So, this was a project we really wanted to complete, a raised garden bed for the kids. My daughter is so pumped that she has her own garden. Really, this is going to hold a bunch of other veggies that might not have made it into the big garden because of space.
The raised garden bed is 24 feet long by 2 feet wide by (approx) 10 inches deep. In the spirit of reusing what we already have, we used cinder blocks that were in the basement (if you know me, you know there used to be a hot tub sunk in the floor of one room in our house from previous owners & these cinder blocks helped support the tub from the basement). Well, once we removed that hot tub and made that room a playroom we were left with stacks of cinder blocks in the basement. In reality, we only used about half, so I suppose we could build another raised garden bed to match at some point.
We also already owned a roll of a permeable weed barrier from when my daughter & I put a couple of raspberry bushes in another location. But don't start thinking this project was free, we still had to fill the garden bed and we only had so much compost in our bin & grass clippings. So, we had to buy black dirt, hummus & straw to help add more layer.
For those of you who don't know, I garden by
Lasagna Gardening. I started doing this several years ago and I love it. Each year my garden looks better & better and I have less & less weeds (I really should have no weeds, but I got a huge batch of BAD compost and have been fighting thistles since.)
Eventually the straw & grass will decompose more and I will have to add more layers on top, but that's it. There is no nasty weeding or tilling or digging.
Anyways, back to the construction of the raised garden bed. We did buy cedar planks to put up on the back side so that the layers did not fall through the lattice on the porches. On the tops of the cinder blocks are solid blocks (perfect for sitting & gardening, or for my daughter to walk on) and on the ends we still placed dual cored cinder blocks so that we can plant flowers in them.
My husband & I built all of this and we are starting to feel some soreness from heavy lifting. It looks good and my daughter is so proud. Today my daughter & I planted cool season (radishes, spinach, lettuce & peas) seeds in 1/3 of the garden bed. In 2 weeks we will plant our next 1/3 of seeds and then 1-2 weeks later we will plant the final seeds. And then we can start over with planting seeds int he first third.
I had taken a class on advanced organic gardening this year and the focus was on success planting, so I am excited to try this.
The large garden on the ground will have plants that have a harvest time that take the entire growing season. So, many vine-type plants & some of my tomatoes. I also have some pots by the house as well that will hold some other tomatoes & banana peppers & herbs.
Here's to an Excellent Gardening Season!
My daughter & I had a lot of fun making these. They were simple to make and we used items we already own and recycled juice & biscuit lids. 
So, this was a project we really wanted to complete, a raised garden bed for the kids. My daughter is so pumped that she has her own garden. Really, this is going to hold a bunch of other veggies that might not have made it into the big garden because of space. 
Ok, this one worked really well and was super easy. I made homemade hardwood floor wax for my dining room by mixing 1/4 Cup vinegar with 1/4 olive oil in a dressing mixer. Then I poured it on the floor (throughout the room) and slid across the floor with kitchen towels on my feet. After I was finished I asked my husband what he thought and he said the floor looked wet, like I had just mopped it. Woohoo! Success! The floor looks shiny & waxed. Now, I just need to do this to the rest of the rooms with hardwood floors in my house (which is pretty much the whole house.)
Well, today we finally got to the egg carton crafts I had planned earlier in the week. Hopefully you saw those posts. We did walk to the park & had a picnic there, more outdoor play (which means less tv time - yea!) and we made the pinecone birdfeeder, which was a bonus. The other fun activity we did was paint my daughter's nails. 
So, we finally got around to making our egg carton crafts. We made goggles & bugs. The idea for the goggles came from the April 2010 issue of Parents magazine. The idea for the bugs came from Kaboose (whoops! when I look at this picture I see we forgot to add wings, guess we have something more to do tomorrow). 
Today we picked up a couple of pinecones that were on the road and made them into bird feeders. This is a super inexpensive way to make a bird feeder and is an easy project for a preschooler (or anyone really!) to do.
Today, I took a 2-mile walk with my son & some new friends. The baby boys slept through us getting tot he park, so we didn't stay to play. There was lots of outside play again and I hung a load on the clothesline. We're still doing good on using the g diapers, but I am using a regular diaper at nighttime. We also went to a local park/lake to pick up trash using the pick-up sticks my husband made last year.
Happy Birthday to my husband! My daughter & I made him a MONSTER Monster cookie for his "cake". If you are looking to use up some peanut butter & oatmeal, this is the recipe for you. We needed to go buy M&M's, but other than that we used what ingredients we had, which meant substituting cashews that we had for peanuts that we didn't have.
The credit for this idea goes to Craft eNVy. I thought this would be a lot of fun to do with my daughter. She really enjoyed crushing the eggshells up in a plastic bag. Then we spread glue on the wooden frame and placed eggshells on top. After they were dried she painted the frame in blue (she picked out the color because she was making this for her daddy for a birthday present and said that was his favorite color.) After the paint was dry I used some high-gloss clear indoor/outdoor spray paint (I made sure I bought stuff that said it was used for sealing). The spray paint was leftover from another project. We already owned the sponge brushes & recycled-into-paint-tray and the eggshells were leftover (obviously!), so all we had to purchase was the paint & a frame. And I took the picture of them at home and printed it off on our printer.
So, I didn't use "natural' dishwashing liquid for this project. I have tried making bubbles with Seventh Generation dishwashing liquid and it did not turn out. So, I used some cheap dollar store dishwashing liquid, some corn syrup, water, & glass jars. Here is the recipe:
We did pretty good today, but some things were different than originally planned. Today we started using the G Diapers that a friend gave me when my son was born. At the end of the week I will give you an adequate review on what I thought of these.
Instead of going to the park, we ended up staying home and trimming the rose bushes and removing dead peonies. While I did that, my daughter would fill up he bucket with water from the rain barrel and water flowers with that.
I also washed & hung three loads on the clothesline. I just love getting into my pajamas and having them smell like fresh air. 
So, today started off Earth Week and I did everything I had set out to do. My daughter & I completed the 1 Mile walk at the Nature Center, we actually ran half of it, which I think is pretty good for a 3 1/2 year old and we enjoyed the pancake brunch that features real maple syrup that they made there.