Category : Outdoors

117 posts

201601/11

T Tuesday: Winter garden edition

Welcome to a chilly edition of T stands for Tuesday!

All summer I had been giving you garden updates so today I thought I’d show you my winter garden. Maybe I should rephrase that….my garden in winter.

Last week before the temps dropped into the negative°F, we had a little snow that gave everything a lovely coat of white. Since I had to go out to shovel anyway, I grabbed the camera for a little photo tour.

winter garden

You can see my rosemary, sage and horseradish covered in snow. I have no idea of the herbs will make it but I’m not terribly concerned. I harvested a bunch for smudge sticks late in the season.
winter garden

I love how the snow rests on the fencing and flags.

winter garden

I decided to leave the flags up this year as they are quite faded and worn. I want to replace them next summer.

winter garden

winter garden
How do you think the worms are doing in their tower? I hope they dug deep enough to survive the winter. Only time will tell.

winter garden tea

As for me…I’m drinking lots of hot tea trying to keep warm. The cocoa is for Mr. G…he’s taking a vacation day. Good day to do it too when it’s so dang cold! Especially since he works both inside and out.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors

gardening, T Tuesday

15 Comments

halleday

201511/03

T Tuesday: smudge stick edition

During the process of putting the garden to bed for the winter, I drastically trimmed back my herbs. Now I am crossing my fingers that the plants themselves will overwinter.

Anyway I decided to make some smudge sticks as I have heard that burning sage helps deter mosquitoes. Worth a try.

I found a spool of heavy duty cotton button thread in my stash and set to work.

I likely could have made 4 bundles but honestly they were a pain to make. It will be interesting to see if they work next summer.

I’m linking up once again with Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday…

my beverage is coffee again. Soon with the weather changing I’ll be back to tea to stay warm.

Lots on calendar today including 2 doctor appointments.

What are you doing today?

Blog | Outdoors | Tutorials

T Tuesday: worm tower edition

Today for this edition of T stands for Tuesday I thought I’d share a DIY project made from recycled pieces of the kids old play set.

I read about worm tower composting on Pinterest. It looked like a great solution for my raised bed garden. Most of the links I saw used a PVC pipe instead of wood.

Since we had scrap cedar laying around it seemed like a perfect use without spending any money. Mr. G did the construction and drilling of the holes for me after I explained my idea.

The holes let the worms migrate in and out of the tower to spread the compost throughout the raised bed. Isn’t that awesome…they do the work for me!

We even had an old handle in the shed from the sandbox cover. A perfect fit for the lid.

Now it was time to install … I dug down to the bottom of the box…well truth be told the box doesn’t have a solid bottom….just landscape cloth. I assume eventually that will rot away.

I back filled all around the tower and attached it with one screw just in case some critter decided to try and mess with it. It looks like it’s always been there.

Now all I needed was some composting worms. Amazon.com never ceases to amaze me with what I am able to order.

This was a strange bin to find on my front step a few days later.

I started saving kitchen scraps after ordering my worms. The paperwork that came with them said they also enjoy paper and cardboard. I grabbed a couple handfuls of shredded paperwork and started layering the material in the tower.

Honestly I was worried about getting the worms…would they still be alive? Yep…red and wiggly. I have no idea if they will survive a Minnesota winter in the garden and worm tower. From what I read they do have a good chance of survival. Only time will tell.

Do you compost? I’d love to hear about your system.

Blog | Outdoors | Tutorials

gardening, recycling, T Tuesday

22 Comments

halleday

201509/15

T Tuesday: end of season edition

Ah here we are…the end of summer. Gardening is all but done. Leaves are turning and falling at a rapid pace around here. The birds and critters are frantically storing food for the long winter.

I ripped out the plants from the home gardens yesterday. I still have plants in my in-laws garden that will come out next weekend.I’ve been canning like crazy. More spicy beans and salsa. I’m really looking forward to breaking into those jars come the dead of winter!!

I also have to share my colorful carrots.

Aren’t they pretty!! I sampled a couple and they are quite tasty. These are going in my next beef roast dinner. YUM!

My important phone call I mentioned last week came but not with the results I had hoped for. Such a bummer!!! I really thought I had that job! I even had gotten a tour of “my work space” at the end of the interview.

BAH!! Anyway…moving on…

Since I don’t have a regular gig to go to, I’ll continue to do my on-call subbing. At least that leaves time for art!

I’ve actually done a bit of creating! Will wonders never cease! I completed one art journal page and just need to put the final touches on a second. Waiting for paint and glue to dry. The above page isn’t my favorite but I was just happy that I still had the drive to create.

I’ll be meeting with some friends for breakfast today…real casual. Likely head there after working out…seriously casual. :) Not exactly sure what the rest of the day holds for me…other than a shower. HA!

What are you doing today?

Art | Blog | Kitchen | Outdoors

art journal, gardening, kitchen, T Tuesday

15 Comments

halleday

201508/11

T Tuesday: harvest edition

Hello! I made it for T stands for Tuesday…I was beginning to think that I’d be missing it until school starts. I still won’t guarantee I’ll be here every week but I’ll certainly try my level best to join in the fun.

