Making Sage and Catnip Bundles

It was a warm and sunny September day and I found myself with some blessed time alone to putter in the garden. Saint Francis was just standing there with the sage, mint and catnip so I decided to start a little project...

So I cut a bunch of sage and catnip flowers and found some silk thread...

And I started making some sage bundles for smudging. See how you leave the string long at the top and then start winding it around from the bottom of the stems...

 

Of course with catnip involved, kitty was happy to help...

 

The first one I made I gave to our neighbour who was watering her garden...

 

See, you just wrap the thread round and round, then let them dry for a week or so...

Aren't they beautiful! The sage is for purification and protection and the catnip is for happiness :)

 

Kitty loves making sage and catnip bundles!

These Will Be Memories to Sustain Me This Winter...

Having a vision and seeing it come true is one of the beautiful things about being alive. Look at the scarlet runner beans climbing up the bamboo poles!

I never get tired of fresh snap peas, as you can tell from how many I plant. Just put some more in yesterday. Whoo hoo!

St. Francis is in awe of this beautiful day as he looks at the sunshine and stands among the herbs.

In the greenhouse the basil has been producing like mad and we've been eating pesto on most everything. Young salad mix next to it, almost ready for the first cutting.

Cukes in the greenhouse. Just hanging there....

Sinan's barber chair in the greenhouse is a nice place to sit.

Happy tomatoes, starting to produce with some calendula and summer squash in there too.

Oh, the first year of our front yard raised bed with the cucumbers "cascading" over the front, just like I'd hoped. The tomatoes are a little behind but have fruit on them. There's also dill, aruguala, nasturtiums and radishes all stuffed in. Loving it all!

Mid Summer Harvest

Right now there's a bumper crop of peas for sure! I love to give a bag full as gifts to people. Snap peas are my favorite because I like to eat the pods too.

Besides the peas, there's basil, chives, cherry tomatoes, red and fingerling potatoes, green leaf lettuce, red oak leaf lettuce, baby arugula, nasturtiums, our first cucumber (hurray!) and some sweet dill.

I wanted to make this salad from only what we grew in the garden. As you can imagine, the taste was heavenly! Happy gardening!

Grow Continuous Peas all Summer Long!

These are all growing at the same time. I like to plant peas and lettuce a few weeks apart all summer so there's always a fresh supply. In fact, the last crop comes in November! Peas are so good!! I like the "snap" variety with pods you can eat and also "snow" peas with edible pods. I just harvested a crop of peas and replanted this spot against the neighbour's carport..

Just planted this a few days ago to climb on a tomato cage..

another one to grow on a tomato cage...

these are in a bed with tomatoes, dill, sunflowers and basil but they're having no problem keeping up...

the front of the house gets lots of sun so why not?

backyard peas in flower and will be ready in a few days too...

we'll be eating these ones tonight! Keep planting those peas friends!

Scarecrow and other projects...

The crows were getting pretty rowdy so we decided to build a scarecrow....

we got some straw and some old clothes and started stuffing...

using an old pair of panty hose is a good method for the head and arms...

then you just safety pin things to eachother and dig a stake into the ground...Scary eh?

Oh! Here's some jerusalem artichokes, which I am so excited to see coming up. I couldn't find them at the nursery so I just got some at the grocery store and stuck them in the ground...stay tuned...

See how the side of the house looked before the trellis and before all the garden beds. I'm so happy with how it's coming along!It really needed a little something to make the patio cozy...

I love how this is shaping up with the planter box in front with nasturtiums and sweet peas coming up and the tomatoes in front of that. See the kiwi climbing at the far end and our "rescue plum tree" we got free off of Craigslist. I had a vision ...

the grape vine has some help from pagewire to get started climbing the trellis and kitty is always there to hang out when I'm doing stuff outside...

Creating stuff is half the fun of gardening. Cheap entertainment I always say!

Chard's last hurrah...

It's been a good run but the chard's going to seed...

So I chopped off the tops and good leaves for tonight's stir fry...

and gave it one last weeding...

and because I'm nice I even gave the old chard some fish fertilizer so it can have one last go while the new crop is maturing...Besides, the chickens will love the cuttings and weeds....

Free Materials + Imagination and Sweat = Fun and Food

Starting a new raised bed is easy with some cardboard over the grass and then pile soil on top. We got the soil free off Craiglist!

The boards were free too, laying around the yard when we moved here. We pounded short 2x4 stakes in the ground at the corners and then screwed the boards to them.

I back filled the box with the soil and then planted it with the tomato and cuke starts from the greenhouse. On the ends I planted a couple of squash plants, figuring that those and the cukes can cascade over the sides of the box as they grow.

These little boxes were another free Craiglist find from last year, filled with our free soil and then the bamboo stakes were found on the side of the road and make great places for the peas to climb!

This little bed is going well with peas and some yellow bush beans on the outside of the circle. They're climbing on some bamboo poles we got off...you guessed it, Craigslist and the rocks came from our neighbour accross the street who gave us several wheelbarrow loads of black, gooey soil dug from his ditch. I considered it black gold and my good husband brought it all back, rocks and all, for our gardening use.

All of our neighbours are great, though I must admit I do like a little privacy in the garden. We planted the hedge last year and now as it grows I am making more trellis contraptions from bamboo. This pot will have giant scarlet runner beans and in the background is a trellis I made for the hops to climb on.

These tomatoes are quite happy with the south western exposure and the lettuce goes along for the ride. Free bricks from Craigslist surrounding... Behind is the patio screen we built in the fall and next will be a planter on the ground in front of it, filled with climbing cucumbers and some nasturtiums I think. Gardening is cheap entertainment for me and we get food as a bonus. Hope you get a little inspiration from seeing what can be done with a little dirt and some imagination. Have fun!