Organic – The Indigo Hen Homestead

DIY raised garden beds

Posted on May 10, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in DIY, Eco Friendly Parenting

In my short time gardening I have found I do not have that much of a green thumb. But, Im a little too stubborn to give up on growing my own food. So, while I won’t attempt seedlings again(without a grow light)I will plant what seeds we have left in these DIY garden beds!!
After almost 2 months of planning (and changing our plans numerous times) last we set into action! A family member was nice enough to share her book on raised beds and we adapted our design to be similar.
What you’ll need to make one raised 4×4 garden bed:

Supplies
4) 2inx10inx4ft lumber (we used cedar)
4) 4inx4inx8in lumber (again cedar)
32) 3in deck screws
4) 1in dia. x5in pvc
2) 1/2in dia. x10ft pvc

Tools
Power drill
Sawzall

Placing the 4x4s inside each corner and screwing them in place from the outside of your beds
From the inside of the garden bed frame screw the PVC (1inch dia. x 5 inches long) into the 4x4s on each corner. Make sure to only screw at the bottom, leaving space to insert the 1/2 PVC for the arch.

The pvc arches over top to be able to cover the beds for critter control will most likely be a necessity in an area like ours.

As you can see we have placed the old monkey bars in the bed and are planning to bury them in for stability. And the jury’s still out on how to secure them together:)

We did transplant the grass to cover the old horse shoe pits we ripped up last weekend.

Instead of the suggested weed cloth we are trying old cardboard since we had huge chunks from the swing set boxes! We dug in just enough to remove the grass and level the beds.

After filling it with a layer of compost, vermiculite and peat moss we are ready to go!!….now I just have to dig up 2 more and fill those…..ughhh….at least it’s a work out…did I mention it was 85 degrees today :0

Soaking up Spring?

Posted on April 21, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in daily life

Well we were soaking it up….mid april and last Saturday I was stuck under a bridge(so as not to ruin black beauty) on the highway due to hail and Monday I was holed up in the house waiting out the snowstorm. Yes, you read that right storm because contrary to the “light snow” we had a chance of getting…we got a storm…..ughhh soooo over this winter.
Anyhow, for the few hours we had sunlight on Saturday we were planning out yardspace and working on the 3rd round of seedlings. Sadly, with the up and down weather plus the oven casualties, Ive lost almost everything I planted. I am hoping the third times a charm but while we wait I am doing tons of research….did you know cuke seedlings need 6hrs of sun daily? Were attempting something called companion gardening but today I’ll be looking into compost fertilizers as well. Our big goal was to gain enough knowledge to grow indoors with a light this winter but wish us luck since I’m running out of steam to keep attempting this 😦

We have also decided to tear down the play equipment in the yard. It was a huge selling point for the house buuut we soon found out that it was nowhere near sturdy…even for a child. Happy tears though because grandma bought an epic playset with swings, a slide, picnic table and a water/sand table. Scott started building the night it arrived and even with a cat hunting interlude (yes, A&B have figured out how to let the cat out)he finished it rather fast! And yes that is an airsoft BB gun

yup, that’s my AMAZING hubs ;0

So far the boys are smitten, and guess what ?! the old play equipment will be repurposed into our garden beds and the old monkey bars will be a trellis for peas(since they are one of the only things still growing!!

Oh and happy holiday:)

Spring gardening

Posted on March 21, 2014June 10, 2014 by the.indigo.hen in Eco Friendly Parenting

A&B seem to be enjoying our first new adventure into……
gardening!!!

Well with spring just around the corner we are getting in gear to plant our garden! While both Scott and myself don’t exactly have “green thumbs” we thought we would give gardening a go this year. We’ve talked about all the things we would want and decided on a few that were realistic to try and grow for first timers 😉

We decided on
1) sugar snap peas
2) corn
3) tomatoes
4) watermelon
5) onions
6) carrots
7) peppers
8) garlic
9) potatoes
10) melon
11) squash
12) herbs….undecided
Actually finding seeds proved to be a little more challenging as we did look for non GMO/organic seeds.[If you aren’t sure of the difference look here] Once we found seeds the other “stuff” seemed even more challenging, did you know you, are supposed to plant certain plants together? Let’s just say, I learned something new… every step of the way with this project! But we have plans for our outdoor beds drawn up, arrangements for where the plants will grow, and vermiculite, all on stand by…..

For now were germinating!

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