The Garden My Husband Built

I often come up with lots of great ideas that create a good deal of work for my husband. Over these 16 years of togetherness, we seem to fall into these roles as a couple. I come up with some crazy plan and he makes it happen.

After a successful summer with a container herb garden on my deck, I thought we definitely needed a garden. The problem was, I am a very inconsistent "maintainer" (is that a word). I tend to have a ton of enthusiasm at the beginning of a project and then fizzle out as I get bored or discouraged. So, if this garden was going to work, it had to be pretty self-sustaining.

After a lot of research (thanks, Internet!) I decided we would need a raised bed garden with a drip irrigation system on a timer. Following much of the advice in Mel Bartholomew's book, Square Foot Gardening, we found a sunny spot in the yard and made a plan.

Cedar really would have been the best option for the beds, but it was out of our price range. We didn't want to use plain lumber because of the toxins it would leak into the ground. Although it is less than ideal, we settled on painted lumber (I LOVE the paint color - husband? not so much).



We put river rocks around the beds to keep weeds down and some flagstone for a walkway through the garden area. We put chicken wire underneath each of the beds to try to keep out digging varmits from beneath.




The drip irrigation on a timer has really been a life saver. If I go on vacation, the garden still gets watered. If I forget, the garden still gets watered. This is the number one thing that has turned my black thumb at least military green.




So, after two years of gardening, we have had some great successes (such as an abundant strawberry harvest, beautiful herbs, and lots of broccoli) and we have had many failures (2 years of failed eggplant, spinach destroyed by aphids, and deer eating all our tomato plants). But each year we learn a great deal. It brings me so much joy to tend to the plants with my children and to "pick" our dinner at night.

The Garden My Husband Built is a Finer Thing

This post is a contribution to Finer Things Friday at Amy's The Finer Things in Life.

Cre8-ing New Years Resolutions

It's that time of year. The end of another year that has past by more quickly than the last. I just looked at my last blog post and it was dated 2009! I think that the trouble is, I want to be posting about new projects every day, but it is just too much as a full-time working mom of 3 young boys. So, my first New Years Resolution is about blogging:

• Resolution 1: Blog Sometimes, and Only When I Have Something Useful to Say

As I sit and think about my goals for the upcoming year, gardening is one of the first things that comes to mind. I have had an active vegetable garden for two years now with many delightful success and many failures along the way. I am terrible at regular maintenance, so my goal is to have a gardening system in place that I cannot mess up! I feel that I am going into this year with so many lessons learned and a whole lot of inspiration to grow food in the spring, summer, and fall.

• Resolution 2: Maintain a 3 Season Garden (Spring, Summer, Fall)

I am no seamstress, but I love to "hack" together some clothes, costumes, and other sewing projects. Re-purposing a useless piece of clothing into a useful one is my favorite way to sew. Which brings me to my third resolution...

• Resolution 3: Document at Least One Re-Purposing Sewing Project

Whole foods cooking and baking has been an ongoing journey for all of us in my home. What works? What doesn't work? There are a lot of projects here I would like to get documented.

• Resolution 4: Document More Cooking and Baking Projects

I have not been successful at ridding my life of all things plastic. However, for so many reasons (see My Plastic-Free Life), I want to minimize plastic usage in my life, especially those things that are disposables. It's always a challenge to find good, reusable alternatives and it takes some Cre8-tivity to make it happen.

• Resolution 5: Use Even Less Plastic

So, I will try to keep these resolutions this year, but I will not stress myself about it. To me, it is more important to that is to keep my balance and have all priorities in place.

What to Do with Old Pants: Travel Pillow Cases

Adult-sized non-tapered chinos or Jeans are just perfect for very simple pillow-case for a travel-size pillow. I love to have travel pillows with us for naps in the car or to use with sleeping bags on overnight trips to Grandma’s house. However, things get so dirty in the car being accidentally stepped on with muddy shoes or ending up with popsicle sticks melted into them. I needed a cover for these travel pillows that I could just throw into the washer with everything else – and I didn’t have too much time toi spend on this project.

So, after making my “coloring bag” (also good for travel in the car), I took the left-over pants legs from my husbands old chinos and made them into a nice little pillow-case. Here’s how I did it:

1. Get a travel pillow (you could make one from scratch - I found these at CVS).
   
2. Cut off a pant leg from a worn pair of chinos. Choose a 15 in section of the pants that is wide enough to fit around the pillow.
3. Sew: Sew up the side at an angle so the top and bottom end up the same width. Sew down the bottom of the pillowcase.
   
