Meeting The Neighbors

Grapes and a Blackberry Bush Dug Up From My Yard

Being another sunny spring day, I got out again to go work a little on my community garden plot, "Las Vegan Ranch" on Detroit Street in Lansing, MI. First, I dug up some grape vines and a blackberry bush from my yard. I planted them last year, but my yard was so shady, they did not get very big; however, there is new growth on the blackberry after the winter and buds on the grape vines, so I decided to replant them on my rented plot in a sunny spot.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Succulents

Before I left, I took my indoor seedlings out in the sunshine for a little natural sunlight. I started these on April. 1st, and I need to wait until the last frost, after May 15th here in Michigan, to put them in the ground. In the meantime, I try to take them outside when it is nice and sunny. I have an artificial light indoors for my seedlings, but I can see visible growth after I take them out in the sun.

Blackberry

Grapes

Above, you can see the blackberry bush and grapevines replanted. The grape vines are adjacent to a huge, old stump, and I hope they grow up and cover the stump. After the summer, I will have to dig up the blackberry and find a home for it in the winter, because it is in the middle of the field and will get plowed up when they till the land in the spring. I will probably overwinter it in a well-mulched pot, or in my back yard.

While I was out there planting, 2 friendly ladies from the neighborhood came over to introduce themselves to me and tell me about the neighborhood. According to local gossip, a few years ago, there was a house where my plot of land is and there was a bust that uncovered a vicious dog-fighting ring based there, with many dead and abused dogs. They rescued the ones they could and razed the house. I have been finding a lot of bones there, and according to one of the women, the dead dogs were buried out in the yard. This is so sad, but it made me happy that the vile house was gone and the abusers in prison.

I also found out that the house next door to my lot is vacant and that the Land Bank apparently bought that as well, and will most likely raze it. It is very old and dilapidated, with trees and vines growing out of the rear of the structure. If the house is razed, most likely, it will become a garden plot like mine, but there is a lot of work to do.

Overall, the neighbors were super friendly. They promised to watch my garden for any vandals, although they said they can't do anything about the deer and rabbits- I am sure to lose some crops to critters. One of the ladies has 9 cats, so I dug up a huge, fresh catnip plant for her from my plot and gave it to her to bring home and pot in a sunny location. As soon as she crossed the street to go back home, I saw a gray tabby come running to investigate the plant!

The neighbors, both of whom had lived on that street for years, both expressed gratitude that the eyesore dog-fighting house was gone and that the land bank was renting out vacant lots for gardening and beautification. Additionally, both women hoped the house next door would be torn down for another garden. They gave me some extra empty milk jugs for hauling water, which I thought was very neighborly.

This is a picture of another community garden project in Lansing on Elizabeth Street. This one is a very large garden with multiple volunteers who help out. Today, they are collecting bags of yard waste to turn into compost for the garden, which is located behind the bags of leaves. You cannot see much growing, because all of their crops are covered with plastic tenting.

Finally, I added a picture of a house on my street that is being restored. I saw a Lansing Land Bank vehicle parked there the other day, so I am pretty sure it is being renovated by the Land Bank, the same organization that I am renting my garden plot from. The orange and green tags in the window are put in houses that have been foreclosed on or condemned. You see them quite often here, which is a shame, but the Land Bank purchases some and restores them to rent or resell. I was browsing some of the homes while I was at there office in Old Town and they were all selling for between 40 thousand and 80 thousand dollars, which I thought was quite reasonable. I would consider buying one if I were in a better financial position.

DIY Eyeglasses Chain Tutorial

Eyeglasses Chain, Glasses Holder, Lanyard

 This tutorial is about how to make a eyeglasses holder chain like in the picture above. It is for intermediate skilled jewelry makers and requires you to know how to make a basic wrapped loop. The finished lanyard measures 30-32 inches and takes about 20 minutes to make. You can use whatever beads you want; I used 8 mm glass foil beads. The finished lanyard can also be used for sunglasses.

9 Inch Chain, Eye pin, Eyeglass Holder Finding, Jump Ring, Beaded Link

 Step 1 is to gather your materials. You will need:
- 8 beads measuring 6-8 mm, your choice of style and materials
- 3 sections of chain measuring 9 inches each
- 10 medium jump rings
- 6 50 mm (2 inch) eye pins
- 2 eyeglass holder findings (the plastic finding with the silver clamp in middle)
- basic jewelry making pliers

Beaded Link

 Step 1: Make 6 beaded links on the eye pins, 4 with 1 bead each and 2 with 2 beads. Make them in matching pairs.

Step 2: Lay the 3 pieces of chain out in a "U" or necklace shape.

Step 3: Use the jump rings to connect your double beaded links to the bottom portion of chain on your "U". Connect one end of the double beaded link to each side of the chain.

Step 4: Use jump rings to connect the 2 extra pieces of chain to the side of the double beaded links that are not connected to anything. You will now have 3 pieces of chain, joined by 2 double beaded segments.

