My Wee Strawberry Plant

Around early April we bought 4 roma tomato plants and one strawberry plant from a local greenhouse. I picked the best strawberry plant I could find and it already had 3 little strawberries growing! 

This is what they looked like the week we bought the plant. 

And after maybe 5-6 weeks they were getting huge! 

Then after close to 7 weeks out, I managed to pluck this beauty at the perfect time! I was like a little kid I was so excited! Way too excited about one measly strawberry! 

 This little guy was delicious! I must have waited till the right time because it was so good!

But alas, just one strawberry at a time is not very filling. I've decided I need about 99 more strawberry plants.

Since that's not very practical, I'm thinking just 3-5 more plants would be a good deal. At least with that many we can have a handful now and then.

Looking at these pictures reminds me that there's one more that's just about ready to eat! Yum!

What fruit are you growing in your garden? What's your favorite fruit? 

Till next time,
Catherine

My Other Container Plants

I recently showed you all how to make an awesome (and cheap!) pallet garden, well, I've also got a few things in pots that are growing on our patio! I've also shown you my container potato plants as well. I've also got a small pallet garden going with herbs but I'll have to share that on another day. 

Apparently I'm just never satisfied! I still want more food to grow! I'm thinking another strawberry plant and a couple blueberry plants...what do you think?

Actually before we made the pallet garden, we went to a local greenhouse and picked up a few plants and some seeds. The soil is the cheap stuff from Ollie's at $2 a bag! What a deal! Even if the quality of the soil isn't too great, I've got my worm farm to supplement it! 

The bag of seeds are Improved Tendergreen Beans. I never knew there were so many types of beans! I just picked the one that looked the most like the classic green beans I used to snap with my grandma. 

I got four Roma Tomato plants. I personally don't like tomatoes (I know, I know!) but my husband does so since he'll be eating them the most, he picked them out. I'll cook with them though!

And my little Allstar Strawberry plant! I can't even tell you how excited I was to get a strawberry plant! It's little, though...definitely think I should get another one. Or two...

Wittle baby strawberries!! They've almost doubled in size in just a couple of weeks!

Ready to plant!

Senor Strawberry seems to be settling in ok!

I doubled up the tomato plants so I didn't have to buy 4 pots. If they grow really large I'll repot them, though.

My little garden in the making! 

What are you growing in your garden?

Till next time,

Catherine

DIY: Pallet Garden for less than $20 (including seeds!)

Anyone wondering why in the world I've got old pallets on my patio?? To make a pallet garden!! 

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That's not mine! That's the original image that I found on Pinterest ages ago. Since then I've seen it all over Facebook too. I'm sure you've seen it or a variation of it. Without even seeing tutorials, I figured it couldn't be much more difficult than stapling landscaping paper onto the bottom and sides. Sure enough I was right! Click HERE for another tutorial that I loosely followed. 

Some of you may know from previous posts that Brian and I live in a lovely little townhouse. We really do love it and it's a wonderful place to live but it's limiting when it comes to wanting to doing more permanent things like fencing a yard for the dogs or planting a garden. 

But, I've decided while I may be limited, I'm still going to grow as much as I can on our little patio! I've got the pallet garden and multiple plants and veggies growing in pots. I want to prove that even in small spaces it's possible to grow your own food! It's double challenging because my dad is the one with the green thumb in the family, not me! Although I'm passionate about growing things so hopefully that will make up for my lack of skills! We'll see!

Ok I know it doesn't look like much, but I did all seeds for the pallet garden, no transplants. I'll write update posts as the seeds sprout and grow!

What you'll need:

• Potting soil 
• Landscaping paper
• Staple gun and lots of staples
• Pallet(s)
• Seeds

I got all of this at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for $15! The potting soil was only $2 a bag and the landscaping fabric (4ft x 50ft) was only $7. They had multiple lengths and sizes to choose from. The width was perfect for these pallets and I was glad to find only 50ft rather than having to spend bookoo bucks on hundreds of feet we wouldn't be needing! 

My pallets I got for FREE at Lowe's! I had been wondering for months where to get pallets for cheap or free. They seem to be everywhere but not easily accessible. So I thought, anyways. I called up my nearby Lowe's store and asked if they sell or give away old pallets. At first the customer service agent said they sold them but when he asked someone else about the price, he found out they give them away for free! Now I don't know for sure if every Lowe's does this but I'd say just call and ask around. 

I also read online that you should look for serial numbers stamped on them with "HT" on it which stands for "heat treated' rather than chemical treated. We couldn't find stamps anywhere on any of the pallets we got so hopefully they're the former rather than the latter. 

When we drove around back to pick them up we found multiple sizes which turned out to be perfect! I thought the full sized pallets would be too big for our patio but we found two that were about half the size of a regular pallet and even one mini pallet! Jackpot! 

Directions:

Flip your pallet so that whichever side you want to be the BOTTOM is facing up. I wanted neat little rows so I used the more open side as the bottom. Roll out your landscaping paper so that it meets every edge.

