greenhouses, planters and flower gardens
Growing your own food sounds like a daunting task at first, but with a little time and planning its well worth the effort. It’s healthy and bonding for your family and gives a unique feeling of satisfaction when your produce is born. It even seems a bit like a poetic rebellion against capitalism. We can nourish ourselves through seeds and our own time. Over the years we have tried a variety of vegetable/herb gardens. Last year we found great kits at this online store, www.ezframestructures.com.
It took about one weekend for the foundation, one for the frame and one for the covering. The greenhouse is great for starting seed starts to put outside later. The greenhouse comes with all the instructions and materials needed and the lumber you buy yourself. The greenhouses comes in all sizes on the site, so you can find the one the best fits your needs. We used Pacific Garden Mulch that is good quality at reasonable price. On Amazon we bought the clear plastic covers and a neat vent trap for the top of the house. Besides adding interest to your design, the vent trap is heat activated and will start opening at 70 degrees to ensure your greenhouse is always at right temperature. The kids loved this. For now our greenhouse is full of two of my favorites, tomatoes and eucalyptus trees.
The best place for seeds that we have found is at www.rareseeds.com. They have a link on their site and will send you a catalog for free within the U.S. Even if you don’t love farming/gardening but you love the art of nature this catalog will inspire you to want to become a great home farmer. They have all varieties of everything one could imagine;. purple carrots, white pumpkins, ornamental gourds etc, etc. All the seeds are non-GMO. We have used them for years and they always seem to grow the best.
Every year in the front of the house we have a flower garden that grows larger and wilder each year. The home had a few grapevines at the front (it is wine country after all). They grow grapes if the deer don’t get them. We tried to make wine one year but it was so bad we never tried again. What began as a few dahlias up front has become its own wild kingdom. It has expanded to tiger lilies, poppies, roses, more dahlias and various other flowers. Various cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins have been planted and thrown about on the garden floor. They make excellent additions to our summer dinners and are put to good use to add a personal touch to quests in town. At first I wanted a very orderly garden and was dismayed at our flower garden. As more species have come in and over the years I now Iove its wildness and the interplay of the all the distinct treasures that come forth this time of year.
