The Dust Of Every Day Life ...

1.) Garden Time.

Things have really been heating up around here lately. I mean literally! We’ve suddenly gone to the 90s, just like that! That’s a bit warm for this time of year, even for Phoenix. However, it also meant that I really had to get my planting going in the garden.

So, I spent some glorious hours out there, getting the beds ready, fertilizing with the “stinky fish stuff,” as my kids call it, and  which always causes our cat to lick his way through the garden, walls and all! And then I planted my seedlings.
I tried a new method this year, as I just didn’t want to have all the window sills full of seedlings. It never ends well, with the kids and the cat and soil everywhere. And remembering to water them. It’s odd, I’m ok about remembering to water outside, but inside, unless it’s already part of my routine - not so much!

So, this time around I started everything back in December and outside - but in tea jugs! Apparently this even works for places with real cold and deep snow!

It certainly worked for me. And what’s even better, it was one of those “set it and forget it” kind of things. No watering, no cleaning up spilled soil - just rows of tea jugs on my patio!

 

 

All you need is:

• a clear (mostly) plastic jug of some kind (water, milk, tea, etc.) and even some of the larger plastic juice bottles would work.
• Duct tape or some other well sealing, weather resistant kind of tape.
• Your soil of choice. I like to use the little jiffy pellets that you expand in water. The seedlings never get transplant shock with those and they hold water close to the root longer which is important when you plant in the desert. If you use those, have them soaked and ready to go.
• Seeds of choice.
• A sharp knife, utility knife or pair of scissors (for the thinner type of jug - won’t work with scissors on these thick plastic kind of jugs)

All you do, is to cut the jugs from the right side of the handle (about 2 inches from the bottom of the jug)  toward the front of the jug (opposite of the handle) and around back to about an inch before the handle. So basically you have cut 3 sides of the jug, leaving the handle side of the jug uncut.

You can cut it all the way, but I found that it’s easier to tape everything back together when the jug is still holding all it’s parts together by itself.

 

Bend back the upper part of the jug so you can access the bottom part. Fill with soil or your soaked pellets, and sow your seeds.

Water thoroughly, but not so that everything swims. Just give it a good soak.

Bend back the top part and make sure you write, with a waterproof/fade resistant marker what you put inside!

Now, tape everything up really well along the seam. We want this to be air tight. Replace lid, set outside in a sunny spot and basically don’t touch it until you are ready to plant.

Really, don’t open them to peek. Every time you do, the moisture and heat escapes. And that’s NOT good for your seedlings!

 

So I had a row of mini tea-jug-greenhouses on my patio. I had one for melons, one for squash, one for tomatoes, one for herbs, one for peppers and a couple of other ones I don’t remember now!  Again, make sure you use fade resistant markers! I thought I was being all cute by using different colored sharpies to mark my jugs!  Turns out that the purple sharpies are not nearly as permanent as the other colors!!

Since we have to plant as early as possible to hopefully get a half-way decent crop before the blistering heat sets in again, everything went in over the last few days for me!

 

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Another garden related thing. My 2 new favorites to switch things up in the garden: purple potatoes (just planted) and orange cauliflower (just harvested!) So pretty, so yummy and so good for you!!

 

 

My children are still a tad freaked out about the purple potatoes, however. They say it’s too halloween-y! Who knew there was such a thing!

Hopefully, they will get over it!

 

2.) A quote for today.

 

 

Art continues to be the thing in my life right now, even though this week has been so very busy and I’ve been torn in so many directions, that it’s been hard to finish something.

However, I have learned that there will be times like this. There are times when things seem to be out of balance, either because of too many other, even though necessary, distractions, or because there is a creative dry spell, or, or, or.

I used to worry about those and sometimes I still do. What if it doesn’t pick up again? What if I stay out of balance and out of this delicious flow of creativity, that I have come to treasure,  forever more?

What if I don’t find that good balance between family and work and art and garden and home and my needs and and and again?

But, experience has shown that it often goes in peaks and valleys and that I tend to prolong the more uncomfortable periods by resisting them.

What we resist truly persists, so my goal this week has been to step out of my own way as much as possible, listen to the whispers, to my body and let much of the intensity, I’m experiencing, wash over me and through me.

For me, this week has been a lot about leaning into discomfort and vulnerability, being with it, rather than running or protecting myself from it. It has been about being gentle with myself and  about snatching the little soul dustings of art when I can!

 

3.) Things to come to this blog in March.

As of March 1st, I’ll be taking part in a fabulous event, called “The Big 20/20 Event”.  For twenty days, twenty (more or less) bloggers will be posting twenty different tutorials on their blogs. Every day will be a different tutorial, from a different person, including yours truly!

You won’t have to blog-hop, unless you want to go and check out cool new people and bloggers, everything will be happening right here on my blog - and simultaneously on all the other 20 blogger’s sites! Cool, right?

So, here’s what’s coming:  20 days, 20 terrific tutorials - time to be totally inspired!!!

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