you say potato, i say potato

Our good friend Tesfaye recently convinced me to grow potatoes in old tires on the side of my house.  Have you ever heard of this?  Apparently, as they grow you stack up more tires...  I'm not really sure.  Since Tesfaye is a gardener, I seem to take his word without questioning it.  So, between the rest of our garden and our chickens (did I tell you we got 3 more?), I don't think we'll be going hungry any time soon.  Have any of you ever grown potatoes?  Have you ever heard of growing them in old tires?  I'll keep you posted on how it goes...

Have a wonderful weekend!

[Continue reading...]

garden boxes

For Easter this year I made each family a little garden box full of herbs planted in these vintage boxes I picked up at the flea market.  I sent the Chicago Burches all the fixings in the mail, but put together everyone else's to give to them on Easter.  I lined the bottom of each box with some kind of moss-something-or-another from Baker Nursery (sorry, I can't seem to remember what it was called, but the wonderful folks at Baker will surely know what you need...).  

Then I simply filled each box with dirt and planted all the herbs side by side...

I think they turned out so sweet and everyone seemed so excited about them.  Don't you think this would be the best present to give someone as a housewarming gift?  I know I would love it...

[Continue reading...]

whoa, garden

Our garden is in full swing this year.  Everything is growing and it seems we have more than we will possibly be able to eat.  We keep encouraging the kids to come over and take as much as they can for their families, and we still seem to have so much.  I was thinking it would be so fun to have a salad making party.  Put a huge farm table out in the yard, cover it with butcher paper and lay out all the lettuce and vegetables it could hold.  Everyone could bring a bowl and take home a huge salad for dinner.  What do you think?  Would you go to a party like that?  Any ideas on what else you could do?  Would you prewash the lettuce or set up some sort of washing station in the yard?  Lots to think about...  Oooh, we could even make different salad dressings in little mason jars as party favors to take home!  I have to keep thinking about this one.  Oh, and find the time to pull it off...

[Continue reading...]