Tag Archives: Schnarr’s Hardware blog

Are you anxious to get back out in your garden again? I know I am!

March 31, 2022Gardening, Outdoor Funbiophilia, community gardening, Fresh Starts Community Garden, gardening, gardening events, Rosie Willis, Schnarr's Blog, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, St. Louis, St. Louis Master Gardeners, St. Louis metro area, St. Louis Missourichasenfratz

It’s been awhile since I updated the Schnarr’s blog calendar with gardening events. For the last couple of years most events have been cancelled or online. But a few in person events are starting to happen again, along with a lot of webinars and online sessions.

I’ve put some St. Louis based events, be they in person or virtual, on the Schnarr’s Blog calendar here:
http://schnarrsblog.com/calendar/

I’ve also added some pins to a couple of sections of the Schnarr’s Pinterest site to help people find gardening related webinars and on-demand content from all over the country.

Gardening Webinars and Online Courses

Garden Educational Videos, eBooks, Slide Shows and Podcasts On Demand

In the St. Louis area where I am, it’s a bit rainy and cold right at the moment and it’s possible that tasks you were looking forward to doing in the garden might be postponed for a few days. If you’re forced to be more indoors than you’d like, maybe some online gardening content will help you maintain a healthy state of mind. Enjoy!

*Dad is on the left, Rosie Willis on the right. 03-26-2022*

This past Saturday my Dad and I blew some of the winter dust out of our bodies and minds by volunteering at Fresh Starts Community Garden. It was Dad’s first time here while I’ve been to this garden a couple of times before. It was uplifting as always to spend a little time with the inspiring and kind leader Rosie Willis and the other volunteers. I get praised a lot when I volunteer, but it’s likely I get more out of it than I give – gardening makes me happy wherever I do it! And it’s always uplifting to be in the company of people who are working hard to help their neighbors.

This week those of us who are St. Louis Master Gardeners got some nice validation by getting the Master Gardener 2021 Impact Statement PDF document in our email. If you would like to see what we did in 2020 and 2021, check out these links:

2021 St. Louis Master Gardener Impact Statement

2020 St. Louis Master Gardener Impact Statement

I’ve been reading in the last year or two about biophilia – in so many words it is the human tendency to feel a sense of well being while exposed to nature. As I’ve learned from reading horticultural therapy books, in addition to spending time in or around actual nature, pictures, video and sounds from gardens can make people feel better mentally and physically. I hope the resources I’ve linked to can help give you some good feelings immediately whether you have to be inside or outside.

Here is a link to my photo album on Facebook of some of the past master gardener activities I’ve enjoyed since completing my training in 2016.

Master Gardener Activities

Here is a link to Fresh Starts Community Garden on Facebook.

Fresh Starts Community Garden

Happy Spring!

Cookbooks, Collards and Quiche

August 12, 2020Food, Gardening, Reviews and Commentarycookbook, cooking, harvesting collards, harvesting greens, Moog's Musical Eatery, quiche, recipes, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, Shirleigh Moogchasenfratz

Recently on the Schnarr’s Hardware blog, I wrote about one of my favorite cookbooks, harvesting collards and greens from my garden and my favorite quiche recipe.

Read it here:
Collards Taste Great in Quiche

It’s a Great Day for Garden Planning!

January 23, 2020Art, Gardeningcoloring, coloring plant symbols, drawing, drawing plant symbols, drawing practice, landscape design, landscape drawing symbols, landscape plan, landscape plan drawing, marker drawing, pencil drawing, Plan Graphics for the Landscape Designer, plant symbols, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, Tony Bertauskichasenfratz

Practicing plant symbols and textures according to the book Plan Graphics for the Landscape Designer: 2nd Edition by Tony Bertauski

Today the St. Louis area is experiencing a sleet and snow mixture. In a week or so, it will be time to start some seeds indoors for the earliest garden plants such as onions and chives. See the Schnarr’s Hardware calendar that includes suggested seed starting, planting times and harvest times for the St. Louis area. That means it’s not too early to plan your garden for 2020! I’ve been practicing landscape plan drawing as I work on my garden plan. More examples and more details are on the Schnarr’s blog!

