Caesars' Brother and a rest for the Butterflies

This summer - as most of you have already read in my prior blogs - was a scorcher here in Big Lake, Alaska - and many of our feathered and flying friends needed a little help to get through it!  

This area near the "brown shed" as we call it, has been bugging me for about two years but I had not had time to do anything about it until this year.  Fortunately for me it is in an area that is mostly shady throughout the heat of the day.  I just needed something to make it a little neater and seem a little more welcoming space as it is one of the first areas you see when you drive in.

 The eave on the shed is perfect for hanging baskets of wave petunia in my favorite purple and lobelia and miniature asters in the round planter fill in the space around without making it look crowded there and without shading the plants around it.

I had started with the bench from Pinterest that I featured in another blog.  The pictures were taken before I had given the bench the re-vamp!  I planted the Caesars Brother iris next to the bricks and of course surrounded it with plastic underlay and stones on top to keep the weeds down.  I left a rather large hole in the plastic here so the iris can expand when it is ready.  Caesars Brother is a beautiful blue-purple iris that almost seems like if you touch it that it would feel like touching satin.  The leaves are more grass like and thinner than his blue flag brothers and Caesar might not be as hardy but it is awfully close - lives in Big Lake without too many problems.  I have another one in a full sun area and it does not do as well as the one in the shadier area - Ill keep you posted on that on the "Thriving on the Farm" page.

The terra cotta pot bottom is the waterer for bees and butterflies!  It is shallow and with some added colored stones and pebbles in it is the perfect resting oasis for those smaller bees, butterflies, and even some of the birds for whom the deep birdbaths dont work!  Its only drawback was that it had to be filled about three times a day when it was really hot out - but the trade off was that I got to see more of the visitors to the space by making trips over there throughout the day!

The "gazing globe" that you see is in reality a bowling ball that I got for $5.00 at the Salvation Army store!  ALways check the sports bin - I have seen a number of various colored bowling balls there - I have a blue one in another location on the farm.  I have never been able to keep a real gazing globe alive - they always get hit with something - other balls, rocks, dog tails or hockey pucks - even a go kart once - so the sturdy bowling ball saves the day and no one can really tell that it isnt glass.

The shed still needs a good coat of paint - on the list for next year but now that I have the bench revamped and this corner done - this will be a space that gets enjoyed all spring, summer, and fall!

Even your most raggedy spaces can become beautiful oasis areas for you and for the wild visitors who come through!  Find your oasis - if you build it they will come!

Houston High and the Best Garden Ever!

We had an awesome year in the garden this summer!  Even though we had some setbacks we out produced all our other years - partly due to the added space with the new raised beds that were built in the spring.  We also had some great plants donated that turned out some fabulous produce!

Harvest time is always a rushed affair in the school garden due to the time constraints of trying to do everything in about two class periods.  Our culinary arts class is two class times per day and only on certain days do both of the classes meet so we have to time it just right and then try to have each class harvest half of the produce so it is fair for both!  We also have some life skills classes and science classes that help out when it fits their classes as well.  Lots of kids learning in the garden!

Above photo shows our awesome culinary arts instructor Mr. Bredberg showing the kids how to dig the potatoes in the raised beds.  Most of the kids in the garden when the pictures were taken were new to the program this year.

Talking about the rhubarb that we are excited to have and should be able to harvest some of next season!  We have two plants right now and hope to add at least two more next year to make a "pie-able" patch!

The tomatoes in the above photo didn't impress anyone this year in the tires - too hot is our thinking and limited water hindered the growth.  Next year we hope to add some water catchment (rain) barrels so that we can water the garden no matter what is going on even if we cant access our hose bibs.

More potatoe harvesting - Mr. Brednerg is showing the seed and letting the kids know that its not one that you eat!

Digging a tire full of spuds!  The tires and the pallet bins did well for the potatoes - possibly due to them being in the shade more than the raised beds.

This is Mike Riffelmacher - he is a culinary hot shot and in the above picture is working with some of the peas harvested from the garden.

Mike also used some of the squash and onions mixed with the peas and carrots from the garden and made an absolutely delicious dish for my lunch and also treated the principal and vice principal!  If was so so good!  A huge treat for us!

The carrots were harvested a few days after the rest of the garden - the carrots did pretty well even though they were in the raised beds also.  We had a different soil mix in those bins a little more loam and it held the water better!

Next season we also hope to be able to get a greenhouse going so that the kids might do a "grow and take home" plants program of some type.  We are working on funding that and we are also moving towards working with our middle school to start a garden on their side of the fence so that all of the kids will have had some exposure to growing things and already have an interest before they get to the High School.  Stay tuned for some exciting things going on coming soon!

If you have a school near your home or farm I hope that you will start or support a garden there - or host tours/field trips of your gardens to help get the kids learning in your neighborhood!  It is so fun to see them use what they have learned and grown!

Leaving Alice in Wonderland - fixing a Pinterest wonder!

I love Pinterest as you all know from previous blogs!  I have done quite a few projects from my Pinterest findings.  One of the projects I did you may have seen - bricks and 4x4's to make a simple outdoor bench!

The project required 12 cement blocks and four 4x4' timbers.  As you know - I get a lot of 4x4 timbers from the dunnage pile at our shop.  They come in between the casing sections so that forklift tines can fit in between and we can move them off of the trailers.  They are often a little beat up but still a great product and perfect I thought for this project!  It seemed like I couldn't lose with this simple project!

So off I went and built that bench!  The above photo shows my completed bench!  It was easy - the hardest part was getting the ground under the blocks level!  There was one small problem however!  I am not a tall person and this bench requires the leg length of a 6'6" person!  It was like a bench that might be found in a bad Alice in Wonderland dream scene!  I had to put the two 4x4 extra timbers under the foot so that I could even get up onto it to sit without jumping and once I was on it my feet didnt touch (just the toes folks) so they would fall asleep after a few minutes.  And then there was the issue of the distance between the timbers - it was not comfortable on the bum - be assured - I tried everything!  So...... A Pinterest revamp was in order!

I started by taking the 4x4 timbers and putting bracing 2x4 sections underneath and screwing them on with my trusty cordless drill and some 3" decking screws to make a solid seat platform.

I tried to use the "ugliest" sides of the timbers for the underside where it would be screwed.

Then I took off the top layer of bricks to bring the height down to a reasonable level as well!  The blocking on the end of the bench timbers holds the blocks where I want them to stay.  Still simple!

Finished revamp!  No footstool section necessary and no sleeping legs, or sore bum either!  I didn't paint the bricks or the wood yet - that is on the list for next summer, but we use this bench often now and it is sturdy and comfortable!  And I have enough bricks and timbers to make another one somewhere else!  Maybe a lakefront bench - stay tuned for that and don't be afraid to try a change when the original doesn't work like you need it to!