Tag: urban homesteading

New herb plant shelves

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I’m so excited because I finally have outdoor shelves for my herb plants! 😁🪴 Travis worked on building the shelves all weekend, even on Father’s Day.

He was so proud of his work that he snapped a picture of the shelves and said, “Now when I go to work and someone asks me what I did this weekend, I can show them I built garden shelves.” 😄

We’ve been finding more efficient ways to grow food in a small space. Growing vertically, like with our new herb plant shelves, makes it possible for us to grow a great variety of herbs without taking up a lot of ground space in our small patio garden.

Now when I am cooking and need herbs from the garden, I can just walk out on the patio and reach for the pot I need on the shelf.

I love my herb plant shelves! 😍 Travis did a great job building the shelves. I said, “Now that I know you know how to build shelves, I’m going to ask you to build more shelves all the time!” 🤣😁

💜 XO

Happy Friday

Three things to reflect on in honor of September 11th.

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Sunflower Rescue

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We found volunteer sunflower sprouts growing in between the sidewalk. It was such a random thing to see that at first I thought they were just weeds.

But as the sprouts continued to grow taller, I inspected their leaves and told Travis, “I think these are sunflowers!” 😲🌻

I didn’t even know sunflowers could grow in such a tight space. Haha! But some plants are known to grow just about anywhere, I suppose. 😄

I do wonder if we hadn’t of “rescued” the random sunflower sprouts, could they have survived growing in between the sidewalk?

We did have two sprouts that needed more time to grow their roots, so I’ve been giving them some TLC in a repurposed honey jar.

This morning, I checked the sprouts, and one is finally ready to go in a pot of soil. Once it outgrows it’s pot, I will transplant it into a grow bag.

Sunflower sprout I’ve been growing in a repurposed honey jar of water.
Look at that phenomenal root growth! 😲🌻
Grow, baby grow! We’re all “rooting” for you! 😄

We have five of the volunteer sunflower sprouts currently growing in our garden beds.

They weren’t too happy about being transplanted, but after a few days and some good rainy days, they perked up and are now happy and thriving in the garden!

So, where did the volunteer sunflowers come from? My winter bird feeder! 😂

The birds/squirrels must’ve dropped the seeds, and once the weather warmed up, the sunflower seeds germinated! 😲🌻

What makes this sunflower rescue story even funnier is I said I wasn’t going to grow sunflowers this year.

We grew beautiful sunflowers last year, but I didn’t think we’d have the space for it this gardening season because we needed the room for our grow bags.

I guess the sunflowers said, “Make room for us!” 😂🌻 #sunflowerswin

💜 XO

P.S.—the feature image is of one of our sunflowers from last year.

Happy Friday!

Four fun things for Friday, including a new art exhibit I’m excited to see.

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Gardening season is here!

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We usually get our last frost around mid-May, so I was eager to get started on gardening season!

This year, we are being more intential to grow foods we can eat. Travis and I have been learning about urban homesteading for about three years now, so we are excited to put some of what we’ve learned so far to practice! 🥰👩🏽‍🌾

Can’t forget the pollinators for the vegetable garden! 🌻😊

Last year, I had planned on starting seeds indoors for the 2026 gardening season, but life happened and I didn’t get follow through with that plan.

It’s all good, though, because we ended up buying starts from local garden (small) businesses! Heavy emphasis on the “small business,” as I always love supporting local when I can 😊

To get us started, we bought the following plant starts: green bell pepper, sweet banana peppers, jalapeños, cherry tomatoes, bush greens, carrots, celery, and strawberries.

We’re also growing seeds (some of those seed packets you see in the above photos). And this year, we are growing all of our fruits, herbs, and veggies in grow bags.

The flowers will be grown in the garden bed, as companions for the veggies in the grow bags, or in flower pots.

We live in a small house that comes with a very small garden, and after last year’s (kinda) failed attempt at growing foods, I decided grow bags will be more efficient.

I should also mention I am very thankful our home has a front garden space and a back patio for more growing space. 😊🙏🏽

Grow bags are definitely the way to grow when you’re working with a small space!

💜 XO