My Gardening Inspiration

If you read my blog, then you know that "The North Room" is inspired by the craft room I grew up in at my grandmother's house that was in a room facing north. She is a Jack-lynn of all trades, and paints, sews,  crafts, cooks, smokes, and gardens! She would always have the most lovely array of tulips, roses, fresh rosemary, and more. I sort of thought she was crazy for doing this, as I didn't understand the need for fresh, organically grown plants.

But I have been awakened, once again, to Grandma Ruby's simple way of life, and I too, would like to attempt to grow my own garden. Since we are living with family for the time being, I want something that can potentially be moved to our apartment/house that we move into in the near (hopefully!) future.

Bet you can't guess where I got the idea and inspiration for the gardening boxes I'm getting Joseph to build me? Yep, you guessed it...the cakies blog!

This photo is "borrowed" from Rubyellen's cakies blog. I in no way will take credit for this image nor idea! Thank you Rubyellen for all your brilliant ideas and inspiration!

 See how the planters are built as separate units? I love this idea because even if we have to rent an apartment for a little while, I can still haul these units onto the back patio...no matter how tiny it is! I'm planning on building two units for my baby seedlings.

Lettuce Leaf Basil. Can't you imagine these juicy leafs on a tomato and mozzarella sandwich!

I ordered seeds from www.rareseeds.com, and am so excited to get my assortment of veggies and herbs! Not only are the seeds heirloom seeds (meaning that the seeds have been passed down from generation to generation from before pesticides and herbicides were used), they are pure, open-pollinated, and NON-GMO! I am beyond giddy to see if I have a green thumb or not! I ordered tomatoes, cilantro, basil, lavender, carrots, cucumbers, onion, peppers, and wild strawberries!

Oh, and not to mention, I saw some packaging in Country Living from the seed supplier and they are oh so cute! I can't wait to gently open them up then frame the beauties!

Image from countryliving.com

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Prior to my seeds arriving I'll have to study up on gardening and when is the right and wrong time to plant. Just like my Grandma Ruby, I have my Farmer's Almanac handy to see when is the best time for planting. I will also check out some books from our local library and plan on getting this one:

Then, once the tiny, baby seeds arrive, I want to be sure and start them off in life right by giving them extra nutrients and calcium that I also saw in Country Living. Isn't this an adorable look?

Image from: http://www.instructables.com/id/Eggshell-Seed-Starters/

This isn't the actual photo from Country Living (couldn't find it), but it will do! Same concept, but the best part is that once the seedlings are ready to transplant, I can put the shell and all into the earth for some extra calcium!

As you can see, I'm pretty stoked! Last year I planted a few plants in the spring in tiny planters, strawberries and cherry tomatoes, but I didn't get to enjoy many of them. The strawberries were in too small of a container and were bitter and about the size of a dime. The cherry tomatoes did well until we went to South Africa for the summer. We had our creepy neighbor water them for us, but they were dried prunes once we got home. Guess the Texas summer heat got the best of them!

Oh, and one last thing to leave you with: we slept with our window open last night and it's the BEST sleep I've had in a loooooong time! I highly recommend it! Unless of course, like my baby sister, you live off of Riverside in East Austin :) In that case, you might want to sleep with the windows up, locked, barred, and with a tazer. Just kidding ;)

Night, night all. Happy pre-spring!!!!!!!