Springness.

May.

The month when flowers take the leading role in our garden.

And the sky’s expansive canvas fills with color.

And the air’s soft presence thrills with scent.

As the calendar turns to May 1st, people all over the northern hemisphere celebrate the awakening of Spring’s fresh start.
And for me — this year — that celebration included my first May Basket Delivery.

The history of the May Basket is as old as dirt, apparently. Summed up: everyone, everywhere celebrates Spring!

 I like the way Louisa May Alcott describes May Day in her book, “Jack and Jill” (Chapter 18):

“The job now in hand was May baskets, for it was the custom of the children to hang them on the doors of their friends the night before May-day; and the girls had agreed to supply baskets if the boys would hunt for flowers, much the harder task of the two. Jill had more leisure as well as taste and skill than the other girls, so she amused herself with making a goodly store of pretty baskets of all shapes, sizes, and colors, quite confident that they would be filled, though not a flower had shown its head except a few hardy dandelions, and here and there a small cluster of saxifrage.” 

So, this morning, as I drank my coffee — with Facebook at my fingertips, I read the following post by a dear friend from Green Circle Grove. She said: “May Day~did you ever make cones out of wallpaper samples, fill them with flowers, hang them on a doorknob and RUN? Did you ever receive a May Basket?”  

My answer to both questions was “No!”  ~ Inspired to make one ~ I immediately began to gather my supplies:

I found some craft paper left over from another project , rolled it into a cone shape and taped it in a few places; cut a plastic sheet protector and taped it inside the cone.

I used an upholstery needle to weave ribbon around the circumference of the cone. 

Now it was time to grab the pruners and gather the ladies of Spring. In our garden, there were many choices. 

I settled on oleander for structure, jasmine for scent and primrose for whimsy.

 Now for the handle — a piece of wire did the trick.

And with a little water…

I was ready to deliver my May Basket.

According to tradition, the basket should be delivered with stealth, and I really should have obeyed.

 But, as a blogger taking photos, I gave a head’s-up to the Mommy of the recipient –just to be sure she was dressed.

And she was dressed!

In pink and polka dots!

 PERFECT!

“Summer is coming, oh, summer is near
with the leaves on the trees and the sky blue and clear
small birds are singing their fond notes so true
and wild flowers are springing in the May morning dew”

-old folk song

The second year was disappointing.

We were plagued by poor, clay-filled soil and invasive grass.

I knew we needed to fix the soil in order to achieve success.

And then I read a great book which gave me the idea of what to do:

Vertical Vegetable Gardening, A Living Free Guide , by Chris McLaughlin. 

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: ALPHA (December 31, 2012)
ISBN: 978-1615641833

So, on January 1st, 2013 I began to create a raised bed in which to make our improved soil.

 Here is how our garden looked when we began.

 We had an Asian Pear tree in the center and a climbing rose to the side.

We needed to build a border around the outside to contain the new soil, and around the existing plants, to keep them from being smothered.

That’s where Jim came in.

He agreed to spend the first day of this year using his muscles, truck, and tools.

We happened to have six planter boxes.

 Nabbed from a yard sale –for free.

Jim bolted them together.

Then we started to create our layers.
First came the cardboard.  This served to smother the grass.

Next came a layer of newspaper, about 2 inches thick.
Our little helper watered it well.

Then came a layer of soil, followed by a layer of compost…

… followed by a layer of leaves.

…followed by a layer of soil,

then a bunch of composted steer manure,

… a half-bale of straw…

and more soil.

We used leftover tree poles and deer fencing for supports on two sides of the garden.
And we used reclaimed brick to create garden segments and foot paths.
We also eliminated the climbing rose, reducing the size of the inner well.

And then we enjoyed rare snowfall while waiting for the last frost date.

The only thing left to do was to plan the garden and install the drip irrigation

– a must in our desert climate.

Jim installed a system of in-line emitters to saturate the planting areas.

Here our strawberries will share a bed with pansies,

followed by bush beans and calendula.

We we are excited about the way things are shaping up.

Our main helper is not pleased with the bugs she sees, so her mommy provides a girly kneeling mat.

I show her how to plant seeds.
And I am reminded of the promise that you will “reap what you sow.”

Planting is accomplished.

4 tomato varieties, 4 pepper varieties, zucchini, Mexican grey squash, 2 varieties bush beans, 2 varieties strawberry, arugula, lettuce, radish,  2 varieties basil, chive, cilantro, mint, parsley, marigold, pansy, calendula.

We used as many heirloom varieties as we could find.

Here is our garden on March 16th, 2013

 Here it is on May 1st

Thank you for joining us.

