Pretty Picket Planter

Our kitchen remodel has taken a break this weekend due to my honey having to work the weekend!!! WHAT? Yeah! When you gotta work, you gotta work...whataya gonna do?  That's ok, it will get done and we will have the most beautiful kitchen on the block!

How about a pretty picket planter to tide you over until we get back to the kitchen?  After we made our fence picket A/C cover HERE, we had some short pieces left over from trimming the pickets to fit our needs.  Well, those short pieces were calling my name.

I cut them down even more, to 14" long to be exact.  I then trimmed the corners off to resemble the original pickets (my honey's idea).  We used (3) pickets on each side for a total of (12) pickets

Next, my honey made the frame work.  We used some scraps from our wood pile.  We cut two pieces at 14-7/8" long and two at 15" long.  NOTE: You will need to lay your pickets out and measure the width of all three of them together and and then cut your frame pieces accordingly.  Your measurements will rely on what kind of wood you are using for your frame as well.

Since its an out of doors piece and we wanted it to hold up to our Texas weather, we smeared some liquid nails onto the frame for extra sturdiness.

Then tacked the pickets on front and back to hold securely.  We may or may not have went a bit over board, but lastly we added a few screws just to make sure it was good and durable for the long haul.

Here's the finished product.  Cute huh?  I love it!  There is not a bottom, it's designed to just slip down over your pot for a little extra pizazz on your patio.

I suppose you could certainly add a bottom and some plastic liner and make it a permanent planter if you so wished, but our design was more of the simple type for now.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick,  Sew Can Do 

Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming,  The Princess and Her Cowboys

Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life,    Get Your Crap Together  ,  BeBetsy

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row,  VMG206

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity,  Redfly Creations,   4 You With Love

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Five Simple Things,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

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A Fun Pinwheel Wreath

I've been wanting to make a new wreath for our front porch so I was perusing Pinterest and spotted THIS flip flop wreath which I originally planned to make until I found bright shiny pinwheels at WalMart and changed my mind!

I bought one of every color they had for a total of seven pinwheels.  They were a $1 each.  The checkout lady thought maybe we had gofers and were trying to scare them away with the pinwheels! LOL!

I went to Michael's and bought this 18" heavy cardboard wreath form.  It was about $4 which seems like a lot for cardboard, but like I said its heavy and I knew it would hold up from year to year.

I love this picture!  I'm thinking I may go back and get more pinwheels to make a bouquet of them for the dining room table. So pretty!

I laid them out to get my spacing.  At first I thought I didn't have enough, but after I got to gluing them down I decided I like the space peeking through.  I suppose if you wanted it fuller you could add another pinwheel or two.

Next I got out my handy dandy pink needle nose pliers and clipped off the handle/stick.  The plastic is soft enough that it just snaps right off.

Next I used plain ole party streamer crepe paper in a bright green color and wrapped my cardboard wreath form.  I used a dot of hot glue to hold the beginning and then just wrapped. Finished it off with one more dot of glue.  Next I glued the pinwheels on. I glued the center first and then I glued a fin on each side to hold it tight.

Here it is out on our front porch hanging on my .50 cent tall and skinny shutter.  The things you find at yard sales!

It's hanging out on our front door now and I really enjoy seeing it when I'm out there watering all the plants.  Maybe I'll still make a flip flop wreath.  Have you made a new wreath for your door lately?

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Five Simple Things,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

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Fence Picket A/C Unit Cover

Happy Mother's Day!

We have a very nice sized patio in our back yard and we love hanging out there in the warmer months.  We decided to spruce up that area this year and one thing we deemed a must, to cover up the ugly air conditioning unit that's really close to the patio.

My honey's boss recently tore down his old wooden picket fence and was going to throw away the remains.  My honey knows me well and called and asked if we "needed" the wooden pickets. "Oh yes we do", I said.  Who doesn't need free wood?  Right?

This is how the unit looked when we started.  Not very appealing and especially when its so close to the patio area we love to hang out in.  Oh by the way? My herb garden is going in just to the right of the a/c unit!

Here's our big ole pile of free wooden fence pickets along with some 2 x 4s and a few pavers.  I'm sure we'll find some way to use those too!  I picked out 22 of the best pickets for our project.

We purchased a few 2 x 4s but the wood screws, landscaping material and rocks we already had on hand.  The 4 x 4 up there wasn't used after all but it still got in the picture! LOL!

My honey took a couple of fence pickets and ripped them down the middle and used these pieces as a frame for our rock barrier.  He used a few nails to hold it all together. Sorry I didn't get a shot of that step.

After we measured out our area, my honey used the shovel to make a little trench for the rock barrier frame to sit in.  He also loosened up the dirt so we could remove most of the grass before laying down the landscaping material.

Next we laid down the landscaping material and then placed the rock barrier frame on top of it to hold it in place.

Next step is to fill your area with rocks.  We used river rocks that we purchased at WalMart back when we built our raised bed gardens.  It took 2 bags to fill in the area.

