Thursday, June 21, 2012

Where did all of the coupons posts go?

Someone asked me if I have stopped couponing since I no longer post any deals on this blog. The short answer is no, I just stopped posting them here. It was getting to be too much to keep track of all of them on my blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and then actually going out and using the deals. So I simplified it. I now only post couponing deals on Pinterest and in Evernote. I will be providing links here in this post and also permanent links off to the side so that if you would like to see all of the deals, just click on the link.

Here is a link to my Pinterest board on couponing: Couponing on Pinterest
If you would like to see the rest of my boards click here.

The links to Evernote will be added shortly.

Monday, June 11, 2012

My Garden 2012

I recently realized that even though I had posted on my Facebook and YouTube accounts about my garden for this year, I had not posted here. So here is my garden for this year. If you would like to see more photos go here and if you would like to see videos go here. I will be updating both of these as I go through the growing season.




Old Area Out, New Area In


I was not happy with the old area, too much slope and limited room, so I moved it out into the main yard. I also expanded it to 25'x25'. This year, I tilled and planted in regular soil but next year I am planting in raised boxes. I will be able to fit 9 4' square boxes in the area with walkways in between each one. I also erected a chicken wire fence to keep all of the critters out since they ate most of the garden last year. I did leave the strawberries in the old area since they were in beds and I did not want to disturb them until the fall. I will be moving them sometime later this year.


Vegetable Garden


I planted vegetables in the main garden and changed the flower bed from last year into an herb garden. This year I planted Sweet Burpless Hybrid Cucumbers, Burpee Hybrid Zucchini, China Rose Radishes, Danvers Half Long and Nantes Half Long Carrots, Butter Crunch Lettuce, Yellow Onions, Calabrese Broccoli, Blue Lake Bush Beans, Beafsteak, Burpee Big Boy and Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes, Red Chili Hot and Bell Red Sweet Peppers, Super Sweet Corn, Sugar Snap Peas, Red Pontiac Potatoes, and Bonanza Mix Marigolds for bug control.




Herb Garden


In the herb garden I planted Sweet Basil, Chives, Dill, Potpourri Sky Blue Lavender, Lemon Basil, Oregano, Dark Green Italian Parsley, Rosemary, Spearmint, and Bonanza Mix Marigolds for bug control. I also planted some of these herbs in deck planters so that we had easy access to common herbs.




Flower Beds


I am also growing Roses, Peonies, Hostas, Lily of the Valley, Irises, Coral Bells, Daylilies, Comfrey, Yucca, and a few others that I can not remember at this time.


Updates And The Future


I will be updating this post as the growing season progresses. In the future I plan on using raised beds for everything and only heirloom seeds. I am also starting to grow more stuff inside including some exotic plants.


If you have any questions or comments, please post them below or on my Facebook page or YouTube Channel. Thanks for reading.


Update 6/21/12 - I have added new photos and a new vegetable gardening video.



Our New Dehydrator



I have been wanting a food dehydrator for awhile now so that I can preserve more of our herbs at the end of the season. I saw this one on Amazon for a pretty good price so I ordered it today. Once I get it and use it, I will review it here on my blog.


Here is a link to it at Amazon: Ronco FD1005WHGEN 5-Tray Electric Food Dehydrator

Sunday, June 10, 2012

A Visit to a Great Garden

I love visiting other people's gardens. I was invited to a cookout at my wife's parents house and I was able to snap some photos of their gardens and flower beds. They really have a lot of stuff planted in both beds and pots. I was even able to snag some cuttings to try to grow some of their plants at my place. Click on the photo below to see the entire album over on my Facebook page. Let me know what you think.



Saturday, June 9, 2012

Recycled Seed Pots

On one of the YouTube channels that I watch frequently about gardening (Praxxus55712 - subscribe to his awesome channel!) Ray talks about using clear seed pots to start his plants so that you can see the roots. I am a big recycler and also "thrifty" so I came up with this idea. I just took an empty water bottle and cut it in half. I think I can plant in both parts. I will post more about this idea once I start using it.



Our celery expirement

I originally saw this on Pinterest and was intrigued by the idea of planting something that would ordinarily go in the compost bin to make more vegetables. The idea is to cut the bottom 2-3 inches off of a celery bunch bought from the store. Then, planting the end in dirt and watching it grow. I wasn't sure if it would work but I planted three to see what would happen. I  am happy to say that within a few days I already have new growth coming up. I will try to keep you all updated as the celery grows. Here is a photo of what we have so far.


Friday, June 8, 2012

My gardening library on Evernote

I wanted to share my library of gardening articles and tips that I have been accumulating recently. I use Evernote to keep everything organized. Browse through the articles and let me know what you think.

https://www.evernote.com/pub/rjwolfe3/gardeningarticlestips

Rob's World on YouTube

Rob's World on YouTube

Just a quick post to invite everyone to check out my YouTube channel. I will posting videos about many different things. Right now I have been concentrating on gardening since it is that time of year. Let me know what you think and would like for you all to subscribe!