Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Crafty Garden

Last week during Spring Break I was surfing some of my favorite food and garden websites.  A fellow Texas blogger, Tina at Mommy's Kitchen, posted about her kids making Garden Markers.  She had seen the idea from another fellow Texas blogger, Joan, at 3 girls, me, and a recipe.  She made garden markers with her daughters.  So, of course, I had to try my hand at homemade garden markers.  Up to now we have just written down what was planted where in the garden.  While that is great if you can find the paper, I'm excited about the garden markers.

Since my kids are pretty much grown, my project was solo.  I mostly used things I already had around the house.  One of my daughters left a bag of chopsticks from a school project here.  They made great stakes for the signs.  Another daughter is very crafty herself and donated some string for decoration.  As a teacher, I tend to collect markers and paint pens.  All I had to do was get them out.  And having worked in a flower shop for several decades, I happened to have floral tape lying around, too.  My only purchase was clear coat spray and colored craft sticks.

Supplies for garden signs

Part of my collection of paint pens.  :)

Of course, I made a list of signs to make.
I'm really big on list making. 

Chopsticks

I used floral tape to tape two chopsticks together.
I must admit pulling out the floral tape brought back memories of thousands of flowers I taped over the years.

The colored craft sticks came from Hobby Lobby.  $2.33 for 75 sticks.

It was fun trying different combinations of paint colors and sticks.

Hot glue was my adhesive of choice to hold the signs together.

I used two coats of clear acrylic sealant to lock in the colors.

Each side got two coats.

A little tie of string finished off the garden markers.
The finished product

And here's the finished product.

Definitely adds little pops of color to the green of the garden.

They help me know what's what, too. 



My favorite was silver paint on the purple stick.








Our newest addition is a Granny Smith Apple Tree.
Yes, we did name our trees, all seven of them.  But that's a post for another time.







Monday, March 21, 2011

New Garden Addition

During Spring Break last week, Randy planted our newest tree in the garden family.  Marie Noel is a semi-dwarf Granny Smith apple tree and now lives in the middle of the back yard.  In just three days, she already has blossoms and leaves.  We're anxiously watching her changes daily.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sunday, March 13, 2011

All in a day's work...

Randy and Collin spent the weekend in the garden.  Here are some of the results.

new section by the compost and Belle for okra and tomatoes

new tomato variety... Jet Star

Dandelion... haha!

Blooming onions!

Happy St. Paddy's Day

Potatoes!

Brussels Sprouts on the stem

petunias in the garden bed this year

peppermint petunias

petunias, begonias, and gerbera daisy

marigold

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Peach Blossom


Lori's first blooms

Peach blossoms turn white then pink.

early peach flowers

The flowers turn pink after white.


Belle in her corner of the yard.

Belle has flowers but no leaves yet.

Belle

Belle

Belle with a ladybug on her leaf.

Belle

Leaves come after the flowers.

Lori

Lori

Lori

All three peach trees now have blooms and can pollinate each other.  We're excited to have peaches this year.  The first harvest is expected in July from Harvey, followed by Lori in August, and Belle in September.

The peaches will be great with the blackberries from their bushes and hopefully some Granny Smith Apples from the new tree Randy planted today.