Early July Garden Tour

So our garden isn’t magazine-worthy (and it definitely could use a good weeding - the spot by the gate gets so over-run with crab grass I can never seem to keep up) - but it’s been doing really well this year and I thought I would give a quick tour and share some things we’ve been doing in our Victory Garden. New England, Zone 4-5. | This post contains affiliate links |

Our garden is approximately 12x24 feet. My husband built the enclosure seven years ago with split-rail fence lined with garden wire fencing (to help keep critters out) and then designed and built the gate himself - the gate is absolutely my favorite part! At the front of the garden I inlayed bricks and pavers (all of which we had on our property left over from the previous owner years ago) to create a little stepping stone walkway leading up to the entrance of the garden and a small flower bed on each side.

Inside the garden everything was planted from seed and directly sown into the ground mid-May with the exception of the Rhubarb plant (it’s a perennial) and the Tomato plants (I purchased them as seedlings from a local garden center).

For fertilizer we put a few bags of composted cow manure in before rototilling in the spring, and then after planting the seeds I sprinkled a small amount of 10-10-10 Fertilizer across the garden.

In each of the front flower beds I planted Catmint which is a perennial and a great pollinator plant! The blooms attract lots of bees and butterflies and help encourage pollination in the vegetable garden. I also just love how wild and cottage-y they look. They’re also very drought tolerant and hardy - a great no-care plant once they’re established.

Soon I would like to also get some type of Mason Bee House to add to the garden to further ecourage pollinators to come to the garden.

Just inside the garden, along either side of the front, I planted Snap Peas against the fence so they would have something to climb. I also planted Carrots along this front area on each side as well.

When I directly sow the seeds into the ground, I usually stake the empty seed packet with a twig (seen above for the Snap Peas), to mark where I’m planting and so I can reference when the seeds should start to sprout, mature, etc as they grow. Now that my plants are mature I could take all these out but I haven’t just yet.

The Zucchini plants are huge this year! Right up to the top of the fence… though I do need to thin out some of the lower leaves on the ground soon for better air flow and access for pollinators (it also can help keep your plants from getting disease/mildew from the ground too).

Here are my Summer Squash plants, which are a bit smaller than the Zucchini ones but doing really well overall. I also need to thin out some of the lower leaves on these as well.

Spinach are cold weather plants and these ones pictured above are sadly done (I actually pulled them out after I took these photos). Once it starts getting hot they tend to “bolt” or grow upwards really fast and flower. Once they do that the leaves are bitter and don’t taste good. This spinach crop is done for now - though I will try to plant more Spinach late summer/early fall to get another harvest in the Fall.

Cucumbers are doing well too. It's a bit hard to see in this photo but I made a small trellis out of Bamboo Stakes and twine for them to grow on. The trellis may look flimsy, but bamboo is actaully really strong (and eco-friendly) so it's great to use in the garden to help support plants.

Along the back I have several Tomato plants growing, both cherry tomato and slicing tomato varieties; behind these along the fence I also have some Sunflowers growing too.

Now for the “showstopper” of the garden - our Rhubarb plant! This is definitely the plant that gets the most interest and questions about in our garden because it’s so big. Rhubarb is a perennial and will come back each year - so make sure to plant it somewhere out of the way where it will have room to grow. We planted this one in the back corner of our garden and marked the area with a stake so we don’t rototill over it in the spring.

While I’m honestly not a huge fan of Rhubarb myself (it’s very sour), growing it is a tradition in our family… when I was growing up we had a very large garden with at least 16 Rhubarb plants. We had so much Rhubarb that we would pick literally garbage bags full of it to give to neighbors and people at Church.

I transplanted this Rhubarb plant from my parents’ garden so I’m not sure on the variety… though from reading around online I’m guessing it’s some type of Canadian or Siberian variety. It can get very large with thick stalks and leaves over two feet across. If you decide to grow Rhubarb, make sure to read up on how to harvest it - you don’t want to over-pick the plant and the leaves are inedible (they’re actually somewhat toxic), it’s just the stalks that can be used.

Across the yard we also have some wine barrels that we’re using for an herb garden. Some of the more hardy herbs (Chives, Garlic Chives, Peppermint, Oregano) come back yearly, despite the fact the wine barrels freeze solid in the winter. I bought the blank slate garden markers on Amazon (and here is the how-to post on how I made them).

This year we also added two blueberry bushes to our landscaping since we didn’t have any fruit trees or bushes yet. It’s recommended to have two different varieties of blueberry bushes to encourage cross-pollinating and better fruit production, so we planted two different kinds near each other. We are already getting a few large berries from them which is very exciting! Here’s hoping they continue to do well in the years to come.

