Daffodil Blooming Time Lapse Video with Bushnell Camera

I did a fun little video of my family's early blooming daffodils. In an average year they would have bloomed in early to mid-April, in time for decorating the table for my parents' anniversary. This year they didn't fully bloom until April 29. I started the Bushnell Camera on April 2nd, and had it take photos every 15 minutes during the daylight hours - a whole month of photos into a minute video. Hope you enjoy! Make sure to visit my YouTube channel for more gardening and crafting videos.

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.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Podcasts About Gardening!

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

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.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Leaves and Gourd Art

Mary Garden - Honoring the Blessed Mother with Flowers

 

Since I was born my parents have placed statues of Mary all around the property and house. Around the time I was born my parents bought life-size statues of Our Lady of Fatima and the three shepherd children and placed the set in front of our house facing a large lake. We also have a statue of Mary at the entrance of our long driveway, a statue of Mary in our apple orchard, and I have my own Mary garden located in a little clearing in the woods. I have always been drawn to honoring Mary in this way -- through flowers and plants and gardens. Mary gardens are certainly not a new thing; I've read that they began during the Middle Ages using flowers named by Christian botanists after Mary's life and virtues. This way of honoring Mary using specially named flowers intrigued me.

Trying out a Night Vision Trail Cam

On January 16th of this year we set up our new Bushnell Trail Cam at our farm. We wanted to have some fun with it so we tied it to a tree overlooking an animal den. My intentions were to capture a fox on the camera, but was surprised to find a whole party of animals that night. Check out the video I put together on YouTube. Click on the embedded video to see it larger on YouTube.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Coat Hanger Crafts and DIY

Seed Swaps DO's and DON'Ts

It is a great time of year to start getting your seeds together and begin planning out your garden. I say seeds, because we all know how expensive plants are, so starting your own plants from seed is really the way to go if you are on a budget. For my family's farm we plant all our annual crops from seed, including tomatoes, peppers, and onions, which we start indoors.

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