Earth Day: Starting Your Garden in a Mindful Way

Boom, it's Earth Day! I mean, every day should be Earth Day because we live on this planet and should take care of it each and every day but we can embrace the date on the calendar and use it as a catalyst to make some changes in our every day lives. We've been trying to make small adjustments in the Propah Household, as we go along, to make less of a footprint in our home. (recycling, consuming less, reusing, DIY with what we have instead of buying new, etc). No single family is perfect but we sure are trying! One of my favorite things about the Spring is starting my garden. In the past, I'd bought trays upon trays of the plastic seed starter kits, which #1 are wasteful of resources and #2 don't do that great of a job anyhow... I mean, you have to get those seedlings out and I can never seem to transplant without a few little plants losing their lives. *pours one out* This year, I decided I was going to do things differently. With the help of my little sous gardener, we started our little garden with things I had "hanging" around the house!

Items you can use to start seeds: I prefer items that will break down when planted in their "forever home"

Toilet Paper Tubes
Egg cartons (cardboard)
Stale Ice Cream Cones
Used Ziploc bags and wet paper towels (they started beans like this at daycare, just tape 'em to the window!)
Newspaper, think paper mache!
Egg shells, interested to try though would require me not to break them fully, which would be a challenge.
Old Muffin tins (just slip in cupcake papers!)
Old Ice Cube Tray
Old K-cups, though they won't breakdown, is certainly a way to re-use!

Items you can use as planters:

Milk Cartons or jugs
Soup Cans
Soda Bottles
Plant Sacks
Plastic Water bottles
Pretty much anything, just be sure you account for drainage!

Items you can use that are mindful:

Organic soil: it's a touch more expensive but if you're growing edibles, it's great for the environment and your peace of mind.
Reusable plant sacks and planters. Keep using them for years and years!
Also, When buying plants at your garden center, look for ones that are in recycled container or better yet ones that will break down when planted. You'll find a lot of brands offer this option!

Obviously, these are just a start and there are so many ways that you can make your garden more Earth friendly than it already is, I mean, it's already pretty earthy-crunchy! We love this time we get to spend together and it's a real treat to be able to recycle, re-use and reduce when we're creating our garden!

Kneeling Pad, Garden Tools Caddy, Plant Sack, Gardening Gloves, Garden Twine

Do you have any "hacks" for starting your garden at home that keeps the environment in mind?

Planting Parties are all the Wave

This past Monday I kissed the baby, gave my husband the peace out sign and hit the rainy roads up to Winchester, MA for a Wave Petunias event at Mahoney's Garden Center. I was invited to a gardening party thrown to show some local gardening aficionados how to create the perfect planter using lots of different kinds of plants, petunias included obvi. I'll be honest. Before this week, I can't say that I have ever used petunias in my gardening. I guess I thought that they looked hard to care for and keep alive. This mama needs a hardy plant that can take a lickin'... Well, I found out that petunias should be one of my "go to's" in my gardening future + I learned lots of cool tips for generally caring for my potted plants. Check out my recap after the jump and glean some worthy gardening wisdom if you please...

I extended the invite to my good friends Bridget and Marb, who jumped at the chance to #1 get out of the house and #2 get their hands dirty. Marb started a new hashtag as far as I'm concerned " #DirtDontHurt". Oh how we laughed...We started off the evening with some bites and sips, I mean it's not every day that you get to garden while drinking wine. Well, I don't get to do that every day. In any event, the rain didn't stop us from getting to know each other and start getting our creative gardening juices flowing.

Super Easy DIY Herb and Plant Markers

I have to be perfectly honest with myself this Spring and Summer season... I know full well that I won't be able to care for an infant child and an entire vegetable garden no matter how rewarding and satisfying grabbing a fresh squash from the backyard is and would be. That doesn't mean I have to take away the reward of some sort of garden life, which is why I decided to move onward towards my deck herb garden and keeping it alive. Something I have wanted to do that last couple of years was stylize it up, which never seemed to happen... that was until I had the "nesting" urge motivating me to do lots and lots of stuff around the hizzy. DIY herb markers? yep, check thems off the the to do list! Check out how quick, easy and cheap these little loves are to make! --->

Spring has Sprung, Literally

Since one of my main "things" about having a house was to have some place to garden, you can imagine that the second that plants, seeds and the like started hitting the stores and markets, I was all over that. I actually might have gone a little overboard. I told the man I was going to Bed Bath and Beyond to exchange some curtain rods and I came back with everything I would need to start my seeds at the house...purchased at Target. Point of information: I also did exchange the curtain rods. In any event, I have started on my gardening adventure, in our home, so that I am ready to get this garden party started once these are ready to head outside.