Day 10 AEDM

Some people may not think this was a creative day but to me it was. We had the day off yesterday and Jace was tired so we kept him home too. And two of my three older kids were home and helped with chores. We did some yard work, and I gathered the last of the sweet potatoes and carrots....








.....And herbs. I hung lavender, lemon balm, mint, sage, lemon thyme, and strawberry leaves to dry for tea later.....




I repotted my Rosemary into a pot I painted last summer. Now the face has a name; Rosemary











I got to shop at an antique store alone while my husband had an appointment and I picked up a new to me, vintage apron and an embroidered tablecloth.










And we finished the day with a bonfire....It was a good day....

A tour of my garden

I am going on a garden tour in my small town with my mother tomorow, so today I am giving you a tour of my garden. Nothing fancy, I would like it to be bigger, and I have plans for lots of cool garden decorations and stepping stones in between the checkerboard of boxes. And I wish it was healthier this year......It has been very hot, and  muggy, and too dry here for my small raised bed garden to be really thriving. My garden plants are much smaller than other years at this time. And yet we are still eatting zucchini and beets and I have been using my herbs. The only thing the critters have eatten are my marigolds, which were planted mostly just to deter critters! 

We live in town but near the edge so we get deer and bunnies and woodchucks, squirrel and bear.  The cats and the dog keep most of them away from our plants but I was worried the bear that kept coming around would eat all my berries. I saw him run off once when I took my dog out around midnight. And the next night he got in our garbage cans. Then a few nights later we were woken up by gunshots and men running around in our backyard with flashlights. The next morning, our neighbor, a sheriff's deputy, told us he and the town police officer had to shoot the bear that night when they saw he was sick. He had mange, i believe.

And yet while we were away something came in close to the house and ripped out one of my two watermelon plants, didn't eat it, just ripped it out. Overall though I would say we have been pretty lucky since we never fence anything in, (the fence in the photo is just a privacy fence that blocks our back yard from view from the road, it doesn't go all the way around.)

So here it is, looking pretty dry.......

Peas

Cherry tomatos

Rosemary and parsley

Zucchini

Cukes and my daughter's baby dragon

Brussell sprouts and cabbage

Butterball lettuce and rainbow blend carrots

More tomatos, we planted 7 types, as we make alot of canned salsa.

Blackberries, safe from the bear

Peppermint and sage

Lemon balm

Lavender, and winter savory

Silver mound, orange mint and lemon thyme

My new elderberry bushes

Hombre garden tags

The plant markers that I made a few years ago are still good but they get hidden by the plants as they grow so I wanted something new and taller this year...

so I made up a bunch of garden tags using wooden tags that are the size of giant popsicle sticks or miniature paint stirrers that I got at HobbyLobby. The only other thing I used were cheap acrylics and a permanent marker...

I started by painting one end  straight from the bottle, then without cleaning my brush I added a second color in the middle, blending a bit with my finger, then adding more of the second color till I got to the other end....

 Then I added simple patterns in white...

 

 And last I wrote on them with a black permanent sharpie...

 

 

I am really loving the way they turned out!

 

 I would love to know what types of garden tags you use....

and here's a link to the original garden markers I made two years ago... 

5. things that make me happy

1. My kids helped my husband and I make some raised beds and I am excited to be able to plant soon.....We built them 4'x4' and 10 inches tall.  We lay down newspapers over the grass, (well this one has cardboard instead of newspaper), then added a layer of old leaves, then compost mixed with just a little vermiculite and one bag of soil for all so actually very little soil added in. We have a huge compost pile that has been unused for years so we had enough for 5 squares and two long beds. 

 In between the squares is going to be flat rocks surrounded by gravel eventually I think...

2. My youngest didn't help but he was good and didn't try to run off the whole time we worked! and that is a wonderful thing, truly. He's on a 3 week good streak in his autism classroom at school. (If only we could figure out why, and make sure we keep doing what ever it is that turned his behavior around....)
I talk about him as if he was litttle, but as you can see he isn't anymore....

 

3. I have been having fun sketching and planning where things will be planted...

4. Making painted rock herb markers...

 I draw it on using my regular tip gel pen, then I add thickness along the edges...

woodland guardians

watching over my artwork

 judgmental  critics?

Then I spray them with a varnish, i have tried all different kinds, any will work.

5. My daughter is back home from New Mexico and excited about helping plant as well!