Garden 2011

No sewing this weekend, but I did get a lot of other stuff done!

My friend Lisa was off on Friday so we decided to make planter boxes. We made them with 1×6 boards and they are 4 feet long. We made one for each of us and managed to finish before dark!

Saturday Ken and I went to Spring Bluff Nursery and got two big tomato plants, a Roma and a Heartland, some herbs, two Sugar Snack cherry tomatoes and a Jalepeno. The cherry tomatoes and the Jalepeno will go in the new planter. The parsely, basil and oregano will go in the big pot and I think I will keep the cilantro inside, since it so difficult to keep from going to seed. I just don’t want to have 18 tiny pots like I had last year because they dried out so quickly. Anyway, these all have to hide out in the garage at night until it warms up a little bit. We may get a frost tonight and at noon it’s only 50 degrees out. The whole week looks like this :-/

I also planted lettuce and onions in last year’s box, which held up really well over the winter! I attempted lettuce last year and it was great until the caterpillars got it. I need to find an organic solution for that. I have a spray that is all essential oils – rosemary and some others – that I used last year on the tomatoes. I don’t know if it will help but I will try! I have butter lettuce and romaine lettuce and four candy onions in the planter. I had way too many onions in the 4 pack to put in the planter, so the nice guy from the nursery said I could try to cluster them for green onions. I had a really difficult time separating them because they kept breaking, so I just did the best I could. I also tossed some lettuce and onion seeds in the extra small pots I had.

Then, I gave the dogs haircuts. I really should send Loki to the groomer, but he just sits so nicely for me that I just do it myself. I can’t make his legs look as nice as the groomer and I don’t have the right clippers so it’s either too short or too long. I just use the too short one to shave him so I only have to torture him every 8 weeks instead of every 6 :) Sam on the other hand requires Xanax and bribery with things like potato chips, peanut butter and orange slices and she still reacts as if turning on the clippers (without even touching her) is the most painful and torturous thing she’s ever experienced. If you hold two legs she will kick you with the other two. If you hold four legs she will head butt you or turn her head and try to lick the scissors. With the Xanax she does all of these things except she is less coordinated. So, I still have to trim her face up and fix her choppy legs, but she’s shorter than she was before and that is my only expectation when it comes to grooming her. An hour later she’s forgotten the whole experience and resumes her role as the cutest, happiest, silliest 6 pound dog ever.

THEN, I cleaned the house, including my bathroom that had every surface covered in dog hair. So a mostly clean house, a sparkly bathroom, a fridge full of food, clean dogs…. I should be able to get a bunch of sewing done this week! I have to make flags for the top of the castle Donna is making for the library children’s section and a bunch of notepads for my mom’s fellow teachers as end of the year gifts. I also have Mother’s Day gifts to sew!