Today’s the day I get together with several other bloggers and share a monthly post for the “Cozy Living Series” hosted by Jennifer from Town-n-Country Living. I’m always honored to be a part of such this group with so many talented girls. At the bottom of this post you’ll see more posts to click on and see what cozy means to them for the month of May.
If you’ve followed me for any length of time you’ve heard me say recently how I truly want a simpler life. I want things to move at a slower pace. I want to enjoy what I do and I want to go to bed at night proud of my day’s accomplishments. I’d like to think I won’t worry about tomorrow but in reality it sometimes wakes me in the night. I haven’t gardened in years but I decided I’d give it ago this year. I know I’ll have to fight the critters for the produce but I’m willing to do that because gardening is something I enjoy.
I have 16-raised garden bed that needed a good cleaning out. I’d planted them to flowers over the years and they needed to go if I wanted space for veggies. I spent one day pulling out all that was currently planted in the beds and moving it. I told myself I’d do a couple a day and pace myself but once I got started it wasn’t bad so I kept going and did half the beds the first day and the other half a couple of days later.
We’d recently had a good rain and that made it easy to pull up the flowers. A pitchfork is my friend when it comes to uprooting perennials. I just force it under the plant and pop it right out of the grounds with my foot. After the beds were all cleared I spayed an organic weed killer just to make sure no roots would sprout up again.
Organic Weed Killer Recipe
- 1 Gallon white vinegar
- 1 C. lemon juice
- 1 C. Salt
- 1 T. Dawn dish soap
I let the weed killer do its job and a week later I add compost and manure to each bed. This year I purchased it in bags. It’s easier for me to handle and I don’t have to ask hubby to haul a load for me. Sometimes a girl just wants to get the job done and not have to wait for any help, if you know what I mean.
I don’t know about you but I need to plan my garden. I draw it out on graph paper and make sure I have room to fit everything in. I’m not one to just willy nilly plant things randomly. I like it to look neat and make sure the plants play nice with what’s planted next to them. Yes I even get out the colored pencils and draw in plants. I think it’s the OCD in me, lol.
Next I make a list to keep in my purse while I shop. I have a list of live plants and how many I’ll need and I have a list of what I’ll grow from seed. If I don’t keep a list I wont remember everything I want to plant. Old age I guess, I keep a list for everything now.
I want the garden space to be eye appealing too so I grabbed some lumber to make a few trellis and other garden art with. If it ever stops raining here in Michigan I’ll get right on that project. Gardening for me all comes down to doing what I enjoy, spending time in nature, and releasing the stress of every day life. It’s a place I can tune out the world and feel cozy in my own little space. It has benefits too; the family will be enjoying delicious, organic, fruit and veggies from the garden all season long.
Don’t forget to click on the links below and leave me a comment of what your doing in your garden right now. I’d love to hear from you!
Duke Manor Farm / Making It In the Mountains / Creative Cain Cabin
Finding Silver Pennies / Town and Country Living
Dawn…the beds look great!…Why do you add lemon juice, to your week killer recipe?…I make the same recipe, but don’t add lemon juice…
Sharon it’s more acidic and works better for me on the type weeds we have here in Michigan. I’ve tried the recipe without the lemon and I have to apply it several times to the same spot to get it to work. If it works for you without I’d keep doing it that way. Once less thing to buy 🙂
Dawn, your vegetable beds will look awesome. I am with you on the list writing. I keep lists for everything, in order to remind myself everything to get done or buy. I can’t wait to see how all your raised beds turn out. Have a great week.
Cheryl if it’s not on my list it doesn’t happen or get bought. My memory can’t store all that stuff in it anymore.
Looking good after a lot of work! this year we are trying the raised stands that my hubby built for lettuce and spinach. you just lay a bag of miracle gro garden soil on top of the stand, cut the top center out of the bag and plant the seeds. The seeds are now young sprouts so not long til cutting time. it’s an experiment in progress!
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Susan, that method certainly saves on the old back. The worst part of gardening is always being stooped over.
I cannot wait to get our veggie gardens planted here too! I love the way you plan things out, thinking I may need to try that too!
Kristi I’m a planner so this works best for me.
Love the inspiration in this post. Reminds me of the old time hardware store with small wooden drawers of seeds. My garden was so small that I would arrive at the store to ask for 12 radish seeds, 4 cucumber seeds, and a tablespoon of lettuce seeds.
Jan, Aw how sweet. Even though it was small you still enjoyed the garden. I’m planting radish and carrots today in containers on the porch and I’ll save the big raised beds for the other plants.
how exciting to see your garden come to life. i would rather be playing in the dirty in the garden then most anything else. totally get about doing it yourself. if we waited gardening season might just be over
This is what we’re doing this weekend 🙂 We got organic plants last weekend from a local farm but we need to prep the beds. It’s just been so cold where we live.
Danielle, prepping and weeding are the two toughest parts. Planting is the fun part!