Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Moss Pit

Lawn at the old house in 2003
This was not lawn at all but moss.
I recommend it highly under large fir and  pine trees.
It was the best lawn we ever had.
Mowed it only 5 times a year and it stayed green all year long.
Once a month I put gallon of buttermilk and miracid into a blender and poured it over the moss in thin lines to help feed and spread it.
Growing moss
 Step 1 pull any weeds and other plants currently growing in the area. Make the entire area bare, and remove rocks, branches and any other debris or objects on the ground.

Step 2 Carry out a pH soil test using your pH testing kit. Moss requires a slightly acidic soil base. Your soil should have a pH level of approximately 5.5. If necessary, lower soil pH levels by one point by mixing 1.2 ounces of rock sulfur for every square yard of dirt. Alternatively, raise the pH by one point by mixing eight ounces of hydrated lime in every square yard of soil. Repeat this step until the pH level is just right.


Step 3 Lightly water the soil until the dirt is moist but not muddy.

Step 4 Obtain moss. Your local nursery may sell flats of moss. Alternatively, transplant the moss from another area of your yard or from moss growing in the wild. Harvest the moss with a garden spade, carefully scooping the moss up off of the surface on which it is growing.


Step 5 Lay the transplanted moss on the prepared soil plot. Gently pat it down so that the moss is level. Water continuously throughout the day to keep the moist perpetually moist, but not dripping wet. If you are not able to manually water the moss, set a sprinkler with a timer. The moss will establish itself within three weeks.

The 20 x 70

Most of you know I have a new place and we have down sized ALLOT !
The back yard is a nice 20 x 70 in size. Of course I wanted a nice 20 x 70 space so this is the progress so far.
Started when we moved in in august last year .
We stopped for snow and -10 degree weather but hubby is back out today working on my grand plan.
So here it is so far








The large horseshoe is my veggie garden .
The new ring is the herb garden.
The tree across the yard is a flowering pear.
The boards are where the ceder deck goes.
The fence line will have a stone raised bed as well and the rest will be in rock .
No grass in the little back yard.
Well that's the plan so far.

Seed packs Free printable

If your looking for that seed pack for your next exchange I have made these two ready top save and print out.
Standard size to cover your store bought seeds with.
Copy and save as to your system, then print on card staok , fold on the lines, glue edges and fill.

Recipe cards to print

I know it's a bit past time but these are some great recipes on a 8 by 10 sheet to print out.
Copy save print and cut apart.
Merry Winter

Lady Bug Card Instructions

Supplies Needed:
Black Construction paper: each page makes two invitations.
Red Construction paper: each page will make wings for 6 invitations.
Hole Punch: used to make spots
Wiggle eyes:(optional) need two per invitation.
Glue
Scissors
Coffee Cup
Pencil
Step 1: Ladybug Invitation:
Fold the sheet of black construction paper in half.
Using the coffee cup draw two circles on the page making sure to have the cup lay over the edge of the fold a little. The fold is on the left side.


Trace the coffee cup onto the paper creating a circle. You can get two invitations from each sheet of paper. Cut out both invitations making sure you leave the fold intact.
Use the scraps of black paper and make small circles about the size of a quarter, these will be the ladybugs' head.
Take the smaller scraps and punch holes with the hole punch.

Step 2: Ladybug Invitation:

Using the same coffee cup draw complete circles on the red paper. You can make six circles from each piece of paper. Cut out all the circles. Cut each circle in half creating a set of wings for each ladybug.

You should now have all the parts shown in the picture below.



Step 3: Ladybug Invitation:

With the fold towards the top, add one of the wings to the black body section. Make sure you slant it outwards leaving the gap in the center. Once you have one wing placed glue the other wing into place. It will overlap the first wing a little at the top.



Glue the dots on the wings. When putting dots on you want to use odd numbers (3,5,7). An even number of dots will look funny!

Glue the head (small quarter sized circle)onto the wings where they overlap.
Glue the two wiggle eyes onto the head.

The finished Ladybug Invitation:
This is what the invitation will look like when you finished it.

The ladybug will open from the rounded side.
It really doesn't take very long to make party invitations and can be loads of fun.
Print out your party information on a mailing label or a name tag label.
Just peel and stick to the inside.