Thyme border

My project of the week is planting thyme. It isn't just part of the herb garden, though. It's a decorative, fragrant border for the lawn, to make maintenance much, much easier.

Here's how it works. You know those places on your lawn that the mower just can't seem to get? Up against a fence, or a planter, or the house... the mower can't get close enough, and you are stuck either picking tall grass by hand, breaking your back with a weed eater, or letting it go to seed and anger the neighbors. With just one afternoon's work, you can make it a non-issue in the future.

Buy creeping thyme. It comes in a number of varieties, which you can sometimes find at local garden shops, but otherwise you can buy online from seed companies. Make sure it's a creeping variety, not a bushy variety. You can also plant several kinds, to get slightly different fragrances, leaf colors, and even blossoms.

Then you dig the area you want to plant. Take a lawn edger to break the sod first, then just dig the sod out. Plant your thyme according to directions, about a foot apart, and add compost, potting soil, or other seed and root-free planting material around it to level it. It should quickly grow and spread, making a trouble-free ground cover in the area that your mower can't reach. It is sturdy enough to take some foot traffic, and it lets off a lovely smell when the leaves get crushed. And it lies flat enough that the mower will do little damage when it comes into contact with the edge.

For the reluctant veggie eater

You want your kiddie to eat healthy, balanced meals, but he has other ideas. No veggies. (Red isn't a veggie, so pizza sauce is ok.) Nothing green. Even mint green ice cream is suspect. Whatever can you do?

Well, spinach is the perfect stealth veggie. You can buy it frozen, chopped pretty small. Too small to pick out of a casserole. If that's till too visible, the blender can work wonders. A whirl in the blender, and spinach, or just about any other green vegetable, can be added to any brown sauce almost unnoticed. It adds nutrition, and even flavor.

Don't forget to use green onions and garlic greens, too. Diced tiny, they add flavor and zing -- and necessary "green" nutrients -- to anything from a soup to a pizza.

Pastry Seeds!

Ok, not really... but a good idea for germinating seeds, in a pastry tray.
If you've ever bought a grocery store pastry, you know what I'm talking about. It's a plastic container that has a metal tray inside, and holds a coffee cake or some such thing. They snap closed, and many of them are a really good size for germinating seeds. Just put in peat pots (or some equivalent with a biodegradable pot and planting compound or soil). Add enough water to cover the bottom of the pastry plastic, and when the self-contained planters are completely damp, add your seeds. Close the lid, and it will give you a humid, warm, greenhouse environment for your seeds to start in. When the seedlings get too tall for the "greenhouse," they're ready to plant.

Improving the non-car garage

If you're one of the many people who don't park cars in the garage because it's too small or you have too much other stuff in it, consider weatherizing it. It will lower your electric bill (especially in cold or windy seasons), give you more privacy, and reduce the number of pests that get in.

The first thing to do is buy weatherizing caulk, the kind that foams up like shaving cream. Make sure that it's graded for windows. Spray the perimeter of any garage windows, to keep wind from seeping in around them. After it dries, you can cover the windows with a tarp or even shower curtains, attaching the edges to the wall to make more of an air barrier. This keeps curious eyes from peeking in to see whether you have anything worth stealing, and it further blocks the cold by providing a pocket of air between the window and the curtain. I recommend using something white and semi-opaque, to block the view from outside but still allow some light to come in.

If it's winter or almost winter, go ahead and caulk the perimeter of the garage door, also. If it's spring or summer, you might want to wait, in case you need to open the door to clean out the garage. If you find that you need to open it after you've caulked, don't worry. The cost of recaulking is minimal, and still worth it.

The total cost of this weatherizing can be ten dollars or less. The caulk tubes run about $4 each in my area, and even if you buy two (one industrial, extra-expanding, and one less-expansive window kind), it's not costly. If you use shower curtains, you can get them from a dollar store.