Updates

I've gotten a bit behind on posting to my blog. I have been very busy. I graduated with my Associate's Degree. It was a great experience but also very frustrating. The speakers took WAY too much time and I was about ready to scream by the time we finally got to walk. Worse yet, my four year old got frustrated too and subjected everyone in the auditorium to one of his lovely temper tantrums. My mother-in-law took him outside but not before everyone was staring. I was just sitting hoping that no one knew me well enough to connect me with the screaming child in the stands. Don't look, don't look, don't look!

In garden news the darn gopher is at it again. He ate my bean seedlings and I am debating whether it is too late to start again. Some of the seedlings are still growing but about half of them were clipped off too close to the ground and won't grow back. I am hesitant to use lethal options but becoming tempted. There are children and pets in the area and I don't like the idea of putting out poison of any kind in case it should go somewhere other than where I intended. So poison is pretty much out. I have thought about using a sonic spike but they have mixed reviews to say the least. I think I am going to be left with the stinky but known effective route of predator urine. Meanwhile, in continuing frustrating news a number of seedlings in the greenhouse have succumbed to damp off and a neighborhood cat is digging (and leaving presents) in my garden beds. The gooseberry set a beautiful crop of berries only to drop nearly all of them a week and a half later. I am not sure if proper pollination or the bush not being mature is the problem here. I may have to look into a mason bee house. In slightly better news the strawberries look set to produce a bumper crop but they may ripen in the week we are going to be away from home so that is a little frustrating as well. Needless to say, I am not having the best garden year I have ever had but I am trying not to let that discourage me.

I have put out squash and cucumbers as well as planted some of the cucumbers and luffas directly in the dirt of the greenhouse floor. I am hoping that at least one batch, those planted outdoors or those in the greenhouse, do well. 

Well, more later perhaps.

Identification Help Needed

I helped out at the local arboretum today. I helped with re-organizing, weeding, and re-planting the herb garden. They have worked on the garden annually as far as weeding and keeping it in decent shape but it hasn't been fully assessed and organized in several years. The last comprehensive listing of plants in the garden was in 2001 to give an idea of where they are at currently. They have some great plants but so far if my tentative identifications are correct some plants were added between 2001 and now and not everything that was added was an herb plant. So, obviously, that complicates identification if I can not narrow my search to herb garden plants only.

The first plant that I managed to positively identify was French Tarragon. It was positively identified through pictures and also due to the fact that a tag for the plant was found when it was trimmed back. It had grown quite large and overwhelmed the tag.

The second plant that I got a positive or nearly positive identification on was Rue, variety unknown. I didn't find a tag on this one but it is unique enough looking that there isn't much chance of being wrong on identification.

The last plant that I got a pretty solid identification on was Artemisia. It is most likely the variety 'Silver King'. I am not positive on the variety but I am pretty positive that it is Artemisia.

The next plant could potentially be Comfrey or Hyssop but identification on this one will probably be near impossible until it blooms since it is so generic in appearance.

The next plant I found a potential for but am not certain I got this one right. The reason I am so uncertain is that it is only hardy to zone 6a and we are right at the edge of hardiness. Also, it is not an herb.

The plant I found that looks like this one is Cotton Lavender or Gray Santolina. The pictures above are from the arboretum's herb garden. The picture below is from the internet. I could use a second, third, etc. opinion on if they are the same plant. They certainly look like it to me!

The next plant I felt certain I would have found a match for since it is very distinctive. However, I have come up a complete blank on identification for it. The only thing I have found that could even be partially similar is tansy and that doesn't seem like a good match. I think I will just have to wait til this flowers!

Lastly, we have another complete unknown. Again, this is one that I think will need to wait for flowers for a positive identification.

 Other herbs that we either had a complete identification on or I just knew the identity of were chives, garlic chives, fennel, lemon balm, rosemary (it actually survived the winter!), sage (normal garden, not tricolor), apple mint, winter savory, and thyme. Due to need to transplant or plants that had babies I was able to take home some artemisia, rue, chives of both types, fennel, mint, French tarragon, winter savory, and thyme. My herb garden went from being just a normal garden to actually seeming like an herb garden. It is looking amazing, or will as soon as the plants recover from transplant shock.