Article – Landscape Plan Drawing – Practice Rendering Symbols

Enjoying My Home Grown Greens

September 21, 2019Conservation, Food, Gardeningbackyard wildlife, beneficial insects, cabbage worms, cabbageworm, caterpillars, cole crops, garden pests, gardening, good eating, growing greens, growing herbs, growing vegetables, hornworms, natural pest control, organic gardening, parasitic wasps, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, sustainability, sustainable gardening, tomato worms, vegetable garden, vegetable gardeningchasenfratz

Fresh picked salad from the backyard with cherry tomatoes, dill, arugula, chives, romaine, mustard greens, edible flowers and wild greens. I served the produce over cold edamame noodles.

I hope now that the ordeal with our rain garden is over Tom and I can start actually enjoying our garden! One of the many things we like about it is being able to pick fresh salads every day in season. I’m going to be really sad when it gets too cold to do this.

Since I took these photos, this monarch has hatched and is on it’s way to Mexico right now if it has not run into misfortune along the way. I’ve helped raise a bunch of caterpillars this year by providing habitat and I’m really happy about that!

Monarch butterfly caterpillar turning into a chrysalis over a 24 hour period.

Since I welcome caterpillars to my garden, I get species I really want as well as caterpillars that eat some of the greens I want to eat. One of my strategies is to plant enough to share. I also like to encourage beneficial insects that prey on garden pests.

Read more about it on the Schnarr’s Blog:
What is Eating My Mustard Greens?

Introduction to Letterboxing

March 30, 2018Outdoor Fun, Paper Crafts, Rubber Stamping, Tutorials@CanvasCorp, @canvscorp, #canvascorpbrands, #ccbcrew, 7gypsies, Atlas Quest, book arts, bookbinding, carving your own stamp, classes at Schnarr's Hardware, classes by Carolyn Hasenfratz, DIY, handmade book, handmade journal, hiking, hobby, hobby knife, LBNA, letterboxing, Letterboxing North America, make rubber stamp, outdoor activities, Outdoor Fun, paper crafting, paper crafts, printmaking, rubber stamp carving, rubber stamping, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, treasure huntchasenfratz

Letterboxing logbook and samples of personal stamps — Letterboxing logbook and samples of hand carved personal stamps.

I recently taught a two-part class to help people get started in the hobby of Letterboxing which combines outdoor exploration and creative expression. Two of the items you need to participate are a rubber stamp and a logbook. In part one, we hand carved a personal stamp and in part two we made a personal logbook. I wrote a tutorial for each class and they are now published on the Schnarr’s Hardware blog. If you want to try letterboxing or just learn to carve a rubber stamp and make a simple handmade book, here are links to my tutorials.

Read more on the Schnarr’s Hardware blog:

/Introduction to Letterboxing – Part I – Carving a Personal Stamp

Introduction to Letterboxing – Part II – Making a Personal Logbook

Make Your Own Bird Suet Cakes

March 3, 2018Conservation, Tutorials, Upcyclingattracting birds to the garden, bird feeding, bird watching, Litzinger Road Ecology Center, LREC, make suet cakes, Master Gardener Program, render beef fat, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blog, St. Louis Master Gardeners, suet cakes, Whole Foodschasenfratz

Feeding outdoor birds with homemade suet cakes

I do as much as I can in my garden to attract birds, because I love them and I enjoy the benefits of all the insects they eat. Suet cakes are attractive to many birds, in particular the ones who eat a lot of insects. I wrote an article on how to double-render fat to make suet cakes that you offer to outdoor birds in spring temperatures.

Read more on the Schnarr’s Blog:
Make Suet Cakes for Outdoor Birds

Fun Venture Cafe Event

March 1, 2018Art, Events#venturecafestl, adult coloring, art journaling, Schnarr's Hardware, Schnarr's Hardware blogchasenfratz

Art journal pages projected on screen as part of a slide show featuring art inspired by science.

Last week some of my science inspired art journal pages were in a slide show as part of an event called “Science of Creativity”. I’m a believer in the fun and benefits of adult coloring and art journaling so it was very rewarding for me to show some of my samples and also participate in coloring activities on at the event. Venture Cafe activities are kind of like mini conventions and happy hours where you can attend presentations and network with people in a low-pressure situation.

Read more on the Schnarr’s Hardware blog:
Exploring Where Art and Science Meet at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Carolyn Hasenfratz Design

Living the creative life with art, design, crafts, gardening, home decor and more!