plants + gardening

Inspired by my pal Mickey, I decided to make a wet specimen from a rose out of my garden. This isn’t my first foray into the world of wet specimens. (This post is from ages ago but *ahem* you can see another wet specimen I made.) This was my first time ever trying to preserve a flower in isopropyl alcohol though! My dad gifted me this rose bush last spring so it felt like the perfect ‘very special thing’ to experiment with preserving.

Press play to watch the video below to see how it turned out.

I certainly wasn’t expecting the color to drain that fast! It’s hauntingly beautiful, right?! I’m so excited to change out the alcohol in a few weeks for some fresh stuff. I’m already daydreaming about a shelf full of wet specimen treasures from my garden!

If you want to try making a wet specimen flower for yourself, all you need is 70% isopropyl alcohol, a glass jar with a lid, and flowers of your choice! Tag me @thedaintysquid if you post any photos of what you make! xoxo

Our first summer at Stroup Mansion! What a magical summer it was. JK. I didn’t have the most fun. It was hot… and wet… and mosquito-y. I had grand plans of spending the whole season in the garden but honestly, all the beds I made in the spring were basically ignored for a few months while I hid from mosquitos in the house.

Spring was amazing and thankfully, fall is looking like it’ll be just as dreamy! I’m finally able to be back outside in my gardens, enjoying all the hard work I put in earlier in the year.

I made myself three main beds back in early spring. There is my large flower garden, a rose bed, and a fairly sizeable kidney bean-shaped bed which I really had no formal plans for. That bed kind of became a catch-all. Anytime I stumbled upon a cool plant that didn’t fit in my flower bed vision or somewhere else around the yard, it went into that bed.

I had read that the best time to plant pumpkins was early June so that they’d be ready in time for Halloween. It just happened to be around that time that I had the realization there was no way I’d be able to afford to buy plants to fill that bed. Not to mention the fact that I didn’t want to rush into filling it with perennials just to get it done. My dad had given me a bunch of miscellaneous gourd, pumpkin, and squash seeds he’d saved so that felt like a great place to throw those. They’d keep the bed intact so that it wouldn’t become overrun with weeds. (Listen, I ain’t weeding an empty bed. I needed the motivation of something actually being planted in it!)

All that to say, what was just a way to use up some seeds and fill space ended up being one of my favorite things to grow!

I get so much joy from walking around my pumpkin patch each morning, scanning for new growth. It’s wild how easy they are to miss in the mess of all the leaves. That large white pumpkin in the middle? I didn’t see that until I did one last pass of the garden before taking these photos! It’s the largest one I grew and yet somehow I never noticed it!

I’m very much looking forward to going wild with this next year! I’ve been hunting down varieties I’d like to add to my mix. (Y’all have you seen black pumpkins!?!) I’ve even been researching growing them on a trellis instead of letting them run wild in my yard. I just can’t wait to at least double what I grew this year.

I think a lot of the satisfaction in these does come from the fact that I just didn’t enjoy my gardens for a few months and yet was still rewarded with these precious little things waiting on me when I decided to emerge. Feels like such a sweet fall treat.

If I didn’t love tiny pumpkins, gourds, and squash before (I definitely did) I sure do now!

outfit details
sweater
turtleneck
jeans
boots

Shortly after we moved in, we discovered two giant fiberglass tubs (along with a boatload of other trash) behind our garage. The idea popped into my head almost immediately, I wanted to make them into planters!

The plan had been to cover them in wood somehow but soaring lumber prices and the fact that I always have about five hundred other projects going on meant that my beds just kept getting pushed to the back burner.

Recently though, I managed to score some free wood. We set aside some pieces for other things around the house, and the rest went to my little planter project!

I didn’t really have much of a vision for this project, just that it needed to be covered in wood. I didn’t want to see any part of the fiberglass tub. Luckily my dad was a huge help and absolutely nailed the design.

We made two since that’s how many tubs there were. The first was kind of an experiment. He led the way and showed me what to do. The second one though? We cranked it out in record time. It felt really good. DIY projects of this nature and power tools, in general, are still fairly new to me so when things just go hella smooth like this it feels damn good. The feeling of confidence that comes along with actually understanding a project and being able to do huge chunks of it on my own is wonderful.

I’m capable of many, many things. Things that I don’t even realize yet! That being said, it really helps to have such a handy dad to show me the way! I’m sure I could have done this completely on my own but it probably would have taken a heck of a lot longer.

After cutting and assembling, I sanded them down, carried them outside (holy smokes, yes, they are heavy!), and stained them. Before putting the top piece on, I lined the tubs with landscaping fabric to give me a bit of separation from the fiberglass.

Finally, I filled them with dirt and planted! One contains two types of radishes, as well as red onions. In the other, I planted a few of my tomato seedlings, basil and some marigolds.

I have them sitting on a big concrete pad that is in our yard. My plan for this pad has always been, literally since the second I saw it, to build a greenhouse here. Alas, those darn lumber prices have put a hitch in my giddy-up. For now, it’s the perfect spot for a few raised beds and our picnic table. It may not be the greenhouse I’ve been dreaming of but it’s still a cute little spot to grow plants!

Klaus LOVES looking at what’s going in the beds.

Only seems right to include a photo of my first radish!