Ok, on to the actual surround cover.  My honey took all 22 of my perfectly picked pickets (sorry I couldn't resist that) and cut the non-decorative end off so that each of them measured 4' tall.  He used our chop saw for this to make quick work of it.

Our surround is 3 sided.  The 2 x 4s for the two sides are 46" long and the front panel 2 x 4s are 45" long.  For all 3 panels he spaced the 2 x 4s out 26" apart.  He cut a few scrap pieces of wood at 26" so we could be sure they stayed at the right measurement apart while he screwed the pickets on.  He also made 2 spacers out of scrap wood (one for the top and one for the bottom) that measured the exact amount of space that needed to be be in between each picket which was 1 1/4.  Before he screwed each picket down he made sure they were level along the bottom using his speed square.

This is what each panel looked like when it was finished.  NOTE: The front panel pickets were spaced 1 1/8" apart since it was slightly shorter than the side panels.  This allowed it to fit in between the side panels and fit together snugly. 

 

This is the front view after it was all complete.  The wood looks dark due to being wet.  I rinsed everything off when we were done and decided to snap a few pictures.  I love the variations in color of each picket!

You can see how the total package looks here.  I love the little border of rocks all around the edges.

This is the top view.  See there in the back the 2 x 4 going from side to side?  That is for sturdiness since our cover is free standing and removable in case there is ever need for a/c repairs.

This is the back side.  Plenty of breathing room for the a/c unit.  NOTE:  If you decide to build your own a/c cover, be sure to leave lots of breathing room for your a/c unit!  It's a must or you could cost yourself thousands of dollars to replace your unit by not letting it breath!

Since we already had almost everything we needed to build our cover it only cost us about $10 for the three 2 x 4's we needed for the frame.  Now to add the herb garden for more beauty!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Five Simple Things,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

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Keeping Jack Frost Out

So as I mentioned in last week's post, we goofed trying to keep ole Jack Frost out of our garden! We learned our lesson and we'd like to share our mistake with others in hope they don't make the same mistake too.

In the bed on the left, we planted cilantro and cucumbers.  The bed on the right has tomatoes and peppers.  As you can see the bed on the right is domed a little higher due to the height of the tomato plants.  We will show you that bed in this tutorial.

First my honey ripped 3 strips of 1/4" ply-board down to size.  Since our beds are 4' wide, he made the strips 4 1/2' long x 2" wide.  He screwed one side in to the bed frame and then bowed the piece up and screwed down the other side.  We applied 2 mil plastic sheeting that we purchased at Lowe's for about $3 per package (1 pkg per bed) we used more small strips of the ply-board and nailed down all sides of the plastic to hold in the heat.

Our design, which my honey came up with after doing a little research, was really a good one. We just made the mistake of "giving the plants some air".  See those two holes in the center? DO NOT do that!  As soon as we put the plastic in place, the heat from the dirt created moisture on the inside of the plastic. When the sun went down and the freeze settled in, our plants froze.  According to what we read, the cold air got in through the holes and froze the moisture.  It was in the 20s that night.  We were just crushed the next day when we saw them.  I was so sad that I didn't even take any pictures of them.

Good news though!  My honey wasn't giving up.  He went out the next day and trimmed all the dead frozen bits away.  He was taught to plant the first set of leaves under the dirt.  He flipped the dirt out of their way so maybe they had a chance.  He kept watching day after day and realized we really only lost our cucumbers.  Even though the  peppers and tomatoes were all frozen down to the ground level, they survived!

The cilantro on the other hand, was NEVER even bothered.  Just look how awesome its doing!  We've already harvested it several times.  Its way better than what you can buy in the stores.  So BEAUTIFUL!

Remember!  Be sure to protect your little plants from Jack Frost, but don't be like us and freeze them in the process! LOL!  We know better now!  You must also remember that the sun can cook them through the plastic too, so be sure to remove the plastic ASAP after the freeze has passed.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia,  Sugar Bee Crafts,  New Nostalgia,  It's your Life

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
 Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Joyful Stamper,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday 
Angels Homestead,  Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

read more

Raised Bed Garden (Part 3)

We are finally to the end of our 3 part raised bed garden series. If you missed the first two steps, you can see them HERE and HERE.  This step includes the dirt we used, the decorative rocks for our pathways and then a little planting!

We even decided to add a big flower pot in the center so that we can plant a flower that goes well with what we will plant to help detour bugs,  I've pinned lots of idea on my garden board on Pinterest.

My honey's boss was kind enough to allow us to get a truck load of very nice dirt from his property, but we new it would need some extra healthy something to go with it, so we used the Sta-Green Garden Soil at Lowe's. We used (8) bags @ $6.17 per bag.

The load of dirt was almost too much for our truck, but driving slow and easy got us back home with our free dirt ready to shovel into our garden beds.

First we poured out 2 bags of garden soil for each bed and then we added the dirt and mixed well.  I mostly just spread the dirt around with a rake while my honey did most of the hard work!  Great job Baby!

