5.27.2009

frog friend




Well I am not going to say much today, too sick. I think it is just wrong to be sick when it is sunny out, illnesses should not be able to live during nice weather.
 All I have today is a friend we keep finding in the lavender starts every day we water. Isaac wasn't sure what to do with this green lavender lover, it seems it was ok on his knee, but not his hand. 
Isaac can run with the biggest of our farm tenants, he isn't afraid of the big sheep or llama, but doesn't particularly like small creatures yet,  but I am confident he will grow to love them.

5.19.2009

plant labels

It is just amazing how one day can be lusciously beautiful weather and the next turns to torrential down pours all day. I had the garden all ready to plant corn, the ground was tilled the rows were marked and hoed, all I need to do was soak the corn, plant it and watch it grow, but the rain beat me to it. Now I have to wait for another window of opportunity to get it in the ground. We did manage to find an opening in the rain , all though very brief, to get out, blow some bubbles and hope that summer is really on her way.
A fellow gardener and I were discussing plant tags, plastic or wood? I label seeds I have planted in the greenhouse or plants in pots, but I don't put the labels in the garden. I usually can remember what went where or I draw a map. As long as no one else tries to do any gardening it's not usually a problem. For my tags I like to cut up plastic milk jugs to make my plant labels, but since we don't drink milk out of plastic jugs at home we have to acquire them some where else (family members).
You can buy the plastic tags at a store (they work great), but who wants to spend the money. This is just the place for my motto "I can make that", I don't like using plastic that much, but I figure I am adhering to one of the three "R's", REUSE!. I always use both sides of the tag and recycle the plastic when I am done.Many gardeners do like to put labels in the garden though (it makes sense doesn't it). I do understand that if you put plant labels in the garden you wouldn't want the plastic tags everywhere because you would have to pick them up at the end of the year (hunt for the plastic tag game), so cardboard tags will work for the season (the do get lost easy), or those large craft tongue depressors work great, they're wide to give you plenty of room to write those long plant names.
The wood and the cardboard will just grind up with a pass of the tiller or mulch into the soil when you put you garden to bed for the season. (Of course that's not grass you see growing in my garden rows, you must be imagining things)
We did had a little fun earlier this year making decorative garden signs. My mother is the artist who panted plants pics on Fir rounds that Ty cut from the back pasture and stakes he split from some fire wood. TY then screwed the round to the stake (nailing it will split the wood), then he sanded the surface of the round just a little to make it easier to paint. After it was painted we then sprayed a sealant on it to protect it from the weather. I think they turned out really neat and would make a fun project for older kids. Now if we can only keep the dogs from pulling them out and chewing them up.
Well off to re-pot tomatoes. Remember, "someone made it, why not you".

5.15.2009

think art

I just had to add my Lilac pictures and this very neat tree growing in the side of a cliff on the beach, to go along with the Lilly of the Valley pics. I want to take a few more flora and maybe some fauna pictures, frame each of them and hang three on chain down the wall. If you need help imagining here's a sample.  Alright not the three images I was thinking about, but I haven't gotten all of my pictures taken or put together yet, but you get the idea, just imaging the pictures framed and adjusted to relatively the same size and shape hanging like this down a chain on the wall. I think it is a really simple way to add some art to your walls that you did yourself.   
On a completely different note, yesterday my sis, a friend and I went some place amazing. First, happy birthday to them both (the reason for this awesome outing) it was so much fun. Every woman should have this experience at least once in her life, but probably more like at least once a month . The worlds problems could be solved and I guarantee that world peach could be achieved if everyone spent one day a month to go here. Are you interested yet? We went to the Olympus Spa, which is a Korean day spa and wow is it great. There are multiple relaxing pools of varying temps, steam rooms, dry rooms and you can use all of it for a totally reasonable price. As a treat we splurged and added scrubs and moisturising treatments. Let me tell you I have never been pampered like this before and I have never been cleaner (shinny new penny I think was the term used). Just so you know, it is nick named the naked spa for a reason, no swimsuits allowed in the pools, but men are not allow either so birthday suits it is. They have these places all over the US, so find one and us it. I have been asking myself how I never knew about this heavenly place before, but I am sure glad I do now.

Inspirational Growing Quotes

"Gardening requires lots of water-most of it in the form of perspiration."
~ Lou Erickson, www.quotegarden.com