Save that silverware - just not the good stuff!!!

I know that all gardeners and farmers try umpteen thousand ways to mark plants so that you can tell what it is in a year or three, and until now I had not found anything that worked. I tried painted, Sharpie Marker on wood, pencil on wood, pencil on the specially bought white or green plant stake tags, stapling the original tag to the wooden plant stake, and so on forever!  It never failed that the next year I would go out and try to identify a plant only to have the little white tag have gotten so brittle in the cold that it shattered into a million pieces, the dog took the plant stakes with the tags stapled to them and used them for chew toys (yum), or the Sharpie washed off, pencil washed off, and again so on forever!

The original tag never stays on - in fact I had apple trees that came one day and by the next day one of the tags was gone!  I have no idea where it could have gone - the wind was blowing and we did have dogs running a muck in the area... so now I have to get out the apple tree paperwork and see what that one might be because I cant remember for the life of me!

But this year it will be different!  I went to the thrift store, after I saw the idea used as a wedding favor actually, where the bride and grooms silverware for eating at the reception had their names engraved on them, I bought an assortment of silverware that had some flat surfaces.   You can get them for about 25 cents apiece, and sometimes it is on sale for less than that! It doesn't matter if they are forks, spoons or knives, as long as there is a flat space for engraving.




Then I went to the local hardware store and got a small engraver (I think it cost me about $10.00) and I engraved the names of my trees on the flat surfaces and I am now using those to mark the plants!  The engraver is hard to get used to and my engraving looks a little shaky - like I'm 100 years old and trying to write maybe, but it is readable and easy to do.  Totally worth it!

This method also allows you to add a lot of information

about what you have - I add the year that the plant was added to the garden.  That way you know how old a tree or plant is.  You can engrave on both sides of the silverware - the Latin name and where you got the plant or tree.  

They don't blow away, don't get brittle and break, the dog doesn't think they are fun to chew, and they wont burn or have the mark wash away!  It's awesome and easy!




The knife is for a Cherry tree as is the spoon in the above photo.  I got the forks in the first picture to do some of the apple trees!  If you are at yard sales watch for this great silverware - you can sometimes git a box of mismatched silverware for a great deal!

I think it's one of the best ways keep track of what I have in the yard that I have tried yet - these Cherry trees were marked last year with these knives and spoons and they came through the winter beautifully - and I know exactly what I have!

Happy spoon shopping! And fork!  And Knife! Or even a serving spatula!  It all works!

You knew it would happen - I found a potato blog!

We are always looking to update recipes and find new fun recipes to make here at Wicked Raven and sometimes it's just for something new and different.  The other day I was looking through a Better Homes and Gardens that a friend loaned me and lo and behold there it was - an ad for "recipes and potato loving bloggers" at www.potatogoodness.com  http://www.potatogoodness.com/  !!!

We tried the Greek Potato Casserole and although we changed a few ingredients to what we had on hand it worked and was delightful.  You also should check out the "Potato Lovers Club" under the "Hot Potato News" tab.  No folks, I am not kidding!


I was just sorting potato seed today  - some for Nana, some for the school garden and some for my garden.  We have the red white and blue collection of spuds and we have Purple majesty ready to go when we can plant (should be soon as we are having a warm spring - hope for us that it holds!).  We will also be looking for some Yukon Golds to plant and some small red potatoes as well.

We are gearing up to plant at the school this week.  We have a young man learning life skills by building raised bins for us and fixing our pallet bins for us.  We determined that we didn't get enough sun in the bin and we weren't able to get enough water to the plants with how tall they were, so he is cutting the pallets in half.  That will double the amount of bins we have and make it so even the shortest of gardener will be able to help care for the plants.

We are able to expand due to the contractor who did the siding application on our school building this past winter leaving us a few of the crates that the siding came in.  They are super heavy duty and will be great for our needs!  We are so blessed by them.  Visit Eklutna Services site for more information on this fantastic company!  Thank you Eklutna Services/Eklutna Inc. for this special donation for our garden!  There seems to be enough wood also in one of the crates that we will be able to build a small storage shed to keep our tools in!  An amazing donation for us.

Our garden this year will include our favorites from last year, expanding potatoes and tomatoes, as well as adding another bin of carrots (we'll have two now) and adding four rhubarb, a row of strawberries in one of our hugelkulture, sugar snap peas in our new raised bins, we will add two apple trees, and also a row of raspberries by the end of the summer.

Stay tuned for all of our fun adventures - and Ill be adding some pictures of the work as we progress!  Check out the potato blog though to get your own ideas of how you can use this bountiful tuber!