I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
As many of you probably know, the original name of this little venture was "Birch Landing." Unfortunately when I looked to purchase a domain name I realized it had already been taken by an apartment building. I knew I wanted the website to be about home projects and crafts and expand my Etsy shop to also include things for the home which is why I decided to name the blog "Birch Landing Home."
After a lot of debate, I decided to officially change the name of my Etsy shop and Facebook page as well... as much as I love the simplicity of the name "Birch Landing" I thought it would be best for everything to match, therefore the recent updates and name changes.
In honor of the new name, I'm planning on having a giveaway within the next two weeks! Stay tuned for more on this later..
This week I was hoping to bring you a post on making pickles. I've never made them before and wanted to give them a try with all the cucumbers we've been getting out of our garden. Unfortunately I let the cucumbers get too big and they were all seeds - no good for pickles. Such a bummer, but I've learned my lesson. So, without the pickle post I decided to share the easy brick upgrade we did on our concrete walkway after we moved in our home.
When we first moved into our home there was nothing in front of it.. no bushes or anything substantial, just a plain white concrete walkway and a bark mulch bed with a few sad daffodils that had already gone by. It was so boring and even the walkway looked really unfinished.
The obvious solution to dressing up the existing "flower" (I use that term loosely here) bed was to get plants and bushes in there - but what about the concrete walkway? Luckily for us the previous homeowners had left behind a lot of bricks... A LOT. Some were stacked under the back deck, but there was also a small random brick patio that we had plans to disassemble anyways. There were sooo many bricks.. it was actually becoming a problem on where to store them and what to do with them.
While trying to figure out what to do I came up with the idea of inlaying them along the walkway to dress it up a bit - and though it was a little time-consuming, the whole process was actually really easy!
Materials:
lots of bricks (enough to line both sides of the walkway, plus a few extra)
edger
wheelbarrow
spade
rubber mallet
How to:
First I started hauling all the bricks to the front yard and laying them along the walkway to make sure I had enough (though we had so many I probably could have done this project twice!). I started laying them out at the front steps and put them end-to-end along the whole length of the walkway, along both sides. This way I was able to get a sense of how they fit and where I would need to do cuts (we were very lucky to have a pretty straight walkway, so the cuts needed were minimal). If you're thinking of starting this project from scratch, I would recommend measuring the length along both sides of the walkway, then head to your local home improvement center to see what they have for bricks, their sizes, and how much they cost. Once you decide on a brick you like, you can calculate how many bricks you will need.
Laying out all the bricks. You can also see our first additions to the flower bed - some tiny boxwoods and hydrangea bushes. It's amazing how much they've grown!
After everything was all laid out, I started by using the edger along the side of the bricks to cut the edge of the "trench" they would be set in. I made sure not to get carried away and would only prep about two feet ahead of where I was. I would cut as I went along to compensate for how the bricks were sitting against the walkway.
Once the outside edge was cut, I would use the spade to dig out enough soil for a brick. Then I'd set the brick in and pound on it with the rubber mallet until it was even with the grass. Sometimes I would need to take the brick out and add or remove soil until it sat where I wanted it too.
I continued this process along the line, brick-by-brick until I got to corners or areas where the bricks needed to be cut. After tracing on the bricks where cuts would need to be and a quick trip to a local mason, they were cut and ready to be inlaid as well.
We have a really long walkway and I worked on this project at my leisure over the course of a week or two but probably could have gotten it done over a weekend if I had really set my mind to it. It's definitely made a huge difference to the curb appeal of our home.
The now-full flower beds look great next to the brick lined walkway.
Last week I brought you my epic battle against Japanese beetles and webworms... to update in short: Me: 0, Japanese beetles: 1.
So as you probably remember, I've been waging a war against some of the most annoying (in my opinion) garden pests around. For today's update I have some good news and bad news... Good news: there are no more signs of webworm and no further damage to our lilac bush! Hooray!!
Bad news: the Japanese beetles are back and hungrier than before. First I tried brushing and picking them off my plants and dropping them in a bucket of soapy water. The results were instantaneous and I would have been hard pressed to find any beetles left on my plants by the time I was done; I also set up a Japanese beetle trap away from the garden and caught many bugs right away. I thought I was in the clear but decided to wait several days to see how things went.
Nearly a week later I'm back to report on my progress - I haven't touched the bean plants at all because I wanted to see if my efforts had any lasting effect. And folks, I'm here now to tell you.. it didn't. The trap has in fact caught more beetles, but it's not an outrageous amount (there's maybe 1-2 inches of beetles in the bottom of the trap, we caught about 1 inch of beetles within the first day) and my bean plants are suffering more damage by the day! There are less beetles on them than there were a week ago, but they certainly found their way back and seem to be doing even more damage than before.
In conclusion, next time I'll save my money and skip buying the Japanese beetle trap. I'll stick to taking the beetles off the plants dropping them in a bucket of soapy water, though this process will have to become a daily one at our home until those pesky beetles are gone for good.
For the past week at Birch Landing Home, we've been under attack - first by an absurd amount of Japanese beetles, and then by webworms! Yuck. Read on for tips on how to combat these awful garden pests...