Step 4: Use jump rings to connect 2 single beaded segments to the end of each chain piece. On my first try, I did not use jump rings to connect each beaded segment to the other or the eyeglass finding ends, but I found that it was faster and easier with jump rings and got less tangling, so I recommend using 2 jump rings for this step. It should look like this: chain end - jump ring - bead segment -jump ring - bead segment. Do the same for each end.

Step 5: You should have one jump ring left over, use that to connect the end bead link on each side to the eyeglass holder findings.

Connecting The Lanyard To Eyeglasses

I purchased everything for this project at Michael's craft store, except the eyeglass holder findings. I was able to purchase these on Etsy (4.00 dollars for 20 pairs).

Kale, Dill, and Lettuce

Lettuce In Pot

Kale and Dill Seeds

 This morning, I planted the rest of my spring herbs and vegetables. I planted Dwarf Blue Scotch Kale Seeds, Fernleaf Dill, and Green Leaf Lettuce. The lettuce had been started indoors about 3 weeks ago. I put that in a container and the kale and dill are in the rectangular area marked with white twine. In the bottom picture, there is a pile of wood chips. I am using some of the wood chips and some salvaged lumber to do some landscaping; however, the land bank is going to remove the unused wood chips on May. 1st so that I can put bales of straw for mulch there. The wood chips are left over from tree work and stump removal done earlier this spring on the lot, so that I would have more sun for growing tomatoes and peppers. Last year, corn and rye was grown on this plot. I am going to plant some corn; however, the land bank organization asked me to limit it, because the corn grown here last year attracted too many deer and they had complaints. I plan to plant 1 row of sweet corn.

Garden Plot Facing East

Wood Chips

A Good Day's Work

Wildflower Seed Mix

 Today was the first major planting day in my garden plot, "Las Vegan Ranch", which is a vacant lot rented from the City of Lansing, MI. Most of the day was spent planting the wildflower seeds that I obtained yesterday from the seed bank at Foster Park. I also constructed 6 tripods for peas and planted turnips, beets, carrots, and kale. In the bucket above is the contents of 20 packages of wildflower and perennial herb seeds. I mixed the seeds with fine-grained, dry seed starter mix as a filler and I used a soup ladle to spread the seeds. All of my vegetable seeds were direct sown into the ground. I used an online chart from the agriculture department of Michigan State University to determine when to plant my crops.

Tripod for Peas

 The bamboo poles I used to construct my tripods for peas were left behind in my garden plot from the resident that gardened here last year. I lashed them together with twine and made 6 tripods to cover the end stakes, marking my rows of other vegetables. Each leg of the tripod and the center has 3 peas planted. I have a mix of 3 varieties of peas. One is called "Straight Arrow" and is an heirloom variety. The row marked in the picture above marks where I have russet potatoes planted. I put them in the ground about 4 days ago and they are not up yet.

Peas

 Here is another tripod in the view of the garden looking east. This rear half of the plot is where I planted my wildflower mix. I cordoned off and area about 40 feet wide X 30 feet long and ladled out the seeds. The mix is heavy on wildflowers to attract bees and butterflies. If you look very closely below, you can see 3 bamboo poles in the shady portion of the wildflower area. These poles mark where I planted Lupine ornamental wildflowers, a shade tolerant flower. I got 3 packets of these from the seed bank. They are perennials. I wanted to mark them, so I can dig them up next year in the spring, otherwise, they will be destroyed when the land is tilled again.

Wildflower Area

Lupine Ornamental Flowers

A Trip To The Garden Project

Perennial Flower Seeds

April 23rd, 2015

Today, I decided to register my community garden plot online with the Lansing Food Bank Garden Project and visit their resource center in Foster Park on Marcus Street in Lansing, Michigan. The Garden Project is there to offer assistance to low income, elderly, and disabled gardeners. Additionally, they collect extra produce and use it to supply area food banks and soup kitchens. In order to utilize the resource center, I had to register online and meet the income guidelines. I make too much money to qualify for food stamps, but I still made less than the income cap for the program, so don't hesitate to apply if you are above the poverty line, but still struggling.

In the case that you are not struggling, The Garden Project seems like a great place to volunteer. It was staffed with friendly, helpful volunteers, ready to help me with my questions. They also have potlucks and social events to help promote community cohesion/

Dwarf Sunflowers

After registering my garden, I visited the center, which is open Thursdays from 5-7 pm for the general public to ask questions and pick out free seeds and plants. All of the seeds and plants are donated, so if you have extra seedlings, cuttings, or seed packets, call and ask what they need. You are allowed to pick 25 packets of seeds free. They have additional seeds, like buckwheat, used as a cover crop, available for purchase. I found several bins of expired seeds and bulk corn seed available free, that didn't count toward the 25 seed packet limit.

