• Blog - Outdoors

    T Tuesday: Winter garden edition

    Welcome to a chilly edition of T stands for Tuesday!

    T stands for Tuesday

    All summer I had been giving you garden updates so today I thought I’d show you my winter garden. Maybe I should rephrase that….my garden in winter.

    Last week before the temps dropped into the negative°F, we had a little snow that gave everything a lovely coat of white. Since I had to go out to shovel anyway, I grabbed the camera for a little photo tour.

    winter garden

    You can see my rosemary, sage and horseradish covered in snow. I have no idea of the herbs will make it but I’m not terribly concerned. I harvested a bunch for smudge sticks late in the season.
    winter garden

    I love how the snow rests on the fencing and flags.

    winter garden

    I decided to leave the flags up this year as they are quite faded and worn. I want to replace them next summer.

    winter garden

    winter garden
    How do you think the worms are doing in their tower? I hope they dug deep enough to survive the winter. Only time will tell.

    winter garden tea

    As for me…I’m drinking lots of hot tea trying to keep warm. The cocoa is for Mr. G…he’s taking a vacation day. Good day to do it too when it’s so dang cold! Especially since he works both inside and out.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Outdoors - Tutorials

    T Tuesday: smudge stick edition

    During the process of putting the garden to bed for the winter, I drastically trimmed back my herbs. Now I am crossing my fingers that the plants themselves will overwinter.

    Anyway I decided to make some smudge sticks as I have heard that burning sage helps deter mosquitoes.  Worth a try.

    IMG_0619

    I found a spool of heavy duty cotton button thread in my stash and set to work.

    Smudge sticks

    I likely could have made 4 bundles but honestly they were a pain to make. It will be interesting to see if they work next summer.

    I’m linking up once again with Elizabeth for T stands for Tuesday

    vintage look tea

    my beverage is coffee again. Soon with the weather changing I’ll be back to tea to stay warm.

    Lots on calendar today including 2 doctor appointments.

    What are you doing today?

  • Blog - Outdoors - Tutorials

    T Tuesday: worm tower edition

    T stands for Tuesday

    Today for this edition of T stands for Tuesday I thought I’d share a DIY project made from recycled pieces of the kids old play set.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    I read about worm tower composting on Pinterest. It looked like a great solution for my raised bed garden. Most of the links I saw used a PVC pipe instead of wood.

    Since we had scrap cedar laying around it seemed like a perfect use without spending any money. Mr. G did the construction and drilling of the holes for me after I explained my idea.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    The holes let the worms migrate in and out of the tower to spread the compost throughout the raised bed.  Isn’t that awesome…they do the work for me!

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    We even had an old handle in the shed from the sandbox cover. A perfect fit for the lid.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    Now it was time to  install … I dug down to the bottom of the box…well truth be told the box doesn’t have a solid bottom….just landscape cloth. I assume eventually that will rot away.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    I back filled all around the tower and attached it with one screw just in case some critter decided to try and mess with it. It looks like it’s always been there.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    Now all I needed was some composting worms.  Amazon.com never ceases to amaze me with what I am able to order.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    This was a strange bin to find on my front step a few days later.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    I started saving kitchen scraps after ordering my worms. The paperwork that came with them said they also enjoy paper and cardboard. I grabbed a couple handfuls of shredded paperwork and started layering the material in the tower.

    recycled wood worm tower | Halle's Hobbies

    Honestly I was worried about getting the worms…would they still be alive? Yep…red and wiggly. I have no idea if they will survive a Minnesota winter  in the garden and worm tower. From what I read they do have a good chance of survival.  Only time will tell.

    Do you compost? I’d love to hear about your system.