Summer Planter and Front Porch Ideas

Over the past year I have been snapping photos and searching online for cute, summer front porch and planter ideas, I finally edited the photos so I could share ideas with you!

I also included my personal addition, the first successful planter I put together!  I got the idea from the farmers market, but by purchasing the flowers/plants myself, and using planter I already owned, I cut the cost in half.

My Planter :)

Other Planter Ideas

 

  

 

  

Little Garden Update

A few weeks ago I took a few hours with the kids and we got our whole garden in.

 This year was by far the easiest year yet!  Last year my husband built boxes and we dumped composted manure inside.  This year all I had to use was my handy tool (That Drew got my for mother's day last year) for a few minutes and the garden was ready to go in. I am growing everything from seed this year again, except for 2 tomato plants, and 1 basil plant I purchased from the farmers market.  I order all my seeds from rareseeds.com  They are all heirloom, non-gmo, and super cheap!  I am growing cucumbers, bush green beans, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, parsley, lettuce, spinach, strawberries, blue berries, red & black raspberries.

This tool is amazing!  Every gardener should own one!!

My green bean rows, Drew and Emma planted them, they are sprouting up all over the place, very funny!

Lettuce & Spinach, cucumbers (in the tomato cages- great idea Joslyn told me about, they grow up the cages and over)  Tomatoes grow up to poles, I fasten the stems as they grow.  I tried the black week blocker this year so I wouldn't need to weed, I have never done it before, so I will let you know what I think.  So far, no weeding so I am LOVING that!

My berry patch, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries.  They come back every year and require almost no work!  Just a little weekending and pruning :)

The blueberries have arrived!  Last year I only got 5, this year looks like about 20-25 (it takes 9 years before it fully produces!!)

Red Raspberries are forming.

Wild black raspberries grown on the back of our property, this year the crop is huge!!

In years past my strawberries have not done well, I have gotten about 10, just enough for the kids to pick on every once in a while.  This year that are TONS of strawberries!  Praise the Lord!  I am so excited. 

And wouldn't you know it, my little fruit scout Drew spotted this one, already ripe!  I took this photo May 31st.  Red strawberries in May!!! Can you believe it?  So excited!  We are getting a few a day now :)  That is, if I keep Emma away, she has gotten a taste of picking fruit, so the green ones are getting pulled off too, it is fun for her.  Love that little sweet heart!

Growing Children with "Green" Thumbs

After two years of failed attempts at growing greens, we have successfully reaped our first harvest of lettuce and spinach!  So exciting to see all that watering and weeding paying off!  My kids helped through out the whole process, from planting the seeds, weeding the garden, watering and picking the full grown leaves.  I took the greens inside to wash and store, and I could have done it much faster by myself, but God showed me this could be a great teaching opportunity.  So, although it took longer, and was way messier than it would have been by myself, my son and daughter learned how to work together, patience, following directions, washing, drying and storing home grown salad greens.  They LOVED helping, and it brought such joy to my heart seeing their little faces laugh and play and learn together.  I hope to look back and remember this experience, and see that just a few extra minutes and a little extra clean up time led to great memories and in the end my little helpers learned a new skill!!

Also....if you have children that aren't too keen on eating vegetables, try to grow some, they will be way more likely to try it, if they help with the whole process.  My two kids both ate lettuce and fresh spinach right off the plant, I couldn't believe it, so I had to take a picture!

We cleaned our fresh picked greens by placing in a bowl and filling with water. Stir leaves around, let the dirt settle at the bottom.  Scoop leaves out and place into a colander, drain and rinse the bowl, and repeat until there is no dirt in the bottom of the bowl.  It took us 3 times.

Drew and Emma enjoyed swishing the leaves around in the water.

We dried our leaves on napkins, and after soaking up the water we placed leaves in a gallon zip-lock bag.  I might have to look into getting a salad spinner :)  

Fun times!!

Sowing a Love for Gardening

I have been working on getting my garden going.  Last year I grew all of our crops from seeds planted right in the ground, except the tomatoes.  Planting seeds actually works!!!  Ha ha!  I usually buy the plants already started from the local farmers market, so I had never worked with seeds before.  This past year I started the tomatoes a few weeks before the last frost, which had them produce later than usual.  We started our tomato seeds today, so hopefully they will be just in time.  I let my children scoop the dirt, plant the seeds and water them.

It took a little longer than it would have if I had done it myself, but I am hoping to instill a love for gardening in them.  Sowing and successful growing always takes time, a lot of diligent, hard work and patience, but in the end all the tedious time spent pays off. Teaching kids to take time and put in the effort develops character and persistence and shows them the benefit of hard work.  Oh, how they love to go out and pick the fresh veggies from the garden in the summer, that they helped grow. They try EVERYTHING from the garden, so it also encourages them to eat vegetables too.  

I am a part of a WONDERFUL bible study on Monday mornings with women from 6 different churches.  It is so beautiful seeing unity in the body of Christ.  We have found our desire to walk with Jesus, a love for God's word and a heart to grow in the things of the LORD as our common goals.  This week we were actually discussing sowing and reaping.  We talked about what you sow into your mind, your marriage, your kids is what you will reap.  

“ Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.  So let's not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don't give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.” Galatians 6:7-10 MSG

In our group we were talking about sowing spiritual things, such as if we want our kids to have a love for God's word we need to begin teaching the word to them and praying that they will have a love for it.  If we want our husbands to share in our interests, we need to share in and adapt ourselves to theirs.  If we want a mind at rest that dwells on good things, we need to listen to, read and watch peaceful, wholesome, God-honoring things.  

I hope to spend more time thinking about what I want to reap in my life, and I pray that God will show me how and what I need to sow to get those harvests.   “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” 2 Cor 9:10

Greens in Spring

I really enjoy gardening.  Every year I try a new crop and see how it does.  Last year my best crops were tomatoes and green beans.  I have tried lettuce the last three years, but it never does well in the summer.  I have decided that this year I am actually going to plant lettuce when the package says to plant lettuce, in the spring (or fall).  I planted "Amsterdam Prickly Seeded SPINACH" and "Rouge d'Hiver Lettuce".  These are both heirloom seeds, the lettuce dates back to at least the late 1800's and the spinach was actually grown in Thomas Jefferson's garden!!  I purchased my seeds last year from: rareseeds.com, from a company called: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  I was HIGHLY satisfied with my order from this company, the seeds they offer are heirloom, organic, natural and non-gmo.  The prices are fabulous, shipping is cheap, and a young christian family own and run it.

So anyways, I am hoping these do better for me than my lettuce & spinach in the past.  When we had our warm spell back in March I planted the seeds.

Of course my "Acts of Service" (Check out the Five Love Languages) little boy had to help!!  Best helper EVER!!

LETTUCE

Today we found these growing!  A special "Thank You" to my neighbor Sunny who watered and took care of  our little sprouts while we were on vacation.

SPINACH

Story Time and Picnics

With this gorgeous summer weather I am trying very hard to get out as much as possible.  Where we live winter lasts a LONG time, and this year my smallest child was just too little to be out in the cold.  It was a long winter filled with lots of movies and sitting around.  I hope to be more creative this year and look forward to the kids being older and able to spend more time out of doors.  Both of my kids love to be outside and also love to read, so why not combine the two?  We usually read before going down for nap time, "quiet time" or bed time.  Recently we have been throwing a blanket out under a shady tree and reading together.  It is LOVELY!  I definitely recommend doing this with your kiddos.  It is so simple, but they just love it, and it is a nice excuse to get more fresh air.

I just read my sister in law's post on picnics ( http://dearlylovedmist.blogspot.com/2011/06/picnics.html) and we have now added food to the mix. Picnics or snacks outside don't have to be elaborate, the whole idea is less to clean up and more time to have fun.  I made some gluten free toast, had Emma's tin tea pot filled with ice cold water, and juicy watermelon slices yesterday and we enjoyed the sights and smells of summer.  My husband got home early and we were excited to welcome him to our picnic story time.  It was really fun and just something different to do.  I would love to hear your ideas on creative things to do outside, I am always looking for something new to try.

Our Vegetable Garden is IN!!!!

Well I have been wanting to post about my garden for a while now.  I held off because I wanted to make sure it was successfully growing before I shared it on my blog.  I ordered and am growing ALL of my plants from seeds this year.  This was a bit intimidating I have to admit.  I am definitely no master gardener and every year I am learning new things.

I started gardening 6 years ago with a few tomato plants.  I purchased them from the farmers market already 4 inches tall.  I got about 10 tomatoes and I quickly learned tomato plants need FULL sun for any real good crop.  For the past 5 growing seasons I have purchased all my plants already a few inches high from our local farmers market.  I have tried cucumbers, hot peppers, bell peppers, strawberries, onions, tons of tomatoes, garlic, basil, corn, cilantro, bush & pole green beans, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, butternut squash, raspberries, blueberreis, and zucchini (lots and lots of zucchini- so much so that I can't even think of growing it this year LOL).  It has been interesting and a great learning experience.  I look forward to August every year when all the fruits (and veggies) of our labor are ripe for the picking and eating :)

It has been so fun now with Drew, he LOVES helping and it is a great excuse to get outside every day and enjoy time together.  Every year I am working on how to set up the plants, last year I had Emma in June and I did not weed at all, it was all  over grown, and not very nice looking.  Although it didn't look very pleasing to the eye it did produce pretty well.  This year I decided that our garden would not only be functional, but also add to our back yard, not make it look bad LOL.  Thankfully my husband agreed (after a little begging) to help me make it "cute".  It has taken a few weekends of working on it, but last night we finally finished it.

Before

Our composted manure piles.

 

My wonderful husband tilling the ground, mixing the compost in.

We decided on raised beds and filled it with composted manure we got for free from a local farm.  Check craigslist for cheap or possibly even free aged/composted manure.  

After

Stone path dividing the beds

We were going to let the grass grow between the beds, but my mother in law gave us the idea of  making a little path and that way we don't have to do any more work than we have to (like weed-whacking).  LOVE how they turned out, makes me want to set up a little table and have tea in the garden.  Not quite big enough for that, but we have been having tea parties by our play set this week, it has been lovely!