Metal Stamped garden picks and decor!

I've been seeing the hand stamped metal jewelry and garden decor all over Etsy and the web and, just like I always do, I said, 'I can do that.'  So I did, lol.  Not only did I get myself into, my 12 yr old daughter's taken a liking to it.  It's super easy to do, and you don't have to pay an arm and a leg for a set of metal stamps.  Did you know that Harbor Freight carries them?  yes, they do!  In 2 different sizes, and they ALWAYS have a 20% off coupon floating around, so you can get a set of 1/4" for less than $10, and a 3/8" set for like $7!  Hobby Lobby carries the latter of the two, as well, and they're the same exact set, for the same exact price.  Next, you need a hammer and a hard surface like an iron block.  The hammer I use has a larger, flatter surface and a peen? however you spell it, lol.  And I use the hubs iron whatever kind of block from his tool junk box (he never uses it anyway).  Next, flatten the spoons, forks, ladles, whatever that you've picked up for a quarter at the junk store.  After that, stamp away. 

This is my creation.  Can you see what it says? lol  'Grow Dammit' lol  The fun part of doing this is that the letters don't have to be straight or lined up right.  It's more fun when they're a bit lopsided and caddywampus.  To get the letters dark, there's several different techniques that folks on the web use, but the most economic way is to use a fine tip Sharpie pen and just write inside the letter's groove.  When stamping the utensil, it's important to keep the stamp straight with the letter flat on the metal surface.  Use the flat side of the hammer to hit it firmly (not wimpy but not extremely hard!) and flat on the stamper's flat top a couple of times.  Many say not to hit it more than once in case your stamper moves, but we're not making heirloom engraved pieces here, we're making fun garden art, so hit it a couple of times and don't worry about it slipping.  It only slips when you don't have a firm grip on it...and you WILL have, won't you?  lol

There's all sorts of things you can stamp on a garden pick like this.  You can choose the basic words like herbal names: oregano, thyme, basil, etc.  Or you can use fun little sayings like I did.  My daughter used 'Farmer Girl.'  How about Queen, King, Prince, Princess.  Or Yin and Yang.  'I know I planted something here' Or even your name, your hubs name, and your anniversary date in the center?  There's so many you can do, choose from, or think of your own.

Then, with your new found talents of metal stamping, you can spread out and do more.  What other fun stuff can you do with letter metal stamping?  How about fun dog tags?  they're not just for pets anymore!  Use them as luggage tags, necklaces and other great things!  This is one that I made for my oldest:

Funky, eh?  That's what makes it cool!  She has it on a black cord with a silver peace sign.  As you can see, I used two different sized letters.  You can get these steel dog tag blanks at Hobby Lobby for a couple of bucks for a few in a pkg, or grab some aluminum dog tags at Oriental Trading! 

You can also use them to make serving utensil more fun and whimsical, or as a gift, along with some beads and wire, and you're done:

Or the ever-so popular initial necklaces.  I've made a few, but didn't take any pics of them, they were gifts.  But they're like these:

You can add a charm or bead/stone drop like the one in the photo, or leave it plain. 

There's so much you can do with your new set of metal stamp set.  You can pick up customized symbol stamps, like birds, music notes, and millions more, on the net (ebay, etsy, amazon, etc), but they can get pricey, as well as other fonts for letter, which can be VERY pricey, but starting out on the more less expensive versions are great for practice AND on the wallet!  What have YOU made with your metal stamps?  I'd love to see it!

My beautiful white Rhododendron and Red Cinnamon rose!

THIS beautiful flower is what my youngest (12 yr old) daughter got me for Mother's Day.  I've never owned a Rhododendron before so I've had to study up on them.  This particular one is a County of York variety, which is a hybrid, and I've learned it can grow up to 18 FEET!  Holy COW!  I've never known a flower to be able to grow that big!  Did you?  do any of you own one of these types of rhodies, a County of York?  does it actually get that tall and how much does it grow each year?  I'm so curious.  The hubs and I relocated a 2nd yr bush rose the other day that's at the side of the house (the opposite side of the cranky old man) where it should get the required amt of shade and sun, near the newly attached and working rain barrel (remember, it's the one that we bought over a yr ago? lol  I got him to finally hook it up as a Mother's Day gift).  Next to that, I'm planting 2 Japanese ferns.  These ferns don't mind cold weather at all, thankfully, and will survive down to about 25 below if needed, so they're perfect for the midwest.  I've told my youngest that she's given me a challenge, for I have no idea about rhodies, but that's a good thing, it keeps my gardening brain spinning. The white in this flower is stark, shining bright, solid WHITE!  Whiter than my white heirloom rose even.  Astounding.  And, I have to water it each day!  It literally takes a LOT of water.  I've put an aqua-globe in it, but it drains it each day, so it doesn't matter if I do that or water it by hand.