Any comments on identification can go into the comments section. I appreciate any and all help!!

Why Do Good Days Always Have to be Followed by Bad Ones?

I suppose that is something of a rhetorical question but I really would like an answer at some point. Yesterday was a good day. A really good day. A rare enough commodity in our lives that I would have liked to try to build on success. Instead, money came in today. Living on a fixed income is hard. It is stressful. It sucks and it also sucks the life out of happiness and relationships. Every month we struggle and every month we fall short. I was trying to prevent that from happening this month which seemed to mostly consist of saying "No" far too much. I don't like being the responsible one. I don't like being the one who has to say no all the time. Add to that today was my last final for the semester. We also are....were trying to make a nice Mother's Day gift for the grandparents. Unfortunately, that served as the proverbial fuse. I suppose I didn't make myself clear enough on what I wanted to do or I didn't understand what he wanted to do well enough. I'm not sure exactly where things went wrong but I know they went wrong, very wrong, again.

I don't want to get a divorce. I love my husband. I'm also 38 and don't want to start over again. I just want to make things work. I wish my husband would stop threatening me with divorce every time we have a bad argument. I begin to wonder if that is what he really wants, if he even loves me at all. He says I'm the one who wants the relationship over but that couldn't be further from the truth. I just want things to work out. I suppose we are one train wreck of a little family. Some days I'd at least like to downgrade to a car crash.

A Hike In the Woods

Here in Richmond, Indiana where I live we have a wonderful and underutilized little place called Hayes Arboretum. If this sounds like an ad, no I'm not affiliated with them (at least not paid!) except as a volunteer. Still, it is a great place to get out and be in the woods even if you live in town. They have trails for both hiking and mountain biking and educational programs for little ones as well. Today we went on our first extensive hike out in the Arboretum. We have been there before for short hikes but today we really went exploring. We packed a bitty guy friendly picnic lunch of peanut butter crackers, butter crackers, juice box, and carrot sticks and with map in hand went boldly where others have gone before. :P

There was one particular place we had in mind to go. We had seen a beautiful arch while driving past the Arboretum, just sitting out a ways in the woods. It wasn't until we started going to the Arboretum that we actually realized it was in the park and you were able to hike to it. As much as my husband and I are fans of science fiction, fantasy, and generally anything not normal reality we certainly couldn't turn up a chance to walk through a mysterious arch in the woods!

My husband and son standing under the arch to provide some scale. That arch is HUGE!

Some details of the arch. It has amazing plaster work on the facade over the brick. It is a beautiful piece of art.

I was very excited to find YELLOW violets on our hike. I had never seen a yellow violet and was thrilled to see them. I am hoping to find some outside the arboretum to transplant into my garden since they are a native wildflower and I am hoping to start a wildflower garden.

Later on our hike we found numerous other wildflowers. Some of which I could identify and others I could not. Some of the flowers were found growing on the trunk of a fallen American Beech tree. I had to climb through brush for the picture, but it was worth it!

We had been told by the owner of the arboretum that trilliums were in bloom along the yellow trail. We wanted to see the arch which was along the auto trail so that was where we went first and we didn't know if the little guy would be up for the walk along the auto trail and another trail as well. We hiked the auto trail to see the arch, snapped pictures of a few wildflowers and then decided it was time for a break. We broke out our picnic lunch and picked a flat dry area of trail to set up our picnic blanket. The trail was not busy enough that we were in anyone's way. We sat eating our lunch and listening to the sounds of the forest, enjoying the scenery around us. As we finished our lunch I looked up the trail we were on to see hundreds of white flowers. TRILLIUMS!! The trail we had so blithely taken our lunch on was the yellow trail and the hill we had chosen for our picnic was the Trillium Hill that the owner had told us about. Such a happy accident!

