Greening my thumb

I have been busy working in they yard! I planted my entire vegetable garden, put up a fence, planted herbs and flowers around the fences, planted 2 trees, 4 lilacs, planted and transplanted flowers (making 2 new beds), built a rain barrel and a compost barrel and still could find 8 hours of work to do while out in the yard (if only I had that kinda time everyday). I did all of this while fighting the itchiness of, duh duh duh, poison ivy! Which I also am trying to get out of the yard.

I sprayed our entire fence line with a double mixture of:

1 gallon white distilled vinegar

1 cup salt

a few drops of detergent (any kind of detergent will work)

Put the salt and vinegar in a pot and bring it to a boil until salt dissolves. Let cool add to spray container and add a few drops of detergent. You must spray as much on to the ivy as possible. This solution will not only kill the poison ivy, but also any other vegetation it gets in, including your grass.

Because of the spraying, I have taken some clippings of raspberry vines and am trying to get some roots started so I can plant them in a poison ivy free line of the fence. I was even able to pull a few young vines, roots and all and move them. Now I just hope they take and we get some raspberries. YUM!

Here are some pics of what I have been working on.

Gladiolas and Irish Moss under the kitchen window.

Garden after planting.

2 days later, with a fence! Some little critter entered and ate my broccoli! I saw yesterday it is not lost, they have new growth on them.

I used mostly reused materials to build my fencing, buying just new fence. I got the wood from my neighbor who's work gave it away 2 years ago and has just been sitting in his garage. The supports and re-bar were sitting in a pile behind our garage used for the past owners garden.

My Recycled Garden

This is the story of the garden, which sits right outside the bathroom window.

About 3 years ago, we were having some toilet issues and hired a plumber who told us the problem was the toilet, it was too old. We replaced the toilet and continued to have problems, which we did get fixed. In the meantime we had this old toilet that we had no idea what to do with, so we put it outside the bathroom window and used it at a planter.

Last year we removed a couple of dog kennels and sold the fencing. Under the kennels were rocks that had been cemented in. I removed them and used them as a border for my gardens.

2 years ago my dad give us a gazing ball for our anniversary, but I didn't have a stand so it sat in my garage.

This year we had to remove an ornamental grass that became diseased so not sure if planting something there would become diseased too I took the bowl off my bird bath (which was found in the garage when we moved in) and placed it over the hole and put the gazing ball in the bird bath stand.

I recently planed a geranium in the toilet and looking at my aqua globe in my living room plant thought there has got to be something I can use in my garden to self water my plants. I came up with using an empty wine bottle filled with rain water.

Just what the back yard needed!

We've got a picnic area, play area, compost pit, clothes line, herb and flower gardens and a fire pit and now the beginnings of a vegetable garden.

Yes, I am starting a vegetable garden! We never had the space until we moved here, a little over 5 years ago. Shortly after moving I got pregnant and have had babies to tend to. Tending to babies left me no time for a garden, although I did plant some pumpkins last year. We got one perfect little pumpkin. This summer the girls are 2 1/2 and 4, still pretty young, but old enough to help mom in the yard.

On Sunday I tilled a 25 x 18 foot section of the very back part of our yard. Yesterday the girls and I worked a bit on working the soil and removing some of the bigger chunks of sod. I'll work it a bit more today and hopefully later in the week will begin planting some of my seedlings.

I will be attempting an organic garden. I am still exploring my options on how to go about this. I figure I will most likely use my compost and some manure/compost from the horse stable down the road for fertilizer. For pest control I am thinking of planting a marigold and herb border around the garden, as suggested by my sister, as well as the use of essential oils.

Work in progress.

The back yard from closer to the house.

My thumb is only a pail green, so if anyone has any suggestions for me feel free to offer them in a comment.

Worm Farm

Last week wile working in the yard, the girls were digging up worms so we decided to make a worm farm.

Materials used:
1 clear empty 2 liter bottle-rinsed well.
Soil
Sand
Compost, grass clippings, leaves etc.
A little bit of water. We used rain water.
8-12 earth worms

Step one:

Carefully cut the top of the bottle, poke a few holes in to the top portion of the bottle to allow air in and remove label.



Step 2:

Add about 2 inches of soil to the bottom of the bottle.



Step 3:

Add about 2 inches of sand on top of the soil.



Step 4:

Top with compost.



Step 5:

Sprinkle with a little water, to moisten the contents of the bottle.



Step 6:

Cover and place the farm in a dark area over night.

Step 7:

Add worms and place back into the dark area.



The next day have a look at your farm and see if you can see the tunnels.



Go head and keep it for a few day, observing you worms, then release them and recycle your bottle. We added ours to the compost.

Once we released our worms we could really see the tunnels they made.



This is something we will definitely do again! Next time I think we will use a second container to use as a filler so the worms have to stay toward the outside of the bottle so that we can see the tunnels better.


Happy Farming!