Upon inspecting the bag, I saw that I could take advantage of the selvege, so I unwrapped the twine that was binding the edges. [Unlike Maiden Jane, I cut the fabric just once. I also enjoyed the lack of odor. New burlap from the store smells horrendous. I  found this bag to have a very smooth texture, too. The other coffee bag is quite rough.]

Unwrapping the twine from the edges was quick.

Then I spread out the burlap to see what I had to work with. There was a natural halfway point.

The bundle of twine (and all the scraps) near the top of the sack went into my bee smoker.

I know you want to see the tag, so here it is up close.

I cut the sack in half where the fold is, then I trimmed the ends of the rug by folding and sewing a hem. I folded that hem under and sewed it again. Then I made the rug non-slip with $1 silicone caulking. I saw this silicone tip on Pinterest somewhere, but it was so long ago that I did an internet search. I think lines were applied crossways, but I didn’t want bumps under my rug. I found that the tile guy (we referred to him last year) has a short video about it. I think he brushed the silicone with a paint brush.

I applied the caulking crossways in four evenly spaced lines, and also lengthwise near the edge — so the backside of the rug was outlined in silicone, plus two lines in the middle. I suppose I could have made an “x” in the middle instead. After I squirted the caulking, I spread it with a yogurt lid that I had cut up.

You can buy larger tubes, but I didn’t because I didn’t want a lot of waste. I used a little less the contents of the small tube.

Once it was dried and see-through, I put the rug in my kitchen. My youngest asked if I put a sticker on the back of the rug. It is very non-slip and yes, sort of stuck to the floor. But it’s not really stuck, it just really stays in place. It peels off the floor very easily.

This project took very little time to complete. I sewed two straight lines (twice for each line), and used silicone caulking — now that I type that, a coffee sack rug seems like a very simple project. And I still have the other half of the coffee sack. What should I do with it?

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There’s my plot to tend at the community garden. I gave the city council a little update on it this week, letting them know that the staff is excellent to work with. Hopefully the council and everyone in attendance has noticed or stopped by the plots, because I think a garden in a public space has inherent value. One lovingly prepared, mostly-scratch meal is my goal for most days. The garden helps me do that. I’ve met people at our church garden and our former CSA who never knew that garlic and potatoes came out of the ground. Grown adults. Using the community garden is my form of a food awareness campaign.

I noticed that I had an unopened envelope of sweet corn, so I planted it. The next day, I noticed that it was dated “For 2003″ Yikes! The stuff I find in my drawer….

I bought new seed last night and got it in the ground today with “I” of GAIN. I’ll put more corn in next week. I chose a variety that grows only 5′ high, so I’m looking forward to an accessible harvest. It’ll be a later harvest, but that’s OK with me. There is no race. Here is our water tower.

The “community” in the community garden is ten families. One man put this hose and holder onto the water tower, which the City provided for us. Another hose is also available from a woman with a plot on the far end. With the low pressure, I like to have my sprinkler running when the ground is dry — it can just go on it’s own while I’m weeding or planting elsewhere in my plot. For more garden stories, visit Green Thumb Thursday.

I also got to spend some time with “G” of GAIN at the neuroscientist’s office. He’s in the beginning stage of two therapies to spur the underdeveloped parts of his brain. He is very motivated to have therapy. I don’t know that he would have been interested as a younger child to have either therapy because the relevance would have been lost. As a high school student, he can see why and how therapy can benefit him. Before his appointment, we checked out the river walk.

Five years ago, Mr. TellBlast and I walked here on our 15th wedding anniversary. Yesterday was our 20th anniversary, so it was fitting to revisit. I remembered pieces of the lecture from an Iowa Architectural Foundation architecture tour of City Hall as I strolled the river walk.  For example:

• The river walk was designed one hundred years ago
• Building anything west of the river was a huge debate
• The end use of the current Hall of Laureates was also debated

We ended his therapy outing with lunch at South Union Bread. For the same or lower price as Subway, there is a HUGE quality difference in the ambience and food. I highly recommend buying local.

