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September Report

Craft Thyme cucumbers also called mouse melons

Here at Craft Thyme we focus most of our efforts on creating quality tutorials.  There is a lot of planning (Adam), work, photo editing, grammatically poor writing (Brianna), and general craziness that goes into making a useful tutorial.  We love doing it and our readers seem to enjoy the efforts but there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes!

Did you know that we both work full time outside of the home?

Did you know that we have a combined household of 4 amazeball kiddos and two ferocious kitties?  (Don’t ask about the chickens… insert sad face here… Spring will see a new coop!)

Did you know I came home to a pelting of water balloons this week?

Did you know we have supplies to completely redo our entire front sidewalk and landscape, plans and supplies to build a sweet composting fence, and are working on a permaculture-principle inspired plan for the property?

Which got us thinking (Ut oh).  Despite being pretty private people perhaps we could let everyone in a little bit on what goes on behind the scenes.  The idea is that at the beginning of each month we let everyone know what they may have missed (Hint: Instagram/ Facebook) AND what our plans are for the coming month.  It is a little for you (Because who doesn’t want to know I was in a beer stein holding contest last weekend.  Spoiler: I lost).  And a lot for us so that we can keep track of what we are building, crafting, and gardening.

Craft Thyme beer competition
Here I am losing a second time at stein holding.

We will break it down to the pertinent sections so you can skip to what you want to follow along in.

DIY

It is Summer, which in Craft Thyme world, means 90% of our DIY is outdoors.  Yes, my kitchen is still atrocious, yes, the kids bathroom still is pink, blue, and some shall not be named cream color, and yes, the treadmill is gathering dust.  (Not exactly DIY related but just one of those failings)  BUT there is outdoors!

  • Butterfiles
  • Warm Breezes
  • Mosquitos (oh wait that’s a negative)

So, we build outside.  We built the first level of some hella cool tiered garden boxes that we still need to write up a post about.  And because we got such positive feedback we went ahead and wrote up the timber and pea gravel stairs into a nice tutorial.

 

Cause why stop at 1? Still have one more 8′ #raisedbed to go! On this level!!

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Let’s see…  Adam changed out a toilet seat so we finally got rid of that awesome wood-70’s vibe toilet we had going on.  I cleaned like a mad woman after having the house cleaned because OMG! the kindergarten teachers come out and visit your house to meet your kids in this day and age.

We are kind of reaching the end of Summer in the mountains so we are flummoxed as to whether to continue on the beds, start on the composting privacy fence, start on the sidewalk, or head indoors and work on the sun porch…  One of these things will be happening this month!

Crafts

It feels like I should probably not call this Craft Thyme this month.  I think I might have sewn some super hero pillows but that may have been in July…  September is not looking so good on the crafts either because any of the above projects are going to take  …drumroll please… more digging.  Digging is tiring, goes faster with two people, and does make up for the lack of treadmill.

I do want to get some minimal fall decorations up in September.  I used to love decorating for each season but renovating this beast of a lovely home, keeping 4 kids alive, and working the day job is the most I seem to be able to manage lately.  So I am shooting for at least a crafty fall wreath this month.

Gardening

Oh gardening… Well I have a lot of cucumbers at least…  The aftermath of the great groundhog wars left the garden in shambles.  I’m JUST now getting ripe tomatoes, pulling carrots, and picking cucumbers.  They had to have ample time to regrow their leaves after the groundhogs decided to pillage and destroy.  The kohlrabi, beans, all the brassicas…ALL THE BRASSICAS, squash, melons, pumpkins, peppers, and and some flowers just did not make it through the ravaging.  Le Sigh… Perhaps next year.  I toyed with the idea of doing a fall/winter garden but just didn’t get it done.  I may throw in some garlic but will just plan it all out and start again next year.  I need some time to build up the soil anyway.

Craft Thyme cucumbers also called mouse melons
Cucumbers for days…

We did write a guide on prepping your raised beds!  It has served us well and worked really nicely through some very dry weather we had at the end of the summer.  Once I get some compost all worked in these should be really set for next year.  Our experimental method seems to hold water very well but still allow for good drainage.  Getting that optimal miz has been a real trial and error through the years.

I plan to get the raised garden beds all prepped for the fall/winter so they are set for a nice and fruitful growing season come spring.  Our big plans for this month are to clean out that end of summer ick from the garden. All the wasted spindly plants… Weeds that have crept in…  I mean just look at this sad garden.  At least it looks like the zinnias I threw in at the last minute will manage to bloom before frost.

Craft Thyme late season garden
OMFG can you see this?! Weeds, pests, just general neglect… Must. Clean. Up.

Lots of building, cleaning, and prepping in the month of September.  We will work on getting the raised bed tutorial up at least.  Additionally, I have been doing a ton of research on permaculture and edible perennial plants.  I hope to share some in-depth guides by the end of the month so you can get fall bare-root trees in place and plan for the spring!

 

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