Gardening

September 26, 2014

DIY Fall Inspiration: Recycling Cement Bricks Into Flower Pots

Are you looking for an easy DIY project to celebrate Fall? Do you enjoy gardening? Then keep reading.

The weather here in the Midwest has been absolutely gorgeous! So, I’ve been using my time wisely outdoors splitting and transplanting plants around my yard.

I have these cement bricks lined up along the edge of the sidewalk in an effort to prevent my dogs from jumping off the ledge. I usually plant a spring flower in them, but this year I didn’t. Truthfully, they’ve sat empty for a couple of years. The last time I used them was here.

This week I decided to plant some mums in them. Perfect for Fall and you can’t go wrong with mums. Instead of buying additional dirt, I recycled some from a planter that was no longer in use.

I lined up where I wanted each plant to go.

Using a garden trowel, I loosened the dirt that was left in the bricks. After placing the mum in each spot I added some additional dirt as needed. Tip: Give them a good drink of water when your done.

I LOVE HOW THEY TURNED OUT!

The boys watched from start to finish. I guess you could say this is there smile of approval.

Until the next project…

July 25, 2014

Gardening Tips & Ideas: Part 2 of 2

On last week’s garden post, I shared a few tips and ideas that were used with this year’s garden. If you missed that post click here. I’m happy to report everything is doing awesome! Please excuse the color variation from photo to photo. They were captured with different cameras throughout the days of documenting the garden’s progress.

Patiently waiting for crops.

Once the plants started to grow, cages were placed around them. As you can see the tomato plant on the left has a stick in the center of it. It was growing way to big for a cage, but needed some additional support. Actually, it was an old broom stick I had in the garage that wasn’t being used. (recycling tip)

After the cages are in place keep an eye on the plants. You’ll want to make sure as it grows to keep the leaves on the outside of the cage.

The tomato plant continues to grow. As you can see in this photo the first support stick is invisible, so a second one was positioned according to what branches were the heaviest. Then I cut up a t-shirt (recycling tip) into strips to be used as a rope. You want to use a cotton t-shirt that way it’s soft against the stems. A robe may cause it to break.

Keep an eye on the straw in the garden. If the newspaper starts to show through, add another layer. The birds are having a blast stealing pieces to build their nests with. I don’t mind sharing with the condition that they stay away from the vegetables.

This has been the biggest tomato plant ever. Perhaps it’s because I opted not to place a cage around it. The photo shows another support stick, but at present time there are three sticks supporting its branches. Lots of tomatoes!

My favorite part of the garden is the recycled pallets. The leafy vegetables are doing well in them. Snipping off what I want and more comes in right away.

The collard greens have their own section in the garden. Adding the strip of straw down the center has proven successful. No weeds anywhere! And it makes a nice walkway in between the plants.

Have you ever harvested green peppers? It’s super easy. Click here for the details.

I captured this photo a couple of days ago and shared it on my Instagram account. They smell as good as they look.

So, I ask you. What’s in your garden?

June 13, 2012

DIY Garden Inspiration: Recycled Dog Kennel

Last year we scored a handful of dog kennel panels from a neighbor and recycled them to serve as a barrier around the garden. I say barrier because that’s what we need to keep the dogs out of the food source. Something tall to prevent them from jumping over. We grow a lot of tomatoes and onions which aren’t good for their belly. Chicken wire wasn’t doing the job, so we needed to try something else.

These were perfect!

It took us a couple of weeks to get the dirt ready to plant. No rototiller here. We use a shovel to turn the dirt. It’s very relaxing and a great stress reliever.

Almost ready.

Every year I use the fabric landscaping in the garden. Love this stuff!

This collection of plants and flowers was my Mother’s Day gift this year. I like using starter plants for the tomatoes, green peppers, various hot peppers, cabbage, and broccoli. The spinach and collard greens are started from seeds. There is limited space inside the house and three nosy dogs who would probably dig in the pots if we would attempt to start everything from seeds.

While we were planting Disco was having fun rolling in the grass with his football.

Our neighbor allowed us to chose the panels that we wanted. We found a gate in the pile and it works great. Adam positioned the plants according to their height and away from the door. In previous gardens we were stepping over plants to water other plants and realized we didn’t leave ourselves enough leg room. Another benefit of using the fabric landscaping.

Everything is growing except my spinach. I’ve had trouble with this in previous years. Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but oh well. Next year I’m planting kale in it’s place.

I’ll be sharing more pictures as the garden progresses.

If you have dogs and need a solution to keep them out of the garden, look for a kennel. Check your local paper, recycling center, or Craigslist for a used one. Some use the kennel to contain them in one place. We’re using it to keep them out of one place.

So, do you plant a garden?

May 23, 2012

DIY Instant Flower Pots Using Recycled Cement Bricks

Here’s an easy recycling project for you to do. These are the bricks that I got from a friend last year. I don’t have much knowledge in regards to flowers, so I just pick what looks good together and go with it. This year I chose begonias and dusty miller plants. I thought I was paying attention to the sun requirements, only to notice that one of them requires full sun. The bricks rest on the sidewalk where there is part sun. Oh well, hopefully they’ll survive. (Update, yes they both did well)

After weeding out what was left in the bricks from last year I added some additional top soil and then the plants. Going with an every other pattern placement gave them an interesting look.