Succulent Container Gardens, Low Water Garden Ideas

Growing succulent container gardens is quickly becoming a passion for me. I have always loved growing succulents but now I can't get enough.

One reason is our lack of rain. With succulents you can have attractive pots and containers with very little watering. And frankly, they are just so pretty.

A recent trip to a favorite nursery yielded the shot below. Isn't that little Irish cottage adorable? But hundreds of dollars for this pot so I am content to plant my own.

I bought the little chicken at the nursery but came home and used a pot I already had to plant Scotch moss and succulents I bought locally. Scotch moss has the same needs roughly of the succulents. It likes full to partial sun and unlike other mosses it needs to dry between watering and should only be fed twice a year,  in spring and fall. Too much nitrogen will cause browning. Mine should fill in nicely to cover the pot.

Succulents are perfect for containers like my succulent fountain garden. You can use succulents to plant areas or containers that you don't want to have to water often.

This container I planted in the fall. Succulents grow slowly so you don't have to repot for years.
How can you ask for any easier container gardens?

Here I have this pot perched on  a larger pot and set in the garden. Adds lots of visual punch but will not require much watering.

You can follow my tips on growing and caring for succulents here.

Gnome Garden Dry Creek Bed

After we redid our front porch we had to redirect the rainwater from the rain gutters so we decided to do something fun and create a dry creek bed with a twist. So being the quirky folks we are we created a gnome garden dry creek bed. 

At the front of the planter is a drain the was placed through the bottom of the bricks that we covered over with some metal screening and just a thick layer of rocks. By extending the dry creek bed rocks all the way up to the other rain gutter, we will be able to minimize the dirt getting into the drain.

Some gnomes, old and new and nasturtiums planted from seed, help set off the little area. I hope you like our little gnome garden dry creek bed.

Pistachio Pudding Recipe

This is one of my favorite recipes for light and fluffy goodness. Pistachio pudding is super easy to make and another from our old recipe file. 

My mother has a plethora of jello and pudding recipes she used to make. This was and is a favorite. Great for a shower or just a backyard barbecue as a sweet refreshing side dish.

PISTACHIO PUDDING

Ingredients

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained 1 (3 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix

1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed 1/2 (10.5 ounce) package miniature marshmallows

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Take a large bowl, stir together the pineapple and dry pistachio pudding mix well. Fold in thawed whipped topping and marshmallows until well mixed. Refrigerate several hours until chilled and serve.

Growing Strawberries, Ideas for the Spring Garden

This time of year this is me! I am in the garden. Right now I am potting up strawberries and making more plans for my spring garden.

 Via Pinterest

Rolie polies are munching on my strawberries so I potting up a bunch of strawberry starts and putting straw underneath the rest. I want to harvest some for the humans.

The bees are buzzing like crazy cause the orange trees are in bloom and this basil draws them. It is the best pollinator plant I have ever had.

I snapped this view looking out of my screen in my bedroom. The jasmine is in full bloom and my room smells like Heaven.

But for right now the house is quiet and I have my coffee and my newest magazine so I am plotting and planning some more ideas for my spring garden.

From the Farm is on Spring Break but Join the Savings Challenge

The From the Farm Blog hop is on an early spring break and will return the first Friday in March. Come on by then and see what we have in store for a new season of the blog link party and more.

Until then you can link up to the February Money Saving Challenge ongoing on this blog. Link up any money saving posts you have or visit to get some motivation and maybe join the challenge.

Saving Money with Canned Foods and Two Money Saving Tips

This is national canned food month and the time to stock up. I have been shopping sales and really stocking my pantry. I am working on going back to grocery shopping every two weeks instead of weekly. That requires a very well stocked pantry of goods, so I have been really cleaning and sprucing up my pantry. More on that later.

Okay, onto the two tips for the day:

First, never buy olives already chopped. You will pay about 1 1/2 times more for them prechopped.
Instead, cut up what you need and put the rest in the refrigerator. They keep a long time in there and then use them in your next recipe or toss in a salad.

Second money saving tip. I no longer buy tomato sauce. You get far more for your money with paste. I find a heaping tablespoon of tomato paste diluted with about a half cup of water equals the average small can of tomato sauce. BUT, what you have left is three more large tablespoons of paste. So to save them, scoop each one onto a plate and place in the freezer.

Once they are frozen, pop them into a plastic bag or container and keep frozen until you are ready to use the next time. For my easy Spanish rice I use one of these tablespoons and about a half cup of water to equal the tomato sauce called for.

For that and my other recipes you can check my recipe page.

Farmhouse Love, Succulent Container Gardens

A weekend along our favorite spot on the coast. Town was crowded seeing that it was a holiday and I just have a harder and harder time tolerating crowds so we headed for a drive down our favorite country road to a little farm store we like to visit.

I love this old white farmhouse. I could live out my days in a place like this.

We did spend some time on the beach. Always a favorite with our youngest.

But the farm was mine. They had these baby bunnies for sale and I would have loved to have bought one but my hubby just gave me the look. And then he said I will drive right out of here if you even think a bunny is coming home so I didn't even ask. BUT, the kids were so sweet and let us hold a bunch of them.

I just prefer the company of animals the older I get. What does that say about me?