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looking down at my cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli on 5.30.13

I want to make comments about the community garden at the next city council meeting, so I’m reflecting on where the praise should go. >My husband thinks the praise goes to me. That’s what I’ve overheard him tell people — that I single-handedly created the program. As if.<

The winner of the community garden program is us, the citizens who were blessed with the ten plots. The making of the garden was the work of many people, and I’d like to recognize them now.

Thank you to this free online grid paper. I am able to plant crops that I never dreamed of having. By having more space than my yard allows, I feel like going wild. But I have to carefully plan and restrain my whims and be practical. This paper works like a charm. I plot the crops and made sure the grid was sized right for my writing. Store bought paper wasn’t working for me. I’m not a “tiny writer.”

Thanks to Cubed Foot Gardening by Chris Bird — perhaps the only impulse book buy that I ever made. I remember the purchase vividly (it was a date night, which almost always ends at a book store), and I thankful for it. I’ve used it as a reference book for eleven years.

Thanks to the gardeners who keep all the participants up to date with Facebook. Our Facebook group is open so anyone can join and learn about our program, but the contributors seem to be gardeners who were awarded a plot. Which makes sense, since it’s our skin in the game. We invested time and money into our plots. So when the creek rises and we’re scared, at least one of us will venture down for a report and maybe a photo.

Thank you to the city staff. They chose a very visible place for the plots which has drawn the public’s attention. They built a water tower for us and left piles of mulch and compost for our use. We get quick responses to our messages, like when we asked about fencing.

Thanks also to bloggers, like this one. I get ideas and encouragement from regular people.

Where do you keep a garden?

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Free burlap coffee sacks – back side

Burlap sack reincarnated

During our field trip to the coffee roaster, I ended up going home with a burlap coffee sack. After seeing all the pallets of green coffee, I asked if the sacks get sent back to the grower or decaffeinator for reuse. The answer was that the bags are given to customers, and typically used in a garden as mulch. Similar to newspaper in a lasagna garden, burlap will suppress weeds and disintegrate into dirt. (More garden uses for burlap here. Yes, beekeepers do like burlap for their smokers. I will be harvesting my first, extremely early 2013 honey crop soon.) “G” of GAIN Academy wanted his own sack, and I was able to get one from the retail store. Here they are.

I came home from the roaster with this sack.

The fabric is very different on both sacks.

The coffee bag from Mexico has a nice blue stripe, which I would like to use for a kitchen rug, like this one.

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What kind of stuff? Well, my second son and I gave my front yard flower bed a makeover. To help me finish it, my friend Abby traded her perennial geranium  for my culinary sage.

yay for bartering!

I have pruned this sage so much over the last two years that it’s finally fitting in the space I wish for it. I’m in charge over the plant here, right?

culinary sage plant will grow roots anywhere the stem touches the ground

Bonus: She left me with yarn!

isn’t it gorgeous?

I also belong to Central Iowa Plant Exchange, where I traded monarda, or bee balm — one light pink and one dark purple-pink for liriope muscari, or lily turf. It looks like grass now, but will have lovely blue flowers along a spike come late summer. Bonus: She left me with a few Japanese painted ferns!

the colors are even more beautiful in real life

I was pleased to see one of last year’s barter plants grow out this year — spiderwort.

the flowers turn to liquid after one day’s worth of bloom

And because I engage so well with others via social media, Klout and McDonald’s rewarded me with $5 to use on an Egg White Delight. Bartering social media time for food is OK with me.

I added a latte, no syrup, for an extra 28 cents. Yes, I really put McDonald’s in my car and my body.

The process cheese scared me a little at first. I thought it would be yellow, but it was white. When I peeled back the paper wrapper to find white melty strings, I thought it was uncooked egg white. Ick. Moreover, I’m not a fan of process cheese. But for a quick meal, it definitely fits the bill. Definitely a 1% of the time kind of purchase for me.

Tell me how you barter.

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