Gardening - grace grits and gardening

Little Free Library: because I’m all about the books! (and seeds)

February 4, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Woo-hoo! I’ve been looking forward to this day since we moved into our house. We are the proud stewards of a Little Free Library. Purchased as a housewarming/Christmas gift to ourselves, our library has been stored in the coat closet since Thanksgiving. Yesterday, it was installed. (We waited until our landscaping was in progress, so that we could incorporate it into the front yard.)

Do you know about the Little Free Library? It’s all about the books…and in our case, the seeds. Seeds? Keep reading.

“Take a book, return a book”—that’s the Little Free Library motto.

The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 by Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin. He built a one room schoolhouse design as a tribute to his mother who was a teacher. His idea caught on quickly. As of January 2014, over 15,000 Little Free Libraries have been built and installed across the world. What a great way to promote literacy and reading. Plus, they are so freakin’ cute.

There are several in our neighborhood. There can’t be too many—(another motto).

Now about the seeds. Ours is not only a book library, but a seed library. There is a drawer (see the picture below) that will serve as a seed and recipe exchange—a way to share vegetable and flower seeds with neighbors as well as favorite recipes. Neighbors can place seed packets to share or take seeds that have been donated. Our library came with 20 seed packages to start. There will be little plastic bags for dividing seeds, because who needs fifty spinach plants?

The library will be open for business soon. Maybe today. I’ll be putting a few books in it (some garden related, but not all), and seeds will go into the drawer when it’s a bit warmer. Neighbors are invited to participate, hint, hint…

I think a spring porch party might be a great way to officially kick off our Little Free Library and Seed Exchange. It will be a BYOB affair—Bring Your Own Book. Stay tuned and happy reading.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Because I’m all about the books. And seeds! @LtlFreeLibrary #TakeABookLeaveABook #GrowSomething @WildflowerCtr [/tweetthis]

Click HERE for information on building your own Little Free Library.

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.”- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (Austin)

Musical Pairing:

All About Those Books – MDIHS Library

Winter garden dream. And GOLD!

January 19, 2015 By Talya Tate Boerner

Winter is the perfect time to dream and plan for a spring garden. Did you realize we are halfway through the calendar winter? Yes, although it’s still too soon to plant veggies and flowers (at least in our neck of the Northern Hemisphere), it’s never too soon for moving dirt around. Unless, of course, your dirt is buried under a blanket of snow. Since ours isn’t, we have lots of garden prep work going on at our house. And believe me, since we bought this house in August, we have been itching to work in the yard.

Winter isn’t stopping us. Not this week anyway.

To add more interest, we are terracing our sloping backyard. This is the beginning of a stone wall. (See Lou Holtz supervising? He’s good.)

We have plans to expand our outside stone dining area, install a sprinkler system and build a fire pit. The Grey Barn is doing the heavy lifting.

Fortunately, the last few days have been dry, otherwise what a mud hole we would have. Mud + Schnauzers = Pigs.

Turning dirt reveals treasures like old broken glass and pieces of pottery. Yesterday I found a cool rock partially buried but glinting in the sunlight. I’m not sure what it is, but it looks interesting. Some sort of ore or mineral?

If it’s something significant, let me know, and I’ll go dig for more in the backyard. In the meantime until we identify it, I’ll pretend it’s gold. Or a rare lump of Martian meteorite. Or maybe there’s a black diamond hidden inside there.

Whoo-hoo!

Think of how many herbs and plants and trees and seed packets one nugget of gold would buy.

A girl can dream. Even in the dead of winter.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

[tweetthis]Turning up dirt uncovers lots of treasures. #gardening #winter #waitingforspring[/tweetthis]

“I’m a miner, and I’m always dirty, because I’m constantly digging. Am I shoveling for gold? Hardly. I’m unearthing this hearty land searching for the next great American novel. If I dig deep enough, I’m sure to find it.”
― Jarod Kintz

Musical Pairing:

California Dreamin’ – The Mamas and The Papas

working on my fall porch decor

October 8, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

Fall is the best season for decorating a porch. Think about it. Most anything rustic, scary or harvest related will work. Throw in a few pumpkins, gourds and/or mums and you’ve created an autumn vignette to see you through to Thanksgiving.

We purchased these heavy clay pots years ago at Jackson’s Home and Garden, Dallas’ ultimate one stop shop for anything outdoor and garden related.

For the movers to bring our pots, they had to be empty. Plants cannot cross state lines. Texas plants are not welcome in Oklahoma. Oklahoma plants are not invited to Arkansas, etc. Sad really, but I suppose this is one way to prevent the spread of disease and bugs.

We could only bring so many potted plants in our vehicles, and these were super heavy with gravel in the bottom. After getting over the initial shock of dumping out (or giving away) perfectly good plants, I regrouped. An empty pot provided a fresh start. And what’s fresher and happier than pansies? I always have a difficult time choosing among all the colors, so this year I stuck with the traditional mix.

Lucy helped. Those plastic containers are her nemesis.

Along with the pansies, I planted salvia and ornamental kale.

A fall porch must have pumpkins, right? I love to mix the various shapes and colors.

Gnarly stems are the best.

I placed one warty pumpkin out on the front yard bench. He’s keeping watch.

Although most of my Halloween decor is still in Dallas (yes there are a few things in the Dallas garage), I did pull out this Halloween pillow that pairs perfectly with my vintage wicker rocker (a yard sale find!).

I’ll be doing a little more Halloween porch decorating soon once I find my bats… Stay tuned!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

“Fall makes me think that if I fail horribly at this art thing, and then fail horribly with this writing thing, I’ll go run a pumpkin patch.”
― Tyler Hojberg

Musical Pairing:

Neil Young, Harvest Moon

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