May 23rd 2015 - DIY watering can

May 23rd 2015 - DIY Watering can

Now that lil mans has properly established and is all growing well  he needs a watering can, rather than connecting the hose up.  So I have made him one from a pop bottle and my drill, similar to this one on pinterest. It also means that he can water his veg rather than me doing it.

Here's the lid:

April 6th 2015 - Birthday Wishes (and garlic)

April 6th 2015 - Birthday Wishes (and garlic)

Birthday Wishes

Random title for today I know, but I  have my reasons.  Today would have been my Mum's 66th birthday had she still been with us.  Happy Birthday Mum, RIP, love you always. x   I thought these 2 pins suited this bit quite well - for my Mum in Heaven and words and tears.


Growing Garlic

Lil man is loving the idea of growing his own veggies, we have carrots, sweet corn, snap peas and potatoes in the garden already, the blueberry and raspberry bush we bought from £1 shop have both died so need get more expensive ones.  And we have rocket, lettuce, corriander and basil growing in a tray indoors.  He asked if we could grown garlic as we use it in dinners.

So I looked it up, the first thing I found was placing it in fridge and leaving it for a week as it will start to grow - well it was in the fridge for 2weeks and doing nothing!  So I looked to see if I could find another way to get it to grow, and I found a way of growing it in water.  So Yesterday we opened the garlic clove and placed the individual bits in a shallow bowl of water on the window sill.  This morning we have woken up to them looking like this:


So I think a few more days for them to grow bit taller and we will be able to plant them outside in the vegetable planter.  And I think we will wait a few more weeks and then root another lot so we have more growing for later in the year.  I'm not sure how long they take before new cloves have fully grown.

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

March 16th 2015 - Vegetable markers

With lil man trying to grow his own vegetables he needs to have markers of some sort so we can tell what he has growing (hopefully) where.

I didn't think that the plastic ones you write on would be very good with high winds and cats, so I looed on pinterest for ideas and found these vegetable markers made from stones with the image draw/painted on them and then varnished - much more sturdy.  So I set about making him some, so far we have carrots, potatoes and sweetcorn markers made (see below) and I need to make garlic, raspberries and blueberries.  These are not all in his big planter but in smaller pots as well.

March 9th 2015 - Planting seeds

March 9th 2015 - Planting seeds

Yesterday afternoon, we moved some of the wood bark from the front garden to the base of lil mans planter as it has started to go to mulch/compost where it has got so wet etc.  We also filled the planter with compost ready for lil man to start planting his veg.

We also planted a tray of seeds, which I have today sorted out with labels etc, brought in and watered for him.  Not sure how well they are going to do but fingers crossed they start to grow.  We are 2 weeks in with potatoes but as of yet there is no sign of green shoots.

We have a row of lettuce, a row of rocket, a row of basil and a row of corriander - all of which apart from the lettuce our bearded dragon can eat.  I did buy carrot seeds as well but they seem to have grown legs and wander off from the shelf where the rest of the seeds were.  I will see if Aldi still has any at 19p tomorrow when we go shopping.

Lil man has also asked me to get some corn as he wants to grow his own of that.  Not sure where I get it from so I will be hunting the net later.

February 20th 2015 - Growing potatoes

February 20th 2015 - Growing Potatoes

Last week my lil man (5) asked if we could grow our own potatoes.  He was only really little when I did this with the older 2.  I had planned to use an old dustbin that was in the garden, but sadly it got crushed when the temporary fence fell down on it.  So I ordered a potatoe grow bag off ebay for £2.99.

It arrived yesterday and me and lil man headed to town to get some compost so we could plant the potatoes today.  Well we were in £1 shop and there were loads of kids near the toys and it was like this "mum can I have this toy" and "mum I want this" etc.  As we walked past them all my lil man turned round and said to me "mummy I don't want any toys like those children, all I want is some compost to plant my potatoes in".  Bless him, so sweet.

We got the compost and a bit further on the shelf is the same potatoe grow bags as I had bought off ebay for £2.99.  GGggggggrrrrr!!!!  Oh well, never mind.  £1 shop didn't have anything like them last week.

Today we poured 1 bag of compost into the bottom of the bag, pushed the potatoes into it and then covered them with the other bag of compost.  The grow bag is only half full so we are going to get some more when we go to town at the weekend to top it up.  Lil man then proceeded to water them with rain water from his bucket.  I found this article on pinterest about growing potatoes in a bag.

He asked whilst we were doing the potatoes if we can plant some carrots and other things as well. Me and hubby agreed and have said we will make him a raised planter at the side of the garden over the next few weeks and get some seeds and stuff for him to plant.  We are also getting a blueberry plant and raspberry plant to go in pots on the decking (that isn'nt even built yet! lol).

The older 2 are not really interested in anything outdoors and moan if asked to help with the garden, but i'm sure they will be quite happy to eat the fruit and veg that we grow!

January 20th 2015 - What can a bearded dragon eat?

January 20th 2015 - What can a bearded dragon eat?

The answer is lots  of things, but this isn't helpful when i'm stood in the supermarket with no internet signal to check as I can't remember!

So today's pin is another linked to my phone - I am compiling a list to my phone of things he can eat daily/regularly and not so often.  I did have 1 up until my phone went in for repairs and I never re-made it.

I found a pin about bearded dragon food on pinterest so I have linked to that as well as the interent as there is a wide range of things they can eat not on this list. 

My beardie is really funny, although he (she maybe as not checked its sex but were told male when bought it) will eat alot of vegetables it goes crazy for greens!  spinach, kale, dandelion leaves, peas and pea shoots etc.  I'm not sure if beardies can tell colours or not, but he certainly goes more mad for them than anything else he gets given.

here is part of the list on my phone