Making Good - DIY Repurposed Succulent Planter

This week, I am bringing you an unexpected crafty post on a Monday!  Why?  I was invited by Agatha Lee of Green Issues by Agy to join the Making Good Repair Blog Train.  Since May 1st, a bunch of talented bloggers have been sharing their repairs and fixes for items, because we believe that  we can use our creativity to find a solution to a problem instead of just throwing it away.  Definitely check it out!

For my project, I originally had something else in mind... and I'm wondering if I bent the rules a little, now that I'm sharing my post.  That's me, always a rebel, even if by accident!

The item that I decided to use is the lasagna dish that had a hairline crack in it, after I made my fantastic Vegetarian Lasagna with Spinach, Mushrooms & Soy Crumbles.  It just was not safe for the oven anymore, so I decided to repurpose it into something completely different!

Here's a view of that crack.  So sad.  :(

So now that I think about it, I completely broke the rules and did not repair my project.  However, I did prolong the life of it, in a second career!  Instead of the kitchen, it now hangs out in the garden!

When my mom plants succulents in her fabulous garden, she likes to nurture them from little tiny cuttings in separate small containers (check out the applesauce containers on the left), then group them together in larger planters, before releasing them into the garden!

Voila, I had a new item for her to use!

Now here's what I did to transform something broken into something good!

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Garden Tour #2: Succulents!

Fall is upon us, and that means that the foliage will be changing.  And yes, the leaves do turn in California!  For me, the most exciting part of my mother's garden are her flowers and the vegetables she grows, which stop producing this time of year.  Remember, I shared a bit of her garden in this post with you?  I am encouraging her to grow squash this fall, but since she is not a squash-lover, I will not be receiving any of her extra crop.  :(  I totally understand because she has her hands full with all of the lovely succulents that she has to tend to year round.  By far, these are the plants that incite most of the "oohs" and "aahs" with guests.  This post is dedicated to the lovely succulents that she grows with a lot of work and care!

First of all, her backyard is paved so she does a lot of planting in pots.  I love her arrangements!

First, she buys bunches of succulents at the nursery and replants them into nicer looking pots.

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Tip: Saving Tomato Seeds

Since last week's tip of regrowing green onions was so popular, I thought that I would share my method of saving tomato seeds, which has worked pretty well for me!

It all started last year when a friend of mine brought over these yellow pear tomatoes that she said were growing like weeds over her entire backyard and side yard.  Since I'm a tomato fiend (recipe 1, 2, and 3 as evidence), I decided to try out saving the seeds for my mom to plant them in her garden...

Let's see how I did it!

By the way, this is one of the two plants that my mom grew in her garden from the seeds of a few tomatoes that I saved.  Amazingly enough, it popped up out of nowhere because the original plant was grown in a pot clear across the yard!  She thinks that it started growing in this second pot when she needed a bit more soil for the pepper plant and borrowed it from the tomato plant.  I guess a few of the seeds that were planted hitched a ride!

Here is how I got these plants going!

1. Cut the tomato in half to and remove all of the seeds by squeezing or pulling out with your fingers/knife.

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Simple Caprese Salad

The end of summer is always a sad time for me.  The long, hot days are wonderful in California, and the weather is perfect for my mother's garden (which you might remember from this post).  She always gives me a large tomato bumper crop from her many tomato plants, as well as a ton of basil.

Earlier this summer, I tried a roasted tomato soup (which I have yet to blog about!) which was pretty good.  I also had a couple of recipes which used some of the crop, including the Basil, Rosemary and Tomato Focaccia and the "Pantry Fresh" Pesto Pasta Salad.

I love coming up with new recipes to use my abundant tomato stock.  However, none of these dishes really let the fresh tomatoes sing on their own.  That is why my absolute favorite summertime tomato dish is a simple Caprese Salad!

A few months ago, I shared with you my favorite salad.  I should probably clarify that the recipe I posted about is definitely my favorite lettuce-based salad.  The caprese salad is absolutely my favorite salad, bar none!

Caprese Salad

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Garden Tour & A Pepper Question For You!

Yesterday, I mentioned that I was going to give a mini tour of my mom's garden and I need to ask all of you gardeners out there a question or two.  Here we go!

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First up, let's check out what my mom has growing in her garden!  Here's a sample of the tomatoes from one of her many plants.  Thanks to the southern California weather, her plants produce nearly year round, and I get a ton of her bumper crop!

Here is a snippet of her plant life.  Of course, I was a little dumb and took these pictures after she harvested the ripe tomatoes, etc. so it looks a little bare.

1. Jalapeño
2. Macho Nacho pepper
3. Unknown pepper plant
4. Mini red tomatoes
5. Rosemary & Thyme
6. Basil
7. Serrano peppers & Yellow pear tomatoes
8. Large tomato plant (1 of 3!)

She also is starting to grow radishes and there is a picture of her bell pepper plant below.


Now, back to the pepper tasting and my questions for you.  As you know, I like my taste tests, and I was totally game for the challenge!  It was a bit surprising for a couple of reasons.  For years, I was under the impression that thin peppers with lots of seeds were spicier than large peppers.  This was totally proven wrong, and I was definitely surprised when I tried these out.

Here are my spicy rankings from least to most spicy:

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