Sign in at Summer School!

On a walk through our property I found an old school chair very old rusted and two bullet holes in the front.  To the delight of my son, we, or shall I say he carried it up the acreage to the front, I pondered what am I going to do with it... Why not plant something in it!

So I got started first I painted the chair with an outdoor primer in white. I did not want to spoil the rustic look of the chair but... I also wanted it to last I felt it was right so I did a partial paint job on it. Next I had a board cut to fit the book hole, I had to find someway to get the dirt to stay in. Then I filled with a potting mixture and put in some morning glory seeds. I did not Nick and soak them like I have in the past. I just decided to put them in the dirt.

One day I had a conversation with an old friend about the teacher summers. He said he said that he never takes the summer off he always teachers summer school (he is a high school teacher). I am a kindergarten teacher we typically do not have summer school for our kinders so my version of summer school is in the garden at home! What a great name for my new reuse planter "Summer School." I told my teenage daughter, a great artist to get busy making my school chair named in paint. She used paint pens and Incorporated the bullet holes into the art! I have also been making visitors to my property sign in on it as summer has begun! So far I have two signatures, both friends of my children. My dad did not sign hmmph!

I hope you enjoy the pictures and it inspires you to reuse something in a new way!

Couponing at Wal~Mart, I am Hooked!

Last Night's Trip:

STP Gas Treatment $0.97 each
Banquet Fruit Pies $0.63 each
Dial for men shower wash 0.97 each
Palmer's Lotion tubes $0.27 each
Monostat poweder product $2.97 each
Sun Drop 2 liters $0.00 each FREE!!!!!!!!!!!

 I got my list from the Family Frugal Life website, another website I like to use for shopping lists is coupon closet both are local people with many stores they make shopping lists for.

I have been getting a lot of good deals lately check out these presents for father's day:

I found a deal on a men's electric razor so I went home and checked for a coupon. I found one at the coupon network for $10.00 off a norelco electric razor product. I printed it went back to walmart and bought 4 of them. Sale price was $14.97, the purchase price was $4.97! All the father's in our lives are getting one!

Thank you WAL~MART!!!!

Grandma's Flowers and the flower rescue

My Grandmother's house has been lived in my my Aunt who did not want her flowers. So I dug them all up and found them a home on my property. I have many different types of plants but the Iris flowers are my favorite story. You see my Grandmother did the very same thing, she saved her Dad's Iris flowers the very same way, I have saved the same family of flowers! These Irises once belonged to my Great Grandfather.  This project deserved a special place! There where so many flowers I did end up planting many of the irises around several trees on my property as well.

I found an outcropping of rock that I knew was pretty large.

I excavated the rock and dug out the lower side for the bed.

Laid down retaining wall fit into the natural landscape...

After adding landscape material at the bottom I added a mixture of top soil and garden soil..

I added flowers in the cracks of the rock...

Then I added Grandma's Flowers!

Here are some other flowers I also saved over spring break...

Bucket Garden

Making raised beds takes a lot of money and time. An alternative we decided to try is bucket gardening. I took inspiration from many video's on the subject on YouTube.com.  I was using all the free buckets I could find but I also purchased 5 gallon buckets from home depot from under $3 a bucket. My cousin found me even larger buckets to garden in and now I am trying to plant corn, cantaloupe, watermelon and okra in some of those. A few stores willing to give me buckets for my bucket garden was Homeland deli area, and Braum's. I think this is an idea we can have a nicer garden in kindergarten, especially when teaching in the inner city, the buckets can be protected from vandalism. Problems in bucket gardening, knowing how much to water, I fear we have been over watering as we feared they would dry out all to fast. So far some of my plants do not look as good as they should it makes me sad I am hoping to find a way to pump these few plants up so they can be plentiful.  Benefits have been isolating plants with insect problems and treating them, mulch stays in place, I can move them around the yard to get them the sun/shade they need, protect them from serious storms, load them in the back of the truck and move them as a group take them out when needing to haul! So far my best plants have been one of the jalapeno plants, cherry tomato's, and two small bell pepper plants and producing bell's but are not growing tall enough so far.

My raised beds are a good investment overtime. I have two large beds one with summer squash and one for cucumbers.  I plan on adding one a month, even through the winter months as that will give me 14 by this time next year. I also have two tire potato towers started and doing well.