Japanese Beetles
Earlier in the week, I went in the garden to check how everything was doing. I was greeted with THIS:
Japanese beetles were all over my beans, eating the leaves until there was nothing left. They were doing so much damage and I was not happy!
Unfortunately with Japanese beetles, when there's one he'll tell all his friends (via pheromones) and more and more will come. Obviously these beetles told everyone in the tri-state area to come and bring a friend.
The best way to get rid of them is to pluck them off by hand and throw them in a bucket of soapy water to kill them. The quicker they're gone and not releasing pheromones, the less beetles will find your yard. Plucking beetles was not something I wanted to do, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
Another popular solution is to put a beetle trap in your yard.. though some people argue that they can actually make the situation worse since they lure beetles to the trap (and therefore your yard). I was desperate though and figured I might as well give the trap a shot too. I made sure to put it away from the garden and away from where we usually spend time (the lure is poisonous, keep that in mind). Right away we caught quite a few beetles! I'm sure these first ones were in the yard anyways and not ones that we lured in.
We'll see if there's improvement.. I'll post an update on the Japanese beetles in a few days.
Webworms (aka Tent Caterpillars)
Then just when I thought I was getting a grasp on the Japanese beetle plague, I noticed webworm (also known as tent caterpillars) nests in one of our lilac bushes. These little baby caterpillars were already doing a number on the lilac bush, eating the leaves and smaller stems down to nothing. These buggers had to go too.
Webworm (aka tent caterpillar) nest. The web keeps them safe from predators so they're free to make quick work of your foliage.
A close up of the damage.. as you can see it's on multiple branches.
The best way to get rid of these is to cut out the nest if possible, and then destroy it. Luckily these nests were towards the ends of branches, so they were relatively easy to cut out. (If you have a nest that can't be cut out, you can tear the nest open using a stick and hope that some birds or other bugs find the little caterpillar snacks.)
Hard to believe these teeny-tiny caterpillars can do so much damage!
Once the nest is out you can put it in a sealed container and throw it away. I didn't have any Tupperware or large jars I was willing to toss so I put the nest in a zip-lock, triple-bagged it, and threw it in the trash. Some people recommend burning the nest, which might be a good option if you have a lot of nests to destroy.
Another solution some people use is spraying the affected area with Neem. It kills the caterpillars and is considered an all-natural insecticide. I'm hoping that just cutting out the nests and staying on top of it will do the trick though.
The damage to the lilac bush has been done, but I'm optimistic it will bounce back. And in the meantime I'll keep a close eye on it in case any other webworm nests pop up.
Hello again.. it's been a busy week, but I just wanted to make sure you all knew that it will be my goal to bring you one new blog post every week (at least)! I'm planning on making Wednesdays when I will publish my latest post.
Though this doesn't mean that new things and posts won't be added at other times during the week too! So make sure to tune in often (or at the very least every Wednesday) to see what's new at Birch Landing Home. Thanks, friends!
Putting the finishing touches on here and on our Etsy store. As I'm sure many of you know, it takes a lot of work to get these things established - I'm so excited to finally announce this blog and the Etsy store tomorrow!
I'd heard that you can make your own stain using just steel wool and regular vinegar. I was intrigued and had to give it a try myself.
Materials:
glass jar
ball of fine steel wool
white vinegar
rubber gloves
sponge brush or rag
wood
How to:
Put a ball of fine steel wool in a glass jar and fill with white vinegar to about 1-2 inches from the top. Replace the lid and let sit for a few days until the steel wool has dissolved or nearly dissolved, giving the jar a shake once or twice a day.
Yep, that's it.* It's just that easy.
*I'd recommend leaving the jar on a paper towel and carefully opening and closing the jar before shaking it. We noticed that our jar built up quite a bit of pressure from the chemical reaction of the steel wool dissolving in vinegar and the pressure needed to be released a few times a day.
Two days later, after having been shaken up. Gross, huh?
Once the steel wool has dissolved, put on some rubber gloves, give the jar one last shake and start staining!
The stain is very deceiving at first.. when you initially put it on it just looks like you're putting dirty water on the wood - it doesn't look significantly changed. However, as it's exposed to the air and dries it rusts and gives the wood a beautifully rustic, warm color. Once it's completely dry, take a rag to rub the loose rust off - you're done!
After drying.
If you're using this process for a sign or something that won't be touched when finished I'd leave the wood raw like this. If you're thinking of using it for a table or something you will come in contact with, I'd strongly suggest sealing the wood to keep you from getting rust stains.
I didn't have a project in mind for this process, but I love how rich the color turned out! I think I'll be staining the edges of this board and turning it into something.
If you have a little one then you likely have a pile of bibs somewhere, probably taking up a drawer in the kitchen. For us, using a drawer wasn't an option - we only have three. Yes, three drawers in the entire kitchen.. ugh. So I tried to think of another way to store the bibs out-of-sight but still accessible.
My solution was to pick up one of those "over the cupboard door" towel hooks. I made sure to get one that had a good-sized hook on it to accommodate all the bibs. Then I just put it facing into the cupboard where we keep all the kid dishes and hung all the bibs from there - done!