I’ve been collecting seeds from my Cleome plant now that I know what it’s called. I’m guessing there will be a bunch of volunteers starting under the deck next Spring though since so may seed pods broke open before I noticed.

Look at the pretty tomatoes on the vine. I’ve been having Caprese salad for lunch each day. The fresh mozzarella likely isn’t the best for the waistline but you’ve got to eat those tomatoes when they are at their peak!

This was my harvest photos from the last two days! YUM!! Look at that ridiculous cucumber though…I finally just picked the dumb thing since it’s been that size for a week.

T Tuesday: harvest edition| Halle's Hobbies I also so happy with the way my little flower garden is doing this year…

The pots are so nice and full.

Little J and I are off to the salon to get haircuts in a little while. I’m thinking I’m going to get 5-6 inches cut off. I’m tired of constantly having my hair in a ponytail or bun. Big J just endured almost 2 hours in the orthodontist chair this morning…poor kid. We’ll have to bring home him some ice cream to sooth his sore mouth.

What are you doing today?

T Tuesday: week in review edition

We had a busy week leading up to the July 4th holiday weekend. I barely touched my computer for days… I totally missed 2nd on the Second that Elizabeth our T stands for Tuesday also hosts. I didn’t even realize I missed it until the 5th. How’s that for being out of touch!

Lets start back on Tuesday of last week…

after writing my T post, we headed off to my inlaws to check out the damage to the garden and their house. The garden was a wreck. Leaves and plants ripped to shreds and beaten into the mud. I cleaned up as much as I could and will just hope for the best. At least we have a thriving garden here at home as well.

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur… I can’t even remember what we did.

Friday evening was spent at the carnival in town. The kids had a great time. I had a great time too. I wasn’t looking forward to going this year but I’m glad I did.

I don’t know if you can tell from the photo (upper left side) but we’ve been effected by smoke from the Canadian wild fires here. The sun at times is just a red glow in the sky. Yesterday after our heavy rains ended it was so hazy and the air smelled really bad. I found out later that we were under an air quality warning. Our air quality was worse than Beijing, China yesterday. Thankfully today it has cleared out.

EDIT: I can still smell the smoke but at least the sky is clear.

On to Independence day…

Before the parade I walked over to the hockey rink at the Elementary school to check out the chalk drawing contest entries now that they were complete. Amazing work! The girl who drew Uncle Sam was 14 yrs old! Wow!

And now parade time….

The annual flyover by a T6 Texan squadron announces the start of the parade. Then we have another good 30 minutes before the parade reaches our seats. That’s ok…we sit with a group of about 55 people in a friends back yard along the parade route. Can’t beat that!

It was a hot and steamy day…my drink of choice…

Ok I didn’t get that fancy that day…I had to take one for the team yesterday for dramatic effect on the post. *grin*

After the sticky day it was time for a dip in the neighbors pool.

And then some fireworks…

We are back to a normal schedule I think. Errands, hopefully knitting and visiting my T friends are on the list for today.

What are you doing?

Blog | Outdoors

gardening, Holidays, T Tuesday

13 Comments

halleday

201506/30

T Tuesday: Juneberry jam edition

Welcome to yet another edition of T stands for Tuesday hosted by Dr. E aka Elizabeth, caretaker of Bleubeard and Squiggles.

So what’s a Juneberry you ask? I love putting words in your mouth…makes me feel all powerful and full of myself.

But seriously…ever heard of a Juneberry? How about a Saskatoon berry? Or perhaps a Serviceberry? Until recently I didn’t know that they all happen to be the same thing. And even more so…we have a tree in our yard. Wish I’d realized that 12 years ago when it was much smaller!!

Of course they are much tastier when left until they are a deep purple…but you have to fight the birds for them.

I found several recipes online for Juneberry jam but decided to go with this low sugar version.

Isn’t it pretty!?! I ended up with a partial jar that went into the fridge for immediate consumption.

I’m not a big sweets girl…(unless it’s chocolate…which I’m allergic to but I’m willing to deal with the consequences occasionally but that’s a whole other issue)…so a slightly tart jam suits me just fine. Honestly I haven’t tried it on bread yet…just the spoon. Slightly tart and quite full of seeds. It will depend on if anyone else likes the jam if I bother with all the tedious picking again. It would be interesting to know if you could make wine or mead or some sort of adult beverage from these berries. More research I guess.

Speaking of research…can anyone help me with the name of this flower?

I believe it starts with a “C” but I threw out the handy dandy marker that came with the plant. I want to write it down so I can remember to purchase more next year.

I’m not sure what’s on the docket for today other than talking to my in-laws. The Twin Cities area got hit with some pretty big thunderstorms yesterday…large hail, winds and heavy rain. We got very little hail here and not much of it so the garden is fine. We heard reports of two inch hail in their area though. UGH..that would be awful!

I have to show you my rouge bean plants too…I did not buy climbing beans but 4 of my plants have decided to climb.

I’ll be putting in some bamboo stakes today.