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Category: Gardening

Hummingbird Feeding Fun

Cindy6 Comments

Here are a few photos I shot today of some hummingbirds that were feeding off my feeder. Don’t worry if it looks empty as I am using clear juice for them and it’s just below the red rim so you can’t see the juice line.

These birds just love my homemade hummingbird juice. This is the second year that I have been making up my own home brew for them. Here is the link to my homemade hummingbird juice recipe that I posted last year.


I actually had 3 birds drinking all at the same time but couldn’t get a picture of them. They move so fast that by the time I try and click the picture, they have moved.


Here is a great shot showing the beautiful back of this hummingbird. She’s just so pretty with her yellow spots.


Another photo of the same bird drinking from my hummingbird feeder.


One last photo of one of the “girls” posing for the camera. They are just such beautiful creatures. Now I am off to make another batch of my brew for them as I’m sure the feeder is nearly empty now.

Self-Watering Planters

Cindy5 Comments

I have a recycled gardening project to share with you all. I’ve heard about self-watering planters that you can make yourself and after searching around the Internet, I found several different versions. For my planter, I used 2 recycled plastic buckets, a tin can, and a piece of plastic piping I found in my basement.

Here is my recycled self-watering tomato planter. I say recycled as I didn’t buy anything for this project and all the items were either recycled, repurposed, or re-used. Now for the details…

I get these buckets for a dollar at my local grocery store’s bakery. They are food grade so they are perfect for making the self-watering containers. I used this DIY tutorial link at urbanorganicgardener.com to make the planter with the pipe. There is also a tutorial at the same link that shows how to make the planter without the pipe and also a plastic pop bottle version too.

Here is a closeup of the can I used for my wickering can. It’s a 15 oz bean tin can with lots of holes drilled into it. This can was the perfect height for inside my self-watering containers as it just reaches inside the top of the stacked containers.

I made two of these planters in the past 2 weeks. Now I’m just waiting and hoping for lots of tasty tomatoes to grow in my self-watering containers. I’ll post again later this summer to let you all know how it works out using this method.

Harvesting My Potatoes

Cindy13 Comments


It was time today to harvest my potatoes that I have been growing in my round cylinder with straw. This was an experiment this season that I learned from some gardening friends on-line. They had told me about how you could grow potatoes in straw rather than in the ground.

Using a piece of fencing, I made a round cylinder. I planted one seed potato cut into 4 parts with each piece having an eye that sprouted. I placed the potato seeds on top of a small dirt mound and put the fencing around it. I wrapped a piece of burlap around the bottom to hold in the plants and moisture. Then I covered it with a thin layer of straw as the seeds sprouted. The above picture was taken in July when the potatoes were still growing. You just add a bit of straw to cover the plants as they grow. You do leave the tops exposed.

Here is a photo when it was first growing.

Once the tops flower and die, you know it’s about time to harvest your potatoes. My potatoes were at the bottom of the straw at the top of the dirt. I’m thinking that I started them too late which may have been why they didn’t grow more up into the straw.


Here is my harvest. I know it probably doesn’t look like much but this was just one small seed potato that I used. Next year, I will start earlier and plant more potatoes so my bounty is bigger. But overall I was happy with the results of growing the potatoes in straw.

Recycle a Plastic Jug into a Watering Container

Cindy9 Comments

Need a watering can or container for your garden? Well I did and decided I would try and make my own. I took one of my empty apple jugs and upcycled it into this handy watering container for my garden.
You just need a plastic jug with a screw off lid. I like the one gallon Tree Top apple jugs as they are made with heavy plastic and a sturdy screw off cap. I used a hammer and a nail to punch the holes around the top of the cap as shown. Just put the cap on a old board and hammer the nail through the plastic to create your watering holes.


My recycled watering jug works great. I can use it to just gently sprinkle tender new seedlings with water or shake it to water larger areas. Plus you can squeeze on the jug to create pressure which allows you to spray water quite a distance.

So if you need a watering can, please consider recycling an old plastic jug into a very handy and frugal watering jug. I’m sure you will love your free watering jug as much as I love mine.
Happy gardening!

Recycled Denim Pots

Cindy6 Comments

My blog friend and fellow recycled crafter Carmen is back to share a cool project that she created using old denim from jeans. She used the jeans, along with bandannas and other recycled materials to decorate these flower pots.

Here is another denim pot she covered and used a pocket too. She created a fun gardening gift package with this project. You can see Carmen’s step-by-step photo tutorial here to help you create your own unique recycled denim pot cover.