We will keep you posted on our progress.

Sharing this post with the readers of:

The Backyard Farming Connection

http://www.backyardfarmingconnection.com/2013/04/to-dig-or-not-to-dig-dirt-on-preparing.html

And

The HomeAcre Hop
http://blackfoxhomestead.com/the-homeacre-hop/the-home

acre-hop-15-and-a-fun-giveaway/

]]> http://stepintoourgarden.com/our-compost-sandwich-vegetable-garden-experiment/feed/ 2 http://stepintoourgarden.com/what-to-do-about-freeze-damage/ http://stepintoourgarden.com/what-to-do-about-freeze-damage/#comments Fri, 25 Jan 2013 19:30:46 +0000 Becky Neville http://stepintoourgarden.com/?p=2054 Read more...]]> Many plants in Tucson and surrounding areas suffered damage from below freezing temps, recently.  We recommend patience when dealing with the aftermath, but in some cases there is no doubt about what to do.  Below is a severely damaged impatiens plant that was happily growing and blooming in a pot on our patio. In it’s shady spot on the north side of our home, it survived last year’s winter temps and summer’s scorching heat; but even covered with a blanket, 16 degrees took its life and it has been laid to rest in our compost bin.

 On the other hand, our snapdragons, pansies, and sweet alyssum are still lovely.

While other garden plants need some attention.

Decisions on what to do become less obvious with woody plants like shrubs and trees.  Plants that go dormant with freezing weather, like lantana, bird of paradise, and bougainvillea can be cut back or left until late February or early March.  But this lysoloma tree must be placed in the “wait and see” category.

 So far, all is well.

The Cape plunbago shrubs in our garden tell a different story.  I could leave them alone, but they look so nasty.

 There are some things that actually improve with a severe cutback, and these qualify.

Sadly, citrus is not happy when it is frozen.  In theory, I will classify the once-lovely focal point of our back garden in the “wait-and-see” category, but I am already planning what to do with this prime planting space.

Here is an example of why patience is vital!

 Gardening is one of those hobbies that helps build character.  To be successful, one needs to cultivate patience, hope, and faith. In other situations, courage and perseverance, are required, because Mother Nature often demands the last word!

Our 28-year-old Arizona Sweet tree  is  still  struggling, following the BIG FREEZE of 2010.  I can hardly bear to look at this once-spectacular plant without pondering what I can do to bring it back. I decided to remove about half this year’s crop and cut out all the deadwood.

And then do what gardeners often have to do; wait until spring.  Again.

The oranges I removed were of little use in the kitchen.  Even as juice, they would barely have yielded a couple of tablespoons apiece. So I decided to make some Orange Peel Vinegar.  And today I got to use it for the first time.

Wow!

A friend, and fellow blogger from FRESH EGGS DAILY, provided the recipe: Orange Peel Vinegar. Lisa’s recipe calls for several ingredients I didn’t have on hand, so I simply made mine with white vinegar and orange peels.  I made two jars of this mixture and shook them every few days.  Then the holidays arrived and I forgot to shake. My neglect didn’t seem to matter.

Today I decided to pour off the liquid, compost the peels, and try it for some cleaning on our oak parquet floor.

Wow!

I clean our floors with steam.  (I will share more about our steamer in another post.) Usually I spray the floor with white vinegar and steam.  Today I used my Orange Peel Vinegar. It was wonderful.

While we wait for our tree to recover, we won’t have juice, but we still have Garden Treasure. 

Follow these links for other great ideas:
Let This Mind Be You  and Deborah Jean’s Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop

Here are some of my garden inspirations for 2013:

First, I must finish reading the book, Vertical Vegetable Gardening, by Chris McLaughlin.

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: ALPHA (December 31, 2012)
ISBN: 978-1615641833

Better yet:

I must read the book all year, and keep it handy, because it is full of easy to follow, easy to understand instructions and ideas for growing upwards, growing smart, and growing well.  The chapter on ‘Creative Repurposing’ is right up my alley. 

But first, I must create the recipe for the Compost Sandwich on page 119.

I have a garden plot available to me that is about 15 x 15 and I’ve been struggling with the poor soil and invasive grass.  McLaughlin’s recipe will be a fun and simple fix for both issues. 

