Hoop House!

Jesse and I took on the challenge of making a hoop house for our community garden plot.  This year it will be more of trial situation to see if what we did will work. It took planning, shopping and a few times at the garden to complete. The biggest area of contention was on the plastic. I found numerous of articles stating regular painting plastic. Our friends at the garden said it had to be (super expense) greenhouse plastic to let in the correct UV rays.  We shall see if it works!

Our project uses about half of a 10' x 25' roll of 3mil. plastic, 8- 10', 1/2" dia. PVC pipes, 10 circle screws, twine and plastic holders.

Here are the results:

Currently, we have planted our strawberry plant, carrots, onions and (donated to us) catnip.

Bonus- time lapse of our garden this year, 2011

Must take way more pictures next year, I do not even have pictures of our tall beautiful sunflowers that were there. Will do better in 2012!

Look what you can accomplish in just a year!

My boyfriend, Jesse and I started this year (2011) wanting to really work on our "green" habits. We actually accomplished a great deal this year and I wanted to share the list. It all started with our new friends the worms.

1. Worm Compost- Still functioning well and the worms have had babies too.
2. Purchased a cedar plant box for our patio.
3. Joined a Community Garden
4. Made natural cleaners for the home- We are still working on using up the chemical ones, but have not bought new and have mostly used the green ones because they work better.
5. Made laundry detergent
6. Bought sturdy plastic cups, plates and cutlery for a family reunion (we collected in a bin and washed/ stored them for next time).
7. Started supply of glass containers for leftovers to replace the plastic ones we currently use.
8. Changed all my bills to online and e-pay so that I no longer receive any paper bills.
9. Learned how to make paper
10. Made a raised bed for my parents
11. At work, I changed our schedule posting from being single sided to double. This will save a lot of paper per year (and we recycle them when we are done).


Items we have started and will continue working on:
1. Shopping locally
2. looking at items and their packaging before we buy

Items we were already doing:
1. Recycling
2. Using metal cans for water instead of plastic bottles
3. Visiting the farmer's market


We also harvested  from our community garden plot and at home: zucchinis, swiss chard, carrots, spinach, lettuce mixes, rosemary, oregano, pumkins, sunflowers and bachelor buttons. 

What a Year And I plan on doing a lot more next year!

Fall Fun

Veggies & Running

Simple Post today, top photo is some of our harvest from our box at the community garden and bottom photo is of a lovely little pumpkin starting to grow. Both of our pumpkin plants have jumped out of the box. Opps! 

&

runningfreeonline.com

I have started my fifth week of my running program detailed in a previous post. I can now run for 12 mins. together and 28 of the 30 mins. total. 

My inspiration picture of the week~~~~>

And a bit about the picture-

"More research led me to K.V. Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with an issued number (Roberta Gibb had run the race the year earlier, 1966, without a number. She had hid behind a bush at the start). By using her initials, Switzer had gone unnoticed as a woman until two miles to race. That's when Race director Will Cloney and official Jock Semple physically tried to remove her from the race."- The Sew Weekly, Vintage clothing piece

Thank you Ms. Switzer for pushing those limits for us women!

Community Garden Update

We had a slow start at our community garden , but it is finally starting to come around.

Our Zucchini is ginormous and has four zucs growing on it currently. We pulled several small ones and then one the size of a football!

The sunflowers are growing so tall and working on their flowers. Yippee!

Lastly, the carrots have shoulders and we have pulled a carrot or two see their progress. WE ate our first home grown carrot and it was Delicious!

Also, we have pulled a set of carrots that are in love. They were too close together and braided themselves. Jesse was afraid that this might happen. Braided carrots may be seen as a mistake in the gardening world, but it makes me giggle every time I see them (Bonus picture next time I post). So cute!

Lessons we learned so far:
1. Do not sow the seeds too deep. Dig a very small indent in dirt, place seed and lightly cover over with dirt.
2. Start the seeds indoors if you can. In little peat pots and cover them so they stay warm and moist.
3. Have patience because they will grow it may just take a little time!

 Next garden post will be of some yummies. We have pulled our first official harvest of swiss chard, carrots and zucchinis.

Raised Garden Beds!

For my parents joint Birthday presents this year my boyfriend and I decided to make a raised bed for their back yard. My mom was the first to approach us about the idea for surprising my Stepdad. We took the idea and decided to include her in the surprise (my mom is very busy and was so excited that it had been done for her).

Here is a picture of the bed that we did for My mom and Stepdad.

Here is  the website that we used as our guide and then a step by step of what we did to accomplish the project.    http://eartheasy.com/grow_raised_beds.htm

Simple Raised Garden Bed Tutorial with some handy tips!

Other ideas for a raised bed garden, if you do not have access to lumber or tools.

Plastic moving containers (thanks Meme for this idea), wine crates, and/or buy a pre-made one (We bought our first from a nice man at the Farmers' market).


Hope you enjoy and See you next week!

Do I have a green thumb?

Community and container gardens are my latest "green" endeavor. This post is about my gardens and my green thumb efforts. Our container garden is well under way and our plot has been given to us at the community garden. The city of Tacoma has recently started seven new community gardens. My boyfriend and I were lucky enough join at the start of one of these lovely gardens.

My Grandmother (Meme, my mom's mom) and Granddaddy (dad's dad) have inspired me to want to continue the traditions of gardening and farming. My Meme, has always thoroughly enjoyed gardens. Some of my early memories include her Alabama mountain homes with their beautiful gardens. She now resides in the North Carolina mountains and continues her gardens. My granddaddy and I use to fill bucket after bucket picking our blueberry plants on the farm I grew up on as a child.

For now I reside with my boyfriend in an apartment and we have started a container garden. We bought a cedar plant box from our local farmer's market and have since filled it with an array of wonderful plant babies (culinary lavender, oregano, rosemary, lettuce and spinach). We have had them for a little over a month and they seem to be enjoying there new home.

Also, while searching for a way to volunteer locally, I stumbled on a community garden that was in our neighborhood. It is a short fifteen minute walk from our apartment through a lovely residential area.  We have since joined and have been given a plot for even more room for plant babies. At the WSU plant sale a few weekends ago, we purchased zucchini, strawberry and a Geum "red dragon" (pretty flower). I am excited to get them in the ground and watch their progress! Anyone need any zucchini? I hear that they produce a very healthy crop.

I am very enthusiastic about our gardens and am very appreciative to have such a wonderful person in my life (my boyfriend) that has aided in starting something that is very important to me.