DIY Soil Sample Test

I've always wanted to get my soil tested but never found the motivation to take a sample to our local extension office because, I might be impatient.  Happily though, I found a DIY solution while reading "Teaming with Microbes" by Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis, thanks to my daughter's recommendation.

Why is it good to know what your soil is made of?  

CW Gardener's Moisture & Lip Balm Winners!

Camp Wander's new skin products are every gardeners dream.  Gardener's Moisture moisturizes while soothing and healing your dry, cracked skin (amazing for dry heels!).  The secret?  doTERRA's Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade (CPTG) essential oils of lavender, lemon and maleluca and other organic ingredients.  


As an added bonus, the combination of lemon and maleluca essential oils make Gardener's Moisture and Gardener's Lip Balm antibacterial and antimicrobial!  

The fragrance is over the top!

And the winners are...

1.  Karen McCleary!
2.  Kelly M. Miller!
3.  Salty Girl!
4.  Wendy Schlensker!










To claim your prize, please email me at rebecca@campwander.com, leave your mailing address and I'll get your Camp Wander provisions on their way!

Congratulations Campers :)

Rebecca!

Designer Solar Jars with Removable Lid for Filling!

I hope everyone had a great Memorial weekend!  We did, and as always...it was much to short!  

I want to share a very quick project that worked out great this weekend and, is so simple!  All it takes is a preserves jar...in this case, Leifheit 2 Cup jars from Amazon ($16 for 6) and a solar light from Ace Hardware ($1.99).  No glue, no paint, no craft supplies of any sort are needed!

Wine Bottle Drip System for Unattended Pots

It's that time of year again when gardening is in full swing and vacation plans are too!

The dilemma?  How do I keep everything watered when we go away for a few days?  If my daughters are reading this, they're surely rolling their eyes because they become the slave to my garden when I'm not.

Great for hanging baskets!

CW Gardener's Moisture and Lip Balm Giveaway!

Memorial weekend is finally here and I'm definitely in the mood to celebrate summer!  

SO...I'm giving away FOUR combos of Camp Wander's soon to be famous (*grin*) Gardener's Moisture AND a pot of CW Lip Balm to FOUR lucky campers!

Grad Ideas for the Class of 2012!

Graduation!

I've been away for a few days, attending the graduation of our grand daughter Maya, from Sunshine Circle Pre-school.  Kindergarten, here she comes!

Maya

With graduation on the brain, I began thinking about all of you and your graduation plans.  It's such a fun time of year for graduates and their families!  How about a few ideas to help you celebrate!

mortarboards?

Make some mortarboard pops with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Andes Mints and yarn for the tassle.

Smart Water for the Garden

Gallardia Grandiflora soaking up root strengthening brew of manure tea and "smart" water before planting.

How's this for a glamour shot? 

What you're witnessing is the working end of our garden.  This sophisticated set-up (ahem) is what we use to catch precious rain water...which seems to be non-existent this year.  However, even if these 30 gal wonders aren't catching rain, they're being topped off with hose water.  Why, you ask?

Please Don't Drink the Sweet Manure Tea!

It looks good enough to drink...

I'm darn excited to bring more manure into your life!  It's high time manure tea makes a mainstream comeback, for it's a sad thing that this valuable by-product has been replaced by the likes of MiracleGro and other chemical based fertilizers.  I won't preach...well, just a little...but why the heck are we throwing our money at that crap? (pun!)  The MiracleGro may give you bigger flowers but you're killing your soil and all of it's beneficial flora and fauna in the process therefore, your flowers and edibles will suffer in the long run...not to mention your health?  

Which leads me here.  To the lowly bucket of broken down, sundried manure.  

How to Care for Tulips When the Bloom is Gone

I love my tulips, all two of them.  It's such a happy state of affairs when they bloom, signifying Spring and all that follows!


For the longest time though, I didn't know what the heck to do with them once they bloomed.  I knew not to cut them back because all that pretty energy they just expended in flowers needs to go back into the bulb.  But, they're kind of ugly after the big show, don't you think?

Even though your tulips may have bloomed and faded away already, here in WY ours are just losing their flowers.  So file this information away for next year's tulips if you're lucky enough to have an earlier Spring than wonderful Wyoming.

Cafe Style Iced Coffee: Keep Your $$ in Your Wallet

I'm veering off the garden path today to share a new favorite caffeinated beverage...as I believe one can never have enough caffeine.  No lectures please, I'm old enough to know there's such a thing as moderation but, when it comes to coffee that gets lost on me :)

We have a very cool little coffee shop in our small town called Get Real Coffee, you can find them on FB.  Victoria, the proprietor...is so clever, she freezes her leftover coffee in ice cube trays for iced coffee or lattes.  So smart because your expensive coffee never gets watered down by water...duh! 

The Wonderful Worm Tower - Square Foot Garden Friendly!

Here we have another urban method for kitchen scrap composting on a small scale.  I hope you realize by now that you have NO excuse to not be composting!  For the love of Mike, so many new techniques make composting in the smallest of gardens, easy!  


The wonderful worm tower can be as small or as large as you need it to be and, for all you square foot gardeners out there...the worm tower can fit into your garden grid perfectly as you will see!

Sunflowers & Horse Manure?

Sunflowers:  The birds, the bees and me...

