Square foot gardening!!!

My father-in-law has been doing square foot gardening for I believe 7 years. We just LOVED it when they would send us home with a bag full of tomatoes and other veggies from their garden. There is nothing quite like the delectable taste of home grown vegetables and herbs. So here it is, our very first shot ever at gardening...and it's by the 'square foot'!

Our gardening bible:
If any of you want to buy this book for your square foot garden, click here! And by the way, it's not too late to get started on one. There are some things you have to plant early spring, and this book explains it all. Seriously, the guy in this book is a genius! And I think a little bit obsessed!

We decided to make ours 3x4, so 12 squares all together. So technically ours isn't a perfect square.


Here's the piece of plywood for the bottom.

You also need a couple of 1X6 or 2x6 boards and a 3 year old helper!

My hubby measured each side to be 1/2 inch longer to allow for screwing them together {so like instead of 2 four foot boards and 2 three foot boards, they were 4 ft and 1/2 inch and 3 ft and 1/2 inch}.

Then you have your husband do the wood cutting.

He pre-drilled 3 holes into each end of the pieces of wood.

Then screwed them together.

Then the plywood board {which was also measured and cut to fit just right} is screwed into the four sides. This is a view of the box upside down.

He kind of outlined each individual square on the bottom with a pencil, then drilled a hole in the middle of each square to allow drainage.

Here's the finished box! You can stain or seal the wood on the OUTSIDE to avoid warping, but not the inside because it's toxic to the plants. We did not do this. It's optional.

We used the extra pieces of wood to elevate the box a little from each corner to enable the holes to drain any excess water.

Now the secret ingredient! Vermiculite, compost, and peat moss! {Say that to yourself 3 times in your head so you ALWAYS remember. This is Mel's secret mix, and with it you CAN'T over water your plants, it's impossible! How nice is that?}

So the ration is 1:1:1. 1 shovelful of compost, 1 shovelful of peat moss, 1 shovelful of vermiculite....over and over and over and over and over!

Water it down, and let it settle.

Now we are ready for planting!

As you can see, the squares are marked off with string. We used the book to guide our decisions of where to plant what. We ended up with tomatoes (3), cucumbers, zucchini, bell peppers, cantaloupe, beans, peas, chives, onions, cilantro. As you can see, we got some wiring to support the vines as they grow.

I'm so proud, I'm beaming!!!

Mel says you grow more from a square foot garden than a regular one! I guess we'll see! And my favorite part about the whole thing...NO WEEDING!!!

And the good thing about having a sick baby is...

...she's super cuddly!!!

How to make hair clips.

I have two girls, so I figured it was about time that I figured out how to make them some hair accessories. I am going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that my 3 year old has ditched the hair-cutting habit. And by the way, this project was SOOOO fun! I'm officially addicted! So here's how I did it:

First you get some curler clips. Click the link and you can buy them online, but they're cheaper at Walmart.

For all bows, I hot glued ribbon around the clip like so. It's easiest if you start from the inside and work your way around.

Ok first of all, the flower clips. They are SO easy and cute! You just buy the gerber daisy stems (or bunches) and take them apart so you have all the different sizes of layers of petals.

For this one I glued 2 orange layers and 1 yellow together, with a button for the center. Then I cut a piece of ribbon, made 2 loops, and hot glued that to the flower.

Then I just hot glued a clip to the very back like so!

Oh my goodness, doesn't it look ADORABLE????
I decided I'd make 2 of everything for good measure. I love doing pigtails with matching bows or flowers. Or if I wanted to make my 2 girls match!

This flower I hot glued 3 petal layers together and looped some ribbon like so, hot gluing each time around.

Then some thicker ribbon like this.

Here's my pre-ribboned clip!

Button in the middle, of course. Geez, that took like 5 minutes!

These ones are made exactly the same, just with 2 types of ribbon. I think they turned out pretty spunky cute!

Ok, here's how I made the bows. I am new, so bear with my techniques. And please as always tell me if you know a better way!!!

So I cut a long piece of ribbon and folded it so it looks like this, securing it with my finger and thumb. Then I glued all the layers in the center by slightly lifting each one individually to slide a dab of glue in between.

Different ribbon, cut at a diagonal, cris-crossed, and hot glued.

Thinner ribbon looped in a circle, hot gluing each go-round in the center {I will show you exactly how you can make pretty loops later}. The very last loop goes over the middle.

Then of course, the clip.

Twins!
So here's how you make a 'present bow' type loopy star. Click on one of the pictures to see them upclose.


And here's the gallery!

These ones were made the same way, but with 4 types of ribbon; the pink ribbon secures the entire center all the way around.

Again with the ribbon securing the center. I think I like this best.

I think I'll call these the FIREWORKS bows! These ones have wired ribbon.

Don't ask me why, but I could NOT get this photo to turn right side up! {weird} These are actually really tiny and cute! These are the center most layers of the big red flower I used earlier.

The non-wired ribbon requires less 'fluffing.' Don't you love the green?

I don't think my girls have any outfits that are just brown and black...I'll need to get them one now...
These ones are smaller too. It's nice to have a variety of sizes.

That was a lot of bows! I'm just getting started!