What looks sort of like dappled sunshine in the middle photo is actually hundreds of white trilliums. I had seen a white trillium before but I had never seen so many. Deep burgundy trilliums, nicknamed Stinking Benjamins, are much more common in Maine where I am from than the white ones are. I warned my husband about smelling a trillium. He, of course, had to test whether what I said was true or not and I discovered that white trilliums don't smell nearly as bad as the red ones I am more familiar with. Either way, nice smell or rotten smell, trilliums are a gorgeous flower. They made me think of our plans to someday hold a re-commitment ceremony since we never had much of a wedding to begin with. I was thinking that a wedding in the woods would be lovely so we decided to continue along the yellow trail to have a look at the woodland chapel. After a few misdirections and misreadings of the map we finally found the woodland chapel. It is a lovely little spot and my husband and I are already making plans for an early May ceremony in the woods sometime in the next year or two, hopefully with the trilliums in bloom.

After stopping at the woodland chapel we decided to head back for the trailhead since the little guy was getting exhausted. We accidentally got turned around and went the wrong way on the yellow trail resulting in a longer walk back. However, it wasn't such a bad thing since it brought us past the spring house and salamander stream. Along salamander stream ferns were growing and I managed to find a late fiddlehead. Sean tried it and declared he likes it better than asparagus! It is only confirming my feelings that Maine would be a fantastic place for us to live. He likes fiddleheads and loves lobster! He is a lost Mainer! Hopefully someday we will fulfill that dream of moving back to my home, Maine.

Along the stream we found the May flowers pictured above (the little white multi-petaled flowers growing next to a log in the wildflower pictures above). We also found an unexpected surprise! I found Jack-in-the-Pulpits! There were close to a dozen of them, which is amazing since they are an endangered flower. They are a lovely, beautiful little flower but I still hold mixed memories of them. When I was a child my mother and I found some in the woods. She remembered some lore that they were edible, or at least the root. She dug a root (which I also didn't know was illegal at the time since they are endangered) and brought it back to my grandparent's house where she cooked it....by boiling. Now you may or may not know, but Jack-in-the-Pulpit roots ARE edible...if they are mashed, dried, and ground to be used like flour. They are NOT edible if the only thing you do is boil them and eat them like potatoes. Well edible, but definitely not palatable. My throat burned and prickled as if I had eaten cactus thorns for hours. It was not a pleasant experience. Today the only thing I did was take pictures (which is all any responsible hiker should ever do with rare flowers).

 Finally, we found our way our of the trail system and back to the trail head and our car. We took one more visit into the nature center so the little guy could visit the bees. On the way home the little guy surprised both of us by declaring that he wanted to go home and take a nap. He has not voluntarily napped in nearly a year. As soon as we got home he took off his shoes and headed for his room. Not long after he was fast asleep...for THREE hours!! I can't remember the last time he took a nap that long. My husband and I had time for a (much shorter) nap of our own and some afternoon adult fun time. :)

All in all an amazing day and a fun family outing. Perhaps the best part is that the cost of all of this was the cost of less than a gallon of gas to drive to the Arboretum and back home. Sometimes the cheap family outings turn out to be the best ones!

Oh and all the wildflower pictures also gave us an idea. Wildflower Bingo! We plan to give the idea to the Arboretum so maybe they can encourage younger visitors to be more interested in learning about native wildflowers!

More Work In the Garden

Work in the garden sounds like I actually got to play outside in the dirt. Yesterday I actually got to dig in the dirt some but today I just got seedlings started. Getting a bit of a late start on some of the seedlings but still getting a better start than last year. Last year it was the first week of June before I had anything out in the garden and 100% of my seedlings came from the store. This year, at very least, my squashes and cucurbits will be from seed and the first of the seeds have been planted out in the garden.

Yesterday, 30 April 2013, planted in the garden:
pole beans-8 poles
2 rows each sweet white and red onion
marigolds for the little guy

Planted in the house as starts:
Marketmore Cucumber (4) Replacement for plants eaten by pill bugs. I had the peat pellets transplanted into larger pots and the larger pots sitting on the ground in the greenhouse. The pill bugs climbed up into the pots and cut half my seedlings off at the ground! :( Hubby built me another shelf and the pots are now sitting up well off the ground and the bugs seem to be leaving the remaining plants alone so high hopes for the new starts.