Now, look at THIS beauty:

THIS is a Cinnamon Girl miniature rose, that stands at about 24".  THIS is what my oldest (17 yr old) daughter gave me for Mother's Day.  This photo really doesn't do this rose justice.  I've GOT to get this girl planted because I just can't wait to watch her flourish.  We'll be working on the garden extention hopefully next weekend.  This rose will be along the fenceline of the new extension, as I have other roses along the fenceline of the current garden space.  The roses I have now are longstem roses, one read, one pink, and 2 newly planted roses that have not established yet, but are in the pink family.  When asked, my daughter said she picked this rose because it was a color unlike any that I have, and she's right.  The creamy centers pop out at you like nothing you can imagine.  Breathtaking.

I just had to share my Mother's Day gifts with everyone, I knew you'd enjoy seeing them.  I know it's been a couple of weeks since then, but I've been a bit behind on everything.  But no worries, I've not forgotten about my Lavender Cove, blog, eBay, OR Etsy.  It'going strong, and the latter two will be up and running soon.

My Indoor Zippered Greenhouse! LOVE it!!

You may remember me talking about greenhouses last month, well, I bought one.  No, not one of those lovely larger outdoor beauties (I WISH), but an indoor zippered greenhouse with shelves.  They have them at Big Lots for $20.  Here it is with my starters going strong:

And HERE is my heirloom tomato plants growing heartily!  If it looks like there's too many in each cup, that's because there is.  We gardeners sometimes plant more than one seed, just in case one doesn't germinate, then 'thin' them.  Well, I hate thinning...not because of the work, but because I HATE throwing perfectly good plants away.  So, tomorrow my bestie is coming by with her starter cells, and as I thin the weeker ones out, she's going to plant them into her flats.  This way, none will go to waste!!  I HATE waste!!  Don't they look lovely?!  They're gorgeous!

My Basil harvest of 2010

I love the smell of basil...so I grew at least 5 varieties last year, and have started about 7 or so varieties for this year.  Below is the picture of the dried and bagged seed harvest of my basil plants from last year.  I think it's safe to say I have plenty of basil seeds, lol...especially since each tiny pod holds no less than 2 tiny black seeds, with some holding up to 5!  If you're in need of some basil seeds, let me know...maybe we can do a seed swap or something.



I have Boxwood, Lemon, Thai, Cinnamon, and SOME reg. Sweet Basil.
This year, I'm adding Spiced Globe and Licorice!

You've heard how marigolds among your plants help to keep the bugs away, but did you know that basil does an even BETTER job?  The marigolds work from the roots, not the greens or flowers, so they help keep those kinds of bugs that like bore, or head for the root and such, but BASIL will help keep your garden smelling WONDERFUL, AND once mature, will keep the mosquitos to a minimum for while you're working in the garden in the evenings, plus many other bugs.  I planted a gorgeous boxwood basil about every 2 feet along the outside of my raised bed on both sides of the tomato bed....and you know what?  we had NO bugs in our garden AT ALL!  none, zilch, and only occassionally had to swat a mostiquito...the basil works perfect.  Also, keep a pot of basil growing outside on or near your patio, for when you entertain, to help keep the mostiquitos away (or even a small pot sitting in the center as a centerpiece).

I have bunnies in my GARDEN again!! grrr

This is LAST YEAR'S pic, but this is the basic idea of what we do...we walk the garden, lol
As SOON as I say, 'lets go to the garden' the dogs are waiting at the door, then race each other
down to the garden and stand at the gate and wait for me to open it, lol  they're hilarious!

