We’ve had some hot days out here over the last month.  The garden is looking a little wilted in the photo above, but hanging in there.  Thank goodness for cool evenings!
Garlic came out in late July and is currently drying.  Looking forward to using it in my tomato sauce this year and wishing I would have planted more…Carrots are ready too!
  Random little volunteer, succulent-like plant in my vegetable garden.Wildflowers and zinnias are blooming.
Tomato plants are loaded, just patiently waiting for them to ripen…they are so late this year.  Dreaming of a bigger, south-facing garden…maybe next year if I play my cards right.
  Love weekend, wine nights while piddling in the garden.And here’s a sneak peek of a quilt I made! That’s it for now.  Have a good weekend.

Dora

Spring flowers are winding down, summer flowers are officially in bloom and tomatoes and peppers are blossoming!! 

Loving this rudbeckia that started blooming last week:

Had to take the bird feeder down for the summer so as not to attract the neighborhood bear, yikes!  Made this succulent hanging basket out of old jello molds from GW.  Probably could use a few more to fill in some of the gaps, but it’ll get there.

Have a Happy 4th of July and holiday weekend!

Love,
Dora

First Week of April:

First Week of May:

Two Weeks Later: 

Putting in a few more rock paths this year.  All of these rocks are from the yard, crazy!  Looking good, and making a little more progress each week.

Planted two more Earthboxes this year, now up to 6 (4 tomato and 2 pepper). Also added cherry tomatoes in the red pot, and onions and shallots all across the front.  First year giving these a whirl, will see how it goes.Still need to find a home for these guys.  May have went a little overboard with starting seeds this year, and ended up with a much better yield than anticipated.  I never have the heart to throw tomato seedlings away when thinning. And a few other spring veggies nestled in containers amongst the perennials:

A few shots around the patio.  Still a work in progress.  Had to move the grill to the other side this year (per town fire code) which I am not happy about, totally messing with my patio feng shui! 

And a sneak peak of a little sewing project that’s in the works 😉

 Hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Love,
Dora

So I’ve been told that I’m due for another blogpost 😉

With all this nice weather we’ve been having, I’ve been working in the garden and spending a lot of time outside the past two weekends…which means very little sewing.  Plus the craft room is still in the process of getting reorganized.  Pictures of that to follow soon!

However, here’s a little project from the weekend.  My freebie plastic Wildbirds Unlimited bird feeder blew off the hook on the patio a while back and broke.  So, time to make a new one!

DIY Bird Feeder 

Supplies: 

Chicken Feeder ($4 at Farm & Home)

Mason Jar (old one that I already had)

Pot Lid with a Hook (50 cents at Goodwill)

Glue (I used Gorilla Glue that Dad left in my toolbox, see warning below)

Total cost ~ $5

Instructions:

1. Glue the pot lid to the bottom of the jar.  If you’re using Gorilla Glue, go easy…it expands to 3x its size.  I had a bit of a mess to clean up, but nothing a little acetone and a scrapper couldn’t fix! 
2. Fill jar with birdseed.
3. Screw on chicken feeder and hang outside!

Ta-da!!

Spring is finally here and my garlic is already growing like crazy!

Hope you have a great week!

Love,
Dora

So I’ve been stopping in Goodwill lately whenever I am near by, mostly to look for old Pyrex, but my latest finds have been bud vases. The smaller and daintier, the better.

Turns out they are perfect for displaying herbs and smaller flowers from the garden and they fit just about anywhere. I love having flowers in every room, even if they are miniature.

Enjoy these last few days of Spring! Summer will soon be upon us.

Dora

Here are the first 3 weekends of working on the garden.

Week 1 – cleared a space at the end of the woods, made the keyhole garden foundation with rocks from the yard.

Week 2 – Made the center compost basket out of hardware cloth, topped with a plastic kitchen colander and filled the bed in with layers of brush, cardboard and composted soil from the town compost following these instructions. Will likely only be composting garden clippings as we’ve already had a bear spotted in the neighborhood this year. Also started planted perennials around the perimeter.

Week 3 – Earthboxes and keyhole garden planted with tomatoes and peppers. Planted a few more perennials from seeds around the perimeter (keeping my fingers crossed). Also put in a mulch path around the keyhole garden. Now just waiting for it all to grow!

Happy Gardening!

Dora

Began clearing and prepping a new flower garden this weekend, which will mostly be for perennials. My neighbor even helped me get started this morning by giving me her divisions, how nice!

Here is the before:

Here is now:

The rock structure in the middle is the beginnings of a keyhole garden…more on that later, if it actually works.

Will share updates as things progress.

And I’ll leave you with a blurry photo from an amazing concert. Saw Hunter Hayes with a friend last night, he is phenomenal!

Dan+Shay were also a great opener!
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The weather sure is having trouble making up its mind this year. It’s officially spring but certainly doesn’t feel like it. I’ve been trying to get a jump start on the garden, but it’s still tool cold to get much going.

Took some time to get the patio ready the weekend before Easter. Needed a space for the grill as it was taking up too much room on the patio, so I added these painted concrete pavers. Really pleased with the overall effect, and my quick spray paint job seems to be holding up well so far. I promise to put up a tutorial at some point.

Went ahead and started the herbs and lettuce, as well as cold weather pansies. Was going to wait a few more weeks, but Home Depot had them on sale for a great price (probably because it’s been so cold that no one is buying plants yet). Now I just have to remember to move them up under the roof each night…already lost the basil, oops.

Many more garden projects in the works and many more pictures to come!

Have a great week!

Dora

Backyard and garden set up…

Check out these tomato plants…almost 8 feet tall!

First tomato of the season…a tiny little Roma.

More to come…cant wait to can these suckers!

Peppers and Cucs.

Beans, lemons & limes.

Love this space.

Herbs ready to dry.

4th of July decorations.

Hope you had a Happy 4th. See you tomorrow for WIWW!

Love,
Dora