Making

Today, I joined in a Facebook discussion about what term those of us who sew like to be called: sewist, seamstress, sewer, etc.  I have adopted the term Maker (from Natalie Chanin) as I think it best describes what I do.  I make things.  These things might come from my sewing studio (which I have not set foot in for weeks) or my kitchen, workshop, garden, computer, camera, the list goes on.  (I love how Southerners say, "make a picture" for taking a photo). 

So, while I haven't been sewing much, I have been making.  I made cupcakes for a friend's birthday (using my favorite icing recipe).  I made an attempt to organize my garage.  But mostly I have been making my garden.

I started with a greens garden in a spot where there used to be lovely flowering perennials.  Unfortunately, they were also tasty to our resident deer, and I decided that if I had to have an ugly fence to protect them, it somwhat defeted the purpose of the flowers. So instead, I planted all sorts of early spring greens along with other early vegetables and annual herbs.

Next I tackled the beds in the front of my house which contain mostly perennial herbs and deer-resistant plants.

That holly bush next to the front door houses this little home at the moment:

My apologies to mama cardinal who feels the need to retreat everytime I open the front door.

I also planted mint in an existing bed of irises

but most of the work has been going on in our new vegetable garden.  To get there, you have to meander down a woodland path

across the bridge

to the garden on the other side of the creek.

My husband has been busy making, too.  Those raised beds, made from white oak lumber, are his handiwork.

The beds have short pieces of PVC pipe attached to the inside which allows me to place long, arching sections of flexible pipe in them.  These can then be covered with protection for the plants (against bugs or weather) or to create an arbor of sorts.  I used cable ties to attach a length of fencing to the pipes.

These are summer squash plants that will grow up and over the arbor, allowing me to use less space and also improving air circulation around the plants and keeping the fruit off the ground.  Underneath the arbor I have planted carrots which can tolerate some shade.  I tried a nifty little technique to make my own seed "tape" to plant my carrots.

I started with a paper napkin, unfolded and reduced to a single ply.  I drew a 3" grid on the napkin with pencil.  Using a flour/water paste, I "glued down" 1-2 carrot seeds at the intersection of each grid line (16 spots on each napkin.)  I labeled the napkin with the variety of the carrot and let the paste dry.

Planting my seeds was as easy as laying out the napkins over the soil

and covering them with additional soil.  This ensures that the plants are optimally spaced and very little, if any, thinning will be needed.

This past weekend my husband and I really got into the making spirit and put together these bean trellises.

These were built from stock lumber and took three times as long to paint as to build.  I found the directions at this site. 

I did have the chance to do a little sewing a few weeks ago when I joined my sister near Surrey, Virginia for "sewing camp".  I enjoyed the company of many nice women, some fine cooking and a chance to relax in a beautiful setting.  I completed a couple of projects, a pair of pajamas which you will see soon (I'm working on a tutorial to accompany that post) and some much-needed storage for the plastic bags that seem to accummulate at my house.

These are nothing more than fabric tubes with elastic at one end and a ribbon for hanging at the other.  Plastic grocery bags are stored inside until needed, and then can be easily removed through the elastic opening.

I'm still going to be making my garden for a few more weeks, and I'm sure I'll share some pictures once it is in all its glory.  And that treehouse really needs a special flag, don't you think?  What are you making?

Take That, Winter

Most of you in the United States have seen some harsh winter weather in the last month (special shout out to those of you in New England).  Here's what my back yard looked like last week:

and that was before the next storm dropped about 8 more inches of the white stuff.  Kids have been home from school and underfoot which has made it difficult to get anything productive done.  But, in the last few days we've seen some warm temperatures and lots of melting, and it has put me in the mood from some gardening. The snow actually helped a bit in the garden, allowing us to tramp out various ideas for future beds and see what they would look like.  So while the weather outside was frightful, I spent some time with seed catalogs and graph paper, dreaming of gardening weather to come.

This weekend I decided to start a few seeds, mostly annual flowers to intersperse with the vegetables.  I needed some quick plant markers so I punched some colored card stock (the colors conjuring up Easter eggs) in flower shapes, wrote the plant names on the front and added a tiny dot of hot glue and a toothpick to the back.

Very quick and easy.

That's Slim Pick'ns (or Slim, for short) in the background, my garden kitty.

It still seems a long way off, which is probably a good thing given the amount of tasks that I need to accomplish before the last frost, but these little seedlings warming on my window sill (and a lone crocus) remind me that spring is just around the corner.

And Now for Something Completely Different: EarthTainer

I spent a good part of this past weekend, and all of date night, working on a DIY project with my husband.  Now, that might not sound like fun to many of you but let me reassure you that both of us had a great time.  We have now invested quite a bit of time and money in the hopes of having home grown tomatoes in suburbia this summer. 

A few weeks ago my spouse came across an article describing a self-watering tomato-growing container called an EarthTainer using items commonly acquired at the home improvement store.  A few of the necessary items proved a little tricky to find but we persevered and soon had everything we needed.  The base of the unit is made from two large storage bins; there is a water reservoir in the bottom that makes it difficult to either under- or over-water the tomatoes.  This planter is the creation of Ray Newstead who has written a 20-page PDF meticulously detailing every step needed to build your own.  This man has thought of everything and offers lots of practical advice on the process of building the containers and planting your tomato plants as well as constructing a support cage for the growing tomatoes (which we have not added yet done, see below).  The steps were not difficult and we easily completed two containers in a couple of hours.  Our plants are in place and we now anxiously await the arrival of our first tomato (which, by my calculations should be worth approximately $73.48/pound).  Here are a few photos of our progress along with the finished product.

Under construction

Inner support shelves complete

Drilling the drainage holes

The completed unit ready for planting; the white pipe is for adding water

Plants in and moisture barrier in place

Update on Friday, May 27, 2011 at 12:22PM by Julie Bowersett

Several people have emailed me to ask about a cage system for the tomtoes we recently planted so I'm posting an update.  Last weekend my husband completed the cages that snap onto the EarthTainers.  The original plans call for using pea fencing which is available through a mail order garden company.  While I was at my local nursery I saw these tomato trellises and thought they might work for this as well.

Using the instructions in the PDF plans, hubby bent the trellises into the necessary configuration that allows them to snap onto the container.  He had to modify the instructions a little to suit the dimensions of the trellises but these seem to work just as the author intended.  Here are some more pictures of the cages in place.

A close-up of the attachment points

One other modification my spouse made, which is worth mentioning, especially if you have small children at home, was to attach the white watering pipe with a piece of wire to the inside container.  We hope this prevents the tube from being pulled out by curious toddlers.  He drilled a hole through the pipe and the inner side of the container and ran a piece of coat hanger wire through both holes.