bell peppers | Factotum of Arts

Have you every had those days where your mind will not stop thinking about something. I usually have problems sleeping as I can’t shut it off. Well, normally for me its usually work related, but since I started this blog and had time off work due to illness, my creative side of my mind has taken over. This is good news, but I do not have enough hours in the day do to everything.

To keep track of what I have been thinking here is a list of projects, in no particular order:

Crafts

Cork boards for my etsy store (frame purchased and backing board)
Caterpillar growth chart for etsy store (circles cut out and painted)
A stuffed elephant (pattern forming in my head – probably purple colored)
A t-shirt rug (in white, yellow, orange and red circular pattern)
Twin quilt for my son (material purchased)
Tie art feature in orange’s, grey’s and green’s (inspired by this art piece featured on sewingwithneckties.blogspot.com)
Modern Quilted placemats and table runner
Fabric design/printing using my son’s art work and www.spoonflower.com
Creating a side table (for the kitchen) and shelving (for my new craft table space, hopefully without blocking too much light from the window.) from my soon to be repurposed teak futon

Framed

Textured picture of airplane view of field (out of melted crayons, bought crayons and have photo to base it off)
Chalk drawing of a face (subject chosen)

Home and Garden Design (the most costly ideas)

Backyard: Planters, Circular area, Copper waterfall feature
Master Bathroom: Multi-colored wood wall feature, grey painted wall, new cabinets from the M collection of WetStyle, shower and bath also from WetStyle, grey glass tiles
Master Bedroom: Orange Chair (either this but in orange; or this one), tie art feature in orange’s, grey’s and green’s (see above).
Other Furniture I have been thinking about adding: Sofa for bonus room, Light for my new sewing desk (see photo’s above), Light above dining room table (I want a large box light but kind find one I like), Floor lamp (not sure what room, love the red cable).

Edible Delights

Bell Pepper Marmalade, Relish or Preserve, to use our own grown peppers

So as you can see, sooooo many ideas – let’s see what I can get done. I’ll post as I finish things (finish being the operative word).

One thing I have discovered in my first year of designing and growing a vegetable garden…..it is truly a science.

My summer garden has been very successful, surprisingly so, since I knew almost nothing going into this project. I grew from seed cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, summer squash, bell pepper, lettuce and corn in my main garden beds.

In two oval tin barrels, I grew the herbs again from seed…basil, thyme, rosemary, chives, oregano, and parsley.

Some lessons learned this summer:

Plant zucchini, in the south, as early as you can (after frost though) – you are almost guaranteed to get vine borer in early July and lose your plants. I almost cried when it happened as my zucchini were in full production and rocked!!! You can also replant late summer but there is still a chance you may loose this to.
Don’t waste your home garden space with corn. Mine grew great but for the yield it takes up a lot of room.
Bell peppers, due to the very hot weather here in North Carolina tend to be late summer. Due to the cooler temperatures and the rain this past month, my bell peppers are taking off (they like 86 degrees F or below). I gave them more room once the lettuces finished and I removed the corn.
You don’t need to grow 40 plants of each vegetable :-). I had extremely high yield from my seeds especially the tomatoes and bell peppers – almost all the seeds produced and I was only expecting about 1/3 to grow….we had some happy friends who now also have plants.

Late in the summer, the other thing we started was our own compost pile. What a great way to reduce on waste, we were already recycling and now this is a perfect compliment and a great learning opportunity for the family.

For my fall garden, which I am hoping to plant this weekend (delayed since I am recovering from surgery) I was able to plan it out much better. For example, did you know that there are companion plants?? These are plants that should be planted with each other as they complement each other and can ward of viruses etc. There are also plants you should never plant with others in your garden. So my plans are to grow the following:

Replacing the tomatoes with cabbage and spinach
Replacing the zucchini with broccoli and swiss chard
And once the bell peppers ripen and finish I will add cauliflower and carrots. The cauliflower I can grow in seed starter trays and then transplant.

I am also expanding the garden to include another small bed. I am thinking of adding more fruits to the garden for next year as my son prefers them to vegetables; strawberries and rhubarb are definite (rhubarb can remain for up to 5 years so I need more room).

To finish off, I wanted to share some photos of the fruits of labour.