Welcome to August!

Where did the summer go! Now that the summer break is near an end, I just realized I haven't had time to blog! My Grandkids start back to school on Mon Aug 6th. We had a busy summer with arts and crafts, cooking, activities and school work to help prepare for the new school year. Here are a few photos of some of our projects.

They made Milk Jug Art Work!




My grandson made his own 'pokemon' with clay and a battlefield from a box.


They painted a Tea Set!




I need to share some photos of my garden. As far as the Pallet Gardens, I couldn't be more pleased, especially with the fact that there were no weeds! Part of our summer was extremely hot and dry so everything needed extra water. The pallet gardens require more watering than my in-ground gardens, but not as much as the plants in my container garden.








After the extreme hot and dry weather we had a period of excess rain, making everything very soggy. It was a difficult summer for veggies and fruit. Nonetheless my strawberries, broccoli and tomatoes have been delicious and my herbs have grown well!









I love having morning time in my garden, always a good start to the day! Here are some garden scenes.

















And here are my fur babies who bring silliness and sweetness into each day: my dog Zorra and cats Goldie & Max.





Goldie in particular finds a way to add laughter!




With my grandkids returning to school next Monday, I should be able to reclaim my creative time which was minimal during the summer break! I will update my jewelry in the next blog.

Thank you for sharing some time. Peace&Love.
~Gilannie~

My New Pallet Garden

I saw a photo of a 'pallet garden' on Backyard Diva's Facebook page and immediately knew I wanted to make one or maybe even more. There were no directions, only the one picture. So I decided to take photos of the steps I took to make mine. {Please note, use a pallet with untreated wood.}

Fortunately one of my sons-in-law has several of these pallets that were not being used and he was happy to let me have one. The first thing I did was to spray it for bugs and clean it. Next I decided to place it at the end of my herb garden, where nothing is growing and where there is full sunlight.






I decided that if I removed two of the boards, I would have 2 wider rows for larger plants. And, I could then use those two boards at the ends to cover the open spaces! I really wanted to do all the work myself, but could not pry those boards/nails loose. Thankfully, my son-in-law was able to remove those for me and I was able to nail the boards to the ends.







Next I filled in the pallet with a mix of top soil and composted manure. This pallet is 48" by 40-1/5". It took approximately 3-1/2 cu ft of the soil mix to fill the pallet. {Side Note: At the store where I shop, torn/damaged bags of dirt, mulch, etc. are half-price! Needless to say, I do look for the damaged bags first!}



My kale plants had become literally overshadowed by herbs so I decided to move them to the pallet. They fit nicely in the back row!



In the next row I planted Zinnia flowers, also called the bee flower. And in the following row I planted young broccoli plants.



And, to attract plenty of bees, I planted another row of Zinna.



Since I have veggie and flower seedlings that are not big enough to transplant, I decided to stop at this point. I'll add more veggies and flowers as soon as the seedlings are large enough.

So this is my PALLET GARDEN for now:





Why did I want to try a pallet garden? (1)In some ways, it is like a raised bed garden so you do not have to dig up a large area. Where I located this one there was no need for a liner. However you can add a liner or back it with wood to have it enclosed. (2)Supposedly there will be no need to 'weed' the pallet garden. Sounds fantastic; I will let you know if this turns out to be true. (3)It is one more way to Recycle-Renew-Reuse. (4)The pallet garden looks very rustic, unique and sweet.

I have so many seedlings sprouting, actually way too many, that I am already seeing the need for a second pallet garden. I'll keep you posted.

A photo update: I added fresh mulch to my gardens to help hold in moisture. Hard to believe it is over 80-degrees on April 2nd!



Happy Springtime ~ Happy Gardening ~ Don't Worry, Just Garden ~

~Gilannie~