Gardening

What do you get when you mix gardening, recycling and origami?

Newspaper seed pots!

These are holding some more fruit seedlings, most likely apple. At least I marked one in the fridge, so I know it's a honeycrisp. The others will be a mystery!

I'm going to start making more for our vegetable garden soon. There are several different tutorials for making these, and when I find the link again I'll post it.

In other news, my apple tree is 1 year old this weekend! It's now living outdoors as long as we don't freeze.

It also has new friends in three Bosc pear seedlings.

< disclaimer >
These fruit seedlings are not being grown to full size for bearing fruit. The best way to propagate fruit trees is by grafting, I believe. This is a fun experiment, which I will likely train as bonsai in a few years.
< / disclaimer >

Just had to add that :)

Maybe in our grand landscaping plan we'll find room for a few more standard fruit trees. My orange is limping along, but it needs a fence so that the deer don't keep snacking on it.

New Leaves and Merry Christmas

My apple sapling is doing great! (History here)

It's got new growth, check it out:

And here's a Merry Christmas from a sleepy Casper.

Awwww....

Going Green

I've always tried to, as they say, reduce-reuse-recycle, but lately I've been more serious about it.

My main focus right now is the groceries. Not only picking them up from the store, but packing lunches every day. I don't like the typical "lunch bags," and so we've been using the regular plastic grocery bags. Which is great, but they only get reused once, then tossed, and if used more often, they tend to shred. Also, I've been running out of them, as lunch happens more often than grocery shopping.

Here are the items I'm trying to focus on:

• Grocery shopping - make fabric bags
• Produce - make small tulle bags with drawstrings
• Lunch bags - make fabric bags with velcro/buttons to close for travel
• Snack bags - switch from ziploc baggies to something reusable
• Tupperware alternative - ?
  

I like packing up snack things in serving-size containers, but I don't like wasting ziplocs, that are one-time-only. I might try little fabric bags that can be tossed in with the wash.

I'm also learning that I just don't like tupperware. It's hard to clean, and hard to remember to bring home. I'm still figuring out alternatives for main dishes... I'd love to have that list down by the end of the summer.

And finally, here is the requisite apple grove shot. The third one is no more, but these two seem to be doing well, even though the left one seems a little tall and scrawny. I still get teased: "Are they ready to pick yet?"

+ dragons =)

Status Update

Ok, I promise this won't become the Apple Channel. But here's a quick update on my little grove :)

Last Thursday ...and today

So far they're pretty low maintenance, and it's fun to see the changes. I know when they get a little bigger I'll have to decide what to do with them. I'll probably take them home and put them in a protected place outside, since soon it'll be too warm for them indoors.

In other news, I had my first sale on Etsy! Very exciting! Now I've got to get some more inventory up there. I came up with a crocheted fingerless mitt this weekend, and I'm in the testing phase. I have a sample pair that is pumpkin orange acrylic, which I wanted to list last night, but my camera had died, and the charger is still packed somewhere... A co-worker of mine really likes them, and she suggested I could have her daughters wear some to school and advertise for me. Not a bad idea! I just have to work several up before the warm weather gets here...

Last weekend was again all about the house. I started organizing and painting the utility room, which is now The Yellow Room :) My husband doesn't like yellow, but he said he can live with this one room. In my opinion it's a huge improvement- went from "dingy" to "cheerful" with a pale creamy yellow. I'm doing a burgundy for the trim and accents.

Once I finally finish painting everything, I can start working on the curtains. That involves a trip to my favorite fabric store! Oh yeah, and I need to have the craft room done so I have space to sew them... It's coming along, but not quite as quickly as I'd like.

Apple Sprouts pt 2

Here's what my seedlings looked like this morning. The tall one is bent over because the plastic was too short! But there's a second one that popped up :) Who needs ordinary office plants when you can have apple trees?

Enchilada Update and Apple Sprouts

The enchiladas were a success! ...with some room for improvement. I thought the sauce was tasty, though possibly lacking in bite. My husband thought it tasted a little too smoky, like BBQ sauce. The sugar could explain that. The texture was just right. I also didn't have the brand of chili powder they recommended, so I used what I had on hand.

I used flour tortillas this time, as last week I discovered that neither of us care much for the corn ones.

So I think I'll try some other sauce recipes, and if I come up with something wonderful, then I'll start making my own from now on. I wonder how long it would keep if I canned it...

The other day I was eating an apple, and when I got to the core I discovered that a couple of the seeds had sprouted! What to do in this situation? (A) Throw them away and eat the next apple sooner, (B) Plant them, (C) Put them on my salad.

Of course I chose B =) I happened to have an empty pot with dirt at my office, so I planted those plus a couple more from another apple, totaling 5. The first one popped up on Thursday.

And the next day it was nearly twice the size, standing taller than the length of the leaves in that picture. I can't wait to see it on Monday! I put some plastic over it with a couple holes to keep it moist. I don't know what I'll do with it ultimately. I know it takes years to produce fruit, and that apples from seed are nothing like the apple you started with. Maybe I'll train it as a bonsai in a couple of years. That could be fun.