Mixed Pumpkin
Small Sugar(2)
Fairytale(2)
Howden(2)

Zucchini
Emerald Delight(3)
Max's Gold(3)

Sweet Pepper-Purple Beauty(4)
Mixed Mini Bell (6)

Started Today, 1 May 2013, in the house as starts:

Winter Squash - Delicata Honey Boat(4)
Thai Green Eggplant(2)
Minnesota Midget Melon (4)
Mexican Sour Gherkin (6-2 w/o yarn)
Luffa(5) Also replacements for plants eaten by pill bugs. The pill bugs seemed to especially like baby luffa plants!

Pictures of baby plants soon.

Awesome idea that just might be dinner tonight.

I can't seem to find an original credit on this idea. If anyone knows it and wants to let me know I will be more than happy to give proper credit.

This is NOT my photo. Again. I have looked for proper credit and can't find it.

Okay, so here are the directions that I found to make these. Not my original idea but I definitely will be trying it and I will post photos of my attempt when they are made.

1 can Pillsbury golden layers biscuits - each pulled into 2 layers.
10 frozen fully cooked italian style meatballs - thawed and cut in half.
2 sticks string cheese - cut each into 10 pieces.
1 tbs. Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp Garlic powder
1 cup Marinara sauce
DIRECTIONS

1
Heat oven to 375.
2
Separate biscuits into 2 layers.
3
Place 1 meatball half and one piece of cheese into each biscuit, wrap dough around it and seal edges.
4
Place seam side down into 9 inch round cake pan.
5
Sprinkle with parm cheese, garlic pwd. and italian seasoning.
6
Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.
7
Serve warm with warm sauce.


I will be making these and providing my own photos as well as some modifications I plan to make. Be sure and check for updates!

Garden Supports...Not so Expensive After All

Gardening is great fun and can be a good source of additional food for the family as well. Well, it can be. If, that is, you don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on it, which of course most companies want you to. There are plenty of places vying for your money selling a multitude of items, most of which aren't really needed. Garden centers count on ill-prepared gardeners, who buy loads of plants, that through some misadventure or other eventually end up back at the garden center for another set of plants with the hope that eventually they will successfully grow SOMETHING!

I am not really one to talk. I just got a greenhouse, a massive expenditure that will potentially take me years to make pay off. Still, I am also planning to use said greenhouse to grow year round salad greens, and potentially increase my growing season enough to grow borderline crops for my area including luffa sponges and specialty cucumbers.

Anyway, back on topic. There are a LOT of ways to reduce cost in gardening, making your own compost, setting up your own vermiculture, starting your own plants, and perhaps most simply, not buying fancy (and expensive!) garden supports for your plants. You can build a decent garden support out of just about anything and by taking your garden vertical you can maximize a minimum of space. Here are my basic instructions for making an A-frame style garden support on which you can grow just about anything from beans, peas, and cucumbers to melons, pumpkins, and squash.

Material List:
3 8-foot long 1x3, sold as furring strips at my local hardware store
chicken wire or woven wire fence, 24 inches wide (buy this in large rolls for the best deals, especially if you plan on making a number of these)
A staple gun and staples
A drill/screw gun (optional but makes things a lot quicker and easier)
A circular saw or small reciprocating saw to cut down boards (or for a small fee you can have them cut at most hardware stores that sell lumber)
2-2 inch light strap hinges
Screws (I used 1 1/2 inch drywall screws I had on hand, but you can use just about anything that is long enough)

Cut two of the eight foot long boards into two 4 foot sections. Cut the remaining board into four 2 foot sections for a total of 4-4 foot boards and 4-2 foot boards. Use two short boards and two long boards to make a rectangle. Make sure the short boards are attached on the same side of the long boards (don't have one attached on the 'inside' and one on the 'outside'). See picture below for a better description.

This picture is showing what will be the inside of the frame facing up. Notice the short boards are attached on top of the longer boards from this direction. The hinges will also be attached to the inside of the frame. Assemble the second side of the frame and lay the two sections out on the ground, top to top. Attach the hinges to the short board at the top of each side of the frame. Again, see pictures for clarification.

Cut the fence in length so that it will fit along the length of the long boards between the two shorter boards. Lay the fencing out and staple into place as you go so you don't end up with any bunching or kinking that may create slouches when the support is in use and has weight on it. Staple at least twice at top and bottom and in the middle for a total of 6 staples per side. You can use more than this but that is bare minimum.

