Am I imagining it or are edible plants at the nurseries going way up in price due to the increased popularity of backyard food gardening, sustainability, and homesteading? I was running errands this morning, and one of them took me past a Garden Center; it’s a chain, but I won’t name names. I love browsing at new plant selections and I am in process of helping a friend with a backyard garden design that includes some fruit trees, so…
As you may have read in a previous post, root-knot nematodes recently became public enemy number one in the Hanbury House vegetable garden. I was kind of depressed about it for a few days, struggling to find an Organic treatment to kill root knot nematodes in our garden. Being a home gardener, especially an organic one, there are few options for dealing with nematodes in the soil. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. When you click on an affiliate link…
As a seasoned gardener, I should know better than to plant tomatoes at the beginning of February, but H & H Nursery already had tomatoes in, including my favorite cold weather variety, Stupice. For $1.99, I decided I could take a gamble on the weather on this one variety. It is one of the few varieties I would call “Ultra Early.” I can’t always find Stupice, and I don’t bother growing them from seed myself, therefore, I could not resist…
We have a really pretty lemonade jar; the only problem is, it leaks. I have tried a few different things to deal with the leak, but eventually, it ended up stored hidden away in the cupboard and unused. Rather than discard it, I decided this afternoon to make it into a homemade terrarium. Here are the photos of making it… Read more of my craft ideas here.
My favorite backyard chicken breed is bantam Cochin, but Silkie might be a close second. Penguin along with three other hens at my friend’s house, went broody all at once last summer. We drove out to Wes’s Pets and Feed in El Monte where she bought some fertile silkies eggs for the ladies to sit on. Almost all of them hatched. After that, Penguin came back to live with us, and we let her bring two little chicks with her….
A week or two ago I started a few of my winter propagation projects. I don’t really need more plants, especially trees, but the nerd in me likes to play Dr. Frankenstein every once in a while and try to clone things. I am generally successful with the berries, grapes, salvias, alstromerias, geraniums, pelargoniums, and gallardias, but I have yet to try many other plants. One of the easiest fruit trees to propagate is supposed to be figs, but since…
I had wondered why my daughter’s carrot crop was so pitiful this year. While I was outside this morning, I pulled a few carrots out and discovered the reason, Root Knot Nematodes. I have managed to avoid any infestations of Root Knot Nematodes in my two decades of gardening, however, it looks like they finally ended up at Hanbury House. I am guessing they came in on a little pepper or tomato transplant last Spring or the Spring before. Those two…
My son had an extra day off from school and he helped out with a little bit of work on the new laundry room counter top. First we cut and screwed down the plywood. The next step was to measure, score, and snap the hardibacker board. That was the part I really needed his help. I hope to get out to buy the tile this week and start setting it, but that means my hubby and I need to agree…
Off and on over the last couple of months, we have been working on the laundry room/ mudroom area adjacent to the kitchen. Eventually the room will have a work counter, a small desk, book shelves, a laundry sink, and the front load washer and dryer. It is functional right now, but definitely not finished looking. In order to make the kitchen and mudroom flow together, we recently installed and painted new unfinished maple cabinets that are a close match…
Although it was pouring rain on Thursday and a terrible day for gardening, it turned out to be a lovely day to work indoors, and I just happened to have this mural commission already scheduled on my calendar. To see a little more of my artwork, visit Murals and More by Lianne over at wordpress.com. The homeowners just bought their first house and their two daughter’s finally got their very own rooms. The ten year old, Becca, has been wanting…