How to Grow & Use Stevia Plant for Natural Sweetening

Vegetable Garden Update June 2012

 A bit of rain and a bit of sunshine and lots of talking to the plants and they are slowly progressing.

Some really hot weather managed to fry a few of the plants but a bit of moving of the soil to protect and keep the moisture in seems to have kept the rest going

 I started off weeding some of the grass that had grown back in and then decided to elevate the beds by digging paths around them. Both the kids and our kittens are enjoying their paths and happily run up and down and its easier to water the beds.


Planted to date we have:

Tomato and Basil 

(the basil I grew from seeds and then placed next to the tomato when they had grow in to bigger seedlings)

Corn 

(another from seeds sprouted and seedlings now)

Beans  

(son grew from seed at school)







   
Strawberries 
(several patches)

Cucumber 
(several plants) 

and I have some more seeds to plant and see if they grow







 

Water Melon

(some died off with the heat but there is some still surviving)

Spring Onions 

(or chives) several patches

Peppers 

(red, orange and yellow)

Lettuce (growing from seeds have just sprouted)

Spinach (growing from seeds have sprouted)


  
                                 Carrots 
(growing from seeds have sprouted)


Potato (growing from old potato and will see how this one goes)



 
                                                                                                   Celery  

(grown from cutting off end of stalk bought at store and planting in soil)

Cauliflower (from seedlings)


 







Herbs 

(basil, parsley, etc. grown from seeds and transplanted)

Trellis Garden Large Quilted Fabric Hammock - Hammocks





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How to Make your Own Bird Noise Scarer

After planting lots of seeds and seedlings in our vegetable garden and around our pond we noticed that there is more birds coming to visit. That got me thinking to how to get the balance back in my vegetable garden so my plants and seedlings could grow without being damaged by birds.

Although we appreciate what good they do with removing bugs and keeping the eco balance there was too many visitors for my liking. Running out every couple of minutes to shoo them away from all my hard work was not appealing to me in the slightest.

After doing some research on the internet there was a few suggestions. Birds don't like shiny metals and noises. 

Suggestions I found on the net were hanging old cds to swing in the breeze. Owl figurines which you would have to move regularly to deter birds, putting spicy smelling herbs around the garden like black pepper or chilli powder or what I found to be the most appealing to me a noise bird scarer.   

There was some sites where you could purchase a bird noise scarer but as usual if I can make it myself thats usually my cheaper and more appealing option.

They are really quite simple to make and not in the least expensive using things that you usually have at home. I ended up making 3 for my vegetable garden and one for my pond where my strawberries and herbs are. 

They look like mini windmills when the breeze is going and are fun to watch. They seem to be keeping the birds away but my young boys are all for going and investigating them as they spin.

All you need to make one is:

2 aluminum cans

old coat hanger

scissors

pliers (to twist the coat hangers)

pebbles or small stones

clip of some sort to keep the cans in place

All you do is cut off the top of both the cans with scissors. 

With the first can cut strips about an inch apart so that they can fan out. 

Depending on the kind of breeze you can you can twist them slightly to catch more of a breeze.

Place a hole in the middle of both the cans so that you can thread the wire through.

The second can you place as the base and to place the pebbles in.

Simply thread a cut off coat hanger through both the cans (placing the pebbles in the base) and with the pliers loop the end of the fanning can.

Gently push the two cans so that they are joined and bend the rest of the wire down to place in the ground.

 

Sonoma Outdoors Sun Ray Hanging Wind Spinner

 

Sonoma Outdoors Circle Cascade Wind Chime

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Sonoma Outdoors Faux Driftwood And Glass Wind Chime

Vegetable Gardening Progresses at Home

Sonoma Outdoors Faux Driftwood And Glass Wind ChimeWith Spring in the air (not to mention allergy season along with it) being outdoors is much nicer and great way to expend some energy after being stuck indoors during winter. I have been wanting to have my own vegetable garden for some time and now am finally able to get one started. After a bit of digging around our yard to find the best spot for planting the veggie garden project began.

 As you can see there is plenty of room for vegetables to be planted. 

Finding seedlings ended up being harder than I thought. I call where we live corn country as there is always fields upon fields of corn as far as the eye can see. With that being seed you would think the easiest seedlings to find would be corn. But no that would be too simple. After driving around to several nurseries and stopping at anywhere that looked like it might possibly have seedlings this is what we have planted to date.

Cauliflower

Beans 

(this one is very special as my son grew it from a seed at school and bought the seedling home to plant)

Peppers 

(capsicums in Australia) 

think we planted the red ones

Cucumbers

 (my kids love cumber and I hope to have enough to make pickles)

 Spring Onions 

(chives/shallots)

 Sweet Corn

(yes I finally got some corn but it was the seeds instead of seedlings)

Celery

(this was another one that was impossible to find so I'm trying something I read online - cut off the bottom of the stalk of a fresh bunch and just plant it for new shoots to grow from - will see how this one progresses)

 Crimson Watermelon

(who can say no to watermelon in the warm weather)

Tomatoes 

(no vegetable garden would be complete without these)

There is still room to add more and I still have a list of seedlings that I want to add if I can find seedlings seeds or another way of planting them.  

I am still on the look out for:   

lettuce, carrots, potato, spinach, sweet potato,and whatever else I can think of planting

I have herbs - parsley, sage, rosemary, basil, oregano 

as well as strawberries and lavender growing separately near the pond

Herbs

Strawberries

Lavender

I have found quite a few birds have decided that both the pond area and the vegetable garden are a great place to visit and while I enjoy their company I do not want them wreaking havoc on my poor seeds and seedlings so I looked in to how to make a bird scarer and will do another post on that separately. It seems to be working so far and I will post some photos of how they look.

Unique Arts Solar Butterfly Light 

3-Pc. Pinwheel Set

Sonoma Outdoors Faux Driftwood And Glass Wind Chime