Now, set the frame up wherever you want to use it! You are done. These are easy to make and cheap to make. They are also surprisingly durable. I have some I made three years ago that have never come inside. They have stayed outside through the winter in all sorts of weather, snow, ice, etc. and they are still usable. The wood at the bottom edge of one is starting to show some signs of wear but still completely functionable. They probably would be in even better shape if I had bothered to take them in to the garage for the winter or at least brought them up by the house (they stayed out in the garden beds!). They also have weathered to a nice grey weathered wood that is quite attractive in the garden. You can do all kinds of variations on these with different types of wire fencing and whatever scrap lumber you happen to have around. Have fun and happy gardening!

 

A Dream Come True

I finally have a greenhouse. I have wanted a greenhouse since I was about 10 years old and first knew what one was. It's not too surprising since I loved gardening and lived in a state with a growing season a whole whopping three months long. I'm 38 now. So I've wanted a greenhouse for close to 30 years. Wow....that makes me feel really, really....old. But anyway, I finally have a greenhouse. It's not a glasshouse or anything, just a purchased metal frame and plastic cover, but it is mine and well....I FINALLY HAVE A GREENHOUSE!!!!

The greenhouse is actually set down into an existing garden bed. An additional frame section was added to the garden bed to have a frame all the way around the base of the greenhouse to secure it. We are very windy here and properly securing the greenhouse was a major concern. It is also going to give me my first all flower garden bed. All of my garden beds to now have been vegetable or perennial. I have not had any place for just annual flowers. I plan to put sunflowers and zinnias this year. It is a small area but it should look really nice up against the greenhouse. The inside of the greenhouse is bare dirt and will stay that way. I plan to possibly plant some things directly in the ground inside the greenhouse. I could potentially even grow artichokes successfully now!

My hubby also built me my first shelf to go into the greenhouse.

As you can see there is already a tray of seedlings on the new shelf. The shelf is made out of furring strips (1x3 lumber) and the sides of our son's old crib. Cost? Nothing, since we had all the materials on hand. The furring strips were left over from putting baseboards in around the house, same with all of the screws used to put it together and our son long ago outgrew his crib. 


The greenhouse was enough motivation to lift me out of a garden-related slump of more than a year. All last year through the gardening season I felt discouraged and felt a distinctive lack of motivation. The start of the gardening season this year shows that clearly. The yard and garden beds were a mess. Over the last week I cleaned out 8 large lawn and leaf bags of leaves, garden debris, and trash that has drifted into our yard over the winter. Normally I would be composting most of this material but there was too much trash interspersed with the compostables. That and I just didn't have the space. I would have needed about four times as much space for composting as I currently have if I was to compost all of what I raked up out of the yard and cleaned out of garden beds. Yeah, last year was a bad year. I also weeded a (supposed to be) herb garden in which the weeds long ago overpowered the herbs. In an earlier post I published a picture of my plan for that area. The weeding and cleaning out was a first step towards realizing that goal.

Today I got my first seedlings started. It's about a month late but I really am going on the idea of better late than never. Especially with the greenhouse I can always extend the season for a few plants if needed. Plus, anything I start now is potentially something I don't need to be buying a plant for later. Currently in the greenhouse I have:

Beefsteak Tomato (4)
Super Sioux Tomato (4)
Rutgers Tomato (4)
Luffa Gourd (6)
Marketmore Cucumber (4)

These are all from new seeds and should have decent germination so I expect to have plant numbers similar to the above. I planted plenty of Luffa seeds and plan to put some out in the garden and leave some in the greenhouse to grow the entire season, either in the ground inside the greenhouse or possibly in a large nursery style pot.

