Veggie Garden Harvest & Tomato Worms

Ahhhh Saturdays.  To me Saturday means coffee in the garden, extra time to search for tomato worms, inspect strange bugs, and dote over my succulents.  Glorious.

This morning I harvested some Snap Peas that the kids started at school.  They put a paper towel in the bottom of a plastic sandwich bag, added a little water and dropped a seed in.  I was amazed at how quickly they germinated with such little sunlight.  We brought the seedlings home and planted them in the garden and they took off!  They are definitely going on my seed list for next year's garden.

I squished about eight tomato worms this morning.  Five to eight seems to be the daily average.  Since tomato worms are the same color as the leaves they can be hard to spot.  So, rather that searching for the worms, I look for their poo!

See the little black dots on that leaf?  Those are tiny tomato worm poo!  After you spot those, just look up.

Do you see him standing up on the leaf?  He knew I was looking for him so he got in his defensive stance.  When they get bigger they actually start making a clicking sound (with their teeth?).

Don't forget to shake the poo off the leaf below so you can find fresh poo the next day!

Daily Garden

Well, I failed miserably at the daily photo challenge. I'm not too broken up about it though because a new daily activity formed rather organically in April.

Will and I dream of being completely self sufficient some day. We try to implement things in our lives that either make us more self sufficient or provide an opportunity to become more self sufficient in the future.

Growing our own food is not something that is necessary right now (we can just go to the store and buy what we need for less than it takes to grow our own) but gaining the experience in doing so is invaluable.

So, this year my super awesome and amazingly talented hubby decided to test out a self-watering, raised bed garden planter.  After some research he grabbed a few ideas from some different sources and came up with his own plan for getting it done. He tweaked it a bit more and then went for it using materials that we have on hand. This is the absolutely beautiful garden that he came up with.

"Why is it so cool?", you may ask. Let me tell you!!

#1: I only have to water once a week. Yes, once a week!! I could probably go longer when the weather cools (we are hoping to use this garden year round since our winters are so mild). From what I've read, sub-irrigated planters can save up to 80% water. Love the sound of that!!

#2: No rodents snacking on my veggies. We have are big problem with squirrels and cotton tail rabbits about this time of year and I haven't seen any nibbles yet.

#3: Virtually no weeds. I pulled ONE weed (we think it came from a bird poo). We added the cover option to help with that (those criss-crossed pipes).

#4: Using the principles of Square Foot Gardening we were able to fit a lot of plants in a compact space (our garden is 4'x8').

#5: Having the planter raised makes gardening a fun task. I find myself wandering out to check on it at least a couple times a day.

I'm sure there are a bunch more reasons why sub-irrigated planters are a superior for of gardening. I just can't get enough and have begun my own small pot versions too!

I've started a Daily Garden Journal on Pinterest. If you want to see my garden grow from Day 4 (I missed day 1-3!) Click here and follow my board for daily updates.
This is what I pinned this morning:

"Waiting Patiently" (Photo #2)

Waiting patiently for warm bodies and warmer days.

"A Romping Hike" (Photo #3)

We love to go on adventures in our front yard.  Willy brought snacks (leftover mac & cheese from Mar Mar's house) and Molly grabbed her video camera.  The dogs love showing us their favorite play spots way out front where the squirrels like to hide.  In this photo Willy is marching closer and closer to Molly till he finally crashes into her....punk.

2014 Photo Project...Dare I Take The Challenge?!

365 Inspiring Photographs

I follow a lovely little knitting blog called Polka Dot Cottage.  Her most recent post was about starting a 365 day project revolving around photography.  She is starting her 6th year-long photo project (Wow!) which has inspired me to give it a shot as well!  Her project will be structured, taking specific shots per day based on a monthly theme.  I think I'm going to be a little more generic and take 365 photos of things that give me inspiration.  

"Stripped Away" (photo #1)

This photo is such a great depiction of Winter.  Everything is bare and exposed.  You can really see all of the intricacy of the twigs, bleached by the sun, twisting together and around each other.  Reminds me of beautiful lace.  Dare I say...I'm feeling inspired! ;)  As Google puts it, inspiration is "The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative."  Bring on the inspiration!!

Meet Amigurumi Willy - The Retro Inspired, Flat Faced, Boy Doll

Willy's Amiguru"Me"

My last post introduced you to the fabulous craft of Amigurumi and I showed you Molly Doll who was made for my daughter Molly.  After making Molly Doll I just had to make a doll for my son Willy too, and of coarse he wanted a doll made in his likeness just like Molly's.  So I set out to make Willy's Amiguru"Me" (hehe, isn't that cute!).  I wanted to try something a little different and I was inspired to try making a sort of abstract, retro inspired doll with a flat head like the old Raggedy Ann dolls.  It was really fun figuring this guy out and really simple to make!  As you can see I haven't been able to bring myself to make a face for him yet in fear that I will mess him up.  Willy thinks he is sad without a face.  What kind of expression do you think Willy Doll should have?

I will post the pattern soon but couldn't wait to get a couple pictures of him up after reading AmigurumiBB's Blog post about her flat-headed boy doll.  I just LOVE the curly hair that she gave him.  Check back here soon for Willy's free pattern and learn how I gave him his permanent curly locks and created the flat head and movable hands, feet, legs, and arms. :)