The Garden Shedde

I’m not sure who came up with the term stay-cation and I will let you know once mine is over with if I think it has the same relaxing factor as a real life go away somewhere different vacation. From the sound of it, it won’t but I am willing to be open to the possibilities.

Now if our intent was to go visit somewhere different each day where we live it might be different. What we are doing on our stay at home vacation is re-painting the inside of the house and part of the outside areas such as the doors and porch. This requires me to work during the time I would rather be playing or relaxing. However, since I am a bit of a workaholic, it may end up being right up my ally. On most vacations, I tend to read a lot because there is not enough going on to suit me. Anyway, I will let you know in about two weeks how it ends up.

One of the best things you can do for the earth and your pocketbook is get a certified HVAC guy out to tune up that system! They will test all the pressure in the lines as well as the Freon and motors to make sure that everything falls within the appropriate ranges. They should also come in and test the cooling or heating temperature that is coming out of the vents to ensure that you are in fact cooling or heating your home as you should.

Another great tip related to your HVAZ is to change out your filters on a monthly basis. You may not realize that dirty air filters are the number one cause of breakdowns due to the motors having to work harder to pull air through the filter. It also costs you about $45.00 additional dollars a year in energy costs. Getting a filter that you can wash out each month is a great way to reduce the cost of monthly filters. Either way, replacing these filter during the hottest months of the year is a must for optimum cooling and better health.

Greenhouses are great to have around year round even when you may not use them for the entire year. Having one available for planting those early seedlings is a great way to get a head start on your neighbors. I was visiting a friend just the other day who wanted to show me her tomato plants and they were about a foot and a half tall. She was very excited about having them in the ground so quickly and when she asked how mine were doing I almost didn’t have the heart to tell her! You see mine are chest high!

I told her I have a greenhouse that I use to start my plants early every year and also to extend the life of the plants for as long as possible. It is rare that we go a month or two without fresh tomatoes, lettuce and assorted herbs and I don’t use my greenhouse to grow throughout the winter months; but I may try it this next year. Who knows, I just might become a yearlong gardener!

Only recently have I started practicing yoga. I didn’t do it out of a spiritual calling; I did it because I had been told that people who practice yoga do not have bad backs. Well, I already had a back that has had issues and wanted to fight off any other potential problems. What I have learned is there is something to both the physical and spiritual sides of yoga and I am enjoying both!

Yoga has a meditation to it that naturally grows over time. The concentration you have to develop to hold the poses for any length of time takes effort at first and then something else seems to take over. You go into a place that is highly peaceful and spiritual. I can tell you it is really a rest full way to spend some time. That’s not to say that it’s a walk in the park! It’s hard to do and as you progress through more and more poses it gets more challenging. Oh yeah, my back is definitely better and I feel much better about my physical and mental states.

My family is not much different from anyone else’s. We like it cooler than normal when we sleep and comfortable when we are home. If it gets too hot, we get cranky so that’s not an option. When we both worked out of the home it was an easy fix to get up in the morning and raise the thermostat to 78 degrees and lower it when we got home to 68 degrees. However, once I started working out of the house, I realized really quickly that 78 degrees on a hot August day is miserable! However, I didn’t want to pay the higher utility bills either.

What I ended up doing might seem kind of crazy to you but it works; I work everyday in a pair of shorts and have a fan moving air around and I am not only comfortable, but some days have to move the thermostat up to 80 degrees because I get cold! I do dress to go out and meet clients so I am not in shorts all day but when I am home, I am relaxed and dressed for summer weather! What we have been able to do is keep our heating and air costs (I wear sweaters and warm clothes in the winter) down to a very manageable level throughout the year.

I am just one of many who have happily gone down the isle to say my vows and marry the man I love. Those nuptials were one of the most important things I have ever done and helped shape and put my life on the path I am currently on. Maybe that is why I love the month of June AND weddings! Even after 22 years of marriage I still pick up the wedding planner magazine’s and thumb through it like a school girl. I find some very nice things in those pages but they pale to the memory of my own wedding by the lake in my grandparent’s backyard.

They pulled out all the stops back then to make this day special just for my future husband and me, but the one thing I would not let them do is change the wooden arbor that we were married under. I had loved that arbor since I was a child and every scratch and nick was special to me and I wanted it to be just like I remembered it for the ceremony. Yes it was worn and no longer a solid white but it was also covered with the most spectacular pink and white teacup roses that you have ever seen, and the smell was absolutely divine. I can still close my eyes and go back there to relive that moment every June… it doesn’t get any better than that!

It’s always fun to get together and share a garden. You find out a lot about likes and dislikes when family and friends start talking about all the things they want to grow. If you have a limited space, you have to make some hard choices; thus the choices in our garden this year with several other families. We ended up planting Lemon Balm for one couple who love to put it in their iced tea throughout the summer; cilantro fro two couples who love Mexican dishes an salsa all summer long.

We wanted to try Stevia this year as we have another friend who grows and harvests it year round. There are the staples of culinary including Basil, Mint, Thyme, Rosemary, Dill and Oregano of which we all use for a multitude of recipes. It has been fun to explore the ends and outs of each of these herbs and how they are grown and harvested. I can’t say that we have had a 100% success rate but we are really close to it! Our motto is try once, if we don’t succeed, try twice. If we don’t succeed, buy it!

Rain Barrels are one of those things we talk about but never seem to get around to actually buying and using until we have experienced a drought or water restriction in our area and then we think; we should have done that! But why should you really consider a rain barrel? Here are my top five reasons.

1. Water is a limited natural resource that we can harness and use at little or no cost.
2. Most Rain Barrels are made from recycled materials thus we are reducing our eco footprint.
3. All life needs water to live so it makes since to have as much water as possible on hand, especially when it comes direct from Mother Nature.
4. A roof area of only 1,000 square feet can provide approximately 600 gallons of water during a one inch rainfall so it is very efficient.
5. Rainwater is free of salts and other minerals that can harm plants and root growth so it is always a good source for plants.

Just think if we all collected enough rain water to water our plants and yards we would have more water for everyday use.