And that’s our little garden tour - thanks so much for following along! I’m no expert by any means, but if you have any questions please let me know.

Happy gardening!

DIY Slate Garden Markers

I've been eyeing slate garden markers for our herb garden for awhile now, but buying pre-made ones are soooo expensive and they never have all the varieties I want.  So I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own.  Because I have the world's worst handwriting (it's true, ask anyone) I used a Cricut to cut the text for me, but if you have half-decent handwriting you could easily do this project with a paint marker too.  | This post contains affiliate links |

Materials:  

• Blank Slate Markers
• Matte Spray Sealer
• Cricut
• 651 Permanent Vinyl
• Contact Paper
• Dental Explorer (optional)

Alternatively

• White Paint Marker

How To:  

1.  If using your Cricut to make the text, measure your garden markers and make each "label" in Design Space the appropriate size.  I chose a font with a handwritten feel, but you can use whatever font you prefer.  You may need to play around with the scale of the lettering to get it to fit.  Use 651 Permanent Vinyl to cut your text.  

2.  "Weed out" your text, removing any pieces of vinyl you don't want to be in your final design.  I find a dental explorer to be super useful here to get rid of the pieces inside of letters, but it's not necessary.  The finer-point text was definitely a lot harder to weed (which is why you'll notice the dot on the "i" in garlic chives isn't in the right place).  

3.  Next use contact paper or transfer tape to put over your final vinyl design and rub well to make sure it's on there good.  This will "carry" the vinyl once the backing is removed.  

4.  Carefully peel the backing off your design.. this can be tricky.  My advice is to go slowly and have your dental explorer handy if you have one!  It can help hold letters down as you peel off the back.  

5.  Once the backing is removed, carefully place on a clean and dry slate marker.  Rub the design on well (I use an old gift card like a squeegee).  Once it's on there good, carefully peel off the contact paper.  
Alternatively:  If you don't have a Cricut or want to do this project by hand, you can skip steps 1-5 and just write your text freehand with a white paint marker and allow to dry.  

6.  To make sure the vinyl doesn't peel or come loose, I use a spray acrylic sealer to seal them.  Just put the markers on a scrap piece of cardboard, give a light coating of the spray sealer, and allow to dry (make sure you're in a well-ventilated area). 
If you used a paint marker instead I would also suggest sealing them.  

7.  Hang your new garden markers!  You can buy special hangers for them if you like, or use sticks and some twine or wire.  In my case I wanted them on the barrels in our herb garden so I simply used some thin copper wire and "flossed" it through the slots in the barrel, tying it off with a large washer at the back so they don't pull through.  

It has been SOOO abnormally hot in New England these past few weeks that my herb garden isn't looking too wonderful at the moment (hence the limited "after" pictures).  We have six wine barrel planters on a small patio; four of the planters have perennial herbs (chives, garlic chives, sage, and peppermint) that come back each year and the other two planters I switch up each summer.  Currently my poor plants are a bit sun-stressed and I'm far behind on weeding, but I hope you'll get the idea of the final install below.  I think it really helps finish the space and I love that things are finally labeled.  

EDIT Spring, 2020: Just wanted to hop on here and add that I’ve left these up year-round on our herb barrels since 2018 and they still look great! No fading or peeling with the sun or snow. The slate with the permanent vinyl labels and sealer have definitely held up wonderfully.

An Unconventional Wedding Gift

I recently made this custom herb planter as part of our wedding gift for some close friends and I just love how it came out!  I'd love to add something similar to the Etsy shop but not sure how to ship it... hmmmm.    

PS - Congratulations again to the happy couple!!  We're so happy for you both!  

Kitchen Herb Garden in a Mug

Ever have a favorite mug but the handle broke?  :(  Well that very thing happened to this great Salmon Falls Chowder Mug I have.  I superglued it back together and while the repair looked pretty good I didn't dare trust it to hold a piping hot cup of soup or coffee over my lap anymore.  I was thinking of tossing it but decided to repurpose it into a little herb planter for the kitchen instead.  

The first step was to fill the bottom with some gravel so my herbs won't sit directly in water.  Alternatively, you could drill a hole in the bottom for drainage and put a saucer underneath, but since I don't have anything to put under the mug that matches I decided to use it as-is.  

Then I filled it with dirt and added an Italian Chive plant I picked up at the local garden center and it was done!  (Pretty easy, right?)  Depending on the size of your mug and your plants, you could add more than one type of herb in it.  You could also grow your herbs from seed.  

Now I just need to keep it on a sunny windowsill and water it very carefully as needed.  Keep in mind since there's no drainage hole at the bottom and it's a small container, it would be very easy to over-water a plant like this.