Tag: Gardening Products and Tips

Craft Project: Razor Clam Shells Painted Garden Plant Markers

Craft Project: Razor Clam Shells Painted Garden Plant Markers

Over the years I’ve collected thousands of different seashells while walking the beach. A lot of my craft projects utilize clam shells and conch shells. With that said, I had an entire box of Razor Clam Shells and needed to find a way to use 

How to Dry Bell Pepper Seeds to Plant Next Year

How to Dry Bell Pepper Seeds to Plant Next Year

Every year we plant a garden in our backyard and every year, it gets bigger than the year before. This past summer we had a really great crop of bell peppers, so I wanted to save some of our pepper seeds to plant next year. 

Kid’s Crafts: Painted River Rock Garden Markers

Kid’s Crafts: Painted River Rock Garden Markers

Kid's Crafts: Painted River Rock Garden MarkersEvery year we plant a backyard garden and I’m always looking for ways to label and mark my plants. We typically start our seedlings in late March and try to plant them about 6-7 weeks later. While out on a nature walk a few weeks ago we collected some smooth river rocks that we found down by the lake. We brought them home to use in this particular craft project.

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We made this project with a group of 5 to 9 year old’s and they really had a fun time making them. Once gardening season rolls around, I’ll be ready with for it with some new garden markers.

Kid’s Crafts: Painted River Rock Garden Markers

Smooth River Rocks – Variety of Shapes & Sizes
Acrylic Craft Paints
Paint Brush, Water Dish, Paper Towels
Sharpie Markers – Variety Pack of Colors
Clear Acrylic Spray Sealer – Glossy Finish
Old Newspaper

Wash and thoroughly dry all of your river rocks. We did this 2-3 days before sitting down to craft with them.

Lay newspaper down onto your work surface. Using acrylic craft paints, paint the rocks in your desired color. We found it was best to use 2 coats of paint, allowing 30-45 minutes of drying time in between each coat. For this particular set of garden markers our background is done in metallic silver. Let the background color dry thoroughly.

Kid's Crafts: Painted River Rock Garden Markers

Now it’s time to let the kids get creative. They can use acrylic craft paint or Sharpie Markers to make their designs. As you can see, a black Sharpie Marker was used to write the name of the vegetable/fruit/herb and used again to decorate around the border of the river rock. A very simple design, but you can get as creative and as elaborate as you would like. You’ll want to let everything dry for 1-2 hours.

Take your rocks and newspaper outside. Lay them on top of the newspaper and lightly spray one coat of the clear acrylic sealer on top. Let dry for 1 hour, flip them over and spray the other side. We found it best to repeat this process, so that each side had 2 complete coats of the sealer. This will protect your painted finish from the weather elements. Yes, you can leave them outside all year long!

Additional Tip: We made our river rock garden markers REVERSIBLE. From one year to the next…what we plant into our garden can change. Don’t be afraid to let the kids decorate the opposite side of the rocks too!

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Shelly's Signature

DIY Coastal Style Terracotta Flower Pots

DIY Coastal Style Terracotta Flower Pots

I have a lot of indoor houseplants and I have to admit, I’m pretty good at growing them. Back in late Spring I decided to grow some starters and last week they were finally rooted and ready to be planted. I decorate my home in 

Sneak Peek at Shelly’s Flower Gardens

Sneak Peek at Shelly’s Flower Gardens

If you’ve been following this blog over the past 9 years, you’ll already know that I love gardening. I have 6 flower gardens (gardening beds) outside and inside my home I grow a lot of indoor plants. I admit, I’m no expert in the field 

Perennials vs. Mowing:  If You Dislike Mowing, You Need More Flowers and Shrubs

Perennials vs. Mowing: If You Dislike Mowing, You Need More Flowers and Shrubs

Many people would like to live in a natural environment, but are often discouraged by the sheer amount of work it takes just to maintain it so overgrowth doesn’t become a problem. Apart from living in an urbanized, concrete environment, is there another way? Well, if you’d like to keep your mowing chores to the bare minimum, there happens to be a middle ground; by making perennials your prevalent choice, you will be able to enjoy the following benefits:

1. Keeping the soil moisturized

Since the soil is not exposed at any point, perennials help it retain its moisture. If you live in a windy or a rainy environment, perennials will help protect it against erosion.

2. Securing nutrients for other plants

In some cases, the nutrients found in the soil may be out of reach for certain plants. Perennials have the added benefit of pulling these out to the surface where the surrounding plants can access them with ease. For example, by pulling the water to the surface, the plants with shorter roots can absorb it even though they normally wouldn’t be able to.

3. Lessening the amount of maintenance required

Whether you decide to plant them yourself or reach out to landscaping Mississauga or similar service providers for help, the fact of the matter is that you only have to take care of this once (there’s no need to replant them every year). Furthermore, perennials require much less maintenance in general. Still, even though they may last for quite a while, their lifespan is limited.

4. Propagation is smooth

Simply put, the aspect of propagation is taken care of by taking the plant’s root system and dividing it. Of course, you need to be careful when doing that, but once you get the handle of this, all you need to do is to replant them, so new plants will be able to see the light of day when the time comes.

5. Plenty of options to choose from

One of the great things about perennials is there are so many to choose from you’ll never be running out of options. Unlike annuals, perennials don’t all bloom in the same period, which means that (with some careful planning) you’ll be able to set everything up in such a way that something gets to bloom all year round.

Have you considered an artificial turf?

If you truly don’t want to spend time or money on maintaining your turf, installing an artificial one is sure to relieve you from the stress and the sheer amount of work involved in dealing with it. A modern artificial turf is pretty much indistinguishable from the real thing, so that is no longer a drawback.

Conclusion

Living in a suburban environment means that you’re either going to have to invest a little bit of your resources into maintaining it, or relocate to the city area. Luckily, the modern times have blessed us with so many different tools and options to make the chore of maintaining your garden much less demanding, and there is always the easy way out by simply hiring someone to take care of it for you.

A Few Fall Gardening Photos

A Few Fall Gardening Photos

Our 2017 gardening season is coming to a close. In another 2 1/2 weeks, I’ll start my Fall pruning, digging out my annuals and getting things ready for winter. I have to say, I’m really impressed with how all of my gardens turned out this 

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies with DIY Fruit Flies Trap

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies with DIY Fruit Flies Trap

For the past few weeks I’ve been having an issue with fruit flies. Every year when I’m busy harvesting fruits and veggies from our garden…the fruit flies appear. This year, those buggers are worst than ever and driving me nuts! Seriously, I can’t stand fruit