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.

Pinteresting Tuesday: Favorite Jewelry Pieces for Inspiration and DIY

Pinteresting Tuesday: Favorite Family Tried and True Recipes

Growing Lettuce in Winter - Part 2

We spaded the ground in our unheated greenhouse, removing weeds and debris. To spade, push your shovel in the ground and lift a shovel full of dirt out of the ground. Turn your whole shovel over and let the dirt fall back into the hole you just made. The point of doing this is to bring relatively untouched soil from under the ground to the surface, bury the organic material that was on the surface, and to break up the compacted soil.

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Pinteresting Tuesday: My Flowers for 2013

Blessed Virgin Garden Outdoor Statue Restoration

I've been wanting to show you the restoration process of my family's Mary statue and thought today was a good as time as any. Perhaps you'll be inspired to restore one of your own garden statues. If you have any questions about the process just drop me a line. I'd love to see the before and after photos and post them on the blog for others to see.

This is the before shot of our statue. My parents bought it in 1989 after a large hail storm hit the orchard a year earlier. They placed the statue in the middle of the fruit orchard and built a garden around it. The statue has seen a lot of weather since then and it was time for a makeover. My sister Catherine and I took on the restoration project and we began by chipping away at the old paint with a steel brush.

Online Vegetable and Flower Seed Companies Reviewed

Growing up in a fruit and vegetable farming family, seed catalogs were plentiful. Some of those companies have closed down or have been bought up by other companies that are . . . how should I put this . . . not so reputable. Yet, there are still some great ones out there and through searching and experience I have found more companies to add to my list. I wanted to review some of the online seed companies my family purchases fruit and vegetable seed from; as well as review the companies where I purchase (or obtain) flower seed for my nursery and garden.