Directly in ground I planted the following:

Broccoli
Brussel Sprouts
Lettuce: Boston Bibb, Black Seed Simpson, Paris White
Spinach

In the next week I hope to get a garden bed prepped and ready and plant peas. Typical to this area spring took its time coming but now appears to be here with a bang. Transitional type crops, such as spinach and peas can be extremely tricky since often the ground will be too cold or the weather too wet to get them started as early as they ideally need but then when it is possible to plant them it is already too hot. I am still holding out some hope for peas and spinach this year but if they fail again I may very well decide that they are a lost cause in this area. Both are staple crops in Maine where I am from where spring comes slow and cold. A last frost may sneak up as late as mid-May, not common, but not unheard of either. Crops that can handle a little nip from old Jack Frost are handy ones to have, especially if your family is depending on the garden for food!

Free is Fun!

Not too long ago I signed up with a website called Freeflys. I was skeptical at first and expected it to just be another source of endless junk-mail. Surprisingly, I only got the e-mail I was told I was going to get, a daily update with the day's free samples and a weekly recap and 5 weeks or so after signing up samples started showing up in the mail. Now, due to poor economy and people loving free stuff, the samples often disappear in a hurry or may be lottery style with a fixed number of samples. Also, Freeflys does link to other websites with sample offers so sometimes you have to sign up for other services to get said sample. So you are working for your free stuff, it is not completely free at least if you value your time, and I do.

All in all I have been relatively happy with Freeflys and gotten a number of decent samples, some of which have led to changing which product I buy. I don't expect this to last. The number of no strings attached, free samples has been dwindling, with an increasing number of the 'free' samples being for restaurants, often with some form of catch in the form of "buy this to get this free". This is pretty much to be expected. Companies are only going to give out free stuff as long as it is profitable. When the cost of free samples given out starts to exceed the increase in sales the company is going to re-evaluate its practices and probably stop offering free samples, or at least stop offering unlimited free samples. And don't kid yourself, they do analyze these things (I am taking a math course in statistics and there are entire careers built on the analysis of marketing strategies). The wave of the future in samples will be the above-mentioned lottery with a fixed number of samples.

The biggest reason for this? Free IS fun. People like to get stuff for free. There is a certain miniscule thrill each time you open your mailbox and find something sent to you for free, or go through the checkout line and come away having only spent pennies, or better yet, nothing at all! So even if you already use a product and you see that you have a chance for a free sample of that same product you will probably try and get the sample. In fact, you may be more likely to try and get it because you can reason that is less you will have to buy of a product you already use. Take for example a recent sample that was offered at Wal-Mart. Procter & Gamble had samples of its new Cascade Platinum tabs and samples of its Tide Pods attached by a simple rubber band to others of its products. I wanted to try the tabs and purchased a product with a sample. I was happy with the sample and started purchasing that product. Success! They have a new customer for that product. However, later that day I was back in the store for another item and wandering through the detergent aisle noticed that fully half of the samples had disappeared, but the products they were attached to were still on the shelf, the products sitting near the back still sitting with samples intact. Failure, people just wanted free stuff. Whether they usually buy that brand or not is irrelevant, they took the samples to get something for free so they wouldn't have to buy it. Both of the mentioned products are more expensive than alternative products, they are convenient and you pay extra for that convenience. I understand, the temptation is there, I just avoid it. I want free samples to keep coming but that example is exactly why they won't. Online samples are a little better for the manufacturer. They can at least make sure they don't send more than one sample to one address. Still, the issue remains that offering samples is a gamble, one that often doesn't pay off.

So you might ask, what is my point? Am I saying people should stop trying to get free samples? No, definitely not. Times are tough. My family lives on a very low income and when I get a chance to try something free before I buy I jump at it! I can't afford to buy products I can't or won't use. What I am saying is that if you genuinely like something, reward the manufacturer, buy their product. If you reward them, they reward you by in the future continuing to offer free samples. And we all know....free is fun!

I Just Joined Smiley360

I Just Joined Smiley360: I just became a Smiley360 member! Discover and review exciting brands for free, too! Sign-up at http://bit.ly/lTDqVw #smileymember *Please remember the FTC requires you to mention that you received a free sample courtesy of Smiley360 when sharing.

I haven't received any free samples yet...but I hope to! I will keep updated on how this goes, whether it works to get decent samples or is mostly just a bunch of junk mail.

