TBT - Planting a Memory Tree

A few years ago my Uncle wanted to plant a new orange tree in his yard.  

He thought it would be fun for the grand-kids/grand-nieces &grand-nephews 

to plant it in honor of my Grandma and my Mother.  

Plus, any excuse to get together is a good one.

So we all met at his house, my cousins and brothers, my Aunt and Uncle and all our kids.  

Aren't they a good looking bunch?  The girls outnumber the boys in this group.

Sara Jane

 Garrett and Abby - two peas in a pod

 Uncle Pete dug a hole then we shared memories of Grandma Betty and Aunt Barbara (my Mom)

Everyone brough something to put in the hole.

Little notes, rose petals from a special rose bush, little girl trinkets and i guess a sugar cookie went in there!  (I don't remember that.) Good thing we have pictures to spark a memory.

The tree being planted.  All the kids got to help.  

This is a fun idea to do every time you plant a tree.

It makes that tree have memories from the very start of it's life.

Every time we go to my Aunt & Uncles house we smile and know that tree is filled with love and sugar. (literally)

 

I brought a Dr. Pepper because we all know that was my mom's favorite. 

 We all toasted and drank Dr. Pepper at her funeral.

It was only fitting to add a bottle to the tree.

Plus, plants like caffeine and high fructose corn syrup....don't they?

Thank You Uncle Pete for thinking of this fun memory making activity.

And good luck little tree!  

We love you already.

TBT = Throw Back Thursday 

Pictures and Memories from Feb. 2010

Daily Chickens

My girls have named our chickens as you know.
Dot & the Dolly's. 
One of "the Dolly's" got an add-on to her name.
"Dolly Fuzz-Butt"Because as you can see,
she has an extra fuzzy backside.

How to Keep Your Potted Plants Alive in the Heat of the Summer.

 I adore plants.  Hence the name Gardenview Cottage.  Plants make everything prettier.  Potted plants are my favorite right now because you..can..put..them..anywhere!  Here in Arizona where the summer sun will burn a hole in your eye you need to be able to move your pots to a shady spot to keep them alive. Plus we get 360 days of pure sun.  I kid you not.  It's a sunny day here everyday!

 

I like to group my pots together for two reasons.

1. They look better grouped together and it's always nice to be near a friend (wink)

2.  It's easier to water them so you aren't going all over the yard multiple times with the hose.

Speaking of watering.  Potted plants here in the Desert need a lot of water.  Even though my pots are in partial sun I still water them deeply every day to every other day.  There is no moisture in our air - like 0% humitity - so the plants need all the water they can get.  I don't think you can over water your pots in the summer.  I take that back....you can if there isn't a drainage hole in your pot.  Drainage holes are a must or you will get root rot, plant fungus and a wide range of other problems.  When I water the plants I fill the pot until water starts to come out the bottom. 

 

I have chickens that free range in my yard.  Chickens like to eat plants.  I had to be very careful when planting my pots this spring.  I didn't want to spend all my plant money on the Chickens lunch and I also didn't want to plant anything that would be harmful if they did nibble on them. 

 What I came up with was that chickens don't eat herbs.  They like to sit in the potted herbs but not eat them.  The picture above is filled with mint, thyme, globe basil and a little succulent I got in Cali. It also has a homemade wire dome that I made out of our marshmallow roasting sticks so the chickens wouldn't nest in my pot.  I have to say it worked great!

Chickens also don't eat potato vine which grows like a weed here in AZ.  It grows in full sun all the way to full shade.  It comes in dark purple (above) and a chartreuse green)  It's a great pot filler, is cheap and can be cut off, put in a cup of water and can be re-potted in less than a week.  I call it the "make a new friend plant" because it's so easy to share with your friends.

 

I fill my pots with 2-3 perennial plants and some annuals so they will be full.

I will do a post in the future on what plants chickens don't eat and what has worked for me.

 My little dwarf Meyer lemon tree got pretty frozen this winter and I thought it was dead for awhile.  It has come back nicely and I will have to take better care of it this winter. This pot would be in full sun all day so I have moved it under the umbrella I keep up to shade the chicken coop on the other side of our pool fence.  It is filled with the dwarf Meyer lemon tree, a chartreuse potato vine, zinnias, and climbing verbena.

Remember:  You don't have to have a green thumb, you just need to pay attention.

The Chickens & a How to Make a Chicken Feeder

If you think raising chickens is going to be a piece of cake.....think again.

I thought it would be a walk in the park- get a cute coop, feed them, water them, no big deal.

Wrong!

However, high maintenance isn't necessarily a bad thing. 

Chickens are actually very fun.  

They each have a personality and we tend to get sucked outside for hours just watching them.

