The ONLY Tool You'll Ever Need...

...besides all your other tools that you need, 

like a hoe, rake, spade, etc.

But.

This one is awesome sauce, like fresh tomato sauce from the garden slathered over fried zucchini with a hefty smattering of Parmesan....

Oh I digress. 

It's actually a pre-garden tool.

It's this.

This calendar takes all the guess work out of planting dates!

You find your first frost date (last frost dates are on the other side)

And move the red line to that date.

It tells you when to SI (start indoors), FP (first planting dates) additional planting times for crops, harvest dates, and on the back it has the same information but the LP (last planting).

It breaks down all your categories of vegetables for you.

I love, love, love this handy dandy gadget! No more scrolling the internet, reading tiny print on the back of each packet, or random guessing ever again!

And the best part?

It only costs $3.

You can get yours
Here

Check out their awesome seed collection too!

Garden Layout 2015

Drumroll.....

Or a solid, repeated thigh slap.

Preferably your own...

Here's my garden layout for 2015!

Totally awesome right?

Not so much, maybe. A little anticlimactic perhaps...

I'll have more for you in a few days, as well as all of the awesome seeds I'm hoping to use this year.

What's going in your garden?

Share, share!!!!

Coffee Ground Rules for Gardening

You may not know this about me, but I have this thing for coffee.

I'm smitten.

And from what I can tell, it's mutual. We hang out every day.

And, I've got an impressive mug collection.

But this year, I'm planning to throw all my coffee stuff outside.

In a good way!

I haven't gone crazy.

(It's hard to 'go' crazy if you've been living there. I'm the Mayor)

Here's some ideas for my garden this year, inspired by my love for my favorite drink.

Coffee sack planters!

Coffee bags are biodegradable, so great in the garden, or you can put ugly planters inside of them or line them with recycled foil coffee bags.

I'm getting my sacks in a smaller size, think your average coffee lb size, though you can go up to the 50 lb sack if you choose.

Many of them are used, recycled bags that come with the coffee scent or even a few leftover grounds tucked inside. You can find them on Amazon in any size, with fun prints on them, although you can't be sure exactly how each bag will look until you get it in the mail.

I'm stealing this idea from another blogger, Leslie Reese. (You can find her process here)

She uses old recycled coffee cans or cans found in antique stores for a great deal.

I love this idea!
Recycling cans can be beautiful and really unique to your own tastes.

Of course there's the coffee mug planter as well.

I love this idea for when you just get TOO many mugs as gifts.
You'll always have your favorites for drinking, but come on, we've only got two hands and even if you put a few out on the table with straws while you're double fisting it, you only have so much reachable space in front of your face.

 

My F-I-L gave me this fabulous gift two Christmas's ago.

It's only the second indoor plant I've ever received that hasn't kicked the bucket.

The Other is a 'you can't kill it; I've tried'- aloe plant.
If this plant should die, I've still got this fun mug to get me through the trauma.
 

And then there's this fantastic little nugget of knowledge.

 

If you didn't know this already, get ready to wet your plants.

Starbucks has a coffee ground program!

They give away all of their grounds for FREE.
Coffee grounds can be great in the garden and add a lot of nutrients back in to the soil.

If you are a little intimidated, the grounds come in a bag with instructions.

You can go to almost any Starbucks and ask them for the grounds and skip home (with a latte, because you did just save money on fertilizer, soooo.....)

I've not heard of any other companies doing this, but I wouldn't be surprised if you could finagle some grounds of your local mom n' pop place if you bribed them with a little fresh produce...

Anyway,

My coffee is getting cold.

That's right. Hubby just popped this in front of me.

He knows how exhausted I can get with the hours I spend googling and oogling garden ideas.

Do you have any themes for your garden?
Share, share!!!



Study Session...

It's that time of year again! The time I recommit to blogging about the adventures of the year in my garden before petering out three months in to the year.... :p

Also, it's the time of year you really have to be on your guard.
Because you never know when THIS can happen...

I'm 81% certain that this is how the world ends.

But it's also study time!

Allllll of the seed catalogues- my dirty magazines I call them which just makes Hubby wince, which I follow up with "because they are filled with dirt and things" which makes him wince more- are coming in the mail.

It's the second best time of year.
The first best time would be when you can actually go outside in shorts and a tank top without dying from hypothermic shock.

So I threw the catalogues on the floor in grand fashion and prepared for hours of study.
Hours.
Because I got 14 in the mail in the last two weeks.
And some of them are over 200 pages long.

There is nothing that reminds me more of spring than the photos in gardening magazines.

It's what keeps me alive through winter.

That and Peco.

And I guess my husband, who sends me away to Florida a few times throughout the winter.

(I think it's because he gets tired of hearing me lament about my impending death due to exposure to snow and really just about anything under 55 degrees)

 

But this was going to take a while. So obviously I needed an energy boost.

