Getting Ready to Garden-Bunnies Beware

I know-it’s only January 3rd. But, it’s never too early to start planning your garden. I’ve been thumbing through my Gurney’s and Baker’s Creek Catalogues, spending hours plotting and scheming.

I’m such an organizing freak, that I made an excel spreadsheet outlining what plants and seedlings I would be buying, along with the planting schedules, cost and soil needs.

I know-I’m a Class A Nerd. And I’m ok with that.

A wonderful reader-Janice-sent me Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seed Catalogue last year-along with a bunch of seeds. I was so ecstatic to try things last year that I normally wouldn’t, that I went about my garden tossing seeds *to and fro.

Who knew that Biceps and I would love okra so stinkin’ much. I’m planting double this year. And, I’m adding cauliflower. Yum.

(*Actually, all seeds were carefully placed into the soil and no seeds were harmed during my skipping and frolicking while wearing these cute green clogs.)

Look at this beautiful soil, just ready and willing to grow yummy vegetables.

My Spinning Composter is filled to the brim and ready to fertilize my soil-naturally.
My Rain Barrels are full and ready to offer free rainwater for the garden.
The dutch clover is protecting my soil from erosion and is going to be a lovely green fertilizer come this spring.

Now, all I have to do is wait and soon, I will have this. But for now, I will enjoy the canned produce, yummy salsa and jalapeno jelly from last year’s harvest.

And, I will wait patiently (somewhat) for the new planting season-when I brush off aforementioned cute green clogs and get down and dirty with my seedlings.

So, bunnies-BEWARE. Your time of bouncing through my vacant garden willy nilly is coming to an end. Enjoy it now, furballs. Enjoy it now.

How are you planning for your garden?

Compost Beginnings-Circle of Life

Last year, Biceps and I made our DIY Spinning Composter to speed up the process of breaking down organic materials (a couple of weeks instead of a couple of months).

The composter was repinned so many times on pinterest, that we made a video showing exactly how the composter operates.

I love recycling the stuff I normally would toss in the garbage as I’m cooking.

I’m using a large pickle jar to gather my kitchen scraps-taking it out to the composter when it’s full and overflowing with goodness.

I opted for a glass jar, rather than plastic-due to the stinky factor.

Soon, what you see here will be composted down into beautiful black compost.

My garden will say “Yum!”, pushing this nutrient rich compost through their hardy roots and into the plant .

And I will say “Yum” when my plants are producing a bountiful harvest due to the increased nutrients, with which I will once again compost the peelings, tips and scraps back into the garden.

It’s the circle of life.

It’s a Rainy Day-Garden Prep

Today was the day for planting my garden. But, mother nature has been in a bad mood-crying all over the place. It has rained for the last three days-with tiny spurts of dryness in between monsoons.

So instead of donning mud boots yesterday, the best friend and I had a day trip planned for Arkansas. But, I’ll tell you more about that soon.

In the meantime, I know that my two DIY Rain Barrels are filling to capacity.

And my empty DIY Composter is getting a good cleansing.

But, I am ready to attack my garden with shovels, seeds and stakes. So mother nature-you’d better dry those tears up soon. No one likes a cry baby.

Happy New Year! (Favorite Posts and Stuff.)

Dear Readers-
It’s a brand new year. 2011 is gone. 2012 is here. To celebrate moving forward, I thought I would peer back into my archives and share with maybe the newbies what was most popular here at Potholes and Pantyhose.
Here are a few favorites from 2011-those with the most comments, or the most hits.
 

Remodeling my Master Bathroom was a pleasure and a success.
Biceps was out of town and I got to work recreating our boring bathroom. I loved the end result-as did Biceps. I think he mostly loved not having to do it himself….

Secondly topping the list was my DIY Spinning Composter:
This horrible picture of me has been repinned on Pinterest over 2K times. I wish I would have had the foresight to change out of my work clothes. I suppose it’s good for you to see me grubby and gross from time to time…

My Broken Mirror Art still gets a lot of action.
Biceps and I created this mirror from sections we no longer needed after our remodel. It still sits above our fireplace and still gets the oohs and aahs from newcomers.

My tutorial on Canning Jalapeno Pepper Jelly received more responses than I had anticipated.
The recipe is very simple-and if you don’t burn yourself on the hot steam from the canner-it’s also pretty painless.

I have no idea why, but this silly little post seemed to spark some conversation. My frizzy hair needed help, and I asked you for your input.
You have never failed, me dear readers and gave me tons of insight into the world of hair care.

My Pretty Paper Christmas trees not only got a lot of ooh’s and aah’s around the internet world, they received praise from family members and friends alike.
Turquoise and red have become a favorite of mine. Free and cheap are also favorites.

For fear of boring you, I’m ending with this post. My DIY Recycled and Cheap Rain Barrel.
This is a simple solution to gathering your roof water. The tutorial is rather simple, the process takes a few hours and you can go to bed at night knowing your water bill won’t be astronomical during the dry season.
 
I hope you’ve enjoyed a walk with me down memory lane. I know that I have enjoyed my time with you!
Have a great New Year-be safe, drink lots of water and don’t eat too much cake.
Happy New Year!

Linking up to: http://diyshowoff.com/2012/01/diy-2011-recap-party.html