Gardening Days Part 2: Raised Vegetable Bed

FYI: This post is going to be a picture parade!

Our amazing zucchini plants!
We have way more vegetable plants growing, sprouting and seeded than yard plants. First up is our raised and covered bed, which was made with some scrap wood and vapor barrier my dad gave us last year. You can see the post here. We've made a few adjustments to the original design, such as attaching small pieces of wood to hold the plastic frame down. After using this cold frame and growing veggies in it for 2 seasons, we would probably design it totally different. For a starting point, it was a great learning experience.
Here is a picture that we took in the fall. To be honest I was happy to reuse material, but I thought the outer boards were a bit ugly. So an idea started forming...
Here is the after pic! We invited over family and everyone took part in painting the outside boards. Everyone had fun free handing it and painting whatever they wanted.

What you will need to paint your raised garden bed:
-White outdoor primer (paint the outside boards carefully and let dry)
-A variety of acrylic paints, paint brushes, a blanket to put on the ground, a fun group of people and a great imagination!

This is a wonderful project for children with adult supervision of course. It encourages interest in growing fresh foods! My lil one constantly looks out the window or runs outside just to look at his artwork. I didn't realize how much of an impact this would have on him, he just loves that he painted something outside. The added bonus it looks beautiful compared to the boring old wooden boards they once were!





My son's beautiful choice in colors!


My lil one took this pic of me this morning when I wasn't looking! My hair is getting so long you can't even see my face in this photo! I think I was pulling some baby slugs out of the garden (our major pest this year). I'm just grateful they are not those big, ugly slugs! I won't touch those things.

Here are the vegetables in the raised bed...
Green Bush Beans that are constantly fighting to survive against those slugs
Cucumber plants that I had to purchase as starts. I planted Spacemaster seeds, but they never came up.
A lettuce mix that included parsley, basil, swiss chard and 4 different types of greens! This was my first time trying out seed tape, which is basically seeds placed in bio-degradable tissue that you plant out in the soil. Saves you time, plus the small seeds that can be hard to work with are spaced evenly within the seed tape. I had mixed results with seed tape so far. The first growth only grew half the row, but the second growth seems to be sprouting well.
Baby strawberries on the way!
The strawberry plants...with a yummy red berry ready to be eaten!
First strawberry of the season, picked by my lil one. We shared it, and it had amazing flavor!
Since taking these photos a few days ago, I've planted some radishes (only a 20 day crop!) and 2 more lettuce mixes. Hopefully in a couple weeks we will see some sprouting!

So ends the tour of our raised garden bed, up next is my container gardening! I have about 20+ large containers full of veggies!

Trying new things...

I usually find myself wanting to try out new recipes or projects, that many of you amazing bloggers write about. I appreciate how much effort everyone puts in to share with their readers. I love that sense of sharing and learning within a community. This weekend I took the time out to try out one recipe and one project from the blogging community and had a blast doing so. I really want to try to take more time to do these things because not only is it fun, but I really discover new tastes and creativity.

Here is KATH's Classic Oats recipe, which was the best oatmeal I've ever had! It's been rainy and cold here the past couple days, so everyone in the family appreciated this one. I substituted organic cow's milk for almond milk and it turned out delicious. I loved the banana, flax and vanilla in this recipe :) Yum!


Then we topped it with blackberries (of course), homemade peanut butter, and mini chocolate chips. My lil one loved decorating the oatmeal. Yay, super kid friendly :)





The project that we worked on was an activity that I found at Raw Mom Blog. I love Ruth's ideas, they are always fun for the kids and for parents too! Thinking about it now, i'd probably do her projects even if I didn't have a child.
"The Cowboy's Chia Garden!"
I helped my lil one collect soil from our composter, which was exciting! There was so much of it, I can't believe how fast it's breaking down and turning to soil. Awesome!!! Then he decorated and placed the chia seed paste in the garden :)


Originally the project calls for a fairy for your garden, but I didn't have any small fairies on hand and my lil one LOVES this teddy bear cowboy statue. I'll take more pictures as the chia starts to sprout.




The best part about this project was that he was able to do every step himself, with my direction on what to do next. He was so happy and excited! He ended up wanting to make another one, so instead of using a planter tray like the project asks for, we used a frisbee!


The rest of our weekend was filled with family visits and blackberry picking when it wasn't raining.
Did you try anything new this weekend?
~Maggie

Yard Work + Chocolate = A Great Day!

Yesterday was a busy day for us, we spent most of it outside in the gorgeous weather. We did a ton of yard work, which involved grass cutting, weeding, putting in new patio stones and sweeping up any debris from winter/spring.

At one point in the day I felt this nice, warm breeze and I paused to enjoy it when suddenly this beautiful bird flew about 2 ft away from me. He pecked a bit at our tree and then made his calling before he took off with the breeze again. Such a great part of my day. This little guy is called a red-naped sapsucker, check him out :)

The best part about our day was purchasing our composter! We are so excited about it. Even our lil guy keeps searching for worms, so he can give them a new home. Check it out! Between composting and recycling we hardly have any garbage, which makes us and the earth feel a bit better!

To celebrate we ate chocolate! I made these yesterday, remember my mention of un-baking. In the first picture is the cashew bar and in the second photo is the almond-raisin bar (as requested). They are both so delicious. I was inspired by Joanna, whose chocolate recipe I used. Check out her post here.

Raw Chocolate Bars

1/2 cup of cacao butter (melted)

1/2 cup of cacao powder

2T of agave

Any nuts or dried fruits

Sprinkle of sea salt

To make the shape of these I used the bottom of a brand new muffin tin.

Put nuts in the base of the tins and sprinkle each with a bit of sea salt. Melt the cacao butter, place in bowl and then add the cacao powder and agave. Mix till smooth and creamy. Then take a spoonful of chocolate and pour over the nuts in each muffin tin. Once done, pop it in the freezer for 15-30minutes. After they have hardened they popped right out of the tin.

I also want to make a couple different versions of these, one with mint leaves and the other with orange rind. I think they would be so yummy!

Enjoy your day!

~Maggie