good 'n planty

So, we needed to have some new videos on organicgardening.com and as you may already know, organicgardening.com is what I do. This left the writing, editing, producing, and starring (!) up to me. Thankfully, Organic Gardening's new intern Katie was able to be by my side, starring in some videos herself and responsible for all of the editing, which I am still learning! Also, when I work in the garden on Wednesdays with Lisa, I bring my camera so when she starts building something, or brilliantly explaining something to a coworker, I can go "STOP! Let me get my camera!! Ok, GO!" and I'm able to get some pretty great footage of one of my favorite gardeners. Thus, Simple Tips from Organic Gardening was born. 

We are an amateur team and some of us are amateur gardeners, but being surrounded by every gardening book published in the last 60 years and working on the very farm where J.I. Rodale experimented with soil and had his very own organic garden is enough to inspire anyone. 
Plus, you have to start somewhere, right? For me that start came in my kitchen, on a Friday night, perhaps the most relaxed and calm time of the week. I rearranged my kitchen and made my first video- a diy fruit fly trap. 

I love this trap, it works so well and it's so easy to throw together. This is the type of video I personally like to watch- DIY anything. I hope you guys like it too. Here's where I can use a hand- while we work out the technical kinks, and try to make the videos easier on the eyes, does anyone have any brilliant "Simple Tips" to share? Any sneaky time-saving tricks? Repurposed household item ideas? Harvesting solutions? Or- is there anything you'd like to see? A problem we can try to solve? I would love to know! 

This weekend, my friends Gwen and Andrew got married and I had the priviledge of helping Gwen's mom Robin make the bouquets, boutonnieres and flower arrangements. I arrived bright and early on Saturday morning with two buckets of backup zinnias and we got to work:

The reason I decided to write this post, and in my book the most convincing reason to grow your own flowers, was the convenience of having the garden 20 feet from where we were flower arranging. Robin would hold up a bouquet, frown at it, and say, "Abby, can you get me a Nigella?" And I would run up to the garden, find just the right bloom and bring it back.

It was so easy! There was one trip to the florist for some gerber daisies and stock, just to fill in the church arrangements and bridesmaid bouquets, but other than that everything we needed was right at our fingertips.

The flowers not only looked great, but I think it's so sweet and special they were (mostly) homegrown.

Here are some tips I learned from working on the flowers with Robin:

-Plant more than you think you'll need- we used every single "back-up" flower I brought along.

-Plan your color scheme. Gwen and Robin purposely didn't grow any yellow, red and orange flowers so the color scheme wouldn't be muddled with extra color-  I think this definitely showed and kept the bouquets from looking too homemade.

-Plan back-up varieties for each color. For example, Gwen wanted lime green included in the color scheme, but the lime-colored zinnias just didn't have a good year. Thankfully, the Bell's of Ireland flourished and provided the pop of green Gwen was hoping for. Same principle goes for shapes and textures- (if you want height in your bouquet, grow several tall cutting flower varieties.)

-Have plenty of work space, and think "assembly line." We had a great big table to work on, with flowers and supplies at one end and vases of water for finished bouquets at the other. This made it very easy to keep track of everything.

-Think outside the box: When you're growing your own wedding flowers, you have the opportunity to try varieties rarely used in commercial floral bouquets. The Love-In-A-Mist Nigella added beautiful color and texture to the bouquets and boutonneires (and what a romantic name!)- but I doubt you'd find this remarkable flower in a florist shop!

-Go Wild! Since lots of friends knew Robin was doing the bouquets, people dropped off wildflowers from their gardens or nearby fields- and they were great for the table arrangements! Of course it helps so many beautiful things bloom in August around here, but it's still a good idea to keep an eye out, no matter when your wedding is.

For more ideas: Amy Stewart has a great, more in-depth post on growing your own wedding flowers.

*Thanks to Gwen's friend Carrie for letting me post the last two photos.

 How cool are these stacking boxes? I love this clever way to upcycle cereal boxes! I have more craft supplies than you can shake a stick at so having some good storage is key to keeping everything organized. I think they'd also make some handy and colorful seed storage.

The photos are taken from the instructions and pattern, which can be found here.

I know what I'm doing these weekend ;).

Have a leaky hose beyond repair? I love this idea to repurpose it by weaving it onto the frame of a chair. By chasedforest.com - also check out their hose baskets!

Via coolhunting