I don’t have instructions for these but thought I would share….. would look cool to have a bunch of these little ones sitting on ledges around the garden! Anyone have instructions/directions please let me know!
Terra Cotta Pot Dolls
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Tag Archives: Garden
Composting
Making a pot of coffee every morning can get you well on your way to a perfect compost. Enjoy a crisp salad for lunch, and the prettiest plants are in your reach.
So what does cooking have to do with composting? Everything. All those nutrient – rich scraps you’re sscraping into the disposal or trash can are full of food for your soil. Change where you’re putting them – not into the garbage, but into a compost bucket.
And let’s lay your fears to rest: Done right, it won’t stink or attract bugs.
I recommend a compost bucket with a double filter in the lid, which keeps odors contained. For easy cleanup, line your pail with a biobag. Made from starch, it breaks down in the compost bin outside.
To keep it simple, whenever you take out the trash, empty the compost bucket into your outdoor bin. In less than two month, you’ll be rewarded with compost.
ADD:
vegetables, grains, pasta, fruit rinds and peels, breads, cereals, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, crushed eggshells, paper napkins or towels – and don’t forget to add lawn products such as leaves, grass and bush trimmings – and don’t throw away those paper shredings from your office shredder…. they can go in the compost also or you can spread across your garden right on top to help keep moisture in your garden where it belongs.
DO NOT ADD:
meat, fish, poultry, cheese, oily foods, butter, other animal products and never put in yard trimmings that are weeds or anything with roots
Paper Towel Tube – Reuse
They make good plant propagators. Cut then into 2-inch strips, stuff with newspaper, and fill with soil, then put your germinating seed in. When the plant gets bigger, they can be pulled apart easily or planted straight into the ground and will biodegrade.
Making A Herb & Floral Wreath For Any Occasion
Fragrant wreaths of lavender, eucalpytus, summer savory, and thyme disappear from our stand at the Saturday Farmers Market almost as quickly as we can make them. And when we are surrounded by crowds and our adrenaline is up, that’s darn fast—less than five minutes per wreath. What many of our customers really covet, however, is the neat little gizmo we use to make them. “Boy, could I use one of those,” said one gardener, with undisguised envy. “At the end of the season, I have all these herbs that need to be pruned, and it just kills me to toss them. With this, I could make wreaths for all my friends.”
We are an organic herb and flower grower and we understand that point of view. A desire not to let any harvest go to waste is what led us to design this tool, which is a simplified version of a commercial jig. So we are sharing instructions for making one, as well as providing suggestions for how to use the jig to create simple wreaths from end-of-the-season garden clippings.
Our jig, which is nothing more than a ring of evenly spaced dowels secured in a plywood base, frees our hands. The dowels hold the herb cuttings in place as we assemble them, then guide the twine when we are ready to bundle the lot together into a wreath. The directions are for a jig to make a wreath that is 10 inches in diameter. Our most popular size, but you can make a larger or smaller jig. Enjoy your wreath while the herbs retain their savor and color. Then toss it into the compost and make another.
How to make a wreath jig
You can make your own jig following the directions below.
TIME: 1/2 hours to make, plus several hours to dry
COST: $10 to $15
MATERIALS
•Two squares of 3/4-inch-thick plywood a few inches larger than the desired diameter of your wreath. For example, cut two 13-inch squares for a 10-inch wreath.
•Compass, pencil, drill with 1/2-inch bit, wood glue, clamps, mallet
•A dozen 1/2-inch-thick hardwood dowels, cut to 4 3/4-inch lengths
DIRECTIONS
1. Using the compass, draw a 10-inch circle in the center of one plywood square.
2. To place dowels, mark 12 equally spaced spots around the circle.
3. At each mark, drill a 1/2-inch-wide hole completely through the plywood.
4. Coat one side of the second plywood square with a generous amount of glue. Affix the first square on top. Use clamps to hold the two squares together while the glue dries (or weight them with heavy books).
5. Drip glue inside each dowel hole and pound dowels into place with a mallet.
Wipe off any excess glue. Allow glue to dry thoroughly—for at least several hours—before using the jig.
How to make a wreath
1. Use plants with sturdy but still pliable stems for your bottom layer. We favor baby blue eucalyptus rosemary, curly willow, cedar, and pine. One stem at a time, place the cuttings inside the dowel circle. Start with stem ends, tucking them under foliage. Alternate starting points on opposite sides of the jig. That way the wreath stays balanced.
2. Pile on herbs with a light texture— lavender, savory, thyme, and scented geraniums (whatever needs pruning). Save the most fragrant clippings (such as rosemary, right) and those with blossoms for the top layer.
3. Cut a 5-foot piece of twine (about two arm’s lengths). Starting at any point, tie the twine around all layers of the wreath. Hide the knot on the inside of the wreath; don’t trim the ends yet. Working from the inside out, loop the twine around the wreath, using the dowels to help guide the twine. Pull the twine taut with each wrap.
4. Tie the end of the twine to your original knot. Clip twine ends.
Canning Suggestions
JUST THE RIGHT SIZE
Get ready to preserve a bit of summer when the abundance of fresh produce flits farmers markets and roadside stands. Large canning jars are great for the big jobs, but you need tiny jars, such as those made by Bali, for saving goodies from backyard gardens. Their wide-mouth, one-piece, screw-on lids make it easy to save small batches, and the size is right for gifts from your kitchen. Pick up a carton of them as soon as they appear in stores—they get away quickly. That way, when the spirit hits to can a little something you’ll be set.
Country & Victorian Times 