~Garden April 2012 Update on Projects~

the gate into my cucumber raised garden bed.

Cucumber raised bed

These are my upside down cherry tomatoes planted with my cucumber bed. I had pink tomatoes in these two years ago and I am hoping that these do much better than the pink tomatoes. We did not mail order these plants that was a better start anyway.

This is my cucumber bed. it has fence all the way around because I have to protect from critters.

a project I will be starting soon. I plan on planting morning glories or moon flowers in it and parking it next to one of my trees in front. I have already gave it a paint job, I know that takes away from the beauty of the rust but its going to get water on it often and have vines crawling everywhere anyway.

My starter plants and my milk crate onions that are planted in their for good! The rest will be transplanted into the bucket garden or into a raised bed somewhere.

My bucket garden start up. I have some starters pictured above with the onions I plan on having about 26 buckets in my bucket garden. I have found that it is easier for the buckets to be in the truck bed. When we need the truck bed we just take them out. We just move the garden around the property in the back of the bed super easy to protect plants from high winds, ect. I really like my bucket garden this is the first year we have had one!

My well house!. I got all of Grandma's front flowerbed plants transferred to my well house. I will need to find a location to prepair for the bearded irises next. Some of the plants have started blooming already I hope it will really start filling out the bed in the next few months.

This is my crooked neck squash bed. So far so good. The wood around it is scrap and the outside is cedars we have been clearing out from the property. amount the front access of the bed we have put up a removable fence so we can keep critters out. We love squash and have always had trouble with squash bugs now that we have moved maybe we wont see a squash bug again.

Walmart Trip April 2012 Savings of $42.64

I usually do not go to Walmart coupon shopping but lately they have had good coupon lists. I went to walmart late Friday night and found the Shick Hydo lady razors I have been looking for. I had $4.00 off coupons and they have them marked $5.97. The package comes with a small can of skintimate shave gel and $4.55 in additional coupons. I also got Jello for $0.25 a box. Fantastik fr $0.97 cents a bottle, Stayfree for $1.00 a package. Honey Butter country crock $0.12. Wisk $2.99, nextcare band aids $0.97, face masks $1.50 a box, all using coupons! total with the chicken I did not have a coupon for my bill would have been $98.74 after coupons it was $56.10.

Spring has cleared my pocket book with these new projects!

It's that time of year, I am on a mission of beautification and function! One of the first projects of course has been to create a raised vegetable garden. This required picking out a location. I chose a cut out area of land that had a few cedar trees in it. The clearing of cedar commenced and we started building raised beds. The beds are constructed out of the cedar trees that have been cleared from the property.  We have purchased the dirt to go into the largest bed. Dirt is expensive! there is another large bed that needs only the front side put up and the purchase of dirt! I realized that the infrastructure of my property is going to take a really long time, and lots of money. to create. However, it is worth it! When we have it closer to completion I will put up some pictures!

I also started a project I deem essential as it is the focal point of the entrance of my property. I have wanted climbing roses forever. I bought two Golden Shower rose bushes, and two trellises for climbing. Three 2x4x8's painted white.  Installed them to the back of the pump house. From a previous project I had about 100 retaining wall bricks in a red/grey color. However, I had to purchase an additional 85 blocks! These required some digging and some leveling but once the first layer was complete it was just a matter of stacking! Plus  the addition of peat, compost, garden soil, and top soil and it has been a huge amount of money. Not to mention I always lay down black landscaping fabric for weed block.  In the next day or two I will be putting the dirt into the bed and preparing to plant the roses, and by the end of spring break my rescue flowers.

There are two side areas that are going to have hydrangeas planted in them. My Aunt does not want to have Grandma's flowers anymore and I just do not want to see them die. To the rescue!!! I have a home for all of them. Now I also have to find a place for the bearded irises that will also face death if I do not save them! Grandma had bearded Irises at every house we ever lived at, I will save them, I will!

From here on out soil will be my only cost this year, I will not buy any more garden borders, I sure wish we had better soil quality around here!

The picture is of the pump house's new flower beds before dirt and plants, you can see the old and new bricks at the lowest ground point the bricks are 6 layers deep, at the highest two layers! (This deep area worked out perfect for the roses!)