Sprucing up the Fairy Garden
Remember when I put together a Fairy Gardening Kit with my nieces & nephew last fall? A few of the plants didn’t make it through the winter, so we purchased some plants last Monday at the greenhouse. Yesterday, I met them at my mom’s and we spruced up the Fairy Garden for the coming season.
The Fairy Garden had a rough winter and only one of the tiny plants had survived. That’s OK though, the kids were not discouraged and it’s a good lesson to learn. Plants don’t always survive. We pulled everything out, mixed some chicken manure into the soil and set off designing and planting our new fairy garden.
If you’ve got kids and want to help them learn to love gardening fairy gardening is the perfect way. My nieces and nephews are fascinated with the fairy garden and always have to water it and monitor it when they go to my mom’s.
I’m hoping to put in a fairy garden in my outdoor garden someday, what a fun thing to do in a little nook. It’s also a great way to keep those low-growing plants in one place and reduces the risk of them being overshadowed and overtaken by larger plants.
What great things have you learned captivate kids when it comes to gardening? Have you ever seen a fairy garden?
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Radishes – MMM?
I must admit, I’m not really a big fan of radishes. It’s not that I hate them, they’re grown in the gardens of Chiot’s Run every year and we eat all the ones we grow. So why do I grow them? Because they’re quick, you can seed them and be eating them almost a month later, lettuce is barely this quick to reach harvest.
This year I’m growing ‘French Breakfast’ for the first time and I really like it. My other favorite is ‘Pink Beauty’ (we’ll use the work “favorite” loosely here).
What’s one thing you don’t particularly like but still grow in your garden?
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Quote of the Day: Thalassa Cruso
Gardeners should love what they own & own what they love; but their gardens should never own them, there will be no pleasure in them if they do.
-Thalassa Cruso (Making Things Grow Outdoors)
I thought this quote was quite fitting. There once was a time when I was trying to get way too much done when it came to the garden. One day I realized “it’s not a race”. I didn’t have to get an entire orchard planted in one summer, or to fill every flowerbed with plants the first year.
After realizing this my gardening has taken a much slower pace. I still spend countless hours each week in the garden, but I don’t get stressed out if I don’t get something accomplished that I was hoping to get done.
As a result, gardening is much more relaxing. I can enjoy the simple pleasure of slowly weeding a flowerbed without worrying if I’ll have time to install a hedge of roses or not. When I get time, I’ll have a hedge of roses, until then, I’ll relish the fresh cleanly weeded flowerbed.
What pace do you typically maintain as a gardener?
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Burning the Midnight Oil
Mr Chiots and I were up late working on the kitchen. A few months ago we purchased some butcher block for the counters and finally had some time this weekend to tackle this project.
Here’s what our kitchen looked like yesterday morning:
Don’t let the photos fool you, the laminate countertops were in pretty shabby condition. Since our home has an open floor plan, there’s no hiding it.
We started this project after dinner last night, tackling the demolition of the old countertops first. We tried to salvage them, but in the end we had to cut through them to get them off. There was no way they were going to fit it through the door.
I like to take advantage of projects like this to do some serious cleaning, especially in those nooks and crannies, like the area under the stove. I don’t think I’ve pulled out the stove since we installed the hardwood floors 5 years ago. I found a good amount of cat hair, a few furry mice (the cat toy variety), coffee beans, and a few milk rings (also cat toys). I was actually surprised there wasn’t more under here.
I’ve always dreamed of having soapstone counters, but for now butcher block will do. This project wasn’t very expensive and it will make a world of difference. Stay tuned for photos of the finshed product, no doubt they’ll be featured in the non-toxic kitchen cleaning post coming up soon.
What’s your dream kitchen counter surface?
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247 E Mohawk Drive
Yep, that’s my address. I purchased some house numbers a while ago with plans to put them on the front door. Then I got nervous and didn’t want to drill holes in the door. Earlier this week, we decided to make a plaque to hang on the front porch since it’s all spruced up and looking lovely.
Originally we were going to buy some wood, but then we remembered that we had some beautiful maple that was milled from one of those trees we had taken down last spring. First we thought about painting it, but then decided the light maple would be perfect as is.
Mr Chiots cut the perfect size board, complete with a slightly beveled edge. He gave it a good sanding, though not enough to make it furniture smooth. We wanted to still have some texture. Then I gave it a few coats of organic boiled linseed oil.
After it was dry, I attached the number, added the eye hooks, and wrote a small description on the back. Hopefully whoever has this house after us will find this little treasure when they take the number down.
Mr Chiots and I were laughing that they’ll probably take it down because they think it’s ugly then they’ll feel bad since it’s got history.
This house humber is perfect because it’s easily visible from the road now, which is why you put house numbers up. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been searching for someone’s address and couldn’t find house numbers either on the house or the mailbox. We’ve always had a mailbox with huge numbers on it to make it easy for people to find, now this is even better.
Do you display your house number somewhere visible?
