Classy and Opinionated Lifestyle Mom Blog
Every season I like to give readers a sneak peek at my outdoor gardening yard art that I display as the seasons change. It always takes me 2 to 2 1/2 weeks to change out my seasonal decor and get everything changed over. Luckily for …
Every year I like to grow fresh parsley in containers that I keep out on my patio. A lot of people refer to this as container gardening. I keep my herbs separate from our vegetable garden so that I have easy access to them during …
My grandchildren love to work on arts and craft projects. My grandson is more of the artistic one while my granddaughter is more of the crafty one. The two of them could sit for hours working on various projects together. We tend to keep them simple and we enjoy using “found objects” to complete them.
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A few weeks ago I shared the Seashell Garden Markers project here on the blog. Today I’m sharing a different version that young kids can do! You just need to collect a few RAZOR CLAM SHELLS from the beach, wash them and thoroughly dry them before beginning the project.
When it comes to cleaning seashells I recommend washing them in a sink or bucket full of warm, soapy water. I like using Dawn liquid dish soap. It’s great for removing the fish smell, sand and debris. If you have stubborn debris stuck on your shells you can clean them with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Rinse them thoroughly with clean water. Lay them out to dry. Depending on the weather it can take a few hours up to a day or two.
You can decorate them with acrylic craft paints, Sharpie Markers or Acrylic Paint Pens. We opted to use paint pens with a medium tip to decorate the ones you see in our photographs. You can simply just write out the plant’s name or add any type of decorating accents that you like. Keep it simple or get creative…that’s up to you! Let them dry for 2-3 hours before moving on to the next step.
To protect your painted finish from chipping, fading and washing off you’ll need to spray them with 2-3 light coats of clear acrylic spray sealer. Follow the instructions printed on the spray can for use. Let them dry for at least 8 hours or overnight before placing them into the ground.
Additional Tips: Leave one end of the Razor Clam Shell un-decorated as it will be placed down into the ground and not seen. We found it easier to paint on the outside of the shell as compared to the inside. Make sure you place them a few inches away from your garden plants. Never place them right up against the plant which could interfere with the plant’s roots.
Ages: Project was completed by a 4 1/2 year old and a 11 year old girl and both did a beautiful job decorating them.
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Every year we plant a backyard garden. We enjoy growing our own tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, peas, onions, broccoli, watermelon, cucumbers, lettuce and several other vegetables. We’re by no means EXPERTS when it comes to gardening and are always trying to improve our skills. This …
We have three metal wind spinners on our property. I have one in a flower bed in our front yard and you’ll find the other two in a backyard gardening area. At one time they were colorful and looked beautiful in those areas. Over time …
Last month we got started on the 2020 gardening season. Hubby used the tiller to dig up our old garden bed and added new fertilizer into the soil. That entire process took him 3 days. Yes, it’s hard, back-breaking work! He then spent the next 2 days installing a fence around the perimeter. We’ve previously have had issues with groundhogs destroying our garden.
Throughout the year we save our cardboard egg boxes, yogurt cups, oatmeal cups, etc. and use them to start our seedlings every spring. After some prep work we filled them all up with new soil and planted our seeds. We planted green beans, lima beans, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, cucumbers, red beets, carrots, broccoli, cantaloupe and green bell peppers.
Next week he will hit up our local garden store to pick up a few tomato plants, zucchini plants, potatoes and onions. We decided to expand our plot this year by an additional 3 feet in all four directions. Due to the pandemic we want to be extra prepared for the upcoming fall & winter season and planting a little bit more than what we usually do.
A friend of our’s didn’t want his grapevine anymore so he dug it up out of his yard and brought it down to us. The two guys them found the perfect place on our property to replant it. Hubby put some fertilizer in and gave it an extra good watering so hopefully it will survive the transplant just fine. We can see that its already starting to bud, so hoping for a decent little crop of Concorde grapes this year. If it does well, we’ll add 2-3 more grapevines next year.
We already have a red raspberry bush and added 2 more to that specific area on our property. Usually I get just enough berries for us to eat as we’re harvesting them. We wanted to increase that haul so that I could make raspberry jam. Yes…I do a lot of home canning and freezing of foods. Love doing it!
The gardening season is a busy time for us! We are trying to grow a lot of our own food. We’ve been gardening for 8 years now and really enjoy it. As each year goes by we get more comfortable in trying out new things and expanding on the things that went well. We live in the suburbs and don’t have a huge property, so squeezing in as much that we can.
How many of you enjoy gardening? For those of you who do…did you get started with the new season yet? If so, what are you planting? Got any tips to share with us and the readers of the TCC blog?
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I love gardening and that includes growing a lot of indoor houseplants. Every spring and fall I like to spend time transplanting my houseplants into larger pots, replanting the baby plants into new pots and feeding my plants. How many of you enjoy indoor gardening? …
We’ve been planting our own garden and harvesting the fruits of our labor for the past 15+ years. We enjoy planting our own tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, peas, corn, cauliflower, watermelon, cantaloupe, onions, red beets, potatoes, green beans, and a few other things. * This …