SpruceHill

From my garden

Hydrangea

The last blooms of summer.

So bright and pretty.

  

A beacon in my brown withering garden.

Still full of life, and color

  Making me smile.  

A poor man's topsy turvy

My handy husband has been very busy. He decided he wanted to try one of those upside down tomato plants. They are all over the TV and seem to be all the rage here. Lets just say that he does not like to spend money he does not need to. So he decided to make his own.

 

Here are the supplies you need. He got the bucket at Panera. Did you know if you walk into a Panera  and ask for a bucket the will give you as many as you want? They get their pickles in them, they smell like pickles too!

You also will need a drill with the proper bit, garden soil and or dirt from the ground, scissors, a piece of garden cloth or a coffee filter, and A tomato plant.

The only thing we bought was the plant $3.00 and the soil for about $6.00. The topsy turvy sells for $20 to $30. We saved a little bit of money there.

Step 1-Get a 5 gallon bucket you can find them at most hardware stores.

Step 2-Drill a 2 inch hole in the bottom of the bucket with your drill, and place your garden fabric in the bottom with a slit in it to make room for the plant.

Step 3-Put your plant into the hole in the bucket carefully, then fill your bucket with soil (hubby also put soil from Spruce Hill in there too. He insists that there must be Maryland soil for it to taste like a Maryland tomato)

Step 4- Cover with the lid and flip it over. Let the plant grow in the bucket for a week in order for the roots to establish before you flip the bucket over to hang it up. Make sure you water it!

 

He made two, one for my Dad and one for us.

Step 5-Now that the plant is about 12 inches tall it is time to hang it upside down.

Step 6-hang your plant up, you need to make sure it is a strong enough place to support it's weight.

 

We hung ours on the very end of the swing set, were there are no swings hanging. He attached a board to the top of the swing set with screws and put two nails in it to secure it.

 

Another great thing about these are that even if you do not have room in your yard for a garden you can still have fresh veggies. Some people are even planting cucumbers and other vine veggie plants upside down!

Have fun with it and let us know how it works out!

 

Fun in the sun

Last weekend it was hot hot hot! 92 degrees, in April! We spent a lot of time outside working on my flowerbeds and we finally got the veggie garden started. During the day on Sunday we saw a total of 5 Bald Eagles flying above us as we worked and played. The kids even got to see them. It was very exciting! Of course I did not have my camera with me at the time!

 

This is what we started with.

 

I have learned through out the years that this garden cover saves me a lot of time and energy! No weeds for me.

 

This is my secret ingredient can you guess what it is?

 

 

 

I got just about everything planted and even got my tomato cages up. Tempest and Arial watched the whole time.

 

I planted onion sets this year. I cant wait to see how they take off, or not.

 

My supervisor approved all of the work done, after a romp in the sprinkler.

 

With Little E.

Earth Day and my garden

It's earth day today, and I thought I would help celebrate by sharing my plans for my vegetable garden. I am planning to do a large veggie garden this year. Last years garden was a bit pitiful due to my chemo induced fatigue and the fact that I was unable to be in the sun at all.

 

I have some of my plants already. I am tending to them by putting them outside in the sun on warm days and keeping them inside at night so the frost does not get to them.

 

I have eggplant.

 

Banana peppers and sweet bell peppers.

 

I have four tomato plants, three regular size and one cherry tomato. The cherry tomatoes are my favorite. I love to go into the garden and just pluck them off the plant and pop them into my mouth. There is really nothing like it.

I also have some onion sets and I am picking up some potatoes, bush cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini, and lettuce sometime this week. I also try to plant a couple rows of cutting flowers every year If I have room. It is nice to be able to have fresh flowers in the house all summer.

I have a lot of fond memories of our HUGE garden we had growing up. We grew everything, and my Mom fed us all year long with her canned and frozen fruits and vegetables we harvested every year. We even had a very large rhubarb patch. We would be hustled out to the garden about once a week by my parents and were each given a row to weed. I seemed like it took forever when we were doing it but I am sure it was not really that long. We always ended up having rotten tomato battles afterwards. Picking the stinky rotten fruits off the vine and hurling them at the nearest person. Once and a while one of us would get one right in the middle of our back or on the side of the face. It was gross, but a lot of fun.

Growing up on a farm was great, Happy Earth Day!

Bright color for a rainy day

Last night our family went to my Mom and Dad's house for Sunday dinner. My Mom is a very talented gardener. She has a lot of different flowers that I do not have here at Spruce Hill. Lucky for me I had my camera with me! I spent the first 20 minutes or so when we got there taking pictures before the clouds returned. The sun was not out much, but enough to get some pretty shots.

 

The flowers in My Mom's garden are always bigger, brighter and healthier then the flowers in my garden. I am not sure what her secret is but she is doing something I am not.

Since it is such a rainy yucky day here on Spruce Hill. I thought I would share a bit of bright color and sunshine with you!

I would also like to send these flowers all the way to California to my friend Mary W. and her Mom BL. Hope they brighten up your day! I hope you are back on your feet soon!