RED, WHITE AND BLUE!!

I enjoy having a red, white and blue themed porch from Memorial Day through Labor Day. A lot of my decor had become faded due to the west sun my front porch receives, so what a good excuse to do some shopping!!

• I had picked up the wicker chair and table a few months ago at the local thrift store for a whopping $25! 
• The wagon was given to me by my in-laws due to a move they had to make...hate they had to move but I am enjoying the wagon.
• The flag banners and the small flags were purchased at Home Depot and Wal Mart.
• The metal flower was purchased at Hobby Lobby...and on sale of course.
• Now I needed a pillow for the chair. After searching Pinterest for ideas, I spotted a bandana pillow in one of the posts. Already having a pillow form in the closet and bandanas in my hutch ( normally used for napkins when we have BBQ), I set to work on this pillow.

             Items you will need:

                 Pillow form (mine was a 14"x14")
           2 bandanas

           thread
           scissors or pinking shears

The bandanas were ironed and placed wrong sides together, matching up edges as much as possible.  Folding the bandanas in half and then half again to find the center and mark with chalk. I was able to follow the crease marks from the folds to create a "cross" to then measure out in each direction for where I wanted the seam.

Measuring out 7" from each line I created the outer lines to be a guide for the seam. Pinning three of the sides together to keep fabric from shifting...not pinning the fourth side to remind me not to sew it up!

After the seam in sewn on three sides, insert the pillow form, pin bandana together and SLOWLY sew a seam on the fourth side to close the opening. You can leave the pillow as is OR choose to cut with pinking shears/scissors to create 1" tabs around the border for knotting. Preferring the more ragged look, I cut slits about every inch (I just "eyed" it) and then made knots.

The pillow completed the porch! Now time to have a cookout so I can show off this RED, WHITE AND BLUE front porch!!

SOIL TEST

I had picked up a soil testing kit at one of the home improvement stores a few months ago. At the time, I had great intentions of getting the soil tested, gathering all of the needed supplements and integrating them into the yard this spring. However, since it is June 11, I think I missed the original target date.  Today presented with a little extra "free" time while the girls finished up Bible testing, perfect time for soil testing. (I had gathered soil a few days ago so that it could dry out.)

Starting with the pH test: This basically revealed that our pH is around 7.0 to 8.0. That is basically neutral. Not starting off so good.  I knew that our soil was basically strip farmed but I was holding on to the belief that it really couldn't be "that" bad.

Now on to the nutrient testing: Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium (NPK)

And yes, it really was "that" bad. Basically finding that the soil that surrounds our home is worthless :( I tested it THREE different times...I couldn't actually believe that it had NOTHING!!

I guess in some ways it should make me feel better, right? I mean maybe it wasn't my gardening techniques after all!

Now the daunting task of knowing where to start in fixing this problem.  I think we will have to start with having it tilled up, ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING added, and a whole lot of patience.  Any and all suggestions are welcome.