buckets

 

I wish I had a big budget and could paint my house, fill in the gardens with lush plants, finish staining the barn and buy new hoses before posting this, but I can’t so I am going to share this project as-is.  It is a good summer /yard / organizing idea, so the time is now.

First off, I posted this preview last week…

I purchased the galvanized buckets at my local feed store, but they are readily available at any hardware or big box home improvement store, usually for less than $10 each.

I start off with some Goo Gone, a scraper, and a scrubber…

I find using just a scrubber first, it gets instantly clogged and is ineffective, but if you use a scraper first to get all the paper off, then use the scrubber on the thin adhesive layer softened by the Goo Gone, it is much more productive.

After the cleaning, I simply used three sheetrock screws with washers, screwed straight through the base of the bucket and into the side of my house.  Yes, the side of my house…  actually I am going to show you the one I put on my barn because the barn is cuter…

The hubby just installed this cute hose bib for me to have water handy for the chickens housed in the barn (I still have to add stain to the new lumber).  I don’t know about you but I think this $10 galvanized bucket has way more character than a $30 cookie cutter hose rack.  Plus it conveniently holds your hose related tools…

Along with the sprinkler for the brown spots in the lawn and the sprayer, I also keep an old horse brush handy by the hose for scrubbing down dirty outdoor stuff.  Works great!  I also recently added two old windows to the front wall of the barn.  Hubby doesn’t “get it” but I think it is sweet.  =)  You can see slivers of them in these pictures…

 

There is about an 8-inch hole under the hose which I filled with drain rock so there is no mud created when using the hose.  Now I just need to find some pavers on Craigslist to cover the rest of the dirt.  We ripped out our cute little boardwalk that was along the front wall because it was rotting, and now we need a new solution.  It has to be on the cheap though and then we have to find the time to do it.  Story of my life.  =)

Okay, tell me honestly, how are all your gardens doing?  Mine are not so good.  Broccoli does this to me every year…

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?  Hubby told me to pick off the first broccoli I saw and I did that and it just made a whole bunch of these come out instead of one.  ???

I know what went wrong with the corn – the chickens had a feast…

See the sprouts in the foreground?  That is cucumber or pumpkings behind them – we plant them between the corn rows to save room.  The chicken fence is in- they have two acres to themselves now, so if they just stay in the fence, my garden will fare a little better next year.  Chickens are so dumb.  The first day I let them out in the new fence, the two adults flew out within five minutes.  They are brats – I supposed this might happen.  I figured I better get on the ball and look up how to clip their wings to keep them from flying out.  Then the next day, all day long, they just walked the fence like they were mad and couldn’t get out!  It has been three days now and they have stayed in ever since!  Silly birds!  I can’t say that I am complaining though – just amused!  The teenagers don’t seem to fly yet, so I think they will just wander around the acreage and never see the need to fly out.  Here’s hoping!  =)

My lavender did pretty good, but I need much more!  I <3 lavender!  It has to be the traditional English Lavender variety, though…

I think I should teach my Little Helper to pick the weeds…

I haven’t decided yet if it is worth risking the high possibility that she will run around the whole property pulling out every last non-weed.  Probably not a good idea.  See that pathetic tomato behind her?  Just like last year – it got all warm so I planted them then it rained for two weeks.  Now they are starting to come back all tweaky-like.  The beans are okay.  I have to weed this week before they take over the whole garden! 

Off to make dinner.  More tomorrow!  =)