Wowser Wednesday - Tire Flower Planters

A friend of mine and I were going to turn some of her old tires into flower planters, but she is moving and since I don't really plant things on purpose because of the disappointment of watching them die, I am not going to make them for myself. But, I wanted to share with you all a great link for turning old tires into colorful flower shaped planters.

Wuv'n Acres has a great tutorial on making "blooming tire planters" along with other uses for old tires at the bottom of the page.

Wowser Wednesday - Aluminum Can Garden Markers

I have a post about making garden markers with an old mini blind which is cheap and fast, but I saw a post on Little House in the Suburbs of making garden markers out of aluminum cans and they are BEAUTIFUL! Maybe one day when I have time on my hands I'll do these. (Ha!)

Some of you may be experiencing deja vu; this post was naughty and showed up in the wrong place last week. It was only up for an hour, but some of you were so quick I was seeing people linking to it before I discovered it! :)

Wowser Wednesday - Greenhouse made out of Plastic Liter Bottles

I have to say, I have a greenhouse made from old windows already in the planning stage, but when I saw this, I was tempted to change my mind and make a greenhouse out of soda bottles, but then I realized I don't drink anything from plastic bottles so it would make it a real challenge to gather the materials, but if you have access to plastic liter bottles and want a greenhouse, look at these plans.

Saving Seeds for Years Later

Does anyone really need to plant 100 lettuce seeds?

Cut your garden bill for next year by not planting all the seeds just because you have them and instead save them for next year. I just planted some seeds for transplants from last year's batch and they all came up, so I can attest to the efficacy of this way of storing seeds.

Keep your seed packets from not getting damp and leaving them out in humid air. (Don't lay them in the dirt in the garden). Store unused seeds in their packets in a ziploc bag in the refrigerator whenever they are not in use. Do not put in the veggie crisper because the gasses of some fruit and vegetables will interfere with the dormancy of your seeds. Put something in the ziploc bag to absorb any moisture that finds its way in there, like the silica gel packets that warn you "Do not eat!" or dry milk powder. Store them in the refrigerator until next season.

Wowser Wednesday - Aluminum Can Bags

I am not sure how to cite this lady's project because it is in a yahoo group's photo files. She goes by Cath and that is all I know. Anyway, she decided to use her aluminum cans to make handbags. I am not too much into purses, but it was interesting!

Here is what she wrote on the group:
"My soda cans usually end up in a bin bag for some guy to come and pick-up. For
each can he recycles he gets a penny. He hadn't been since b4 Christmas! So I
just had to do something with them....and I wasn't gonna chuck them away! So I
created something myself...and have made some cash from it to!All my friends
think I am really weird but now you can judge for yourself! Have a look at my new
album Canny Ceration."

Garden Twine Nets

I am attempting the square foot gardening this year and one of the details is to have your vine growers like cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, etc. to grow vertically. Once you put up your metal support, you either make twine hang down or buy a net. But I figured I could make a net since I liked the idea of a net better, but didn't want to pay for it.

I bought some jute string. And I took 6 foot pieces and tied them to my indoor clothesline to a width of 6 feet. (I had tried to do this on the floor but it was a disaster.)

Then I took some more 6 foot pieces and tied them on horizontally. I found it best to tie at the top, bottom and middle first to keep the net from getting narrower as you get closer to the bottom.

Then I just kept halving the distances in between my horizontal pieces until I made the net.

This makes a great cat toy by the way, but my toddler loved to try and hang herself in it by wrapping her head in it, so word of warning, do not leave this unattended with small children!!

It took me awhile to come up with a knot that I could do that was sturdy, but that I could do all the way across. Basically it is a clove hitch knot. It took a while to figure out how to do it without having two end pieces, so I made a video of me doing it if you are interested. (Husband zooms in on the second try so you can see it more clearly if you wait through the first knot). If you were a boy or girl scout you will probably laugh at my ineptitude with knots, but knots are just not my thing. But I like this one because if you pull tight, it doesn't slip, but loosening it is doable in case you knotted it too high or too low and didn't catch it until later. The knot is movable.

Now I have two t-posts in the ground. I just weaved the sides onto the t-posts and then I weaved the cross bar (don't ask me what it is, I salvaged it off of a barn) through the top of the net and then used baling wire to secure the cross bar onto the t-posts, so now the net is permanently attached and ready for a vine to go climbing through it.

If you are wondering, I used salvaged wood from my balcony and a pile of bricks found on my property to make the pathways around my little squares. Under them, I took a large piece of black plastic that you can buy at home improvement stores for $15 dollars or so (we had used it to cover up half of our house when we where stripping the exterior, but Kansas wind just tore into it) and cut it to fit under the pathways, so hopefully I won't have any weeds growing through them. I hope to teach the toddler that she can only step on the paths because last year she found it a hoot to step on the plants.

Mini Blind Garden Markers

I am doing a square foot garden this year. I wanted a non-biodegradable way to mark off my sections so I can reuse them every year. I asked for a used mini-blind on freecycle and got one (had many offers, but only needed one).

I cut the strings to the mini-blind and "harvested" all the slats.

Then I took some of those slats and cut them in four pieces.

Then I wrote on each slat the name of my plants that I intend to plant to mark their squares.

I then wrote on the back of them any special watering, growing directions so I could see it when I was out in the garden.

Then just put them in the ground!

It had just rained, and I am not ready to plant yet, but so you have an idea, I put out the slats to "mark off" the areas for planting. When I actually do this, the dirt won't be mud and I will cut them to fit exactly the space I need and set them in the dirt sideways so only half of it is sticking up.

UPDATE: A reader was kind enough to send a link on the recall of some mini-blinds for lead poisoning. Here's the link. You'll want to be careful what old mini-blinds you use in and out of the garden.