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Our Gardening Journey week 11

Our Gardening Journey week 11

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I have so many things to update you guys on. I have had both good and bad things happen over the course of the week. This week has been a whirl wind of things going on.

So to start off with the bad. I think that I may not be using the fertilizer right or maybe my plants just don’t like it. Every time I fertilize my plants die a few days after. I’ve already lost a basil plant. My plants outside are doing fine but it’s my indoor plants. Not only did that happen but I accidentally killed my large tomato’s. I made the mistake of not putting them in a pot with drainage holes. All the rain last week killed them. I’m so mad at myself for doing that. Also, if your probably wondering why I didn’t post anything last Wednesday it’s because I was sick for a couple of days. No it wasn’t covid and I know this because I was tested. Now I’m okay and almost feeling 100% myself.

Ok so onto the good. Where to start is the question. Well, let’s see my cucumber plant is doing really good so far. No cucumbers but is it growing like crazy. It’s flowering like crazy now. The next awesome thing that is happening is that I’ve got more green beans growing. I’ve seen a difference with those ever since I put the netting on. The new leaves are not as eaten up as the others. I think it took literally a few days for the leaves to be eaten up without the netting on at the beginning. Literally my mouth dropped this week when I saw the green bean plants. The leaves have come back to life and they aren’t half eaten. I don’t think that I will get a lot of green beans this year so I’m probably going to use the seeds for next years harvest.

So what is new around here you ask? You can kinda say that I got bit by this thing called the gardening bug. I ended up also sowing some new vegetables and herbs into my garden this past weekend. I’ve also become inspired by watching some YouTube videos of people who grow everything in their garden and have become somewhat self sustainable. My goal is to cut down on grocery costs. I’m also trying to get my husband, the accountant, into it as well. For one thing I think once he sees that it will make a difference in the long term then he will be more involved. Plus I think it’s a good hobby for us to do both together and eventually with our son. However, I also like the fact that it gets me focused on something other than just being a working mom. I don’t have to think about work and it is relaxing for me after putting my son down for bed. Plus it counts as a workout for me too.

So what new crops am I growing? Well, since our first frost date is for the end of October I’ve sowed crops that I will be able to harvest in about 75 days or so. I mostly tried to put out crops that we eat like cauliflower, lettuce and carrots and more tomatoes. Yes we have a obsession with tomatoes. We have to have them every Tuesday night for taco Tuesday. However, I did try to plant some crops that we also don’t normally eat as well like radishes. I also put in some new herbs such as oregano as well.

Also, last but not least I’m trying out a little experiment of using sandwich bags as a mini green house to make my super sweet 100 hybrid tomato seeds grow. I’m also thinking of maybe trying this on my basil as well. I still have my jiffy plastic container box started but I ran out of starter pods. I figured hey I have soil and I have all these pots why not do a little experiment.

Overall, I learned some new things this week that are both good and bad. I may not be the best gardener but I do have room to improve. I am determined to get my grocery costs low and to eat a over all healthier diet.

Our Gardening Journey week 10

Our Gardening Journey week 10

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

So this week I’ve made some changes in my garden that have both were positives and negatives. You can say that I’m still learning from my mistakes. I do have a lot to tell you guys so let get on to it.

The first thing is that I’ve made a few changes. The first thing that I did was I fertilized my plants so much so that some of the are dying. I know now that I over fertilized them. I literally killed my smallest basil plants. I also repotted my bell pepper and tomotes. I have two types of tomotes growing. One of them is a small type of tomato and the other is a larger type of tomato. I had one small tomato plant left inside and so I added that one to the black container outside that I already had of the same kind. However, the larger tomato I put in a pot that I had outside. I also bought these nettings to put over them. You can buy these nettings here. I love them so much I have already seen a difference in my other plants outside and the amount of vegetables that are coming in. The best part about these netting is that they keep out those pesky bugs. They aren’t just good to keep out pesky bugs but also animals like birds, squirrels and dogs too. The best part is that you get a set of 3 for under $10.00. I also have so many green beans that are growing now it’s insane. I’ve also cleaned up my cucumbers and green bean plants from the dead leaves.

My small tomato plant.
My large tomato plant that I transplanted outside. These were getting too big for this container.

