While we were waiting on the load of soil to get here, I had been looking at our little garden boxes thinking… creating… grinning.. aha remembering that I had that wood burning pen I’d never even TRIED!

So without knowing how I’d like doing it at ALL, I made the decision. I’d put quotes and flowers and decorate those boxes ALLLL UP. I jumped online and listed quote after quote.. decided how many I’d start with (in case I hated doing any of it). I printed and cut out 16 quotes and headed out armed with one of my thick graphite sketch pencils.

Stage 1

I laid out all of the quotes. I placed four quotes on each box in the first row of the garden. I placed the remaining four down the center aisle. After switching them around to get the order I wanted, I began placing smallish rocks on all the corners to hold them down. I grabbed one of my daughter’s play mats and covered it with a sheet and sat down to work.

Stage 2

I began with the last word of the quote. Using my pencil, I’d press down onto the paper and trace the word. I learned with each word that the wood is different in texture AND hardness. Sometimes the wood would be soft and the pencil would glide into the wood and leave a good groove. At othertimes, it was necessary to press really hard in one or two spots and then freehand the letter out.

I could have used my own writing, but I’m not crazy about my writing. I wanted all of the words to be uniform and the same writing. So I chose a handwriting font from KevenAndAmanda.Com’s Font For Peas. They have a load of handwriting fonts to choose from and I had downloaded a couple I liked long ago.

After each word was traced on, I would tear off the paper and get it out of the way. This made it easier to lift and check the word I was working.

On the corners, I freehanded a little flower around the center nail head. From the flower I drew swirly vines with little leaves coming off each one. Because flowers are awesome and imperfect, I had no worries about differently spaced nails, different shaped petals, none of the above applied!

It took a couple of mornings to complete. The only mistake I made was in the size rocks I chose for pinning down the quotes. The winds picked up that first afternoon and the little rocks I’d used were virtually useless. So I spent some time running and chasing quotes and replacing all the rocks with bigger ones as well as placing a third in the middle. This time it held fine until the next morning.

Stage 3

I began burning off my traced images with my wood burning pen that I picked up last summer for about ten dollars at Walmart. It was a spur of the moment purchase with a craft project in mind that never came to pass. So it’s laid unopened for a year on my shelf.

Now that I’ve started using it, I love it! Instant gratification! I chose the large round tip and will be doing nothing more than what you see. A sharp clear line that fleshes out my little sketch line.

Tadaa!!! Okay, so that’s it. Easy as pie (if a little time consuming) project to dress up your garden area… just wait till I get the pergola in and burn it off as well!!

During the early spring, I decided I wanted to raise a garden this year. It will be my first garden ever. I started seeds indoors. I figure if I’m going to raise it, I might as well try it from the ground up literally. The price difference is also radically different to start your own or to buy plants. So above you’ll see the seedlings in their first couple of weeks.

After making this decision, I decided to read up and learn more about gardens. The one thing I found I loved more than anything was the square foot gardening layouts. According to the Square Foot Gardening method, one 4×4 box (which is what size all nine of mine are) replaces a regular garden that is 8×10.

The 4×4 boxes are planted in grids. If plants are to be 12 inches apart, one per square foot in the box. But, if they are 6 inches apart, the individual grid is broken up further.

Depending on the mature size of the plant, grow 1, 4, 9, or 16 equally spaced plants per square foot. If the seed packet recommends plant spacing be 12 inches apart, plant one plant per square foot. If 6 inch spacing; 4 per square foot. If 4 inch spacing; 9 per square foot. If 3 inch spacing; 16 per square foot.

– Square Foot Gardening

The one thing that I’m not following with them is the composting mixture used in place of soil. I realize it’s easier but it’s also much more expensive for the size garden I’m using. Expense is something I can’t afford to overlook being a work at home mother on a very limited income. The cost of the garden beds themselves, my mother and I split the cost since the outcome will benefit us both.

You can see in the one picture that the layout of the garden is right off the side of my house. We left enough room between the garden and house for me to build a flower bed next to the house and create the walkway that will blend into the garden walkways overtime.

The front edge of the garden itself is in line with the edge of the house. The porch is six foot wide and once I have my stairs built they will come off of that edge with you walking right in front of the garden. Next year I’ll be adding a pergola in front of the garden.

Anyhow, the garden beds are ongoing (yes, I know it’s a bit late for planting which is why the plants are in pots and being transplanted as they grow). Today we have four more beds to drill and nail down with the largest nails I’ve ever used. They’re really cool nails. Maybe I’ll have a couple left and I can incorporate them into something decorative to show them off. We shall see!