Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Gardening with creativity

Over the years I have come up with some clever gardening idea's.  I have been pretty creative my whole life but these last few years have put me to the test.  I have all but eliminated plastics out of my life and guess what most gardening items are made of now days? Yep plastic.   I not only plant things in my actual garden but I plant many things in my front yard as well.  An idea my husband wasn't a fan of but now loves.  Time for a little show and tell!

 We build some large raised beds last year and I used the left over wood to build some smaller garden beds.  Metal trellis were used for growing pea's and beans up.  Three old wooden boxes I found at my grandmother's place when we were cleaning her property up.  I simply tossed in some soil and my daughter had her very own garden.  Plus I can move them if I want.
 When we first bought our home this whole area was yucky bark dust. First thing we did was eliminate any toxic items from our property.  From replacing the whole fence (original was built with railroad ties) to scraping and hauling away all bark dust. Who knows what kind of chemicals were used on that bark dust and I didn't want to plant anything until it was gone.  Once it was gone I laid organic mulch and made a few areas to plant in. I planted flowers and vegetables everywhere.  I love the idea of mixing the two.  And to top it off I added the old bird bath from my grandmother's place.  Ive never seen anything in it except for hens and chicks so I kept it the way I found it. Only thing missing is green moss up the base.
 Here is a great example of making a border with reclaimed items.  Most rocks I found on our travels, some wood slices I found at my grandmother's and some rocks were given to us. All were completely free. They don't at all match but nothing at our home matches.  Here I grow my strawberries each year and altnerate other plants around them.  This year I have burgandy beans and a squash plant along with many flowers.

 Ive been having issues with my gals being super loud.  I just know one day my neighbors will come over and have a talk with us about it.  I read online that you can make chicken toys to keep them busy in return keeping them quiet. So I hung up a chunk of cabbage and a strand of beans. They paid no attention to the veggies so instead I added a couple shovels of dirt.  They would rather dig in the dirt! Oh well at least they are quiet now. 
 Remember me telling you about this composter I had high hopes for? Yeah it sucked. It sucked big time! The pin broke so it will not keep its position in place and you cannot put very much in it or it will not turn. It's going back to Costco today ASAP! Piece of crap. I have better luck with just a pile in the dirt.
 When we put my green house in we had some extra concrete blocks laying around.  Some broken and some not. I simply layed them down and tossed in some soil.  Here I planted marigolds and smaller sunflowers.
And just to add a personal touch here are my twins putting recently dehydrated banana chips into a old mason jar.  I found a bunch of spotted banana's for only 29 cents a pound.  I do the cutting, the machine does the work and the girls put them into mason jars. Eating half them along the way of course!

So who out there also plants in their front yard?

What are your thoughts on growing in the front yard?

I would love to hear your thoughts on this idea!

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