Spring is Here!

Hello baby bunny!

Silver Seabright (Hope)

Soon to be Laying Hen

Mille Fleur d'Uccle

Chamomile

Tomatoes, Peppers, Flowers, and more!

Oregano

Asian Pears

Mint

Blueberries

Baby Mini Rex (Thunder)
and Mama (Chocolate Chip)

Lettuces

Bantam show chicks for 4H projects

It must be spring here at Lally.  

Baby chicks, baby rabbits, and baby plants!  

What has your spring been filled with?

First salad of the season.  Red and Green Leaf lettuces, Chard, Spinach, and Arugula.  Kids and I made homemade croutons, topped with cheese, ranch, and sunflower seeds.  Yummy!

Making Newspaper Pots

Last year I saw a post somewhere about making newspaper pots.  They used a store bought tool to do so and I have thought about that tool often when transplanting.  I seem to never have enough pots for my transplants!  As I was re potting tomatoes and peppers I ran out of pots and decided to try making my own.  It worked wonderful!

What you need:

Newspaper

Cup

Soil

Seedlings

Flat or plant tray

I couldn't find any newspaper in my house and as I was searching the garage my eye fell on this roll of newsprint.  Perfect!  I got it from the newspaper office.  The local paper here gives away the ends of the rolls and I usually grab one or two for crafts and such.  It was absolutely perfect for this purpose.

Roll of newsprint

Step one: Cut newsprint into pieces.  Size will depend on the size of pot you are making.  Make your pieces double the height as you will be folding them in half.

Cut pieces

Step Two: Fold your piece of newsprint in half lengthwise.

Cut and folded piece

Step Three:  Get your cup.  I used a plastic cup I had laying around my greenhouse.

Cup

Step Four:  Line your paper up on your cup to the height you would like.  I did fairly large as I was transplanting tomatoes and wanted them to be deep.  Place the folded side on the top of the cup as this will be your top edge.

Placing paper on cup

Step Five:  Roll paper around cup keeping top edges even.  It will not be tight around the cup if your cup is smaller at the base.

Paper rolled around cup with top edges even

Step Six:  Turn cup over and fold the bottom like a present.  It will be bulky and try to unfold.  I ended up placing it flat in my hand and squeezing around the bottom the cup and crumpling the paper a bit.

Bottom folded

Step Seven:  Take the pot off the cup and continue to hold the bottom so it does not unfold.  Place a small amount of damp soil into the bottom to help it keep its shape.

Soil in pot

Step Eight: Place pots into flat or plant tray.

Finished pots

Step Nine: Transplant as normal.  I labeled each pot with a small piece of tape and placed the tape on the rolled edge.  This wasn't necessary to hold the pot together but I had several different varieties in each tray and did not have enough plant markers.

Finished transplanting

Make sure to water them and then you are done!

What's in the Garden?

Seedlings in the Greenhouse

Morning Glory

Onions

Winter squash or pumpkin

I am anxiously awaiting warmer weather.  Most of the cool weather crops are out in the garden beds.  The warm weather crops have been transplanted and are growing more and more each day waiting to go outside.  Excited to see what comes of this years harvest.  What's in your garden?

KinderGARDENS 2011

I have never participated in KinderGARDENS and I think its an excellent idea.  You can find more info at The Inadvertent Farmer.  For my family teaching our children where their food comes from is very important.  Knowing that the carrot they are eating was grown by someone.  Grown from a seed, watered, weeded, and cared for rather than just magically appearing in the supermarket for us to buy.

Are you a first time gardener who needs help and encouragement or are you a veteren gardener that can help others here?

I am not a first time gardener but I don't consider myself a veteran either!  I look forward to learning from these blog posts and hope I can add to the discussions as well.

Are you gardening with your kids or grandkids or are you doing a school garden or maybe gardening with college kids?

I am gardening with my children.  We have four ages 3, 5, 8, and 10.

Are you going to expand on last year's ideas or are you going a whole different route?

We moved in February so have a brand new canvas to start on this year.  Our garden will consist of two 4 by 15 raised beds as well as an area of hill I am fencing off for the larger plants.

What are your kids dreaming of doing this year...remember to involve them in the planning stage, after all that is why we're here!

My kids have all ready planted a few things.  Flowers and pumpkins.  Both of my oldest children have hopes of growing pumpkins and watermelons for 4H to take to fair.  I usually give each child a garden space but I am not sure what this will look like this year.  

Anyone doing a hobbit house?  Ohhhh I hope so!!

I am planning a tee pee this year for the kids.  I have started some vining flowers and a mini vining pumpkin that will grow up the sides.  Also will add beans, peas, and sunflowers to the mix.  I tried this last year but I never got farther than setting up the tee pee poles!  Its high on my priority list so hopefully I will accomplish that this year.  :)

Spring is Coming!!

Seed Planting

We started our seeds a few days ago.  I let the kids each plant a few little pots of their favorites.  They've got pumpkins, lettuces, and different flowers all ready to go into their little garden pots.  I planted 10 1/2 flats of seeds.  I intended to just plant a few but as I was covering my dining room and myself in dirt I figured I would get most of it done at once!  So tomatoes, lettuces, melons, pumpkins, and so much more are now sitting snugly in flats in bedrooms, and bathrooms, and the dining room.  Some have all ready made it out to the greenhouse as they germinated quickly.  Others are slowly doing their thing and will be out there in the next few weeks.

I love spring time!  Gardening and preparing for a new year of growing things.  Its so exciting and I anxiously watch for the first seeds to germinate.  I love that my house smells like dirt and the job of spraying the seed trays with water each day.  Seeds are just amazing!

Our Urban Homestead Tour

I have pictures!  Thought I'd take you on a little tour.  I love being back in town though I do miss the wide open spaces of the middle of no where.  I am so excited to start my garden this year, I have plans for the raised beds, growing along the fences, as well as creating some micro climates with container gardening along the sides of the house.  The chickens seem to enjoy their little area as do the kids.  I don't know if Joe has fully realized we live in town as he keeps talking about a dairy goat!  lol  

  

Raised beds, you can also see the composter in the top bed.  We are going to save the end of each bed and just rotate it back and forth.  Since we don't own it will save us the hassle of having to "fix" the area where the composter is when we move.

Bantam Coop

My little greenhouse

East side of the yard

The treed area is the chicken coop/run

3 of the chickens

Naomi's birdhouse

You can see the red/white chicken coop back there behind the trees.

West side of the yard.  The kids have turned this into a sledding area, even when there's no snow. lol

View in the front.  That sliver of river is the Columbia and those hills are Oregon.

Front of the house

This was a few weeks back and it was the nicest sunny day we have had in a long, long time.  

I hope you enjoyed the tour.  I am so excited to have picture uploading back on the blog.  I have a lot I want to update from the last year as well as new stuff going on here.