Tag: Wine Box Garden

• Old Soul

  Posted at 5:13 AM by Brittany, on August 5, 2013

  I’ve been told I have a bit of an old soul. I am not your typical 24 year old, and I have tenancies that have earned me the nickname, “Grandma B.” I really don’t mind this much, and I enjoy living a calm, smooth life. I go to bed no later than 10, I wake up at 6, I drink my coffee black just like grandpa, mornings are my favorite time of the day, I eat Metamucil crackers (these are legit good, I don’t actually “need them” I just like the taste!) and I LOVE gardening. I often share stories of my first garden from last summer.

  This year I slacked on planting anything, but my roommate (hi mom) planted a few things that I am just swooning over as they start to grow!

  

  Neither of us had planted cauliflower before, so when the leaves started to grow we were unsure of when we would see anything else. I noticed this tiny cauliflower head yesterday!

  

  This Swiss chard has already put my wine box chard to shame, and just proves plants need A LOT of room to grow. I still loved my chard last summer even if the leaves were small.

  

  Classic garden zucchini plant. Will be making lots of brownies with these!

  The mini garden also has some fresh herbs, but this is all for the veggies. I just need an avocado, some carrots, tofu, and cucumber to recreate this amazing rice roll…I’ll use the chard for the leafy green, and perhaps some zucchini as well.

  

  New to me garden additions would be fruit plants!

  

  I am so excited to harvest more blueberries, freeze them, and put them in my cereal.

  

  If you have a garden, don’t invite me over to your house. You will loose me, and then find me talking to your plants as if they were people. Just kidding, please invite me over. Also if anyone spots a good deal on some Depends, I think it’s time I stock up. Just in case.

  Q: Did you plant a garden this year?
  

  

  | 79 Comments Tagged Gardening, Veggies, Wine Box Garden

• The Final Harvest

  Posted at 7:52 AM by Brittany, on October 1, 2012

  I harvested the beets from my wine box garden. These were the last to be harvested.

  

  Baby beets. This was what my parents called me when I was a small drooling child. Beeters, beets, and on taco night–beaners. I have no idea where I get my odd quirks from. My favorite harvested beet was the largest of the bunch.

  

  They may be small, but I am still proud of these bite sized beets. I must admit, pulling these final veggies out of the final wine box was a bit sad. With the final harvest comes the complete reflection of the garden. It was a complete success, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first time. One last reflection…

  1. Swiss chard came first. This was eaten for months until finally the deep green faded from the leaves, and the stalks grew tall and frail.
  2. The onions were the next to be harvested, however the first harvest was simply to “thin” out the wine box to make room for some of the onions to grow larger. These were harvested over the course of a few months, and finally at the final harvest I had three giant onions that lasted for days!
  3. Next up were my carrots. These took their time to grow and were harvested twice. Once to thin them out, and one final harvest to finish off the box. I may have bragged about that carrot the size of my hand.
  4. Lastly, are the beets seen here in this post. Smaller than I hoped for, but bigger than the seeds they started as.

  I can’t wait to start another mini garden. Right now I am trying to grow jalapenos. I actually planted these a few months ago, and they are moving pretty slow. Stay tuned for the progress on this.

  Random pumpkin photo in 3..2..1..

  

  It reminds me of Cinderella, or Jack and the Beanstalk, or a pumpkin with a funky stem. I love it. YAY FALL!

  Q(s):

  • Did you garden this year?
  • Favorite inspirational quote of the week?
  • Any funky pumpkin sightings?

  

  | 25 Comments Tagged Fall, Gardening, Pinterest, Pumpkin, Wine Box Garden

• Black Hole

  Posted at 4:24 PM by Brittany, on August 16, 2012

  My blogging has been terrible lately. I feel like I have been sucked into a black hole of busyness. I am nearing the tail end of a week long house sitting adventure, and I am ready to be done taking care of someone else’s dog. The chickens are cool though, they require minimal attention, and I probably give them too much. I have officially trained them to run with me, or after me..all I have to do is carry some food and they run like savage cheetahs.

