Friday, April 26

Quick and Easy Raised Garden Bed

Years ago my sister, Rebekah, made a raised bed to grow some annual cooking herbs. Although the bed is still looking good, she hasn't kept up with the herb growing. Instead, she has a new found passion - cut flowers that are deer resistant. We have a large family of deer who like to devour everything around the house, herbs included, so I have been helping her figure out which flowers deer will leave alone. I thought of daisies and asters because a species of both grow wild on the farm - so my guess deer don't particularly like them. I chose gaillardia, mainly because they are such a tough plant with tons of blooms. A little deer browsing shouldn't hurt. Rebekah may add some more plants, but those three are the ones we figured out so far and have started them from seed indoors (to get a head start). I am eager to see the flower beds in bloom and will post a photo of the results.

As for the quick and easy raised garden bed. Photos! I wanted to show you how we built it step by step so you can make one yourself.

We made the frame of the raised bed using scrap 2x4s, which we pounded in the ground in an L shape. We took slag wood (lumber yards and mills have piles of leftover pieces from making standard lumber. You can purchase them on the cheep) and screwed them into the 2x4s as shown. Pre-drilling helps and 3" long deck screws are the easiest to use.

Friday, April 12

Hundreds and Thousands Tomato - Collecting Tomato Seed

Photo taken from http://www.dobies.co.uk
I've heard so many good things about the Hundreds and Thousands tomato that I had to grow it myself. Last year I searched all over (eg. catalogs, online) for a place that sells this tomato. Sadly, I found that it just isn't available here in the U.S. It is mainly a British tomato phenomenon, but I still wanted to get my hands on the seed somehow and see for myself see what all the rave was about. A nice lady from Canada sent me a few leftover seeds she had purchased from overseas. Even though it was late by the time I received the seed I decided to plant them right away. They came up quickly and grew fast. I transplanted them into hanging baskets (that's what I heard they do over in Britain with this particular tomato). They did produce a good amount of fruit even though

Wednesday, April 3

Delphinium Blue Lamp Makeover DIY Youtube Video

I recently completed a two-part video tutorial about how I took an old lamp from the basement and up-cycled it into a beautiful, elegant, and feminine desk lamp. This makeover was for my sister Rebekah's computer desk. She was looking for a blue lamp so I made sure to paint the whole base blue. I am especially taken with the base and am so happy with how it turned out after taking two broken vases and "texturizing" them with plaster. As for the lampshade, I added a little glamour by spray painting the whole shade in silver. I personalized the shade just for my sister with a silhouette border of her favorite flower, the delphinium. Then, I penned some of her favorite movie quotes in various fonts - just a way to make her smile each time she turns the light switch.