DIY Seed Starters!

Last year we spent a bunch of money on seeds and seed starter kits and ended up with shriveled up patch of garden, it was very frustrating putting in the hard work and money and coming up empty handed. So this year we are keeping it simple. I've bought a couple of tomato, bell pepper and cantaloupe plants, and only growing a few things from seed. I knew that there had to be a way to make seed starters so I went to looking on Pinteest and found these toliet paper roll seed starters! I had already been saving our paper rolls with no project in mind so this was perfect for me! And we still had some soil leftover from making our compost bin so I had everything I needed! I LOVE it when that happens! This is what you will need: 

- Toliet paper or paper towel rolls

- Scissors

- Tape

- A plate or tray

- Soil

- Seeds of your choice

First you will need to cut your rolls.

Or

Next you will need to cut one of the new pieces about an inch up

You will need to do this 4 times

Now you will need to fold the cut slits over onto each other closing up one end of the roll

Place a piece of tape over the bottom to ensure it will stay closed

Now you have this

Fill it with soil

And plant your seeds according to their instruction. I marked mine with a marker because I'm planting two different seeds

When you have finished making and filling all your seed starters water them and put your tray in the sun!

If you notice one of mine came undone after watering. I just got out my handy hot glue gun and put a dab of glue and that has seemed to fix it!

The BEST part about it is when it's time to transplant them you can just plant the whole thing in your garden! Cool, right?!

Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me! : Home Remedy

I LOVE summer, but with summer comes bugs; and bugs I don't love. Last year we battled roaches, (thankfully we lost them with the move) this year it's flies! A bit less disgusting but much much more annoying! I have tried just about everything to rid our house of these pests and I was just about to give up. I bought Basil plants because one websites suggestion, this had no effect. I tried the "tried and true" water filled ziplock bags. I put them on either side of our backdoor. And I do think that it kept a few from coming inside but didn't stop them. I made a couple traps. I saw a few websites suggest Orginal Dawn dish soap and White Vinegar in mason jars. This caught one or two house flies but was mostly disappointing. I also made one out of a plastic bottle. You cut the top of the bottle, invert it and pour apple cider vinegar inside. This did nothing for our house flies but for a week or two we also had gnats and this worked fairly well for them. If you are battling gnats I would suggest trying this trap, you can find a similar tutorial over at Cheat Day Cafe (link below). And just when I had given up hope one of my Facebook friends liked a photo of whole cloves stuck into lemons as a fly repellent. Why not try it, right?! So the next time we went to the grocery store I picked up a couple lemons and a bottle of whole cloves. And I must say I am impressed! We no longer have flies buzzing around our heads!! I don't know where they have gone (and I've had my eye out) but they aren't around these lemons! I made 3 of them. 

I placed two in the kitchen and one near our couch. And they smell soo good! I'm thinking about making up some more and putting them in a bowl on our coffee table for a little splash of summer color. They look cool, smell amazing and actually keep the flies away! Yay! 

Anyone else battling bugs this summer? What do you do to keep the peace?

You can find that tutorial here --> http://cheatdaycafe.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-get-rid-of-fruit-flies.html?m=1

Kayleigh vs Nandina: A Day Spent in the Dirt

Who likes to get dirty?! I know I do! We recently moved into a house and the first thing I wanted to do was build a garden. But with the wedding and honeymoon around the corner we just didn't have the money (and we still don't). So when we got back I slowly started to at least get us a couple herbs, veggies and some pretties for the backyard and our front flower beds. Luckily my mom had some leftovers that she gave to me; which helped curve my craving! 

 

We had a pretty good sized Nandina in our front flower bed that had to be removed before I could plant our goodies. While Phillip was at work last Monday I decided to get to work! This lil project ended up being an all day workout! If you ever have a Nandina that must be removed I would recommend doing so while the hubs is home! (Or get him to do it!) For those of you who don't know, this is a Nandina

And this is one stubborn bitch! It has a huge system of viney roots that ran through our whole flower bed. I started by pulling up as many as I could around the plant. They were coming up fairly easy so I thought that maybe I could just kinda pull the whole thing up, BOY WAS I WRONG! After staring at for a bit I decided the best thing to do was to cut off all the foliage so I could see what I was working with. I then naively started to try and dig it up, this is when I realized what I really got myself into.

I started working on the little vines coming out from the main root. Pulling them out or at least disconnecting them from the center. An hour or so later I FINALLY started to get to the main problem.

By this point my whole body was sore so it was time for a break! My back was killing me and I needed to lay down but by this point I was far too dirty to lay anywhere inside; so I took a  blanket outback and laid down for a bit. 

And then it was back to work! I tried pulling on more vines but that was getting VERY tiresome and really not working much anymore, so I took my aggravation and put it to good use with the shovel! I started using all my might to throw the shovel down into the roots to break them. I did this all around the root base and freed it of all it's exposed vines. Once the root base was as free as I could get it, I started digging around it. I finally started to see the main bulbs! And just in time too; I was well over 2 hours in and I was almost fed up! I worked hard for another 30 minutes and I FINALLY got them bitches up! 

 

YAY!!!!! 3+ hours later...

Those are all the roots I pulled up! And as tired as I was I couldn't stop there. I now had somewhere to plant all my pretty gifted foliage! So I started working on planting while Mijo kept me company.

(There is an elephant ear bulb planted in the void there)

I was sore all over and covered head to toe in dirt but I did it! I literally looked like I took a dirt shower!

I was sore for the next four days! And I'm pretty sure all the pulling on vines bruised my right hand. But my front flower bed will look awfully nice once everything grows in :). There's something quite satisfying about finishing a hard days work, isn't there? Getting to stand back and say "That was hard as fuck! But I did it!" Has anyone else conquered the Nandina bush?!