Cheerful Cloth Napkins and a Giveaway So You Can Have Some Too

Sometimes the simplest things can make you happy.

 Like 20 year old cloth napkins stolen from your mother.

 Or actually using all those vintage handkerchiefs for something.

 Trading seeds for napkins on etsy is also nice.

 As is receiving kitchy gifts in the mail from Rosa.

 Matching dishes with napkins is strangely satisfying.

Gillian of Craftzilla agrees and she's whipped up these charming summertime cloth napkins for one of my readers. Simply visit her new etsy shop and then come back here and share either what you like best in her shop or one of your simple summer pleasures.  Like napkins, or mismatched spoons.  Don't forget to include your email or twitter handle so we can find you if you win. We'll pick a winner at random on Friday September 2nd, 2011.

Internet Excitement! Clawfoot bathtub potatoes are a hit!

Much excitement on the blog this weekend. Our clawfoot bathtub potatoes are a runaway hit!

This post about growing potatoes in containers:

http://www.cubitsorganics.com/2011/06/how-to-grow-delicious-potatoes-in.html

That was also posted over here on Julia's goat-notes:

http://goat-notes.blogspot.com/2011/06/grow-your-own-potatoes-with-laura-watts.html

Went from twitter, to treehugger where Colleen wrote up this nice little post about our bathtub of potatoes:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/06/turn_an_old_bathtub_into_potato_planter.php

Which then ended up on Apartment Therapy's reNest which exploded my blog. Ah! This is a site I read every single day so to see Rebecca and I along with that extremely heavy bathtub & kind words was a great treat.

http://www.re-nest.com/re-nest/gardening/planting-potatoes-use-an-old-bathtub-149314

To clarify a few things, the tub is positioned so the drain is slightly down hill and there are two layers of loosely stacked bricks at the bottom.  In our climate we have never had issues with sogginess but I can see how you might.  We have typically used the tub for beets and carrots, especially at our old apartment where we were worried about heavy metal contamination in the soil. Since we moved we're no longer worried and now are on very sandy soil they go in the ground.  Since potatoes are such nutrient suckers, they are in the grow bags this year and the tub is full on greens like mizuna and a bunch of beans.

Growing up, my mother also had a spare clawfoot tub which she kept all the laundry waiting to be folded in.  Later on it was in my brothers' room and it made a great bed for teddy bears.  So I guess the love of the clawfoot tub is breed right into some of us, and repurposing too. 

Don't forget to enter the giveaways at the end of the two original posts, there's a few days left and we're giveaway an awesome book on container gardening along with some great companion seeds for potatoes.

Beans Glorious Beans & A Hip Girl Giveaway

This year is the year of the bean in our garden.  Our soil composition and amount of sun light limits the amount of tomatoes we can grow so I've planted them in other gardens and am replacing two beds of tomatoes with beans.

Since we're growing so many beans we're also building quite a few trelisises for them.  A few months back I was sent a copy of Kate Payne's The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking
 and have used the adorable instructions for guidance and inspiration while building my bean climbing structures.
I'll be giving away a copy of this fun, well illustrated book at the end of this post.


Here's a photographic list of our beans so far.  Don't worry, I know this is completely insane.

Stunning Poltschka Pole beans from the Populuxe seed bank.

Petaluma Goldrush from the Natural Gardening Company.  A gorgeous bush bean for drying that was originally brought to America from Peru in 1840.  These are the only bean I actually purchased, how could I resist?

Sunset Runner Beans from a trade with Julianna who I met years ago over on www.yougrowgirl.com.  These pole beans are jaw dropingly beautiful, light and dark purple markings on giant beans and the flowers will be salmon coloured setting it apart from the similar Scarlet runner bean.

Some Gold Rush snap beans I found in my seed stash.  Who knows where these came from. They're ancient too so I'm thinking they'll be a fairly low germination rate.

Mr Tung's from Kelly at the Populuxe seed bank.  These pole beans are a heirloom from originally from China with 100 years of history in British Columbia Canada. Almost extinct, some beans were discovered in an old shed on the deserted family farm & germinated after 50 years! If you are interested in growing these please contact Kelly to be a grower for her seed bank.

Monk Peas.  Not actually a bean I know.  An excellent soup pea from Fox Fire Farm and the Sister's of Providence Seed Sanctuary. 

 Rebecca found these Purple Peacocks in Almerida's shack. Described as a beautiful pole bean with dark purple pods, twinning stems, light purple flowers, dark leaves and white beans I'm very excited for them and will be planting them in the backyard bathtub this evening.

Dragon Langerie were a gift from Almerinda, also from Fox Fire Farm and the Sister's of Providence Seed Sanctuary.  These bush snap beans have purple striped pods, are Dutch in origin, have been documented since 1880, and are also known as Dragon Tongue beans.  They can be eaten right away or used for baked beans.

Slenderette Beans are a bush bean that make perfect 5' green long french snap beans in a relatively short season (45-55 days).

Vermont Cranberry.  I think I am most excited for these New England Heirloom beans.  A bush bean that dates back to 1797 know for its reliability and hardiness.

Musica are a from the seedbank and produce 9 inch pods on 9 foot plants or something crazy like that. I am not planting these in my yard but have tucked some into my friend Sarah's garden.  Surprise!

Orka beans.  A mexican heirloom, these are Almerinda's favourite.  Look closely, they look just like little whales.

Black turtle make a dwarf bush plant so I'm trying these in a container.  These pre 1832 beans are well suited to Northern regions.

Mystery bean.  hmmmm, this is why you need to label things right away.

Mayflower beans from Julianna.  A prolific pole bean perfect from soup that was brought to North America on the Mayflower.

Cannellino beans are the quintessential milestone soup bean,  another bush bean from Julianna that is growing in Sarah's yard.

Here's a happy Sunset runner seedling with true leaves.

The Chickpeas from Gayla are really growing now.

I've built numerous trellises, teepees and ladders for all these beans but they're really hard to photograph. Mine are also not as cute as Kate's book would like them to be.  See what I mean?

My rustic-ness vs the books tidiness aside, this is a nice addition to my DIY library.  With great green instructions on basic preserving, gardening and home repairs I will be sharing it with friends and I'd like to start by sharing a copy with one of my readers.

To win your own copy of the book The Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking
 just leave a comment telling us what you're most excited to grow this year and a email or twitter address so I can contact you.  Rebecca will choose a winner at random one week from today on Wednesday June 8th and Harper Collins will send you a copy.