They are hilarious cheap entertainment. 

Man alive are they fun to watch.

I have found that I love to be outside working in the garden, watching the chickens and finding new ways to improve "Chick-Inn".  Our newest addition is the chickens feeder made out of PVC pipe.  Home Depot  and I have become very close friends these past few weeks while I make improvements to the yard and coop.

How to Make a Chicken Feeder:

All we did is buy one piece of 4" PVC and a PVC elbow.  We cut them to size and fit the two 4" pieces in between the elbow piece.  I have to admit that I didn't come up with this idea.  There are a lot of great ideas on Pinterest and YouTube to help you out.  We then added a cap to the top so water couldn't get in, cut out some holes with my husbands rotozip and tada!  Chicken feeder!
 I of course had to paint it red to match the steps and door. 

We let the chickens out early in the morning for about an hour and then again about 3pm.  (after school)
Chickens are easy in the fact that they do put them selves to bed.  At dusk they automatically march right into the coop and up the steps to their roost.  They snuggle in tight and go to sleep.  More pics to come of that phenomenon.
 

 Here is the feeder being put to good use by one of "the Dolly's". 

When planning a location for the feeder make sure it is away from sprinklers or that it might get rained on.  If the food gets wet it will turn into a rock and the chicks won't eat it.  Plus it might spoil and you don't want chickens eating rotten food.

**Update** We did end up cutting the PVC feeder so it only has two feeding holes.  There wasn't enough gravity to push the food all the way down the length of the pipe.  It is working much better now that it is shorter.**

Dot, our Barred Rock might be the Queen of the Coop.  We are watching her to make sure she doesn't turn into a meanie.  She's the only Barred Rock so it could be a possibility.  She has the softest feathers out of all of them and loves to be held and carried around by the kids.  I think chickens are like any type of pet or even a garden.  "You Have to Pay Attention" for them to survive.  Feed, water, protect and you should be just fine.♥

Chick Inn - Our Chicken Coop

Our chicken coop is all done!  The chicks are in and loving their new home. 

The steps can be moved to either the inside of the coop or the outside (as seen here).  

Chickens are so funny, as soon as the sun starts setting, in they go.  

They go right upstairs and go to bed.  

Easiest animals we have ever had.

 This is Dolly. 

 We have five Ameraucana's and one Barred Rock.

The B&W one is named Dot.

I couldn't tell the Ameraucana's apart so we named them all Dolly.

 I'm all about easy.

I had a little contest on Instagram to name the Coop.

I mean, if my house has a name then why not the coop?

Boy howdy were there some great names!

Here are a few:

Un Peu Mignonne (cute & little)

Gardenview Coop

Maison Poulailler

The Breakfast Club (this was the 2nd place winner)

Meet the Flockers (3rd place winner)

Little Deuce Coop

Hen pen

Fowl Territory

Chick Filet

Clubhouse - Chicks only

Little Red Hen House

Coop D Vil

Sunny Side Up Shack

Omelet Oasis

Over Easy Hotel

Gardenviewcoopage

Chicks Rule

Les Coop

Les Edibles

Les Poulailler

And the winner is......

Chick-Inn

Now to have a cute little sign made and it will be perfect!

Sneak Peek - The Coop

Sneak Peek as to what's going on around here.

Check back for more detailed pictures and what we have been up to.

photo's edited and taken from my instagram page

Flowers I Fancy

These flowers make me smile every-time I walk outside.
What are your favorite flowers?

Growing a Garden

The garden is growing.  The spinach and lettuce are looking good.  Grandma Wilson's Iris are about to bloom.  The strawberries are spreading out and the tomato's are bushy and beautiful.  I will have zucchini and squash coming out of my ears in no time.  I will admit, I have never been able to grow green onions and I don't think this will be my season either.  There has to be a secret I don't know about.  I guess I will keep buying them at the store.  (sad face)

What are you growing in your garden?
Can you grow green onions and what's the secret?

Garden Envy

Picture via Velvet & Linen

The picture above made me get off my duff, go out in my backyard and plant my garden and flower pots.  It's been amazing weather here in sunny AZ which should be taken full advantage of by moi.  Please go visit Velvet and Linen's blog (via that link) and see what she did to her backyard (that was a full lawn) to make this amazing garden.  Those Californians know how to do gardens!  If my kids were older and we had more room I would probably do the same thing.  For now I will have to make due with my small but highly functional kitchen garden that is producing plenty of veggies for us (but just isn't near as pretty as hers).

