Ripe Red Raspberries picked from my neighbor’s garden signifies bounty, friendship, generosity, kindness, yumminess, summer! A small gesture of sharing is a favorite memory of 2017.
Tag: gardening
Favorite Things: Keeping up with the Calendars…
I am in my second week of celebrating the March National _____Days and using my March Popular Science Calendar and it is, as they say, keeping me off the streets! I have been posting on Instagram but thought it would be fun to share some behind the scenes pictures here too!
I’ll start with my attempt at Hydroponics. Let’s just say I am still purchasing basil at the grocery store.
The instructions in the Popular Mechanics magazine were very detailed and required a large (20 gallon) plastic tub with lid for the set up. I was thinking this may be pretty big for me so did a little research and found this terrific tutorial to attempt hydroponics on a smaller scale!

Here are my supplies: coffee can, air pump and tubing

I decided to make my own aerated cups (with my husband’s help and fancy dial caliper)

It is always fun to bring out the tools!

This seemed like it was going to work like a charm!

Placing the aerated container filled with rocks and basil plant

So much hope for success!!

The markings show better days….

Maybe I should try container gardening?!
I Have an Idea: Avocado Gone Wild
I always wanted to grow an avocado from the pit.
I remember my sister starting one when we were kids and thought it would be fun to start one myself someday.
I never thought of what I would do with it if, in fact, it actually grew. I never really thought about what an avocado actually grew on– a bush, a tree, a vine like a pumpkin? I didn’t grow up around them.
I guess I never thought I would actually successfully start an avocado and would figure it out once it happened.
So one day after eating a delicious avocado I thought- why not give it a go?
I remember my sister suspended the pit over some water with toothpicks so that it was partially submerged in water. I found some toothpicks and checked online which end should be submerged.
The water became cloudy, so I replenished it.
I waited. No roots or leaves after several weeks. (It may have been months since I stopped looking.)
I noticed it doing nothing one day and wondered if I should just give up. I was planting some herbs so thought I might as well just stick the pit in some dirt and see what happened.
It grew.
I put it outside its first summer, and that almost did it in until I read that it should be shaded. I put it under a tree.
It grew some more.
I brought it in for the winter and soon I needed to provide it some support with something long and steady. I used my large umbrella. It stood a little straighter. I never thought it would grow so large.
I am running out of room for it. But I love it.
I’ve read that it won’t bear fruit unless I have another one.
And that’s how my house became overrun with avocado bushes. I may need to build a shed!