That’s right. Power tools. A cordless drill and a fancy drill bit to be exact. Why garden, when you can garden with more power. (insert Tim Allen barking noise) While we’re at it, let’s throw in some paint sticks.
When you’re planting a garden, planting seeds might sound easy: wiggle your finger in some dirt, plant the seed, and move on to the next one. But when you’ve got a ton of seeds, you’re bent over, the sun is baking on you, and your 3 year old wants to help, it gets to be quite tedious. Enter the drill and bit.
I used a 1” flat wood boring bit along with my cordless drill to drill holes into the dirt. Doug and my dad said it’d work better in dry soil, but I liked the clean look of the holes in damp soil.
Drill, drop the seed, and cover. Move on to the next hole. Repeat times a few thousand.
![[gickr.com]_7928b0de-1e21-36a4-85d3-87ddaa9e7dbc](https://www.whitehouseblackshutters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/gickr.com_7928b0de-1e21-36a4-85d3-87ddaa9e7dbc.gif "[gickr.com]_7928b0de-1e21-36a4-85d3-87ddaa9e7dbc")
Another tip when marking your plants, is to use a paint stick and sharpie. Don’t go to Lowe’s for the paint sticks, the guy said he couldn’t give or sell them to me. Go to Home Depot, ask the guy for a bunch, he’ll give you way too many, and ask you if you want a bunch more. For free. Look how nice it looks!
And you won’t lose your plants.
For the lettuce, I used clothesline (dollar store) to rope off the area.
Want yet another tip? Use an IKEA bag for weeds. It’s washable, it’s only 59 cents or something, and it’s easy to carry around with you. I weed, empty the weeds, then bring the bag back in with my supplies.
Our garden is actually doing really well this year. We got a sprinkler, and I’ve been going out there every day to water it, and weed for 15 minutes at a time. It’s not a lot of work, and it’s keeping things under control. Hopefully we’ll have a pretty nice pay out at the end of the season.
Click here for more pics of our garden from previous years.
See, I can still write a short blog post. HA! (Take that, Doug.)
Drill bit tip courtesy of my dad, paint sticks courtesy of Doug’s parents.
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Lisa @ 3 girls and 1 boy
um this is amazical...i'm trying to widdle down my projects since I start school next week BUT I have Tuesdays off so...this can be done haha...looks great!!! I keep meaning to get my garden going every time I go and buy vegetable :-/...now..it will be DONE!
Ann Marie
They are the best! Do you use them for laundry baskets too?
I used popsicle sticks last year (cause the Lowe's guy was a jerk), and they were just too small! Try em out, post a link here if you blog about it 🙂
Angie in the Thick of It
i am soooo impressed! no i do NOT have a garden, because i rationalize that i am way too busy on projects INSIDE the house to do ANY gardening.
you totally just blew my reasoning out the window. if only i could go back to the place where i didn't know you had a garden...
thanks a lot 🙂
Ann Marie
I water it every day in the morning or evening, then spend 15 min a day weeding. It took a few hours to get it all planted. NEXT YEAR!
Or don't... your house is probably loved a lot more than mine is from spring to late fall! There's nothing wrong with going to the store... 😉
hi-d
What great ideas...I am trying to figure out what else one could do with those free paint sticks. Teehee...
Ann Marie
lampshade? uhhh... I'm out of ideas so here you go: http://pinterest.com/search/?q=paint+sticks
Pinterest is the new google image search 😉
thanks for asking, I have like 20 left and needed some ideas!
katie
Your garden is beautiful! Do you have issues with snakes? I'm super paranoid, which makes my gardening very limited!! : (
Ann Marie
I don't. And as far as I know, they don't exist in my yard. Don't tell me if they do, cause I don't want to know. We do have lots of bugs, worms, bunnies, birds, and squirrels that camp out side the garden.
I don't blame you, I probably would not garden either if we were in an area with snakes. Eeesh. *shudders* Have a Farmer's Market? hahaha that would be good enough for me..
AshleyD
Look at that beautiful Northern Illinois soil! Southern Illinois has boring brown clay. 🙁 We are in a drought down here, so no garden for us.
Ann Marie
We are in a drought too, so I've been babying it with water every day. I didn't know you guys had different soil down there!
AshleyD
My husband says its because the glacier pushed all the "yucky" topsoil down here. And left the good soil up there. I have no idea if that's true or not, I just know there is a difference in the two.
Diana
Hey Ann, question for you, since you have 3 little ones! 🙂 A friend of mine just gave me 2 big bags of baby clothes. After I accepted, she added that she wants it all back when I’m done with them. This is new to me. I’m used to people just giving us clothes and not asking for it back. What is your take on this? It just makes me a bit nervous to have to return it all, especially since little ones can be tough on clothes!
Ann Marie lives here
Hey Diana, great question! I might use this as a future post if that's okay with you. 🙂
That's a tough one. I've never been in that situation, but I'd be nervous to use them. I do, however, tell my friends that I'd like whatever back, but that I'm not tied to any of it and if it gets gross or they want to keep it, to do so. I also mark an "A" into the tag with permanent marker into only the clothes I'd like back, but again, I'm not tied to any of them and if those clothes get yucky, it's okay.
If I was you, I would bring the clothes back to her and say that while you'd be really careful, you're nervous to use them because you don't want the kids to ruin any of her favorites. Chances are she might say something like "oh no, you can use them!" or she might take them back, which is fine. If she says you can use them, ask to go through them with her, and take things out that she absolutely wants to save. All the rest, ask if you can mark her initials in the tag so that you can make sure to get them back.
Also, I have/use/love a product (Shaklee's nature bright), that has taken out every.single.stain I have ever tried to take out of the kids clothes. I even buy stained clothes from garage sales on purpose cause I know the stains will get out. Let me know if you're ever interested, or want more info! Here's the link: http://healthytradition.myshaklee.com/us/en/products.php?sku=00305
Sarah
Great tip! We have a few containers at our house then a garden at my mom's. The containers are doing well but the garden at my mom's is not doing well at all!! Only half the corn came up, all of the squash and cucumbers died and the tomatoes had to be replanted since something ate them. We'll just make do with what we have and try again next year!
Looks like your garden is doing great! Yum - you are going to have lots of fresh veggies!
Ann Marie lives here
Add in way too many weeds, and that sounds like our garden the last two years. Oh well, you can only get better. And you have veggies that you wouldn't have had if you didn't plant one!
Thanks! I don't want to jinx it because I have plenty of time to still mess it up. 😉
Miranda Irby
Nice work! We didn't even put in a garden this year. 🙁 But, NEXT YEAR, I'll totally do this.
Ann Marie lives here
our garden STUNK last year, so I'm making up for it. I will bug you about this next year. 🙂
Miranda Irby
Perfect!