The owner of the above-mentioned space has eight, 3 foot long planters available that we’re going to use to help create a boundary for our garden beds. The rest of the border will be made from cinder blocks, as explained in the chapter entitled  ’Make Your Own bed,’ pages 47-48

In the past two years we’ve made about 300 gallons of rich compost out of  kitchen scraps, dryer lint, eggshells, coffee grounds, newspaper, leaves, vacuum dust and grass clippings — nourishmet for our soil — all in our tiny suburban garden space. We have had such great success with our easy trash can compost bins that I want to add another one. Vertical Vegetable Gardening has heaps of information on composting, and McLaughlin even refers to it as an ‘art.”  I always wanted to be an artist, but never imagined my medium would be dirt. 

And my dream for the past two years has been to install a rain barrel or two.  But not unless I can make them pretty , like these:

PHOTO SOURCE LINK

I cant wait to get started on 2013.

What about you?

Post Script:

After reading this post, a gardening friend offered me some COMPOST TEA.  Doesn’t that sound like a perfect compliment to my Compost Sandwiches?  I think so!  You can find his recipe here: THE REDEEMED GARDENER.

This month was a different story, and I believe if you read this post to the end, my Christmas Wreath will make you snicker.

You wouldn’t think that a Christmas wreath would be hard to come up with. A pretty boxwood wreath would certainly be lovely.  Boxwood is a hardy shrub and grows almost everywhere, making it readily available.  We have several Japanese boxwood plants in our garden and in pots, so I could certainly have made my own, using instructions provided in this video by Martha Stewart.   The wreath below is available for sale on Etsy, BTW.

Made by NaturDesign

Evergreen branches are also available everywhere this time of year.  So, I could have made an evergreen wreath like the one below.

Source Link 

If you click on the source link, you will find a wreath-making tutorial.

Oh, and the love, love, loveliness of a wreath made from inexpensive Christmas Balls!

Source Link

Any of these can be made quickly and cheaply from readily available materials. But I wanted to craft something unique.

So, off I went to Michael’s. And home I came with my materials, which included a MDF wreath form, 14  glittery letters, and a super long, super lush white pipe cleaner. The idea was to avoid spending big bucks on the landfill polluting Styrofoam rings. I knew I had some white paint at home.

And I knew I had some leftover glitter.

Before the big reveal, I need to explain that Jim and I grew up in the 60′s.

My family had an aluminum tree like this one…

…with a creaky  kaleidoscope fixture , changing it from blue, to red, to yellow.

Every time the subject comes up, Jim seems jealous of our aluminum tree. He has a wee bit of Charlie Brown in him.

Anyway…in the spirit of Christmas…keeping in mind my quest for individuality…remembering my 1960′s roots and the desire to wish my neighbors and blog-readers a Merry Christmas… Here is the big reveal of my Retro Merry Christmas Wreath, circa 2012.

ARE YOU READY?

ARE YOU SET?

GO!

 Here it is at night.

Snickering yet?

No? Then Click on the link below.

Our Santa Doing a Happy Dance

Merry Christmas from us to you!

A hardy, waterwise evergreen, Nandina grows in part to full sun, zones 5-10, offering year-round beauty, moderate growth, low maintenance, and deer resistance. I use Nandina leaves in flower arrangements, but I never clip its springtime blooms, because by autumn they develop into sturdy clusters of orange red berries — just in time to decorate our Thanksgiving tablescape.

Here’s how I did it.

First, I gathered my supplies.  I decided to use a wire wreath form and some dry Muhly grass as the base for the wreath. You could use any pliable dried straw or stems.  

Next I  cut and gathered the grass into small bundles and tied them together with wire; then I fastened the bundles onto my form, using straw colored raffia. I continued around the form until it was covered with grass and then I wound raffia around the wreath in various places, allowing lots of stragglers.  I was going for a the look of a casual wispy spiral.

Then, I poked our stiff berry stems into the straw and secured them with U-shaped pins that I made from florist wire and twisted at the back.

All that was left to do was to add a bow and hang it on the nail on our front door  – just in time for our Thanksgiving feast.

I love how it turned out and I love that I only spent an hour to make it with things from our garden.

Happy Thanksgiving !

 If you are interested in learning more about Nandina, click HERE and HERE.  For more great tutorials about making wreaths, click HERE amd HERE.

This post is linked with Fresh Eggs Daily’s Farm Girl Blog Fest 

Here is an Autumn leaf, scanned into  Picasa (a free photo editing program).

I was able to change the image to black and white.

…add and change background colors…

  …add text…

…and make it into something useful.

I could go on and on with ideas for this fallen leaf.  But I have to get back to work in the office.

Now it’s your turn.

~Becky

October, being the month of pumpkins and trick-or-treaters,  my theme was obvious.

The first step was to shop our home and garden for materials.

I chose a simple grapevine form, which I had on hand and I sprayed it Rustoleum Paprika, a color that would match my theme and our door.