Like an great student, I went to the source.

Sugar.

One of the nicest Aunts in the world gave me a BAG of organic, natural, fabulicious chocolate bars for Christmas. And I happened to have the marshmallows and Graham crackers lying around.

What's a girl to do?

 

So I cranked up the fire....

(old school. I threw logs on it)

Pulled out my roaster stick that I keep within arm's reach...

Put the Cracker and chocolate on the hearth...

(This is the optimal operation standard for the perfect s'more)

 

And ta-da!

I don't think I mentioned that this s'more had a hint of spice from the Chocolate with Chilies.

 

I think I'll be growing Chilies this year.

 

How are you surviving the winter?

Share! Share!

 

Garden Perch

Everyday, Hubby amazes me.

I trudged home from a 3am shift at work and flopped to the floor before running out the door to attend an event with  family.

My playful bunny pranced around with me for five minutes before I had to head out the door again.

And right before I left, Hubs just tossed out a  "oh, when you get home lets put that swing together."

I could have peed my pants with excitement.

But I was running out the door....

So I looked forward, breathlessly, to getting home.

 

Of course when I did, he was finishing up chores, so I ate Chinese food leftovers and opened the front door eleventeen times, checking on him.

I mean, he was weeding poison ivy in the front yard, so I wasn't about to stop him.

 

And FINALLY, he was ready to put the swing together...

I'd been looking forward to this for MONTHS.

(Since he broke the old swing board with his bare hands. Hubby is strong)

And the board was rotten...

 

But I was so glad he participated, because it was a lot more involved than I thought.

First, he had to saw the old bolts off of the original hinges.

Those sparks tingle on the skin.

I had the hard task of searching for bolt halves in the grass.

Hubby always gives me the hard jobs...

Then he had to drill new holes into the board.



And jostle them in to place, after grinding off some of the rust.

 



And hammer them in to place and hammer down the hinge...

 



 

And then it was done!

And I LOVE it!

And Hubby. I love him too. And not just because he does what I want if I bat my eyes enough, or give him sad face or accuse him of destroying the old swing that brought me pure joy and true happiness...

 

 

And so I sat on it.

 

It is so hard to take pictures while balancing. I won't tell you whether or not I fell in to the Hostas.

 

This is where I will spend my summer.

Zoe VonSnugglebottoms can hop around her bunny palace.

And I'll be reading, drinking iced tea, and staring at my garden....

 

 

So Happy!

 

Hubs cut the board four feet long so I could really stretch out.

I LOVE the length...

 

And the foliage right next to it is great...

 

And the wagon wheel my awesome brother gave me for Christmas  is right next to it.

 

And I've got a great view o my bean teepee built with bamboo from my aunt.

 

It's gonna be a barefoot, swinging, iced tea kinda summer!

 

What's going on in your garden?

What kind of structures have you put in?

Where's your favorite spot in your yard?

Share, Share, Share!!!!

 

 

 

Red, White, and Blue Dwarf Kale

Holidays in the good ole USA.

'Merica.

Land of the Free.

 

And after yesterday, Land of the FULL.

 

'Cause Americans can FEAST, given any possible occasion.

I've seen "half-birthday" parties, "you just got out of prison" parties, "you're single and alone but you like it that way" parties, and everything in between.

 

But celebrating our independence as a nation, man, can we put on a spread.

 

So I wandered out into the garden to see what I could forage up...

My bean blend has quite the mix of yummy beans...

And I pulled out more fistfuls of radishes...

 

And sat down on the patio in my star spangled pants to cut them.

Some of them were a bit small an nubby...

While others looked more like beets than radishes.

But when I was finished chopping everything up,

I had a nice batch of radishes and blue dwarf kale.

I picked what I think is the last of my harvest of snap peas.

Which I promptly ate because they are wretchedly addictive and I have no self control around a snappy, snap pea.

 

And then I made fresh baguettes and topped them with a little goat cheese and sliced radishes.

I had a delicious holiday.

 

How was yours?

Did you eat anything out of your garden?

Share! Share! Share!

 

They're All Growin' UP...

This was back in March...

A barren wasteland of dirt and ladders.

I pushed a few fistfuls of seeds in to the ground...

 

 

And I got these little guys a few weeks later.

And then we started to get hurricane amounts of water followed by Sahara desert amounts of sunlight...

 

And these little guys turned in to THESE guys...

There's Dwarf Kale at the base of the ladders, mixed winter squash weaving their way up the ladders, and sunflowers towering over them...

 

It's amazing what a little seed can become!

 

These old ladders are just perfect in the garden. The winter squash tendrils grip on to just about any little chip and crevice.

I can't wait to see the different varieties as the start to form,

especially the Red Kuri Squash!

 

And I FINALLY,

 

After three years of alternating between crying and raging at the squirrels,

 

got a Sunflower...

 

 

 What's going on in your garden? Share, share, share! Pretty please...