  In exciting news, I have harvested every last carrot from my wine box garden.

  

  The biggest one was about the size of my hand!

  

  Simply gawwwjus! I have incorporated them into a few meals, my favorite being a good ol BBQ style meal. I smothered the carrots in maple syrup and cinnamon before sticking them in the oven for about 20 minutes.

  

  With a cut up potato (french fry style), baked beans, and a vegan vegetable burger!

  The temperatures have been in the upper 80’s, low 90’s lately and that makes for some VERY hot runs. I tried to portray how sweaty I was after a 5miler the other day, but instead I just look like a deer in headlights. “A” for effort.

  

  Bottom line is, running in the middle of the day when it’s 80 plus degrees makes me hate waking up to work at 4A.M. even more than I already do. I want to run mid morning like all the cool kids! That yellow VHS on the door was one of my all time favorite movies when I was younger. Rugrats christmas movie. I finally stopped watching it last year.

  It’s finally my weekend, and I plan to sleep, eat..sleep some more..eat a lot more..and then run my first 9miler. Woof.

  Q: What were some of your favorite movies growing up?? Anything Disney, Rugrats, and The Berenstein Bears V-Day movie was my jammm! 

  

  | 26 Comments Tagged Carrots, Running, Vegan, Wine Box Garden

• Onion’s

  Posted at 5:24 PM by Brittany, on August 3, 2012

  The last of the onions from my wine box garden have been harvested. I decided to pull the last three today. Their box is now empty, just waiting to be occupied by something else! More onions perhaps? I am amazed at the transformation of the boxes. They are definitely nearing their end.

  

  I am very pleased with how the onions turned out. I pulled the first few to make room for the others to grow bigger, and they did just that.

  

  

  I’m like a proud mother sending her child off to college. Except I don’t have kids..I just attempt to grow good produce. Yay. I hope to have another update on my carrots and beets soon. The Swiss chard is just about finished, but I was able to harvest quite a bit of it!

  In random news: I have been getting weekly massages to help my back My insurance covers all but my copay, which is only $20 each visit. $20 for a massage is like finding Nemo in your bathtub. I’ve noticed that after my massage I feel better, until the very next day I am at work and get sore all over again. I think I need a new job. I wish I could hire my cat to massage me, but he only massages my stuffed animals.

   

  Don’t mind the awful music, just focus on the natural movement of those kitty arms. So jealous of that stuffed animal.

  Q: Do your pets do anything weird? My little black man kneads at my stuffed animals all the time, and “barks” at laser pointers. 

  

  | 26 Comments Tagged Cats, Wine Box Garden

• Carrots & Goats

  Posted at 12:28 PM by Brittany, on July 5, 2012

  It’s time for another garden update. I have posted about my onions, my swiss chard, and now it’s time to show you my carrots.

  

  The beets and carrots both needed to be thinned out again. The carrots that were thinned are shown above. I salvaged the bigger ones, and gave the runt carrots to the neighbors goats.

  

  Who needs a compost bin when you can have goats!? New life goal: not only do I want a flock of chickens, (is this what they’re called? a flock..a herd..a bundle?) but I must own two goats. Not one, not three..but two. I can feed them my leftover food, and train my cats to ride them like horses. The carrots were stored in a mason jar for a day, and then they were turned into a delicious meal.

  

  My most favoritest bowl

   

  

  There on the left..are my precious baby carrots from my garden! Along with an onion from my garden, fried purple potatoes, butternut squash, roma tomatoes, all surrounding tricolor quinoa. This meal was perfect.

  

  | 48 Comments Tagged Carrots, Gardening, Goats, Vegan, Wine Box Garden

• The First Harvest

  Posted at 9:28 AM by Brittany, on May 14, 2012

  It’s about time I gave you all an update on my wine box garden. So far I am beyond pleased with how things have turned out. It’s been just about two months, and I’ve already harvested some of the goods! Here are some before and after photos.