So, many times a week, the dogs and I go down to the garden for a walk-thru, I love my garden, love being inside that fence, lol.  Mainly, because last year, the guy I bought my topsoil from gave me JUNK topsoil, meaning rocks galore!!  So after each rain, the dogs and I go down and pick rocks out of each of the garden bed, then I run my Weasel through and wait for the next rain and we do it all over again...of course Angel, AKA Booker, the rat terrier, has a rock fetish, so I have to watch her, for she'll snatch a rock in her mouth and run off with it...idiot dog.  So yesterday, I look for Sienna, the golden, and she's fixating.  Ok, for ya'll that know how golden retrievers, they are just that, golden and they love to retrieve, but when they retrieve, they focus on the object, that way they know exactly where to run to get the item as it falls from the sky.  Well, Sienna fixates continuously, all day long...a chewy, something that she doesn't even know what it is on the book shelf or counter, it doesn't matter.  So, back to the garden, she's fixating on a spot UNDER a low white metal garden that I have centered in the middle for the sprinkler to rest on.  I go over and see just dried grass, but it's in a swirl, so I know something's down there.  I ask her, 'whats down there girl?' and she reaches under with her paw and pulls the grass back to show me bunny fur (the mamas put their shedded fur in the nest to help keep the babies warm).  She looked at me as if to ask, 'can I have them?' lol  then I'm like OMG, ok, dogs, everyone out of the garden...which they didn't do. I had to swat them to run them to the gate, then they ran back to the nest, then I did it again...it took several swats to get them out of the garden.  Then once out of the garden, they circled it.  Like the bunnies were gonna jump out for them.

ughhhh, why me???  seriously!  and since it's so early, I know that it's a nest, and the babies probably don't even have hair on them, so I have to leave them for a bit.  ughhhh, whyyyyyyyyyyy me?????  The fense this year will be double reinforced with rabbit wire...we have chicken wire halfway up...we'll move the chicken wire to the top half of the fence and put the tougher and tighter (and more expensive) rabbit wire on the bottom half of the garden...which means, a very busy weekend!!!

UPDATE: to add pic of my 'mators! Free-Standing Tomato Trellises

I'm just fed up with fighting with my tomatoes.  Last year most of my 12 plants grew to 6 feet tall...do you know how hard it is to find and make appropriate stakes to accommodate a 6 foot tomato plant? lol not so easy.  So then I came up with the idea of using a modified version of a cucumber trellis that is slanted.  But I don't know about that.  Then, I came across this plan for free standing tomato trellises, and I vaguely remember hearing about them, but never really studied on how to do them.  I think I may talk to the hubs and have a 'discussion' with him about this idea, lol.  The site that I got it from was the Vegetable Gardener, and in the article, it has a link that you can click to download the .pdf file of the plans.

(photo courtesy of Vegetable Garden .pdf)

 The plan is simple enough.  I don't usually grow my tomatoes in a row like this, but would consider it for this trellis idea if it's a solution for my 'mator growing woes! and HOPEfully, I'll be able to plant and grow them this years.


This was my tomato patch just a few weeks after I planted them...not producting at this size yet.



Check out some great FREE gardening and outdoors stuff I've 'dug' up!

We all love FREE, right?  How about some gardening, outdoorsy, or 'urban farming' type of freebies?

Well, here ya go!!

FREE Outdoor Spaces idea book

FREE eVersion of Burpee’s Vegetable Garden Guide

FREE Gardener’s Idea book from Proven Winners

FREE pkt of Wildflower seeds from Bentley Seeds

Lowe’s Outdoor Ideas mag, as well as other Lowe’s Creative mags. to choose from, 3 paper form and 10 email newsletters to choose from

Ants Identification poster from Orkin

FREE pedometer (this does come, I got mine) challenge yourself and see how many steps you take in a normal gardening week

FREE pr of ear plugs (choose from 3) they give 5,000 away per day…(these DO come, I got mine), they’re GREAT for when you’re using loud machinery and equipment like tillers and such

FREE pr of scissors.  GREAT to keep in your gardening kit

FREE 1 oz sample of Sun Frog Deck Sealer

FREE 1 oz. sample of Sun Frog Composite Stain Guard Finish

Sign up for Tomato Heirloom’s Newsletter and they’ll send you a FREE Basil Seed Pack, containing 1 each of Classic Genovese, Dark Purple Opal, and Lemon Basil (the newsletter signup box is over at the right)

(I don't know if these come, I just found it, thought I'd share)

FREE 3 yr mag. Sub. To ‘Living the Country Life’ has farming, gardening, chicken and other animal raising info and more. (this DOES come, I get it and I usually find at least one thing in the short mag. that I like or that applies to the type of 'outdoorsy' person I am, gardening, etc.)

FREE DVD ‘How to become your horse’s best friend’ Horse Safety (50 min long, 14 chapters)