Last spring, while on my UPS route...I was delivering to a business in a business district (a flowerless place), I noticed a whole lot of horse manure piled up against their metal warehouse, bordered by a few small boulders to hold it together.  Hmmm...I thought, what is this?

My customer Kim, a very friendly woman explained that over the weekend she hauled a truckload of manure to her place of business to plant sunflowers in.  She explained that they're heavy feeders and she's had great success using straight (aged) horse manure for a planting medium.  I was excited by this because I LOVE horse manure as a soil amendment but had never used it as soil!

A Slice of Paradise for Camp Wander!

Star Valley, WY

Last week was a wonderfully busy one!  Rustic and I busted out of town last Sunday with a mission in mind, but blissfully unaware of how fast life as we know it would change.  

Gettin Ready to Bust...

A slice of paradise is relative.  We live in SW Wyoming where the air is clean, the sky is big, employment is plentiful and you can be outside of town in 2 minutes flat.  I know how blessed we are but there are times that I long for mountains instead of buttes, soil instead of shale and a bit of acreage for more gardens and, dare I say it...a barn!

To All Mothers...of Children, Animals or this Planet...

"The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." -Mother Teresa

A heartfelt thank you to my Momma, for all that she does to make our family and, this world a better place.  I am humbled by your love and sacrifice.

I love you.

Happy Mother's Day to my daughters too...Tiffany, Jennifer, Ava and Ashley.  You make me very proud indeed :) 

 I'll be hitting I-80 and headed to UT in just a few minutes Mom!  Got some real pretty flowers loaded in the back of the car and a few other goodies for all the Mom's in my life!

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

Rebecca

Gardener's Soap Scrub: For Mother's Day!

Looking for a thoughtful, quick and easy Mother's Day gift?  I have just the thing!  

Gardener's SOAP & Hand Scrub

Not too long ago, my sister Jillee of One Good Thing by Jillee

blogged about a hand scrub for gardeners, you may have seen it.  I saw it, and wrote it off as just another scrub.  Well, I should know by now that if Jillee made it, it isn't just another scrub.  But she's my sister ya know?  I ask you, who takes their siblings seriously 100% of time??

Perfect Gift for Mom! DIY Skin Care for Gardeners & Everyone Else

I embrace dirty hands, I do!  Truthfully, it's so much easier for me to plant (wrangle iPhones) gloveless.  But I know that I'll be sorry if I do, I know this.  My hands will get dry and rough as tree bark from repeated digging then washing, it's a never ending vicious cycle.  


Every Spring the quest for moisturizers begins.  I read reviews (I love reviews).  Then I start ordering from Amazon, or stopping the flow of traffic in Whole Foods searching, ever searching for something that's natural and works!  I just want something that works! 

Another motivation was the dollar factor.  I needed to reign myself in, get back to basics.  If I can make pie, bread, fire starters and fabric softener surely I can DIY this too.

So I did!  I experimented with several ingredients and added lots of essential oil which in my opinion is the stand out ingredient.


Let me show you what I came up with.

Summertime Jargaritas & Jello Pudding Jars

At the risk of sounding completely boring, I love the idea of "jargaritas" because; they're cute, contained, controlled and organized!  Not exactly young and wild thinking is it?  

Our parties these days consist of adults and kids so I'm always thinking in those terms.  When I entertained the idea of jargaritas I knew I would also have to come up with something just as great and, also in a jar for the kids.  Pudding in a jar?  Yes Ma'am!

Is It Really THE BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie?

According to the New York Times, this is the best chocolate chip cookie out there.  Well, I happen to love chocolate chip cookies and I've made thousands, so we shall see about this claim!  Over the weekend I decided to take this pronouncement as a personal challenge as my FB friends can attest to because I whined a lot about it.  I shall perform this service out of my love for all man and womankind.  Let the drudgery begin :)

Plant a Hanging Basket in That Pot, Cheat a Little!

It was such a beautiful morning in Wyoming today, I had to plant something.  It's a reckless thing to do in early May but I'm a reckless kinda gal ya know.  Oh but even if my pretties freeze and die, my blissful morning will have been worth it.

First thing, I went scrounging for cheap flowers.  Check!  Diet Coke for hydration.  Check!  Good music in the car, windows down, heater OFF.  Check!  Oh yes, I was feelin it...

Score!

I decided to resort to an old trick of mine...I'm sure it's not my original idea but I thought of it.  Long ago, after leaving So. Cal for a high mountain valley and experiencing seasonal gardening ie: WINTER/ICE/SNOW/FREAKIN FREEZING to death, I learned to cheat the calendar a bit.  It's very simple, economical and best of all...pure instant gratification.  

Updates From Camp Wander's Potting Bench

UPDATE:  Vinegar Weed Killer
As you can see in the above photo, I have a fighter on my hands.  When the sun is high in the sky, I'll be blasting stubborn regrowth again.  This goes to show that you may have to apply vinegar and soap more than once for proper annihilation.  

Bam Bam BBQ Land

Meet Cameron AKA Bam Bam BBQ.  He's my first born, a legit BBQ Pitmaster and pill.  He's our favorite source of irreverent entertainment, mouth watering BBQ and general all out hilarity.  He loves the camera can you tell?

This last weekend, Cam had a big BBQ competition in Salt Lake City, a great and location for a lot of us to gather!  So much fun and so much goooood foooood...love bbq.