We planted more seeds yesterday. I folded about 30 pots in a couple hours. Does it seem excessive yet? We're wondering ourselves. But we actually have a lot more planting to do. Most of the seeds left will be planted directly in the ground, though, (carrots, more beans, onions, brussel sprouts, perhaps red potatoes, gourds) so we've got a bit more time to wait until the cold weather is gone. We also need to get the raised beds finished up (cleared of weeds and tree trimming debris, then filled … [Read more...]
Recycling a little junk mail – making origami newspaper pots
February 17, 2009 by 52 Comments
After posting new photos of the seedlings, some were asking about the newspaper pots I use. They are completely free (aside from the soil we buy to fill them with although one could use their own soil and compost) because I use papers that come to our house every week for free. We get an insane amount of junk mail here. About two inches thick every week. A lot of it is slick fliers which can't be used but about 30 pages is just local newspapers. That's 30 pots a week. I have been making my … [Read more...]
Time to start folding again – 2009 Garden Journal Vol. 1
February 8, 2009 by 4 Comments
So we didn't exactly get to finish the compost bin or work on the greenhouse this weekend. We managed to get ourselves out of bed at about 7:30 on Saturday but after fully waking up, taking the dog and cleaning up, it was almost time for our guests to arrive. That didn't give Stefan time to cut the supports for the compost bin and we can't use loud things like the table saw on Sunday, so we decided to get our plants started for the garden. This will give us a little extra motivation to get … [Read more...]
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s off to work we go
February 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Things are finally starting to thaw out a bit here and the plants are just beginning to bloom - and that means we have a whole lot of work to get accomplished. Spring may not be right around the corner just yet but we're hoping it will soon set in. We've had plenty of winter already this year! So we mapped out the important projects for the first half of the year and broke them down into what we can get accomplished over a weekend. That's really when we have the most time for these things … [Read more...]
Getting my hands dirty
January 29, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Newspapers litter the floor and tables, and my fingers are black. It must be getting close to potting time. Yes, I am at it again, folding newspaper pots like a demon. I can do about 20 at one sitting before I go completely insane with the origami monotony. But since Stefan is home sick from work, we're taking advantage of the time to get ourselves ready for the gardening season. We screwed up last year by planting tons of seeds and then going on vacation for two weeks to Florida. The vacation … [Read more...]
Our seedlings are indeed seedlings!
March 31, 2008 by 2 Comments
As usual I'm a bit overdue to write about what is happening with our little seedlings - but what can you do? I did take some photos of them on March 18th which was about a month after they'd been planted. As you may notice, the zucchini were sprouting like weeds and most of the tomato seeds had popped up as well. I took some new photos this morning because we already needed to start replanting some of the seeds, separating out some of the weaklings and putting the seedlings into bigger … [Read more...]
What we got from Burpee
March 14, 2008 by 2 Comments
So I've mentioned that we got seeds from Burpee a few times now...and you may be wondering what we ordered...so here goes - it's a LONG list, I know. But the seeds there cost a fraction of the price here, especially for chili seeds so even with shipping them over here, it's totally worth it. Plus you can't find okra seeds here....We mostly stuck to heirloom varieties. It's a farm garden, after all, and after we had a bunch of hybrids last year, we realized that the taste of them really wasn't … [Read more...]
Starting seeds in newspaper pots
March 14, 2008 by 8 Comments
Because this is a blog about becoming more self-sufficient and "green" in general, I had a brain storm...well it actually resulted when I was feasting on the Burpee seed catalog and noticed a little gadget they have to assist in the making of newspaper pots. We get 4 free newspapers delivered to our house each week - whether we want them or not. That is a a LOT of newspaper going directly into our recycle bin each week so when I realized I could actually be doing something useful with the stuff … [Read more...]
Burpee seeds are on their way…
February 20, 2008 by 2 Comments
I FINALLY placed our order today for a huge collection of Burpee seeds. Athough this will be our first experience with them, I've heard fantastic things and found so many things in their catalog that I wanted to try out. It's mostly tomato and chili plants but also okra and a few other heirloom varieties. We're trying to avoid the hybrids this year because most of the ones we tried last year just ended up having no flavor...and since this is an old farm and we're attempting to go more organic, … [Read more...]
Let there be a lettuce fest!!
July 18, 2007 by Leave a Comment
After the first 12 lettuce plants we had were promptly eaten by slugs as soon as they hit the ground, we have decided that we are not yet ready to give up. I mentioned before that we found some lettuce plants at Sunflower garden center two weekends ago and we have decided that instead of putting them in the ground outside, we will start growing them in the window boxes along our courtyard. The boxes are outside so we don't have the issue of fluctuating temperatures (if we were to grow them … [Read more...]
Hi! I'm Tiffany and I'm so glad you're here!! I'm an American living in Germany for the last 11 years. My family just uprooted from Frankfurt to Berlin and we LOVE it!
NOH Readers Talk Back