Now staple, staple, staple! No one's going to see the bottom so just staple away. It doesn't need to look cute. 

Staples everywhere. 

To make sure every side is covered, roll the landscaping paper the opposite direction of the first layer then staple away. 

Fold up the corners and staple them until they're nice and secure. Brian and I actually did a total of 3 landscaping paper layers. I think as long as you do 2 you're ok. I was just worried because it seems so thin and I didn't want anything ripping. 

Now it's all done and ready for soil and seeds!

Remember, it doesn't have to be pretty, just functional. 

Add your soil and spread it evenly under the slats. 

Get your seeds or plants ready! I chose spinach, broccoli and a mixture of 5 lettuces. 

Fancy lettuce blend seeds.

Plant the seeds and water according to the directions on the seed packet. Since the soil was loose I simply dragged my trowel and made a trench about an inch deep and dropped the seeds in. The pups were out enjoying the evening too. No worries, they're attached to a yard stake so they're not going anywhere. 

Oh and don't forget your super sophisticated vegetable marking system. Sigh. I'll make something nicer eventually!

The two left sections are spinach, the middle is broccoli and the two on the right are the lettuce mix. 

And there you have it! A pallet garden for less than $20! It could even be free if you have your own compost and seeds saved from years past! I'm so excited to grow our own food! I can hardly wait to post pictures when they start sprouting! 

We've also got a strawberry plant and 4 roma tomato plants in pots. I bought green beans as well but still need to plant those. I'm really considering getting blueberry bushes too. Can I just have one of everything??

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Yep these memes are pretty accurate about now. 

Oh and I know the potting soil I got probably wasn't my best choice but it was $2...I don't know how I can refuse that. Plus, I've got another project going that will help highly fertilize my plants from now on! Can't wait to share that with you as well!

What's your favorite veggie or fruit to grow? Do you think I should get blueberry plants? Ooh or raspberry? How about both? 

Till next time,

Catherine

Container Potato Plant Update

Several months ago I read that potatoes do really well in container gardens and I just knew it was something I wanted to try! I posted about my beginning ventures HERE. My potatoes were growing really well for a couple of months. At one point there were three different sprouts (even though I only planted two sprouted potato halves) and one of them even got over 2 feet tall! 

Well, I finally decided it was warm enough outside to put the plants on the patio (AKA: concrete slab, but patio sounds nicer) and then the tallest one died! I'm not sure if it dried out too quickly or maybe it got too cold one night. Either way, it's wilted and sad. I gave up hope of it bouncing back.

I gave in and dug it up to see if anything was underneath and lo and behold!

A tiny tater!!!! Ask my husband, I was WAY too excited about such a little potato!

But I grew it! With my own two hands I planted it and cared for it and it grew! 

I know it's not much, but I'm thrilled. I'm even more excited to see what else is under the dirt!!

This is what's left. This plant is over a foot tall and appears to be doing well. After taking this picture I decided to replant the one I dug up...just in case it wasn't quite dead yet. The base of the stalk was still firm and so I thought I'd give it another chance. 

Hopefully in my next update I'll have bigger and better potatoes to show off!!

Were you excited like I was the first time you harvested something you grew? What was it? What's your favorite plant to grow in your garden?

Till next time,

Catherine

Brand New Patio Fire Pit

Disclaimer: This is a post I wrote a couple of weekends ago when we had an abnormal day of 70 degree weather in JANUARY! I figured it would be appropriate to post on a day where it is only 20 degrees and dropping. I know I'm not the only one longing for warmer temperatures!

Thanks to Hip2Save I scored this awesome patio fire pit for only $25! And there was free shipping! The original post alerting the masses is here. I follow Colin on Facebook as well so I jumped on the deal when I saw her post it! If you're not following her blog or her Facebook...you're missing out! She's always posting great freebies and sales. I've gotten a ton of cool free stuff from following her! I've mentioned some of those things here and here. 

These patio fire pits are rarely any cheaper than $50. My husband and I have been hoping and waiting for a sale on the one that Target sells. It's regularly priced at $70. They can range up to $200 or more for the really nice ones. I was so excited when I found one for $25! 

The package finally came in on a Friday evening and we immediately put it together. I was way too excited about such a little thing! 

It was already late and very dark out so we decided to wait till the following evening. When we got back from our visit to Ivy Creek Park we gathered some small logs and sticks from the tree line behind our townhouse. The high that day was 70 degrees! It's mid-January people! It was crazy but we did all we could to enjoy it! 

I set up a good fire. Gotta make my dad proud! 

Lighting it! 

In no time it became a beautiful little fire. 

It was perfect for keeping us warm as the night cooled off.

And for a couple of nice, relaxing hours, we pretended we lived out in the country again. Don't get my wrong, we love Lynchburg! We just miss living in the country. 

Now all we need is some patio furniture...

How do you take advantage of unseasonably warm days? How do you deal with the extra cold ones?

Till next time,

Catherine