The girls and I spent all Friday replacing the soil in our patio pots and planting new flowers.  Our pool area and patio are now in full bloom thanks to Cassidy and her amazing ability to pick out color matching flowers.  She fell in love with some tiny succulents at Lowe's and just had to have them.  Then she promptly planted them and drowned them in a ton of water.  Hopefully they will live to see next week. (??? I think I saved them but who knows)

After seeing the garden above and looking at every single garden post she has on her blog it made me want to re-do my entire backyard.  We need more green ground-cover, flowers and maybe another small tree.  Apple?  Peach?  I wouldn't mind ripping out the tiny palm tree for an apple tree.  My apple tree friend moved and now what am I to do?  I might even plant the strawberries in the front yard as a ground cover.  Strawberries are good like that.

I will be posting picture of our garden soon.  Here's what we planted:

romaine lettuce
red & green leaf lettuce (from seed)
spinach (for our smoothies)
green onions (from seed)
marigolds (to keep the bugs away)
2 roma tomato plants
1 yellow tomato plant
basil (from seed)
1 zucchini
1 yellow crook neck squash
2 bell pepper plants (they survived the winter so I cut them way back to give them a fresh start)
4 strawberry plants

We also have 1 carrot growing.  I don't know where it came from-I have never planted carrots but hey, there's nothing wrong with free food.  We will also be growing an obscene amount of GIANT sunflowers because the garden is full of seeds from last years sunflower 'trees' the girls grew.

Love this picture - the birds ate the seeds out of our sunflower in the shape of a ♥

These sunflowers were quite massive but gave a nice amount of shade 

to the garden during the hot desert summer.

Gardens Made Simple

Yesterday I got a new computer.  I stole it from Tom's office shhhh....don't tell anyone (wink).  Our main computer is still being fixed (those computer guys sure take a long time!) and I just couldn't handle NOT having a computer.  Plus, this way we will have two main home computers so there will be no resentment when someone is hogging the internet.  The best part?  It was free, it thinks it's a Mac (it's really a Dell) so it was easy to install - just 1 plug!  Love it already.

On to a different subject all together..........I thought I would share this cool garden tip that I saw on my facebook page.

Do you want to try planting some veggies but don't have room?  This looks fun and easy.  I love the description they give and I quote:

"This vertical garden created from a shoe organizer is brilliant for two reasons: One, it's a freaking shoe organizer that's been turned into a garden; and two, it gets everything off the ground to deter rascals like squirrels and bunnies from nipping at your veg."

Oh man that made my day!  Hilarious. Plus, why not?  They have other ideas too like turning an old file cabinet into a garden and using rain gutters for hanging planters.  I love creative minds.  Check them out at Ready Made

Top 10 Tuesday

What I Wish My Garden Looked Like If 

It Wasn't Dry As A Bone 

And Hotter Than Stink:

(yvestown)

(shabby chic)

(just cottage)

(birch & lily)

(carmel house)

(country home)

(country home)

(country home)

(country living)

(shabby chic)

Relaxation

Even though it's 113 degrees out today (it was 100 at 8:55 this morning) I still find it relaxing to go out and water my plants.  It's my form of sanity building.  Some people shop, others exercise, I water.  Look how pathetic they look.  I feel so bad for them.  If I had to be out in the heat day after day I would look all wilty too!  

I can't wait for October when I can fill my pots and flower beds with more pretty things.  (Our Oct. is everyone else's May/June)  Maybe I can sneak some hardy things in now?!  I may have to go do a little shopping at the nursery to see what I can find!

Questions:

Whats your favorite summer flower?

Do you enjoy watering or do you have everything on auto-timer?

How do you relax?

Free Plant for You and a Friend

I love the plant called The Sweet Potato Vine.  It's color is such a bright and cheery shade of green.  Chartreuse really.  It's also a very fast grower and loves the heat which is a bonus here in AZ.  I likes full sun and shade - I'm telling you - this is the perfect plant!

Don't mind the picture - I am using my point and shoot and well.....the pictures just aren't as good as my old camera - RIP.

Want to know another great thing about this plant? 

It's so easy to make another plant for you or a friend!

  All you have to do it cut off  3-5 stems from the bottom of the vine. 

They will look like this:

 Then you will pull off the leaves leaving just a few at the very end.  Put the stems in a glass of water on your counter and in one week  you will have so many roots that have grown off of these vines you can plant them into a pot that needs a little bit of color.  Like this:

This is one week after I planted the vines in this pot.  

They have already doubled in size and love their new home.  

The best part.........it was FREE!!!!!  

I just cut some more stems yesterday and today sent them home 

with my neighbor in a glass of water so she can watch the magic happen. 

Now go find a Sweet Potato Vine at the store 

or from a friend and have some fun!

**Update**

If you give your neighbor some cuttings she may bring you over some 

fresh-from-the-garden basil!  I'd say that's a sweet trade!