Fall Mantle Decor

Decorating for the seasons is a fun way to change up the decor in your house and my favorite season is FALL!  I like to get strands of leaves and drape them along the mantle and I add some pumpkins and lanterns etc. to go along with it.  The one thing I always do, is change out the wreath that is attached to the mirror above the mantle.

Growing potatoes

Each year I try a new plant or two.  This year, I found seed potatoes on sale and thought that I would at least try them.  I followed the directions on the box for the seed potatoes, which basically involved cutting each of the potatoes into about 1 inch pieces, each with one eye (sprout).  I left them on the counter overnight.

I had a couple of plastic pots from last year that didn’t hold up very well.  I cut rectangular holes out of the sides of the one that was in worse condition so that I would be able to see the progress or get some potatoes out without disturbing the others.  I put that pot inside the pot that without the holes cut in it.

Raised Bed Gardens

I LOVE growing vegetables. I usually start seeds indoors around March so that I’m ready to transfer the plants outdoors when the weather turns warm enough in May.

This year, we decided that we would try raised garden beds. Honestly, it was a decision made mostly out of laziness. We have a rototiller but the soil in our yard has so much clay that we end up having to add a bunch of sand just to make it workable and I hate having to sift out grass and rocks.

Along our back fence is the spot in the yard that gets the most sun, so that is the spot that we picked. We started with one bed. We found a good deal on standard concrete blocks. I thought that I would be able to grow some smaller plants (maybe onions or herbs?) in the holes of the concrete blocks. We stacked the blocks 2 high. I wanted to make sure that it was high enough that we would be able to use tomato cages for our tomato plants.