  Onions

  

  Beets 

  

  Carrots

  

  Swiss Chard

  

  The Swiss chard has amazed me the most! The wine boxes have seen better days, and probably wont be used again after this growing season. They have continued to do their job, and for that I love them! The remaining wine boxes (I told you I was hoarding them) will be used for shelving/decoration.

  The chard was getting so large in some spots that it was shading the little leaves below. Time to harvest.

  

  These will grow MUCH larger, but having a few right now was great. They were washed, cut, and mixed in with some lentils.

  

  It is so rewarding eating produce from your own garden, and this is just the beginning. I will literally pee myself when I eat my beets. I will probably cry too. It will be a messy moment.

  The beets and carrots have been thinned so hopefully they will grow into giant beet balls and carrot tubes. Everyone is invited over for a carrot,onion,beet,chard,garlic fest at my dinner table in another month or two.

  Q: Have you harvested anything from your garden yet? If you don’t have a garden have you tried any new produce lately?

  

  | 48 Comments Tagged DIY, Harvest, Produce, Wine Box Garden

• DIY: Wine Box Garden

  Posted at 8:10 AM by Brittany, on March 23, 2012

  The mini garden I have been wanting to start has been completed. It was super easy, and a lot of fun. To start things off you will need the following:

  • Wine boxes
  • Soil
  • Plant starters/Seeds
  • Frost/Critter blanket
  • Wooden steaks (if your boxes are flimsy)
  • Something to prop the boxes on once complete
  • Power tools
  • Love and patience

  If you have sturdy wine boxes, you will not need to reinforce the box like I did.

  

  See that bucket in the background..the clout laundry detergent bucket? That was my front row seat to watching my friend do all the work. As I mentioned, these boxes were collected from Trader Joe’s. I had eight boxes total. Hoarding starts at a young age my friends. This is what the boxes looked like originally.

  

  Now you see why I have eight, these boxes are gorgeous. Despite the boxes good looks, the sides were not very sturdy. Insert a woodworking friend to fix the problem.

  

  Those 4 wooden pegs were nailed in to keep the sides from splitting. Now the box is ready to go. Next step-Drill holes in the bottom for drainage.

  

  I am the mastermind behind these six holes. I can be hired with the promise of cookies as my pay.

  Now the fun part-Time to get dirty! Pour your soil(s) in to the boxes and plant your goods! We used two different “dirts,” one as a base soil, and one with a fertilizer to nourish the plants. From top to bottom: Walla Walla onions, beets, swiss chard, and carrots!

  

  If you live somewhere that has the potential of getting frost still, like we do in Washington, a frost blanket is suggested. This also acts as an insulation while protecting your goods from creatures, slugs, passing neighbors, and slugs. Did I say slugs? I hate slugs…

  

  Lastly make sure the boxes can drain.

  

  We set the box ends onto left over wood for elevation. I ended up moving the wood under the box near the center more to evenly distribute the weight of the soil within the box.

  There you have it, making a wine box garden is THAT easy. You just need to find some sturdy wine boxes and the rest is simple. I do suggest using some form of a label to indicate which vegetables are in which box. You can spend money on something like this:

  

  Or you can be cheap like me and use parts that came inside the boxes, saw them into pieces and use a sharpie to write on the pieces of wood (see upper right corners of completed boxes.) OR you could make something like the poop stick by using a kitchen knife, and a hot glue gun to attach a label to the knife. Perhaps this will be another DIY post for the future.

  Growing a mini garden, or growing a small potted plant in your house is both fun and rewarding. Watching your plants grow is like watching your child complete grade school..I think. I don’t have children, except for my cats..but they don’t attend school. Either way it’s extremely satisfying doing this yourself!

  Q: Are you planting anything this season? If so..tell me what!

  

  | 49 Comments Tagged DIY, Gardening, Trader Joes, Veggies, Wine Box Garden

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