrow........

So cute, now I can't wait to get flowers in them

I also played in the greenhouse today and 

thought I'd share some of the pretties growing in there.

Hens and Chicks

awaiting moving to the garden.

More hens and chicks

hey there is another basket/planter....where is my spray can?

Got up to nearly 90 today in the greenhouse.

The tomato plants......just a few more weeks and they will go 

outside into the wine barrels in their wall-O-waters until such time

as the night temps stabilize.

Geraniums, petunias (these are hold overs from last year, I kept them inside

all winter and they are blooming again, I have calendula blooming for a second year as well). 

I have forgotten the name of this little one.

Next up, Catnip.

you can really see the square stem here, which means

catnip is a member of the mint family.

Well, now you know the deal with Teal.

I hope you have enjoyed the wee tour of the greenhouse.

I am glad spring is here.....

though I feel badly for all the folks who have been impacked

by the terrible tornadoes down south and on the east coast.

It has been a really rough 3 days on them.

Prayers for the families of those who died and

for those who lost property.

May God Bless you and keep you.

Spring and Some Inspiration

I saw this video this morning

something we all could work towards, even if only a little.

Of course they live were they can grow every month

of the year, but even a few months is better then nothing.

Enjoy 

We Have Landscaping!

Landscaping! Yes, we have landscaping.  We are finally to the point in our building

that we can put in landscaping so we got some trees and some shrubs.  

So here they are;

Hawthorn - Paul's Scarlet

Spring Snow Flowering Crab Apple

Limber Pine - Vanderwolf's pyramid

Close up of  Limber Pine.  This tree is so cool,
it has 5 needles per bundle, it is kinda fluffy.

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

Catmint - Walkers low

Russian Sage

I know this may not be all that exciting but if you are a gardener 

and you have not been able to put anything in the ground 

for 5 years it is exciting.  Grin.

I wanted to take a moment to ask those who follow this blog for 

your forgiveness.  We have been so busy around here

I have been neglectful of this blog.

I hope to do better.  I would like to invite you

all to visit my other two blogs

Big Horn Mountain Creations

and 

Decorating my Tin Shack

both with links in my side bar.

Thank you for visiting and please leave a comment so I will know you came by.

Lilies...Flower Power

I had to share with you the beautiful lilies I planted. These are the "first" flowers I have planted in the "landscape". We are still under construction so landscaping is not something to be done. It seem things are always in the way and changing. There is a spot on the edge of the hill that is safe to plant now. So I got these lilies and put the bulbs in hoping that they would grow in this nasty "dirt". It is so sticky when it is wet and turns to powder when dry. I understand clay soil, I had alot of it in CA. this is different, it sticks to the shovel and digging it is like hitting rubber. I have to figure out how to overcome this stuff.
In the veggie garden I have put in raised beds and will make my soil inside them. What I have found to be wonderful in these beds is straw and compost/red clay soil combo. It turns to a beautiful planting medium. My plan for the rest of the landscape is to cover it with cardboard, grass clipping (from neighbors) and hopefully cow droppings (after all there are cattle ranches all over the place). Then do the no dig method. I can only hope to get it deep enough for things to grow.

Well, on to the lilies.........if you have any suggestions for improving this rubber like soil...
please share.




























































































If your noticing chewed leaves..........we have had grasshoppers really bad the last 2 years, they have eaten just about everything....even my yarrow is eaten to the ground. The only things they have left me is my tomato plants (eating the tomatoes) and the squash plants. GRRRRR

North Porch

Sunny weather = construction. We are finally seeing sunny days after a very, very wet spring.

That wet spring, made getting this porch up even more urgent, because we had seepage in the new building because of all the relentless rain. Having rain hit the wall and soak the dirt was not a good thing.

Setting the post pads.















Looking the other direction. Note, we still do not have the siding finished, maybe we will get it done this year.
















First poles and header, with a little adjustment.















More adjusting, oops a bit to high.















cutting notches for the beams to connect with the roof beams.
















like this














Adding more beams, not he is doing this alone.











































3 posts, 2 headers and 6 beams. That is enough for one day.





























Now you can get a better idea of what is happening and an overview of "the homestead"
a bit of the garden in the foreground and...............















the potato patch in straw. Note the new water faucet, sure is nice.