The second thing that my husband and I are working on is getting rid of the vines that are growing on our hill. Ok so it’s just my husband working on it. In Georgia we have what is called kudzo that grows here. If you know what kudzo is then you know that it grows back fast. Like really insanely fast. That is what is mostly growing on our hill. We have cut down a lot of the shrubs that were growing but now he is tackling killing the roots. We have found a solution mixture that has been killing it. So make sure you sign up for my email news letter and watch out for a new post on that.

The last thing that I did was I cut back some of the dead leaves on my green bean and cucumber plants. I saw a lot more green beans budding out and I didn’t want any more of my green bean plants to get sick. My cucumbers plant had a lot of dead leaves so I wanted to clean that up as well. I also tied some of the vines to the trellises with some special wiring that I got with the purchase of the trellises.

My green bean plant
My cucumber plant.

Overall, this week has been a crazy week over in our garden. I’m excited to be expanding our garden. I still cannot decide whether I want to grow my vegetables above ground or make a in ground garden. I do know that I really am enjoying doing this. Make sure you subscribe to our email for more weekly updates!

Our Gardening Journey week 9 This is what I used to keep pesky bugs away.

Our Gardening Journey week 9 This is what I used to keep pesky bugs away.

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: Their are affiliate links that I may or may not receive commission on at no cost to you.

So this week is going to be a short but exciting post. I’ve made a few changes that have helped the growth of my plants. Keep on reading to find out what is new around here.

The first thing that has changed is that I bought more self watering plants. I ended up finding these pots that are below. I think they are a great value. You can get a lot more pots for the price. The total number of pots that I received is 6. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve transplanted my tomatoes into them and I can tell that they are making a difference. I can see more growth and my plants look more livelier. I didn’t want to buy pots that were expensive. I wanted something where I don’t have to worry about watering them everyday. A plus side to these compared to the other ones that I have is that if you place them near a window you can see through them and see how much water the plant has.

The light part of the pot in this picture is the water.

The second thing that I’ve done was Ive transplanted my small cherry tomatoes from a white pot to my trellis pots outside. I’ve also added these netting’s as well. All I can say is that wow I’ve seen a huge difference in the over all health of my vegetables outside. It has kept a lot of bugs off the plants. So much so that a green bean popped out! I’m so excited that I’ve already had a vegetable come out. My cucumbers are also flowering like crazy too. In fact I had to tie more of the stems onto the trellis because they were hanging over each other. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get these any earlier. I 100% recommend these to anyone that has trellises outside.

Look at that little great bean!
I actually had two green beans pop out this week! Can you spot the green bean in this picture?

The last thing that I did was I harvested my basil. I had to do this because I have a ton that is over growing in my pots. So much so that the roots are coming out the bottom of my self watering pot. Make sure you subscribe to my email list and watch out for a post in the near future of how I saved my basil harvest.

My cucumbers
My cucumbers are flowering!

Overall, I’m really ecstatic about how far my plants have come along. The next thing that my husband and I are going to try and tackle are the flies because we have a bunch of them that we’re trying to eat my plants outside and they are coming inside as well.

How to make a flower vase under $13.00

How to make a flower vase under $13.00

by alexa parisi ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

As a disclaimer I may also receive compensation at no extra cost to you.

One thing about me is that I love to make crafts myself. For one thing it is cheaper and for another I love creating things. In this post I’m going to show you how to make a flower vase under $20.00. This is a fun project to do if you are a college student on a budget, a mom on a budget or someone whom loves to brighten up their space!

The next thing that I did was I grabbed and bought my items. I found these two tea light jars and this tin vase. As a tip you can use the tea light jars for Halloween because they are kind of see though. The next item that I bought was the foam insert for the tin vase. This will help you with having the flowers stay in place. The next items that I bought were the fake flowers of course. I bought a variety of different ones in different shapes and sizes.

After I bought my items I then went home and went to work putting everything together. As you can see I cut the stems down to fit the flowers into the tea light jars. I will warn you that it does take a little bit of muscle and power to cut them. I always put the tallest flower in the middle and the shortest in the front. I also twisted the flowers around each other so that it covered gaps and so that the flowers we more spread out.

Overall, I really loved how it came out! This is a project that will not only brighten up your space but also on the plus side you don’t have to worry about killing plants.