Hi friends! I’m so happy to have this little space on Tara’s blog to share with you a simple and easy DIY for your seed exchange partner!
But first, I’m Sylvie! You can find me over at @smanderstrom where I share a piece of my everyday life in tiny squares. My little family and I live on a 1 acre homestead where we learnt that gardening is a hard labour of love. I spend most of my spring days starting tiny seedlings indoors and playing in the dirt prepping the soil of our 50×50 garden patch as well as a few garden beds. Our garden space grows every year as with my love for gardening and I can never seem to have a big enough garden!
In the summer I love waking up to the sunrise, grabbing a mug with what my taste buds are craving in the moment and heading out to the garden to take a stroll while the sun glimmers and sparkles on the dewy plants. If I’m lucky, I may even be joined by a couple hummingbirds that like to flutter around with my company. The sound of the bees buzzing and the beautiful morning light in my garden is the perfect way to start my day.
Before we dig in, Tara asked me to share my vision of a seed exchange box!
My vision of a seed exchange box is to include some of my favourite must have garden items that I use all season long, as well as a few other items to help your garden thrive with friendly pollinators. I couldn’t imagine my garden without bees, butterflies & birds and I’d love my partner to experience a garden full of life!
Flower seeds were the first to come to mind.
They are the perfect way to attract all beneficial insects as well as birds. Cosmos, sunflowers, and zinnias being some of my favourites and these cut flowers are so incredibly easy to grow, even for beginners! Floret (USA friends) & Stems Flower Farm (Canadian friends) have beautiful unique varieties of flowers to choose from!
If you’d like to add something a little more, why not add a few flower bulbs inside your box? Gladiolus are some of the easiest bulbs to grow and attract hummingbirds to the garden. They are incredibly beautiful and are one of my must-haves to plant every year!
A small seed tin is also great for storing a few seed packets.
I love to use this little tin to keep my seed packets dry when I make my way to my garden to direct seed. It also keeps them all in one place and if a package accidentally opens, I can find my seeds at the very bottom! I found this in a small local shop, but be sure to check out garden sections when you are browsing in stores!
A little notepad is great for the garden.
I love writting notes down whenever I check things out. I can take notes on how things are growing (which helps me better prepare for the following year), pests, or even things I need to do in the garden a little later. I picked this one up from Floret (on sale on Amazon right now!).
A bird feeder is a great little addition to your box.
A unique little idea that some may not think about, but what perfect way to attract those little flutterers to your homestead or local garden! You could even include a little bag of seeds to go along with it. I’ll be sharing a DIY on bird seed bags next week, make sure to check back!
Garden twine.
Twine may not be all that fancy, but it is incredibly versatile in the garden and can be used in so many different ways! I love using it to keep track of my rows when I direct seed in the garden! I also use it to tie plants to stakes as they grow and you can even use it to trellis peas or beans. Read below on how to make your own garden twine jar!
DIY Garden Twine Jar
This twine jar accompanied with twine scissors in the perfect addition to toss into you garden basket when heading to your garden!
What you’ll need:
- 1 mason jar
- 1 roll of twine
- 1 pair of twine scissors
- Sticker labels
- A fine tip marker
The first step is to punch a hole in your mason jar lid. I like to live on the edge a little and I used a star screwdriver. I did this by putting the lid down on a cloth (shiny side up), then punching a hole, but you could also use a drill. Make sure the whole is large enough to pass your twine through. You may also have to sand down the underside of the lid where you punched the hole, just to prevent the twine from tugging on the edges.
Next, cut a piece of twine from your roll long enough to wrap and tie you scissors around the rim of the jar.
You can choose to take the strand of twine and pass it through the hole you made in your lid then simply tape it down with decorative tape, or you can just place the roll inside the jar and tighten up the rim.
Loop your twine around your twine scissors and tie them around the rim.
The last step is to make a pretty little label for your jar. You can get as creative with this as you’d like! I just used simple jar stickers and hand wrote on my label with a marker.
Avery makes all kinds of labels that you can place in your printer and get creative with the templates. If you don’t have a printer, and can’t find sticker labels, you can make a pretty label that wraps around your jar with simple kraft paper. Handwriting your label will give it a pretty vintage look and you can tape it with pretty decorative tape at the back.
You can purchase all of these items to make this DIY from a craft store. Many of these items can also be found on amazon.
Mason jars: https://www.amazon.ca/Bernardin-Regular-Mouth-500ml-Jars-Box/dp/B00593JWSO/ref=sxin_5_ac_m_rm?
Sticker labels: https://www.amazon.ca/Avery-Scallop-Labels-Inkjet-Printers/dp/B07N2XF3W6/ref=mp_s_a_1_27?keywords=brown+jar+labels&qid=1581796270&sr=8-27
PIN IT FOR LATER!!!