Why the card board.......covered with grass clipping is will feed the soil over time and make it nicer to walk on the the dirt.

Until later.

Today's a good day

Afternoon all! Yes, it is a good day. The sun is shinning, the wind is blowing (well it would be better if it weren't) and I am feeling well again. WAHOO.

I knew I was on the mend when I kept myself awake thinking about planting potatoes and onions, feeding plants with worm compost tea, and working the beds and compost pill on the top pad.

So today, though I did not do all these things, I did feed the plants in the greenhouse, and cut the potatoes and spread them out to dry (among household chores). This should be a perfect week for planting, temps will be in the 70's. Spring IS here.

No pictures today, but I will get some of the gardening to come.

Spring come Spring..

I am so ready for spring, it keeps teasing...........now you see me, now you don't!

A few weeks ago I told you about the growing rack Kirk and I put together.
Now you can see how it is working. The plants are doing good. I am on my second
planting of some things right now (the things on the upper right).




















It has been nice enough to put them all out in the greenhouse for a few days, but the weather has turned cold again so they are all back inside. That bottom shelf is holding tomatoes, 6 of the 30 or so I have going. Lettuce in the OJ cartons and on the top shelf. Calundula's, marigolds and lemon balm next to the lettuce (second shelf).

Tnasy is going good out in the greenhouse, they look lonely without the other plants, it won't be
to much long and they will all stay out 24/7














I am thankful, we did not get any snow, everyone around us did. We do have alot of wind though, which is not normal for us, we live in a pretty sheltered area.

Until later.

Free Issue of The Essential Herbal

Tina over at The Essential Herbal is giving a free download of her great herbal magazine. Read about it below. Be sure to check out her blog as well essentialherbal.com and leave her a comment if you take advantage of her generosity.

Also note that she is involved with a group of bloggers who are doing give aways over the next few weeks, join in the fun and explore some wonderful websites.

Free Issue of The Essential Herbal to Download

Last year at this time we did an issue that was devoted to the need to scale back, plant a garden, reduce, reuse, and recycle. The cover is a collage of posters from the Victory Garden campaigns of the 1940's. The issue is sold out, and now these topics are getting huge coverage. We were just a little too early.

So - we'd like you to download it and enjoy it. The link is:

www.essentialherbal.com/MarchApril2008forweb.pdf

Share it. Forward the link. Send it to your friends, and post it on the lists and forums you participate in. Post it to your own blog and share it with your readers. Help us spread this issue far and wide!

Happy Spring!

Spring..Come..Spring

Oh am I ever ready for spring. Beautiful sunshine days are really calling me......BUT.....
the temps are still to low and the ground frozen. Very Big Sigh.

While pouring over my gardening catalogs I found a lighted growing rack, oh that is what I need!
It is still to cold out in the greenhouse during the night so I can't start seed yet, but I could do the rack..........until I looked at the price. Depending on which company, the prices range from just under $600.00 to just over $900.00. Well that is just to expensive.............SO..............

After talking it over with Kirk, we came up with our on version for $260.00, now we can do that and we can feel good about the expense. So here is what we did.

At Costco we found this rack for $100.00..........this is a very good price, anyplace else the price is considerably more.



















Then at Home Depot we got 4 lighting fixtures for $18.00 each and
the bulbs for $10.00 each X 8.

Now mind you that ours is not as fancy in such areas as the cords. On the expensive ones all the lights are wired in and you can turn then on one at a time.......but I can turn mine on one at a time also........LOL. Oh one other thing the other one has is 4 bulbs per level, which is probably better because the light is more even all the way across the shelf, but I don't think that is worth that much money to me.



















On the fancy ones you can adjust the light height with the twist of a couple knobs, I adjust mine with chains and S hooks. I can do these things to save 400 to 700 dollars. My rack is very heavy duty, it is meant to hold lots of weight out in a shop, yet, it is very nice looking. The other ones are made of light weight aluminum. Both mine and the expensive ones come with casters so they can be rolled from place to place.














The ones in the catalog also came with grow trays, but really, I already had mine and they certainly are not that expensive.

Below, my seeds are up after 4 days. So we are on the way to having lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, lemon balm, and some flowers. I did notice the tansy (planted last year) coming up in the greenhouse, but it is still to cold for seeds, it won't be much longer until we stop freezing out there, but in the mean time...........I have a head start.