Seedlings Looking Good

It's time to start thinking about a spring garden! If you haven't started thinking about what varieties you will plant this year, you'd better get busy. Even if you aren't lucky enough to enjoy Arizona's year round gardening weather, Jan/Feb is the perfect time to order seed catalogs and begin making garden plans. 

I like to order my seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, located in Mansfield, MO, and have been doing so for years, simply because of the varieties of non-GMO seeds that they offer. On a side note, they actually have a Spring Planting Festival in May every year. I would LOVE to go, and one of these years I will make the effort. 

A few weeks ago, I spent a lovely afternoon getting my little seedlings planted in their cute little pots. (I love that color! It's my fave...) The tomato varieties that I started on 1-16-2015 are all starting to get their 2nd leaves. That means that I can start giving them liquid food once a week or so, until they are ready to go out in the garden at the end of the month. They are happy in their little greenhouse and our weather here in Arizona is going to be 80 degrees by Saturday, so if that holds through the month, it will be perfect for these little guys to get transplanted out into their permanent home in the garden.

As you can see in the picture above, the sugar snap peas really are going for it. I probably should have just put them right into the garden, except last year I fought with the birds over them, & I wasn't into that this year. (The birds thought they should be eaten & I didn't!) I actually had to replant those little guys 3 times until I got smart and put covers over them. This year, I've been working to redo some of the beds in the garden, so I decided to just start them indoors, which would actually save me the effort of having to replant them or cover them. They've been fine, but today, with the weather so nice, I decided to start the hardening off process so they can be transplanted. If you don't know what that means, hardening off is when you put your seedlings out into the weather they will be in, for a few hours a day, just to give them a gradual adjustment to the wind & sun, and being out of their protected little environment they've been in. If you don't do this, they actually take offense, and go into a much longer shock period. Well, that's all for today.

Happy gardening!

Past Goings Ons

2014! I can't believe it! I think the new YW/YM theme is going to allow everything to really focus right down to the heart of the matter, which is that we can ALL come unto Christ. I love that sentence. It embodies everything that I hope to be right there in three little words. So, here is a free downloadable in feminine and masculine styles to go along with the new year. Hope you like it!

The beginning of a new year and all that entails is always exciting to me. I haven't been blogging much lately simply because the last half of the year entailed a busy wedding of my daughter and her fiancé, plus Thanksgiving & the Christmas holidays, with all the business that goes along with it.  Here is a pic of the two of them...

Aren't they cute? I think so. My dad did the photography courtesy of Biltmore Photo. Now they are an old married couple of about 5 weeks. 

We've been working on getting the garden back in shape since the wedding/holidays, and it is almost there. I shall post some sad little photos later in the week. I do have some tomato seedlings started, but nothing to show for it yet.

Well, more later! 

Sunny Days

The long awaited strawberries are just beginning to bear fruit! These are the first berries of the season, & due to the fact that I don't add fertilizers to them, they always are much smaller than store bought berries, but they are soooooo much tastier! I need to get out and weed the strawberry bed, but just haven't managed to get to it yet.

It is superb weather and the roses are just loving it! Every other day or so, I am cutting roses to bring indoors to enjoy, but these are so beautiful. 

These little seedlings are enjoying life in the mini greenhouse awaiting space for them in the garden. I have some spring veggies that are almost at the end of their season, and so I decided to start the melons in the pots 'til I have some space in the garden to plant them out. 

These little beauties, Calendula - Pink Surprise, purchased from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co., were planted from seed way back in November. This is the first bloom! I love the way it looks, although I haven't seen any of the pink that is pictured on the packet. I wonder if that was a graphic add on? Below is the second bloom so far. It does look different from the first...not so multi petaled. I like to sneak flowers in on the edges of the garden beds. It looks so pretty to see a splash of color but these calendula's will be good for keeping aphids away, etc.

