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LE turban on LE girl

coming soon...to Little Eero

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growing

who's growing?

I had received some emails requesting to see the baby teepee plants and here they are.

green bean + pea teepee

Our family is so excited about our garden teepee.  So without further ado...garden teepee tutorial #2. 

Material:

• stone (I used slate)
• hammer
• screw driver
• glasses (you don't want something to fly in your eyes when you are pounding away at stone)
• gloves
• a creeping ground cover (I used baby tears)
• soil

STEP 1:

Buy enough stone to cover the circular ground area of your teepee. I bought 16 medium size pieces of slate. Thick enough that when they are stepped upon they won't break. I used slate because it is smooth to touch and very beautiful. Sand stone is less money but it is not as smooth to touch and since we will be sitting on the stone I figured I should go with the one that actually feels good.

STEP 2: 

Break the stone with a hammer and screwdriver to make pieces smaller and more interesting. Don't forget to work with gloves and glasses, they will protect your hands and eyes during the smashing process. This is an easy and fun step so don't be afraid.

STEP 3: 

Lay out the stones in the ground, make certain that the soil underneath is leveled (if the stones are wobbly its not leveled). Leave room in-between the stones and space them to fill the entire ground area of the teepee.

STEP 4: 

Once stones are firmly placed into soil , break up your ground cover and place in-between the stones. I spaced my ground cover between 2-6 inches apart...it depends on your ground cover and how quickly you want it to fill.

STEP 5: 

Once ground cover is placed in-between stones, start to pack in soil just as you typically would. Make certain that your ground cover is firmly set in the soil and do not be afraid to make a mess. The most important thing is that both ground cover and stones are very secure. This will only happen if you use plenty of soil.

STEP 6: 

After all is in place, give your ground cover a good soak, when you are doing this go ahead and wash away the lose soil.

 ahhhhh, nice and tidy...

Its up and ready to be loved. This is an older image, now the vines are in and starting to grow. As the weather gets warmer the teepee will become a place for fun and shade. A perfect little shelter for 2 little girls!

storytime

this is a great story

luv

source

green bean + pea teepee

I finally got around to putting up the teepee in our front yard. This teepee will be the trellis for green beans and peas while making for a super fun fort for my girls. There are a few more things I have to do so think of this as garden teepee tutorial #1. I still have to put the stone floors in and well nurture the plants to grow into beautiful fruitful plants.

Material:

• 5 bamboo sticks // the taller the bigger your teepee will be
• drill
• garden twine
• tapestry needle
• scissors
• decoration for the top of the teepee // this could include beans, leather, rocks, jewels
• 1 packet of organic green beans seeds
• 1 packet of organic pea seeds
• general gardening tools // shovels, hand shovel, hand rake
• bag of all purpose soil

STEP 1:

Buy 5 bamboo rods. I bought very tall sticks since I wanted it to be a very large teepee, large enough for both my girls and some toys, (the sticks were probably 10 maybe even 11 feet tall). Then drill a small hole (through the bamboo stick) but large enough for a tapestry needle to fit through about 12 inches down from the top.

drill a hole large enough for a tapestry needle to fit through

STEP 2: 

Thread sturdy garden twine through each hole with a tapestry needle. Very easy step!

thread twine through the hole

STEP 3: 
Tie off the twine. Tie tight enough that it maintains a very small opening at the top but lose enough so that you can maneuver the sticks so that you can shape your teepee. Do not cut the long ends.

tie them together //leave long ends 

STEP 4:

Dig a semi circle hole about 3-4 inches down depending on the soil. I have very wet soil/high in clay in this area of my garden. It your soil is very lose, dry and/or fluffy I suggest you dig deeper and add water before you place your bamboo ends.

dig a semi circle // at least 3 inches down

NOTE:
These are my peas and green beans seeds...to speed up the germination process I had soak them in water for 12 hours.

green beans to the left // peas to the right

STEP 5:
Before I put up my teepee I strung some large wooden beads on the ends of the tied off twine and I added some white leather with beads as well. These will hang down inside the teepee and add an extra layer of fun to this play fort.

added some beads and leather to the tie-off

STEP 6:
Finally the structure is ready to be put up. Each bamboo end should be evenly placed around the semi-circle.  Its very important that the structure is secure, so make certain to have the bamboo placed deeply and that the dirt is rather compact directly around the bamboo ends. Once they are secure put down 2 inches of fresh all purpose soil throughout the entire semi circle. Now its time to plant; place your seeds in the soil around the edge of the semi circle. They should be place 1 inch down and space form 2 - 4 inches apart. I alternated the seeds and will pull the weak ones once they germinate and grow. Make certain to give the seeds a good water soak.

teepee is up + seeds are planted

To be continue, wish our plants well to grow full and tall.