Since I was making a pumpkin, I would need a stalk.  I considered clay and Styrofoam, but settled upon a bunch of dry Muhly grass.

I  snipped a handful of dried grass from one of the pots of leftover plants in Jim’s work area. Any dried grass or straw would work as well.

By the way Pink Muhly Grass looks like this in the landscape:

In our area, Tucson Arizona, it blooms September through late November. Jim planted about 20 of these on a hillside and reports that “they flow in the wind.” Now if I could only find a spot for the leftovers in my garden.

My supplies gathered, I was ready to assemble.  The Triscuit cracker was going to be the nose, but it was not needed, as I will show in a minute.

Here, my pumpkin is taking shape.  You can see that I wrapped the grass with yarn to make his stalk.  His eyes and teeth are buttons…pay no attention to my second choice for a nose; the elbow noodle idea was also scrapped.  The assembly was a matter of finding a way to suspend the features from the form.  After attempting to use thread, I chose stiff floral wire, which I threaded through the button holes and easily attached to the wreath.  I also snipped a piece of the grapevine long enough to form a grin, wound the teeth strewn wire around it and attached the wire to the side.

I used a black sharpie to color a few of his teeth black.  But even with rotten teeth, he will be the first smiling face people see when they come to our door or drive by our home.

 Now, about his nose…our peep hole provided a free nose.  Perfect for the theme, don’t you agree? Most of our wreaths hang from a nail on the door, but in order to make use of the peep hole, I used the same floral wire, which I stuck through his stem and hung over the top of the door to the back, where I fastened it with a tack.

Jim’s comment when he saw our little greeter was to say he looked a lot like Wilson from the film, Cast Away. ( We both love this movie.) Actually, I had the same thought when I made his stem.  In the spirit of the season, I played with his portrait in my Picasa free photo editing program.

Cute, huh?

I hope my homespun pumpkin has inspired you to try a wreath of your own.

Linking up with  I Gotta Create

And Farm Girl Friday Blog Fest

Jim and I hang different wreaths on our front door to celebrate the change of season. We’ve been using inexpensive, store-bought ones, like our summer wreath, pictured below.

For many years,  I’ve wanted to make my own, using natural materials.  Inspired this week by a few wreaths I found on BHG,  I decided to tackle the project.  I purchased a $2 metal wreath ‘form’ at a craft store, borrowed some floral wire from Jim’s shop; bought a $3 bag of Granny Smiths, and gathered a handful of fresh Nandina and Eucalyptus from our garden. I chose these greens because they were sturdy, fragrant and free.

Next, I protected my work surface with an old sheet and assembled my supplies.

The first step was to play with the branches to see how they would look.

 Then, I started to attach the stems to the circle of wire, using short, 1-2″ pieces of floral wire.

I continued until I was happy with the arrangement.

  The Eucalyptus is sporting clusters of immature corms, which add interest in lieu of berries.

I could have stopped here, because these leaves could stand on their own, don’t you think?

Next, I arranged the apples on the wreath to see how many I would need.  It tuned out to be a perfect dozen.

Now it was time to string the apples together. I cut a long piece of 20 gauge wire and poked it through the apples from side to side. Then I twisted the ends of the wire together.

The final step was to cut 4, U shaped pins, which I poked between the apples and toward the back.  Each time, I turned the wreath upside down, and twisted the wire tightly with needle nose pliers.

If I weren’t snapping photographs, the whole process would have taken about 30 minutes.

Now my wreath was ready to hang on the front door.

Our glass storm door, made it difficult to get a good photograph in the bright light, so Jim held it open for me. What a gentleman!  Since the storm door locks, our entry door is often open , which means we will be able to enjoy the autumnal scent of the apples and fresh eucalyptus throughout the day. I think our full-time greeter likes it too!

This project would make a special decoration for an autumn dinner party, and would look beautiful with red apples, or whatever is available. Total cost: $5.

Besides the fun I had creating the wreath, I’m happy knowing that the leaves will be composted and the apples fed to our chickens, while the wire form can be used again and again.  In fact, I already have an idea for my next one.

I decided to edit a photo of the apple wreath and use it to make a cover for an invitation for our family’s upcoming pie feast.

It is also, charming in black and white, is it not?

I’m joining in the fun at Fresh Eggs Daily’s first: Farm Girl Blog Fest,

…and the fabulous Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop at Deborah Jean’s Dandelion House

…and the ever inspiring Beyond the Picket Fence

]]> http://stepintoourgarden.com/welcome-autumn-with-an-apple-wreath/feed/ 5