I explained to the volunteers that I had a community garden plot that was too big for my personal use and that I wanted to plant flowers on the part of the land that was not going to be in use for vegetable gardening. They listened to my needs and pointed me toward the seed section for flowers. I selected several packets of "Eastern Pollinator Perennial Mix" and several other flower varieties, including one packet of dwarf sunflowers, just for fun.

Thanks to an online friend of mine, I all ready have an enviable stash of heirloom vegetable seeds to plant, but if you are in Lansing and you require seeds from The Garden Project, they have an amazing variety, including rare and heirloom varieties. They had over 100 types of seeds and some exotic types, such as Asian cucumbers, ornamental corn, and Sun and Moon watermelon. The second week of May, they will have onion sets available. The volunteers told me to stop in often, because they never know what will be donated. They sometimes get seed potatoes and strawberry plants, too. I plan to return for some onion sets in 2 weeks and to donate any extra produce that I harvest.

Don't forget, The Garden Project also has books, a tool borrowing program, and lists of classes offered. You can learn about everything from growing the best tomatoes to beekeeping and home canning. Most of the classes are at the Hunter Park Community Greenhouse. Some have a cost to attend. Whatever your needs are, ask a volunteer and they will try and help you out!

Pinterest Success!

Herringbone Earrings

Hooray for tiny victories! Last night I tried a Pinterest craft tutorial that actually turned out like the picture. I made the herringbone copper earrings with glass beads above. This tutorial was easy to follow and it took me about 10 minutes to make the earrings. The tutorial calls for 24 gauge wire; however, I only had 20 gauge, which was a bit more bulky, but they still turned out great. I think I am going to keep these earrings for myself and practice more to make others to sell. These are the last of my "milk opal" glass beads, and I love them so.

Here is a link to the tutorial. I highly recommend it!
Herringbone Earring Tutorial 

You can follow my crafts and tutorials Pinterest board here:
Crafts/Tutorials/DIY Pinterest Board

A Rainy Day

Catnip In Pots

Much to my disappointment, today, April 21st was too cold and rainy to go out and work in my garden plot, so I decided to tend to the plants I have at home. First, I checked on and watered my replanted catnip that I harvested from the plot. There is so much growing there, that I can only conclude the gardener who tended the plot last year must have planted it. Now, I will have a nice supply at home for my spoiled cats.

Tomato And Pepper Seedlings

 Next, I watered and adjusted the lights for my seedlings. These are mostly tomato and pepper plants with a few herbs and lettuce. The plants are growing so quickly, I have to move the lights up on the chains, so they don't touch the tops of the plants. My seedlings are also drinking a lot of water as they grow. I need to mist them 2 or 3 times a day or they wither. I plan to put the lettuce outside in pots this weekend.

Terrarium

Finally, I watered and added some more soil mix to this terrarium. The succulent plant inside has doubled in size since I bought it at Meijer's 3 weeks ago. I also got the tiny chair there in the floral section for 2 dollars. This year, I want to focus primarily on growing food, but I can see making ornamental gardens and terrariums as being very addictive!

Potato Planting April 19, 2015

Seed Potatoes

Today, my sister and I headed over to our community garden plot, affectionately known as "Las Vegan Ranch" to plant some potatoes. This is my first year growing potatoes for food; last spring, I planted some for decorative foliage and they made big, beautiful vines, but very few potatoes, because my yard was too shady. This season, we chose to rent a nice, sunny plot from the city to garden on.

The potatoes are regular Russet potatoes from the grocery store. I bought them in early February and couldn't eat the whole bag, so I put them in a dark cupboard to plant later. The pictures show the potatoes after approx 8 weeks in a dark cupboard. We cut the potatoes up before planting them in the ground to yield more plants. The final tally was 20 potato eye segments planted from 7 potatoes.

Cutting Potatoes

 Here is the potato segment in the ground. As the season progresses, I plan to add straw mulch on top of the vines as they grow.

Planting Potato In Ground

 Also, we found an abundance of wild growing catnip on the plot, which I dug up to plant in pots at my house for our felines.

Basket Of Catnip

 After we were done planting, I played with some new alcohol inks and made a collage. I was using the inks to decorate glass and I decided to put a canvas under the work area to catch any drips and make an artwork out of them to experiment. This is a 12 x 12 canvas with alcohol inks, paper cutouts, and Mod Podge.

Alcohol Ink Art Collage

Farmer Wanna Be

My Community Garden Plot

Yesterday I got a much anticipated phone call from the Lansing, MI Landbank, an organization to help foster urban revitalization that rents vacant lots to community gardeners; I learned that, finally, my rented plot had been tilled and was ready to plant. Last year, I planted a vegetable garden in my back yard, but it was too shady to produce much. This year, I will have plenty of space and sun. I have tomato and pepper seedlings started indoors, and I also plan to plant corn, potatoes, onions, and plenty of catnip for my felines. My goals are to grow enough food to feed provide for my sister and I during the harvest season and donate some to the local food program. I also want to grow herbs for soap making and learn to can salsa and pickled foods.

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