The last garden task for today, is to get these beans in the ground. As you can see, I have them soaking to aid in the germination. We have done the Thai White Seeded Long Bean for several years now, and they are quite tasty. Hopefully, I can get that done this evening. Happy Gardening!

My Mini Greenhouse

So, for my birthday this past December, I asked my amazing hubby if  we could build this little greenhouse that I saw on Pinterest. Shown above is the pic. I just love it & have been wanting it for about a year! Unfortunately, this particular one is made out of the country, and although it is made of metal, Derek assured me we could build something like it. YAY!

Literally, he built on a couple of Saturdays, and here is the building progression of it documented in a couple of pictures. He drew up his own measurements, and although along the way we encountered a few problems, it did turn out rather wonderful!

Here it is finished and ready for paint. 

You might notice that the doors seem to be a different color, and they are. I was trying a distressing technique but decided I didn't like it, so repainted the doors. The galvanized metal trays are awesome, and it took me quite a while to find something affordable that would work, but eventually I came upon a website that sells animal kennel trays or trays that go in the bottom of kennels. These were something like $30 each which was totally doable when compared to $200 ea that was what I could find on the hazmat websites I was originally looking at. I think these trays look rather marvelous. 

The glass was put in using clear epoxy. As we were putting in the last piece of glass, one of the long pointed side panels broke. It has taken a couple of weeks to get it back in as we kept forgetting to order it, but now that the glass is in, the interior is nice and warm. I intend to get an automatic vent opener for the top. This will automatically keep the top open when it gets too hot inside so the starts will not cook. Genius!

And here is the final product. I am going to have to move it to get a better location for sun, but otherwise, I really LOVE it! I like the drawer because I can keep extra soil in it and extra pots as well. I really am lucky that my hubby is handy. His dad taught him well. This was the best birthday present ever!

Craft Room Organization, Pinterest Craft With a Little Gardening Thrown In

Check it out! I love it! This was a pinterest craft find...from Little Birdie Secrets. So easy. She even has a short tutorial. That's the best.

This is what has taken up most of the time since Christmas...the dreaded workroom clean out! I have been purging through every craft item and finding ways to make the space I have more useable, since, as everyone knows, a craft person will fill every nook and cranny and then need even more space. I think I probably could have gone through everything a second time as well, but this is as good as it gets for now.

As you can see, I have a space for the sewing machines so that they are easily reachable to use, but still are not continuously sitting on my work table. That has been pretty great. I do have cases for them, but then I never seem to want to put them back in...it's so much hassle. And they do get used on a weekly basis, so it's not like they are just sitting there gathering dust.

I put a piece of glass on this table due to make it easier to scrape paint off it, and also due to the soldering irons that I use sometimes for jewelry. I had one out on the table and the heat caused the paint to bubble slightly. That was when I knew I had to invest in a glass top. Pier1 has them for a good price, which was where this one came from.

In the corner of the room, you can just see the new ribbon organizer I found at Joann's for 40 percent off (around $13). These are, by far, the best way to organize ribbon that I have seen. And, as you can see, I already need one more. (grimace)

This little tomato starts are doing pretty well, considering one of the grow light bulbs is burned out, and I am needing to rotate the trays around to make sure each plant gets enough light. Supposedly the replacement bulbs have shipped. (wink, wink) We shall see. Be that as it may, from the picture above, you can see that they are just getting their 2nd set of leaves. This is about the time that they can start receiving some liquid plant food. As these little guys will grow, those larger leaves, their first ones, will actually start to turn yellow and fall off. They have those so they can get enough nutrients to get their true leaves and then when they have them, these first ones aren't needed anymore. So don't be alarmed it you see that happening. It's perfectly normal.

Well, Pinterest Club has been rescheduled to next Thursday, January 24th. We had a little trouble finding enough wood at the surrounding stores to make the frames from. What is up with that? Additionally, there were people requesting frames up to last night, and it is just a little difficult to make 43 frames overnight. It's not like we are getting paid for it, either.

So, that's all for today. Happy crafting, and gardening!