Lesson 215: Ashbaugh Garden 2015

When we left for summer conference last week, our garden looked kind of like this.

But, when we returned, it looked like this.

It's clearly not a one-to-one before and after showing, but the point is our garden is taking off! 

Sprouts here. Buds there. Plants and produce everywhere!

We're expecting tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, zucchini, blackberries, peppers, corn, and according to Samara, "Sunflowers that might end up eight feet tall, because we bought the wrong seeds."

We're so excited.

And so hungry.


Lesson Learned: A watched pot never boils, but a watered garden grows. (What?!?)

Lesson 208: Weekend Projects

Mark and I are convinced that we are better people once spring comes. We spend more time outside, eat healthier, and sleep harder. Our improved selves also have more energy for projects, which makes us hungrier for real food and deep slumber.

It's a good cycle.

This weekend we got at it, both inside the house and out.

Mark was busy building our new compost pile.

Replanting the blueberry bushes from Clover.

(How sad is this new view ... )

And fashioning a fire pit.

I made my first attempts with Annie Sloan.

And took a hammer to some awful tile in our second bathroom.

You know, just to see what would happen.

(Don't worry. The toilet is going. Also, no comments about my hammer grip.)

I honestly have no idea what the kids did all weekend. Butterfly wings, airplanes, and shovels were definitely involved, but who knows what games they were playing.

All I know is they were busy.

And happy.

And hungry.

And tired.

The good kind of tired.

And that my friends is why spring is the best.


Lesson Learned: Use a clean brush when painting furniture if you don't want tiny white specks stuck in your finished product.


*Linked up at Living Well Spending Less

Lesson 137: We're Composting

A few months ago, Mark and I decided to learn to compost. We knew nothing about it: didn't know why, didn't know what, didn't know how.

You could kind of say, we didn't have a clue. But then, we started to find out.

After some research, we can sort of answer of all these questions.

Why the Ashbaugh's Compost?

1. We don't have a garbage disposal, which means all of our food was going into the trash can (or Mark would scatter it in the yard. Grrr.). This made the trash smell horrible and required that we change bags too often. Now we compost! Food waste goes in a small tupperware next to our sink and is taken out to the pile almost everyday.

(Yup, we love bananas.)

2. We don't have trash service. This means Mark has to load up trash in our car and take it to the dump. Composting helps create less trash, equaling fewer trips to the dump.

3. We're hoping to expand our gardening efforts next summer, and apparently compost has magical powers in a garden.

4. We have a lot of land. This means we can tuck the composting pile on the other side of the tree line and never have to look at it.

What the Ashbaugh's Compost?

We read Home Composting Made Easy by C. Forrest McDowell and basically, we compost what he says to and vice versa.

We do compost: Grass clippings, Leaves, Dead plants, Food scraps, Fruit wastes, Manure, Coffee grounds, Hair, Lint.

We don't compost: Fire ashes, Meat, Bones, Dairy Products, Human Doo-doo, Plastic, Metal, Glass, or Toxic plants.

How the Ashbaugh's Compost? 

We do the "compost as you go" style." As we cook, we collect food scraps in the aforementioned container. When it's full, we empty it into the pile (GREENS). Later that day, Mark will come along and throw a layer of BROWNS on it.

At first our composting pile was contained in a circular enclosure of cinder blocks. (These blocks, like the materials for everything we create, were found on the property.)

However, then Mark learned that the pile needed more air circulation, so this is the set-up as it currently stands.

Isn't it hilarious how excited people get over a pile of waste?

In other yard news, look what has started to grow!

I wonder if this lettuce would be more productive in a salad or as food for the compost pile?


Lesson Learned: Definitely too early in this experiment to have learned much yet. I will say though, composting helps keep our trash from stinking! And that's a good thing.

Lesson 124: A Miracle ... Not From OUR Garden

If you've followed this blog through the summer, you are well aware of the fact that Mark and I are kind of obsessed with our garden. It's not the garden itself, but more the fact that actual food grew in our garden that we were actually able to eat. Unbelievable.

See posts here, here, here, here, here, and here if you've missed out on this fun.

However, I will say that we grew one plant this summer that thoroughly caught us off guard ... in a great way.

It all began last fall.

We were romping around the yard as we do, tossing kids in leaves, and playing with the season's blessings.

In the country, when the season is over. These natural wonders don't go to the dump. They get thrown into the woods. Compost, right?!?

Can you guess where this story is going?

Look what we found growing near our fence this summer! Isn't he perfect?

 He's the perfect finishing touch to a simple centerpiece. (Ours is the little guy.)

 He's also a perfect mountain for driving cars over. 

Y'all, if we were amazed by produce springing up that we tried to grow, you cannot even imagine our excitement over plants we didn't try for.

Isn't nature incredible?

Lesson Learned: Pumpkin seeds. Not just for eating.

Lesson 123: A Wagon Project

Thank you so much to all who weighed in on what we should do with our "Surprise in the Woods." If you can believe it, Mark and I had not even considered turning the wagon into a coffee table.

If you missed last week's post, we found this in the woods near our house.

Mark has been excited to his get his hands on it for a while. Last Saturday morning, he woke up with the desire to do man things (said in a deep voice).

Real men saw, drill, build. Grrrr.

He worked hard all day (in a tank top).

Using scrap wood from the property, he created this.

He and his assistant filled it on up with dirt and doodoo!

And planted some seeds. "It's CLO," he informed me. (Carrots / Lettuce / Onions.)

Real men use acronyms as memory clues.

I doubted his gardening ability much less this time around.  Good thing, because I would have eaten my words. One week later ...

Oh, hello lettuce sprouts! We cannot wait to eat you.

Real men eat vegetables.

For now the wagon is home to our fall garden. Come spring, I hope to fill it with flowers and herbs, perhaps beautifying the slab of concrete on the side of our house that welcomes visitors to the back door.

We really do love the idea of turning it into a coffee table in the future. One of the wheels has a super sharp edge on it, so we aren't quite ready to bring it into the house with unsteady feet running around the place. However, it's not like spending a little time outside for now is going to ruin the thing.

We did find it in the woods afterall.


Lesson Learned: I married a real man! A man who builds ... and gardens. He's awesome!