4. Fold under the top of the pillow case twice and sew around.
5. Turn right side out.
   

Once I was finished with the sewing portion, I wanted to personalize them for the kids. (They do love to have their own, personal items. So, on our trip to the beach in the car, here’s how I did it:

1. I had them each choose a picture they wanted on them.
2. Using a ball point pen, I wrote out their name and drew their respective fish, shark, and turtle
3. Then using a back stitch I hand-stitched around my free-hand drawing. Then I embroidered on their names. With such a thick material for the pillow case - I didn't find any need for a hoop.
   
4. Voila – no they each have a one-of-a-kind very special travel pillow.
   

These get a lot of use around here and can easily just get thrown in the laundry for cleaning.

What to Do with Old Pants: Special Bags

My boys all have to wear khaki pants as part of their school uniform. Three of my oldest son’s pants had been worn through the knees (or cut with “safety” scissors). Rather than just getting rid of them, I thought I’d alter them in to khaki shorts. No problem… just snip, snip and hem. I hated to just throw out the bottoms of the pants, but I couldn’t justify adding to my “scrap fabric for creative projects when I have the time” pile.

I got the idea to turn the pants legs into a “special bag” for each of them. Kids, especially ones with siblings with whom they must share everything, love to have something “special” made just for them. Here’s how I did it

1. Turn pant leg inside out.
2. Sew a Seem down the un-hemmed side
3. Optional: (to give it more depth) Rotate to the side and sew a line forming a triangle (do the same on the other side.


4. Flip right-side-out. Cut 2 slits in the existing hem on the inside of the bag
5. Using a yarn needle, take some scrap yarn and work it all through the hem and out the other slit. This will form your draw string
6. Tie a knot in the string and voila, you are done!

You could also finish them off by needlepointing their names on the bags – or even just writing them with a fabric marker.

These bags can be used for snack bags or storage. They are a great reusable alternative to Ziploc bags for that kind of thing. But, when we are going somewhere and the kids want to bring toys, I like to tell them “Get your special bag and you can bring whatever can fit in there.” They love to spend time choosing the toys they want to bring with them and gathering them all up. Last time we went hiking and rock climbing as a family, they brought their special bags full of dinosaurs. My 5-yo did not like to have to carry the bag, so he had the idea of getting a stick and hanging the bag on the stick while resting it on his shoulder. Of course, as soon as he had done this, his little brothers wanted in on the action. Before you know it, we had a parade of boys Tom Sawyer-style hiking up the mountain with their sacks. We got a lot of adoring looks on that hike!



USES:

• Keep Puzzle Pieces Together - Those cardboard boxes don't last long in my house. Using these little bags lets you throw multiple bags of puzzles into a drawer or a basket without getting all the pieces mixed up. Plus, it looks nice.
  
• Lunch Sack - this is a great reusable little lunch bag for bringing on hikes or to the park or even to school.
• Toy Sack - Let your little ones stuff as many toys as they can into the bag to bring with them to a friend's house or their brother's soccer game or rock climbing!
• Travel Organizer - When packing for a big trip (or even a little one), these little drawstring bags are great for putting like things together. For our annual trip to the beach this year, I packed up one bag with all the spices we would need (so I could save $$ on shopping while I was there). I put all the kids toiletries in another one.
• Gift Bag - Rather than buying a gift bag at the store, these make excellent gift bags for smaller items. And it is something that the new owner can reuse or re-purpose.
  
• There are infinite uses. Do you have some other ideas?
  

What to Do with Old Pants

After seeing how much of the clothes that we donate still end up in landfills, I was reluctant to just get rid of all the outgrown or torn khaki pants without a fight.I started with thinking about some of my simple living goals and what I needed to meet them. One was to buy less clothing and household items. Another was to really cut down on my use of plastic bags. So, my remaking of old khakis turned into four small and easy projects.

1. Uniform Shorts
2. Pant Leg “Special Bags”
3. Personalized Travel Pillow Cases
4. Pocket Activity Bag

I’m sure there are more great projects out there for pants. Anyone have ideas to share?