nerd

I am nerding out looking at blogs with gift wrapping ideas.  I love wrapping presents!  I actually hated it as a kid because I was the designated gift wrapper of the family.  I remember wrapping boxes of Crown Royal for my dad to give to his workers and even wrapping my own gifts from my family (lame).
Check out some of these ideas:
Make a bow from old magazine pages.

image via how about orange


and another version here

image via craftster

A whole blog dedicated to gift wrapping!

image via the gifted blog

image via the gifted blog

And finally a cute way I can use up all the cheap yarn I have!

image via bugs and fishes

new (to me)

Another new (to me) blog I love!
Jim's Pancakes.

new (to me)

Love this new (to me) blog/cartoonist!

Draw the Dog

love

images via bliss by nick brandt

glamping

I need to win the lottery soon so I can stay here.

images via four seasons.com

stumbled across via wide open spaces

garden progress

We got our first batch of sprouts!  





After the first layer of seeds went in the sprouter, I waited two days and added a second level.  The third level was added yesterday.  One tray of sprouts is enough for two (fairly big) sandwiches, so we'll have to continuously rotate the trays. 
While it's pretty easy to use, my biggest problem seems to be the siphoning action of the water dripping from the top to each tray level.  The first day it seemed to flow quite easily, and even making sure there aren't seeds or sprouts blocking the siphon, I still have a laggy water flow.  I've taken to popping open the top of the water tray to keep the water flowing, though I'm sure that's not the best thing to do.  


In other news I've done some redecorating in terms of the containers on the balcony.  Here's what it looked like before:



Our office is reducing the size of the space we're renting and so we've been having major purges of stuff.  I was able to score these file/milk crates and I figured I could transform them into planters and create a cleaner looking balcony garden.



I had looked on Google to see if there was a cheap way to line by containers, and some sites were talking about peat moss or landscape fabric.  I went super cheap by digging up old cardboard boxes and newspaper.



I ran out of potting soil halfway through so after a quick run to the store I was able to complete three of them.




Everything fits nicely now along that south rail and I was able to gain more space and depth!  Can't wait to plant more things in them! 

sprouts

We've been trying to be better about bringing home lunches, and usually it ends up being a sandwich.  We've used fancier breads (baguettes, rolls, etc) and regular sliced bread and we've tried to fancy them up with lots of veggies too.  We like to add sprouts to our sandwiches and I thought maybe we should try to grow them.  I was online shopping for wheat grass seeds (more on that to come) and the website I was on (wheatgrasskits.com) sold sprout seeds and sprouters.  
On Monday we received in the mail our sprouter and seeds.  I finally had some time last night to read the instructions and started some seeds this morning before work.
Here's what the sprouter looks like:

And here are the seeds we got.  I chose the 5 part salad seed mix.

The instructions with the sprouter says 1 tablespoon of seeds will fill one tray so that's what I did.

You put the top level on with water in it and it drips down to each level then to the bottom catcher.  You change the water ever 12 hours and in a few days we should have sprouts!

I started one tray this morning and will start the second one in a couple days and the third tray a couple days after that so we have a continuous supply of sprouts for our sandwiches or salads.

Stay tuned for results!

HP

screw Twilight.  I CANT WAIT for Harry Potter!

.strawberries.

Jason thought I wouldn't be able to get strawberries with them planted in a rail box.... but lookie here!

I think I may eat it soon! 
The first row of carrots are growing as well.

I think I need to thin them out as some of the sprouts look pretty close together.  I think I'll plant another row too.
This is probably a big no-no in the gardening world, but in one of the rail boxes I wasn't sure what to plant, but wanted to plant something, and we had a ziplock bag of mixed seeds from seeds that had fallen out of their pouches (they have since been moved to glass jars).  I figured they were mostly salad greens (spinach, lettuce and arugula) but they could be lavender seeds as well.  hehehe.  Well, things have sprouted and for the most part they look like I was right with the salad green guess.

Me + Basil doesn't seem to be a good combination.  I've tried basil from seeds, and basil from two different starters and they all seem to be struggling.  Any advice?
My peas are quickly growing, but I think it's time to pull out some green onions and even the spinach that is sharing the container as it's all looking a bit cozy.

I've got some new things in the mail today and more container ideas in the works.  Stay tuned for more updates to my balcony garden!

garden progress

One of these things just doesn't belong here.  One of these things just isn't the same.  Can you spot something amiss in the garden?!

If you said "what are those drumsticks doing in your garden?" I asked myself the same thing when I saw them.
The timing of them sprouting was perfect because I had just picked up a nasturtium plant and transplanted it into other containers and the drumstick became a perfect stick in case the nasturtium wants to climb!

See those broccoli and cauliflower plants.  We've got a problem.  Caterpillars are infesting both!

Oh and slugs too!

DANGIT!
But I do have little strawberries growing!


As full as our balcony is getting with pots, I've figured out another way to get deep containers to use to grow plants that need more root depth.  I'll have a post up as soon as I get all together!

world cup

image via black eiffel

garden progress

So I finally had the time to make my new railing boxes inspired by the 6x8 garden.



As you can see I decided to keep the smaller box with the not so pretty railing holder and we still have the plywood backers to prop up all the railboxes.... oh well. I still like that we have more planting space on the deck.  
I rearranged some plants and added some new things like a strawberry plant and some carrot seeds!

I took the cilantro out of this rail box since it was getting too much sun and replaced it with another sage plant.  

The bolted arugula came out of this shallow container and I transplanted my mini roses into it. 

I moved the chives to a rail box and moved the cilantro to the pot to the right so it's more in the shade.  Hopefully it does a little better in its new home.  I also planted some snow pea seeds in the big container to the left.  I don't know if I'm too late planting them, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

The broccoli in the bed out front was growing quite nicely, so we harvested it and ate it with dinner!

One cauliflower plant isn't looking so hot, but the second one is thriving and has a little head growing.


We've been having salads almost daily as things keep growing!  The arugula is bolting, so I planted more seeds, even though we're approaching summer, I figure that bed stays in the shade for the majority of the day so it could be ok for a bit of time.

The tomato plant is slowly growing (very slowly it seems).
And that's about it for the garden!