What to do with Food Packages

Millions of little Greenhouses

I hate modern packaging. There is so much of it, it is hard to get open and it is predominately plastics which don't really compost!  Ever the frugal daughter of a depression era mama, I am always looking for ways to re-use these many plastic containers as I am sure your are too.  Since growing stuff is my passion I started using the lidded muffin and berry containers as little greenhouses for seed starts. This is working out quite well! 

Easy to move around and fully self contained they are fun to have as a little project and I am happy to be getting the extra use of them.    Pictured here are an old cake package with Cat Grass grown from seed- very easy to grow- and a freshly started muffin package with seeds of Giant Marigolds just planted. The moisture from the lid drips down onto the soil and gives them some extra water.  Be sure and poke holes in the bottoms of the containers, keep them damp but not soggy and give morning light afternoon shade. To help keep them moist use a piece of cloth, old towel or several sheets of newspaper between the saucer and container. I like to use old lids as saucers or disposable plates.                          

This plastic tub was from some cookies and  I thought I would use it as a liner for my terra cotta pot so that when I want to replace the annuals in the pot I can just lift out the inner liner and bend the plastic on the sides to pop out the plants easily.

Another use of the containers could be for cuttings. Easy plants to grow from cuttings are succulents and pelargoniums or geraniums. They root easily just from the cut stem. If you want to try other plants make the cutting just below a leaf on about a 3-4" stem, remove the lower leaves and trim the other leaves in half to cut down water loss. Dip the tip of the stem in root-tone- a growing hormone availble in nurseries as a powder- and bury stem 1/2"-1". 

Starting your own plants from seed or cuttings saves some money but moreover it is just plain fun and a great project for kids. Useful plants to start in containers are small herbs like parsley, basil, cilantro or dill. Yum.

The spring weather is a perfect time to try this project. Happy growing!

Eat your flowers everyday

Flowers are indeed lovely to look at but one does not often think to eat them. What a pity as some are delicious and add color perking up otherwise dull meals.  For Christine's wedding we grew and decorated her cake with pansies, nasturtiums, lavender flowers using mint leaves and fruit to fill out the ensemble and to give more dimension. So much better than icky icing flowers and her friends got to help out decorating the cakes, which they loved. She made a wonderful Carrot Cake for the main cake so it was a garden theme!

One of my favorite edible flowers are the petals of the Pineapple Gauva (seen here). Feijoa- Pineapple Gauva is a common landscape shrub.  The flower petals are like a soft gummy candy are yummy.  What a great treat for kids!

Other edible flowers are roses, bachelor buttons, marigolds and Bellis perennis(english daisies). The flowers of herbs and some vegetables are edible too i.e. squash blossoms.  Probably the only problem with this idea is that most folks are so hesitant to eat the flowers when they are used as garnish or decoration. Considering the things Americans put into their bodies this is somewaht surprising! Anyway, we reassure folks when serving dishes with edible flowers incorporated and they choose for themselves. Try the them out and see what you think- a fun idea that is healthy too.

New Year is Bare Root Season

Happy 2012!  I hope the new year will be full of happy surprises and successful projects.  I recently relocated from Los Gatos to Redwood City and am happily settled in.  Livin' down by the bay in Redwood shores and lots of walking trails. Its so much fun to see all the shore birds and explore a new area. I was sad that I had moved to this beautiful area just as winter started but as it turned out it has been a warm,gorgeous month so have been out on the trails everyday.

So around the beginning of the year (Dec. thru Feb) is bare root season.  It is an awesome time to buy bare root plants i.e. roses, deciduous fruit trees and berries and some perennials.  Plants are more affordable as bare root stock and can get a better "root hold" in the soil when grown from bare root stage.

Bare root means that the dormant plants are sold without soil with roots exposed and just wrapped in shavings. Only dormant or deciduous plants can be sold this way- no evergreens.

When buying bare root plants look for plants that are still without any new leaves or buds that are opening, roots that are plump and full rather than shrunken or shriveled, and plants that have a goodly amount of roots (these will help to support top growth).

Saok the bare root plants in a bucket of water when you get them home and plant in well turned earth that is not soggy or saturated with water. Always add compost and slow release fertilizer when planting new plants. use your fingers to pack the soil around the tender roots filling in all air
pockets. After planting use a broom handle to probe soil areas around the root ball making sure all air pockets are filled in. This is very important.

Water in the plants after planting and repeat as needed if it is not raining much.  Use a shredded mulch layer over the root ball and soil to conserve water and keep weeds down. Pull mulch away from the plant crowns.

I often order Roses as bare root plants from Jackson and Perkins. They are excellent plants and I have had beautiful Roses for many years from these shipments.  

I hope you will be able to experience this rewarding way of growing plants also and have many fruits from your labors- ha ha.

The Handrail Project

Steep Stairs? No Problem- well,

at least not after figuring out how to build it!

We are all getting older and so a

handrail was needed on the steep stairs going up to my Mom's House.

She lives up in Marin and it is not a garden spot. Between the thin soil, hords of Deer, very large Hares, Gophers and drought it is a challenge to say the least. But it is a beautiful spot and we love it there. My Mom and Dad built the house and the concrete stair going up to it about 50 years ago. About 30 years ago we got lights for the stair and now the time has come to have a handrail.

It was quite a thinker to figure out how to build one as the stair is very wide, there is an electrical line under the ground on one side plus stones in the way and the other side has a concrete gutter. The budget did not allow for the hiring of a contractor so Lois had to put on her thinking cap.

This became quite the green project! We recycled these old clay drain pipes (rectangular boxes) from the property as post bases to pour concrete in. I had some long 2x6 redwood planks that we sanded down for the cap and we purchased the 2x4 running boards that sandwich the posts.

I used 2" diameter sch 40 pvc for the posts and spray painted them with some paint I had.

The reason for the plastic round posts was to allow for the rail to be able to turn slightly at angle

to follow the stair as it goes up (with wood we would have had to route the posts- no tools for that!

We put lovely polished stones, left over from my daughters table settings for her wedding, in the surface of the concrete and left a cavity to plant some succulents in the front of the boxes.

To hold back the concrete I scrounged some leftover wood from another project and we used old bricks to hold it in place.

The wood was bolted through the plastic pipe and the rail was screwed on. The hard parts were getting the holes to line up right with the angle of the stairs and mixing and pouring the concrete.

Luckily I had some helpers- my younger daughter and her boyfriend really saved the day and my back! Mom was out there too supervising, sanding and placing pebbles.

The finished product may be somewhat rustic but I think it goes with the place and it does a great job helping us up the stairs. It was great to utilize a lot of things we had and to work it out to be compatible with Lois' skillset!