Next we poured out our rocks for our pathways.  We went to Walmart and found bags of medium sized rock called Arizona river pebbles.  We used (5) bags @ $3.98 per bag, we could really use a few more bags to be honest.

Next we added mulch to the outside boarders of each bed.  It was also purchased at Walmart, its called Cypress Mulch and we used (4) bags @ $3.28 per bag.  This was basically for decorative purposes, but it also holds moisture and keeps some bugs away.

Since our free dirt was straight from Mother Nature my honey decided it should be sifted of all unwanted plant life or any left overs of plants before we started planting. He made a sifter using 2x4s and hardware cloth. The picture above shows what he would start with and then......

This is what he would ended up with and discard outside the beds back onto our property.  It's still good stuff, he just didn't want it in our gardens.

The next step was to rake the soil until it was all smooth to make sure the bed was free of unwanted bits and parts.

So after pouring, shoveling, mixing and sifting, the final step was raking.  This is how nice and clean the soil looked after all those steps were done. BEAUTIFUL!  You can see the bed in the back is still yet to be done.  It has not been sifted and raked yet.

Trying to figure our how to mark your plants?  This is how my honey marked what we were planting.  He just stapled the plant marker to the bed frame in line with the plant.  I really liked that genius idea!

Here are our tomato plants!  We've got big ones and little ones and I'm hoping they all do well.  My honey is a perfectionist so he put up the marking strings to be sure he planted in a straight line.  I love you Baby!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn, The Self Sufficient Home Acre , The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Home Sweet Home , Keeping it  Simple , The Dedicated House, Skip to my Lou
Married Filing Jointly,  Home Coming
 
Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna, Clean and Scentsible, Lady Behind the Curtain.  Family Home and Life,  Ducks n a Row

Thursday
Bloom,  Two Yellow Birds Decor,  The Busy B's,  The Taylor House.  52 Mantels,  Domesblissity

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello,  Joyful Stamper,  Craftionary,  Diana Rambles

Saturday
Positively Splendid,  I Heart Nap Time,  Or So She Says ,  Your Homebased Mom ,  What's Cooking with Ruthie 

read more

Raised Bed Garden (Part 2)

Want to meet your neighbors?  Build a garden!  We had a couple of our neighbors come over to see what we were up to.  Turns out our neighbors are anxious to see how it turns out too!

Today we will show you how we dug the holes, laid down landscaping cloth and cemented the beds in permanently.  Lots of work to be done before we start planting!

If you visited us last week for part 1 you saw the beds raised up in the air on their legs.  We've dug holes and sat them down to see how they will look in the above picture.  I like it!

We rented a one man auger to dig the holes.  The fee was right at $80 but oh so worth it in the end.  I wanted to try to dig holes too.....yeah, I'm just a tiny bit too short to man this one man auger. Eeeek!

When my honey started to dig the first hole it looked all nice and pretty like you see here.  That was not the case moving forward!

Um, anyone want to buy a rock farm?  We wanted to "plant" the legs about 12" in the ground.  With all the rocks, that was not happening!

We had to take 9" off each of the legs to have the base touch the ground.  There is no digging rocks people. Wow!  Oh, do you see the green paint on the leg up there?  We sat the bed in its place and then used spray paint to mark on the ground where to dig the holes.  It still wasn't a perfect science, but hey, it worked.

Here's the bed sitting down in the hole ready for cement.  We dug as much loose dirt out of the hole as we could so that the cement could get a good hold. 

We originally bought 2 bags of cement for each leg.  Since our holes ended up being much more shallow than we first planned for we only used a 1/2 bag per leg.  Good news is, Lowe's will take back what you don't need.  We ended up using (7) bags of cement that were $3.46 per bag with was about $24.22 total.

NOTE: No need to pre-mix your cement, just add some water to the hole, add cement, stir, mix and more water until you have the consistency you want.  We used a wooden paint roller handle and a shovel to stir and mix.

Before we cemented everything down permanently, we laid down the landscaping cloth ($29.98 for 300 sq ft roll) in hopes that weeds wont be bothering our little garden.  The wind was blowing like 60 and we had a big time keeping it on the ground, but we did it.  Since our little garden area will have walk ways, we made sure the cloth covered those areas too.  Join us next week for the dirt and the planting.

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

I'm Linking to:

Sunday
Under the Table and Dreaming by Stephanie Lynn
The Self Sufficient Home Acre 
The Chicken Chick
 
Monday
Craft-O-Maniac
Between Naps on the Porch
DIY Home Sweet Home 
Keeping it  Simple
The Dedicated House
Skip to my Lou 

Tuesday
Not Just a Housewife
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Wednesday
Lil’ Luna
Clean and Scentsible
Lady Behind the Curtain

Thursday
Bloom
Two Yellow Birds Decor
The Busy B's

Friday 
Tatertots and Jello
Joyful Stamper
Craftionary
Diana Rambles

Saturday
Positively Splendid
I Heart Nap Time
Or So She Says 
Your Homebased Mom 
What's Cooking with Ruthie 

read more