Clearance plants

When I was at Lowes today I happened upon a couple of racks of clearance plants. A lot of them were $0.10 and the bigger perennials that I got were $0.50.  My grand total: $1.60. Not too shabby!

Check it out and see if there are any flowers/plants on clearance where you are.

Outdoor Rug a'la Paint

Today we were lucky enough to be invited over to a friends for a swim.

Which the kids absolutely love!

Any how....I really liked this idea of a painting a rug on the cement.

What's not to like.  Easily cleaned.  Water proof. Spill proof. Custom colors.

Just a really awesome idea that gets the idea wheels turning.

Patching the Lawn

We have a spot in our yard that should be grass but has been dirt for the last year and a half from when we extended our patio (see our pretty pavers?).  My husband had mentioned going and getting a roll of sod to fix it but that hasn't happened yet.  We had some lawn patch stuff (seeds plus newspaper, etc to keep it moist) on hand, so I decided we'd give it a try.  We have used it in a few other places in our yard before and it has worked great.  The hardest part is remembering to keep it moist for the first week or so until the seeds sprout.  

All you have to do is loosen the dirt a little, spread the lawn patch out, water it and keep it moist until the seeds sprout.  Pretty simple!

DIY Watering Can

I wanted to buy a watering can last year but never did.  I saw this awesome idea to make your own watering can.  Yay for FREE things!

All you need is a bottle with a lid (I used an juice bottle) and a drill with a little drill bit (mine was 1/16").

Take the lid off of the bottle and drill several holes spaced out all over the lid.  It is best to turn the lid upside down and drill from the inside so that it is well supported.  I put it on a scrap piece of wood so that my work surface didn't end up with holes in it.

Drill one or two holes in the handle of the bottle.  This allows air flow into the bottle so that you can pour water continuously.

Ta Da!  An awesome DIY watering can made in about 2 minutes.

As a note, the first time I was going to make this I tried using a hammer and nail to punch holes in the lid.  Turned out to be not such a great idea.  The lid cracked and I had to wait for us to drink more juice.  The drill worked great.

"Soil" Amendment

We have a few "square foot gardens" at our house .  Our "soil" was starting to get a little low, not sure where it disappeared to.  Our original "soil", per square foot gardening recommendation, was equal parts vermiculite, peat moss and compost.  The vermiculite is kinda pricey, so I didn't want to buy more of that to add to the garden.  I decided that I would add some more peat moss and compost though.  Our "soil" is nice and loose so I just put the peat moss and compost on top and worked it in with the rake.  

All ready to plant!

DIY Newspaper seed starting pots

I decided to try and plant my garden from seeds this year instead of buying plants from the nursery.  The first step is to plant the seeds. Instead of buying a planting tray from the store, I made little newspaper pots for free!  (Or at least we already paid for the newspaper.)  Here's how:

You need black and white newspaper pages (the colored ones might have metal in the ink) and
a straight sided jar or glass that is 2-3" in diameter (I had a baby food jar handy).

Fold the newspaper in half the long way (hot dog style) two times.

Then take your jar/glass and wrap the newspaper tightly around it.  You want the open end of the jar about in the middle of your newspaper strip.

Here it is all wrapped.

Next, fold down the edges of the newspaper to the inside of the jar.

  

It will look like this:

Take the newspaper off of the jar,

and press down your folded up edge to make the bottom of your "pot"

If you need to, you can use the flat (bottom) side of the jar to press the bottom down to make it a little more solid.

And there you have your little DIY newspaper pot ready for some soil and a seed!

Garden Journal

Daddy is already planning and planting the vegetable garden.  This year he's stepping it up though.  In hopes of improving his yield, he's keeping a GARDEN JOURNAL--writing down when items were planted and fertilized, etc.

Fingers crossed for a bountiful harvest.