Now on our way home we stopped at a favorite nursery of mine. They plant succulent container gardens that are so unusual and fun.

I did bring me home one of these chickies.

The use of Scotch moss is so attractive but I never have much luck keeping it alive here.

Well there is just a sampling. J. Woeste is the name of the nursery. I could spend hours looking at their succulent containers.

Make sure to check out my posts on how to grow succulents and other succulent ideas.

The Joys of Chicken Keeping

For this Valentine week I am expressing my love of all things home and today it is my chickens.
I know you have all heard me before. Elaine loves her stupid chickens, but I do and if I can convince anyone else to get them I think you will love them too and experience the joys of chicken keeping like me. Truly one of the best pets ever.

Oh my dear chickens how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love you and your quirky chicken personalities. You make me laugh everyday and I never tire of watching you do your chicken stuff.

I love the way you are my little one's friends and how you are always so glad to see her. She is little and your are little and you get each other.

I LOVE your eggs. Period!!

I love you for letting me show you my chicken love and you tolerating me.

I love your gift of the best eggs ever and the yummy dishes I make with them. You can find some of my favorite egg recipes here.

If I could move to a farm and have a large flock I would but for now I love having my little flock out back. In fact days I know I am going to work in the coop I get giddy. Love any work outside but love my chicken girls so much. Happy Valentines Cupcake, Sunflower and Daisy.

On Love and Marriage and Valentine's Day

It is Valentine's week and really we have never done much in the way of romantic ventures to celebrate the holiday. Oh, don't get me wrong we celebrate it, but with the kids usually. The thought of going out on one of the busiest days of the year would give hubby and I a stroke. We hate crowds. Often we head out of town to the central coast but there are usually some or one kid with us but that's fine.

What I love is having my husband home and in the house and just being here with us. He works a lot so I appreciate his need to be home. A romantic night is curling up with the latest Sturbridge Yankee catalog and deciding what we would order if we suddenly were rich. Life is basic around here. I really just love being a family. When things are good with the kids then things are usually good with us. Our focus has always been centered right within these walls.

Now don't get me wrong. Love a little time away or even a trip to the hardware store with my man, but we are usually found at home keeping things going around here. I think it helps if your goals are similar and your home is your center. I think it's pretty hot when the house is clean and we can head out to the garden and play in the dirt. That's sexy to me. A little dirt under the fingernails. But heck I am not above stealing a little kiss from my man behind the tree out back.

So even though we aren't fancy about our Valentine's celebration, I do always look forward to a little something he brings home to me that day. Hey, I ain't gonna lie. I have never turned down an offer of flowers EVER?

So what are your plans for the day of LOVE? Do you do it up big or do you maybe just ignore the day all together? I'd love to know.

The Strangest Winter Garden and Drought Fears

This has been a winter of extremes. For many of you it has been the coldest and snowiest in recent memory but for us it has been very warm until a few days ago and sadly the driest.

My flowers however have thrived. Never really dying back or even stopping their bloom cycle.

Things have remained green and with some help from my chickens and the fertilizer they get from my compost tea, I have enjoyed flowers all winter long.

Sadly, though I do not know if I will have much in bloom this summer. We are in a severe drought and I have heard mandatory water rationing may begin here very soon. I already try to conserve so I am not sure what I will be able to keep alive this summer. I am not planting any new pots of flowers this spring like I normally do. I will place priority on keeping my trees and foundation plants alive using grey water. I pray we have more rain this spring. 

Sharing with:
Simple Saturday
Barn Hop
BNOTP
Cozy Little House

Displaying Crocks and Rolling Pins

I have a lot of collections but two of my favorites are old crocks and vintage rolling pins.

They get moved about but for now some of the crocks have been put to use displaying my rolling pins. 

Here are my tips for displaying crocks and rolling pins:

• Display crocks together in groups of three or more.
• Display by like color
• Display in graduated sizes
• Display in odd number, 3, 5, 7

With rolling pins they look best gathered together and here I have them standing in crocks

Display similar colors

Display with similar sizes in separate containers. You can see they make much more of a statement gathered together. You know they are a collection but you will find them standing alone to complete another vignette throughout my house.

The women that used both these items would laugh today that we would treasure the items they used in everyday chores.

But we do we love them and cherish them. You can see more of my collections here, here and here.

February Savings Challenge Link Party

Welcome to the February Savings Challenge. Are you ready to save some money? I am. We just got our taxes in to our accountant so now that that is done I feel like I can focus more on some other items.

For February here are our plans to save money:

1. Cancelling our satellite T.V. (we will use Netflix and possibly Hulu)
     We already have Netflix but this will save us almost a hundred dollars a month.

2. Prepare our trailer for sale. We have gone back and forth but it is time. We do not use the trailer       enough to justify keeping it. This will save us on tax and insurance payments for the year.

3. Eat more meals in. Hubby and I will still enjoy a few date nights a month as we feel that is just        money well spent but I will make sure I have some super fast dinners I can throw together and        avoid picking up food. Our bodies will thank us too.

4. I planted an apple tree I bought for $13. I am looking forward to the homegrown fruit we will get      from this one initial investment.

Okay, so what do you have planned for the month? Share and link up any new or old money saving posts you think we can all benefit from. Happy Saving!!