My Own Private HGTV

My first sewing project

Trenell — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:52:08 +0000

After years of daydreaming, I’ve decided to learn to sew. I got my mom’s old Singer Athena 2000 from the 70′s in working order. I had to buy replacement feet because she had no idea where the originals went. My mom is not much of a sewer. In fact I’ve never seen her sew. She made one thing with this machine.

I thought about buying a new machine, but I think the quality of this old horse would be better than any new one I could afford.

Anyhoo. I made a pillowcase using a pattern from the book “Sew Fast Sew Easy” by Elissa Meyrich. A Christmas present from my hubby. I also own “sewing for Dummies” and The vogue sewing book.

I made it for my 3-year-old son. He was so happy. “I love you, Mommy. I like my pillow. You are a good maker”

Starting Over

Trenell — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:32:23 +0000

My garden is not doing so hot. Three reasons 1. I’ve been busy 2. I didn’t use anything to ward off the critters 3. We had a major cold snap.

I shall begin again

October Pumpkin find

Trenell — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:42:14 +0000

Yesterday I posted my general October update. Sad that I was corn-less and pumpkin-less. Well today, whilst I was weeding my garden I made a discovery. A wee pumpkin. Given the condition of my plant, not sure if it’s going to make it. But it’s worth a shot.

one lone baby pumpkin

I also planted my cool weather veggies: spinach, Brussel sprouts, a salad mix, broccoli and collards. Fingers crossed.

I may try tomatos and peppers again. This July I started them in egg cartons and sat them in our green house. Not enough sun, so the seedlings were just plan sad. I’m hoping living in Florida, I can still grow them this late in the season

October Update

Trenell — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 19:09:59 +0000

I really should have been updating a little more often. But I’ve been super busy. I have, however, been completely fascinated with the entire process of growing food. I mean, it just grows out of the ground, not out of wooden crates at your local supermarket.

As I’ve stated before, I have zero green thumb. My mother grew up on a farm in Texas, went to college and never looked back. (In terms of farming). My dad, spent a few summers on a farm. So these people had NOTHING to offer. I had to use books and the net. I think my plants suffered a bit, b/c I never knew what could go wrong until it did. My poor plants had no, as many of our citizens, preventative care.

A full view of my garden

My sweet corn doesn't seem to be producing silk

The flowers open and die on pumpkin plants

flower from pumpkin plant

this pumpkin stem does not look good

The watermelon plant seems to be doing OK

Tiny baby watermelon. I talk to it sometimes

I guess it’s going to be a waiting game for these little guys. My cucumbers, however, have been doing great. I picked my first one today. Go Farmer Me. Living off the fat of the land, baby!

That is the first cucumber I picked

Cucumber Baby Daddy

first pickings

yummy with vinegar and pepper

I tell ya’ll what. Everyone should taste a fresh cucumber from an organic garden.

The final build

Trenell — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:39:31 +0000

Today we finished all the building involved in the square foot garden. The actual frames where super easy. Sliding the conduits onto the rebar was a bit trickier. The rebar were not completely straight, so there was some hammering involved which meant the elbow fasteners was a bear to get back on. But we did it. One trellis has a little lean to it, but that’s ok. We also mulched, mulched, mulched like a mofo. All that is left is to plant the seed.

Hope I can actually GROW stuff. We’ll see

The start of my Square Foot Garden

Trenell — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 03:00:17 +0000

“Man! It would be so cool to have a veggie garden”

I’ve been saying that for years. Ever since I got hitched and moved into my husband’s house. It has an incredible yard. And I am told by my mother in law that it was a tropical paradise before my husband got his hands on it. The house was bought from the widow of a man who loved gardening and all that HGTV stuff. There are still tools in the garage. The lady pretty much gave it all to my husband. Through no fault of his new just-out-of-college-now-have-a full-time-job status, hubby was really not concerned with lawn and garden upkeep.

We would talk about what we were going to do with the yard. Then we would get too busy, or it would be too hot, or we flat out forgot about it. Every now and then the bug would bite and I would go into full gardening research mode. I’d get all excited. Then I’d get overwhemled at the mere thought of all the work. I’d give up.

But this time around, I got my act together. After researching different techniques, I decided on The Square Foot Gardening Method. THEN I actually bought seeds. Money has left my pockets, so I HAVE to do it now. I also bought a book on gardening in Florida.

Oh, did I mention I know next to NOTHING about gardening.? No? Well I don’t. I’m relying on the Internet and books to Gump my way through this. Speaking of the net, OMG I found The Garden Girl site. I LOVE her. Every time I go to her site I feel inspired. I just want to raised chickens and make hummus from scratch.

According to Gardening in Florida book, the next time I was to start my major planting would be August. Starting some seeds for transplant in Mid-July. So I had about two months to get it together. We went to The Home Depot to buy all the supplies (A place I had only gone into about 5 times in my pre-married years and most of those, I was just tagging along) . My plan was to clear the area, build the boxes, fill them with the Mel’s Mix mid-July so when planting season started all I would have to do is plant.

Yeah…. that didn’t happen. Well, not really. I did start clearing out the area. We have a lot of ginger creeping around and I had to dig it all out. Then, it just got hot. So, in true “me” fashion, I waited to the last minute to finish everything. And that minute was today.

After I’m done planting my veggies, my next project will be to pave this area:

I want to pave this area and plant herbs in containers. Heck, I may even put a chair out here so I can enjoy the view