Crazy Crayon Easter Eggs

I was shopping for Easter for my four year old and looking through the usual selection of overpriced egg decorating kits. One particular one stood out to me as looking unusual and fun but I definitely didn't want to pay nearly $6 for what appeared to be a cheap plastic pencil sharpener and 4 crayons. The idea is to decorate eggs with crayon shavings while still hot, the principle being, the shavings melt and you have a fun, funky decorated egg.

So I went home and improvised my own methods. Using a Crayola crayon sharpener that came with a crayon tower I bought recently I used old and broken crayons that we have been saving over the last year or two for use in a crayon maker we have. Any crayons will work but ideally you can use scraps and save your whole crayons for coloring. I made up five different color combinations. I had a cardboard egg crate that came with my last purchase of eggs.

Here's the set up with our crayon shavings, cardboard egg crate, tongs for handling hot eggs, and trivet for hot pan. The eggs have to be hot when you start or the crayons won't melt. Boil the eggs by any method you prefer. Leave the eggs in the hot water and carry the pan to the table, preferably with a lid to keep the heat in. Using tongs remove 2-3 eggs at a time. I found that if you lay the eggs on their side you get better melting patterns (see pictures below). Sprinkle the tops of the eggs with crayon shavings.

As you can see, even fairly young children can join in on the fun. A little extra caution is required, since obviously there is a pot of hot water nearby and the eggs are still VERY hot! Once you have the desired melt pattern and crayon is at least minimally set (about 10 minutes), using tongs carefully dip the eggs into a bowl of ice water or under cold running water in the sink. You can leave the eggs in ice water to disperse remaining heat and then put them in an egg carton in the refrigerator.

Anyway, here's what a finished product looks like. The closeup is one I used metallic crayon shavings for. It gave a really interesting effect.

The backs of the eggs also come out pretty cool too!

Have fun and Happy Easter!

This Year's Garden: Off to a (shaky) Start

Today I went out in the garden for the first time this season. It is a late start. The weather is partially to blame but it is mostly me. I have been struggling with severe depression, worse than my usual and it has put a severe damper on my usual springtime activities. I haven't even gotten any seeds started in my greenhouse, an activity that usually would have been complete a month ago. It doesn't help that last years garden season was abysmal due to unusual heat and drought. I finally gave up on the garden around the beginning of August, no longer willing or able to water twice a day to keep plants barely alive in suffocating heat and dry conditions.

I got two small garden beds cleared of last year's plants. It was only about ten minutes of work but I still feel tired. Just a sign I need to get in better shape. Last night I drew a plan of what I would like to do in between a couple of garden beds. I have a small area for herbs in between two vegetable gardens. It is, at present, poorly laid out and a mess of weeds and plants such that I can't even weed without risking pulling up a desired plant. I recently started a Pinterest account and got a few ideas for this particular garden bed. What I drew up is an ideal plan, what will happen if I can accomplish everything I hope to do. My ideas are modifications and adaptations of things seen on Pinterest, so while not exactly original ideas they do have an original twist to them.

Tentative Garden Plan for Summer 2013

Forgive the drawing, I am not the best artist and when I couldn't find my colored pencils I finally resorted to using my son's crayons. The bed to the left is usually occupied by tomatoes, onions, peppers, and sometimes carrots. I didn't draw out a row plan because I don't have one for this year yet. The bed to the right is an established bed of asparagus. It started with one row of asparagus. I added a little more each year until now the bed is completely full of asparagus. This year should be the most productive yet and with a little luck we will have multiple meals of asparagus. In the middle is the aforementioned, current, mess. My plan is to put a concrete walk to the right hand side of the area. I have a TON of bamboo stakes that I bought on clearance for 10 cents a bag a few years ago. I am planning on cutting the stakes to length and pressing them into the top of the wet concrete, leaving them in the concrete to dry. I may put a sealant over the top when done, haven't decided that part yet. On the left hand side I am planning a mosaic of stones and the little glass pebbles you can get at most craft stores.The blank circular areas are where I will be putting my herbs. I will most likely put a pot in the ground for the mint to prevent its semi-invasive spread.

This is an idea representation of my plans. As usual it depends on many factors, ranging from my motivation level to available funding. I will post pictures here if and as the plan progresses. Wish me luck?