Planting a Pollinator Garden and Repairing Old Rafter Tails

Planting a pollinator garden and repairing old rafter tails on our little pine cottage became creative projects for both of us.

POLLINATOR PLANTS FOR THE GARDEN

We went to our local farmers market in our neighborhood and nursery nearby to pick up a few pollinators for the garden. There was a variety of marigolds, zinnias, cosmos, salvia, and more. The colors were so vibrant and I was hoping it would attract bees, butterflies, and other pollinators to our garden.

I dug out small holes in each square foot, one for each plant, and added some bio-tone starter in the holes before planting. When I popped out the flowers from their temporary containers, they were starting to show signs of being a bit root bound, so it was definitely time to get them in the garden bed where they could spread their wings (roots) and grow more! Once I plopped them in their new home, I made sure to spread wood chips all around them to keep the moisture in.

We had an interesting surprise when digging a hole for one of the plants. Worm/snake like critters! Turns out they were some type of millipedes. It startled me at first, but then once you get over the creepy crawler fears, and do a little research, you realize that they are actually good for the garden. I’ve read that they help aerate the soil, break down organic matter and add more to the soil, improve soil health, and keep other pest populations down. Wins all around! That was great news for a new gardener like myself!

small shovel in garden with worm crawling on it

TRANSPLANTING STRAWBERRY SEEDLINGS

I can’t believe I was able to grow strawberry seedlings from the actual tiny little seeds. They had grown to the point that I could transplant them into grow bags. I had them growing in a plastic egg carton tray and now they would graduate to their permanent home.

When I plopped them out of the tray, the roots looked great. What a delight! I placed four or five seedlings in each five gallon grow bags.

strawberry seedlings planted in grow bags

FIRST GARDEN HARVEST

Since we built our raised garden beds, the first small harvest had already arrived. A little red radish was ready to pick! And it was little, going along with our tiny house theme I suppose. We’re in Texas and it gets a bit too hot for radishes to grow even in the fall, for me at least. But, we were excited to try the first fruits of our labor!

Now we had to do this properly by sitting on our old rocking chairs on the front porch to really enjoy them. I took my first bite and gave a small piece to Nate to try as well. It was spicy and delicious. He thought it was really good. This was the first time we’ve grown our own food! We also tried the stem and Nate thought it was a bit bitter, but I loved it. Growing up with Korean foods has helped me to appreciate bitter foods~ yum!

woman holding up red radish with old cottage behind her

REPAIRING OLD COTTAGE GABLE

There was some rotted wood at the end of one of our gables. Nate used a jig saw to cut it off at an angle where the wood was still good and not rotted. Then he would come through later and attach another piece of wood at the end. Since it’s not supporting anything, it would work out as a simple diy fix.

man holding rotted gable trim with one hand and jig saw in his other hand

He would save the rotted part of wood to trace out the shape with new wood he would replace it with to repair that area. Smart idea instead of having to replace the whole gable on one side. Less materials and waste, which is always a good thing.

man holding up section of rotted gable trim

REPAIRING OLD COTTAGE RAFTER TAILS

When we uncovered the original siding on our old little cottage, we also uncovered the original rafter tails! Some of them were not in the best shape though. Nate was coming up with creative diy ways to repair them.

He would cut out the rotted parts of the rafter tails and hallow them out. Then would put dowels in the rafter tail holes that were about one inch thick to reinforce the structure of the rafter tails. He thought it would be best to fill the holes with bondo first.

man holding wooden dowel in his hand with next to old rafter tail

This is the process he tried to diy repair the rafter tails. He took a stud and wrapped it in wax paper and then screwed it next to the rafter tail. The wax paper keeps the stud from sticking to the rafter tail. Then he put some wooden dowels in the rafter tail holes and glued them in.

wooden dowels filled in hollowed out rafter tail

After he filled the holes with the dowels in them with bondo, he would screw another 2×4 on the other side of the rafter tail and another small stud on the front flat end to hold it and allow it to mold together with the bondo. He worked with it and added several layers of bondo as needed. It would first need to dry before you add a second layer to it.

Nate thought the bondo mixture was a bit soupy, but it reminded me of play dough. When the bondo had enough time to dry with the studs on every side of the rafter tails, he removed the studs and it started to look really good. He sanded it and then patched it again with more bondo. A lot of progress was made. A lot of work for something that appeared to look so simple and not a lot was done to it.

Materials & Tools We Used

Garden Tool Set: A set like this is great for planting seedlings and plants in your garden and raised beds.
Garden Hat: I love this hat! I always use it in the garden and it’s also great for those summer beach days. Gotta protect yourself from the sun!
Garden Gloves: This three pack is very useful to protect your hands while gardening. If one pair gets wet or too dirty, you have two other pairs to grab. I use them when I’m working in the garden and also while I’m using garden tools to protect my hands from calluses.
Grow Bags: These are great for plants you don’t have room for in your garden or ones you don’t want to spread all over your garden beds. For me that was my strawberry seedlings. I’ve heard they can spread out like crazy and wanted to protect the limited room I had in my garden beds. Oh, and also for mint plants that also tend to spread everywhere!
Bio-tone Starter: This organic product was recommended to me by many people I met in a local garden store to plant seedlings or plants in our raised beds.
Jig Saw: This tool was used to cut off the rotted piece of wood on our gable. It has many uses for projects around the house.
Wooden Dowel Rods: These were used to fill our old rotted out rafter tails to reinforce the structure and repair them.

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CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS

Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.

You can also watch a video about this here.