Garden Tool Hanger

When it comes to garden tools, I am storage-challenged. I have a place in the garage to keep them, but I'm terrible about putting them away - I love to have them handy in the garden, so when I'm ready to rake / dig / weed / trim / etc. everything I need is handy. The sad result is that I've left them sitting on the cobblestones, where they've rusted. My grandfather would be so ashamed!

So when I saw this tutorial in This Old House, I knew it was meant for me. I scoured ebay for old spigots, and found a variety of eight that I loved for around $12, so I went for it. When they arrived, CJ helped me sort through his lumber pile to find old scraps perfect for my project.

And then he closely supervised (and helped quite a bit) while we put it all together in the basement. There was lots of drilling involved . . .

Followed by tightening . . . 

To get these little guys set. We ended up using only six, so I'll have to find another fun use for the two remaining spigots. 

I even got to use CJ's new nail gun! I may have gotten a bit carried away, but the good news is this thing is ready for some rugged outdoor weather!

It was pretty late when we finished it, so despite my excitement we left it overnight so that we could take our time hanging it in the daylight, and make sure it was exactly where we wanted. Just a little history, the back piece of wood where the spigots are attached actually one of our old stair treads, from when we replaced them all WAY back when. It's an almost 90-year-old piece of oak! 

It was great to get it in place on the back of the garage today. And as you can see, it's already working hard. I need to get some leather to attach to more of my garden tools so they'll hang easily. It will be so nice to have them handy, and hanging so they will stay dry when not in use. A few little plants on top of the shelf will be a nice touch too . . . .

So our final project cost was . . . . $12! Everything but the spigots was reused, making this a whole lot of cheap satisfaction. I'll buy some leather to get more tools hanging out, but even then this is a lot of bang for the buck.

Beet it!

"The natural aroma of the beets drifts into the bedrooms and makes one dream of simpler times . . ."
                                                                                          - Dwight Schrute, The Office

Today is a two-for-one blog kind of day - I guess we're just making up for lost time.

I seem to be in the minority, but I love beets. Like really love them. So, I woke up early today for my first official beet harvest! The beet section in my garden has filled in very thick this year, so I picked all the ones I could see that had bulbed out (probably somewhere between one third and one half of what's planted).
 

I hate peeling vegetables, so I was excited to read recently a different way to prepare and store beets that requires no peeling. First I cut off the roots and greens, then put them in a baking dish, covered and with some water in the bottom, to basically steam them in the oven.

They cooked for a long time (about an hour and a half) before they were tender, and my husband did indeed wake up to the natural aroma of beets, but when they came out I was able to just rub off the stems and skins without peeling. So easy!

I've got beets for the week in the fridge (looking forward to a great beet and gorgonzola salad tonight) and froze the rest of them for later.

Spring Harvest

I had this afternoon off, so I spent it in the garden. We've been really rainy the last few days, so everything out there is blooming and growing very quickly. I brought in our biggest harvest so far this year - some green beans, peas, strawberries and our first pepper. (The beer was for hydration).

Overall, the garden has been fantastic this year. It's been a warm, sunny spring with lots of rain, and on by my third time around I had learned a lot about planting in a small space. I couldn't be happier with the results. We're eating lots of strawberries (I'm beginning to freeze some of them), and we've had lots of onions and lettuce so far.

Our tomatoes and peppers are covered in flowers and buds, so those should be good for eating very soon. Our beets and carrots are also getting close. As far as the potatoes go, I have no clue how to tell if they're ready. I'll have to figure that one out . . . . 

The flower gardens are also filling in. This one in the backyard was planted last summer, but we rearranged it this summer to add a weeping cherry tree. If you squint you might be able to see it. Someday it will provide great shade and privacy. 

This is the bed I planted along the side of our porch earlier this year (shown here). It's quickly filling in and is currently bright with lily blooms. 

And here are a few more garden shots, just for the fun of it. Can you find the ant?

Spring Growth

Spring has arrived in Jonesville, and our outdoor activities are in full bloom.

Becca is growing lettuce in the garden with great success.

Our climatis flowers are blooming and bigger than ever.

We bought a Japanese Maple tree via mail order for our neighbor.

Becca really likes to plant trees.

Strawberries are also coming in. This year should be a great harvest, now that the squirrel cage is up.

Wrigley still likes to fetch, probably more than anything else.

Becca's new roses are looking great in their second year of growth.

Wrigley approves of the garden but wishes we grew bacon.

Garden Views

Tomato plants sprouting in the basement.

We've reached the time of year when things around the garden look different every week. Here are this week's views.

Convenient new spicket, installed by my handy dad and obliging husband. Will make it much easier to maintain our garden this year.

First anemone bloom. Love these little guys.

 Lettuce buds popping up like crazy.

 Lots of onion stems - the other thing blooming out back. Hopefully there will be lots of great things happening soon, but for now it's onions and lettuce.

 Growing, blooming vinca and clematis filling in the trellises.

    

Hens keeping the chicks company. And the logs. This little guy popped up more than a foot from the rest, between two railroad ties on our steps. And I love him. 

Firmly Planted

 

We are planted!  Well, mostly. Everything is in the ground except the potatoes and beans, which go in in April. Actually I got overly excited and accidentally planted the beans. We're pretty warm so maybe they'll be ok, but if not I'll replant them in April. 

Today was the first work day  post-daylight savings, and it was wonderful to come home to a warm sunny afternoon and have time to get some things done. I had turned all of the soil over during the weekend and even got my markers laid out, so today was all about the seeds.

Above is the garden from the north end, and below is from the south. It may not look like much now but in a few weeks we should see some life. Now, look closely in the strawberry bed. 

Do you see him? Nino really gets sad when I'm outside gardening and Wrigley gets to play, so Chris had the idea to put him in the enclosed strawberry bed. He loved it! He chewed up all the walnut tree twigs for me. Don't worry, I watched him closely to make sure he didn't try to help fertilize, and we won't put him in there once the plants start to blossom. Ok, disclaimer over. Isn't he cute? 



Zooming in on the north end, you can see that the vinca I planted last summer is taking over the ground nicely.

And don't worry about the dead stuff on the trellis. That's clematis, which is just beginning to sprout. It's one of the few perennials that should not be cut back in the winter, because the new growth actually comes from last year's dead stuff. Pretty cool. 

Finally, the other set of seeds. On Saturday I planted tomatoes, grape tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos in these starter cups. I have the grow light on a timer in the basement window and mist them daily, so they should be sprouting soon. 

Here's a close-up of day three. Hopefully we'll begin seeing green soon! 

While the Cat's Away . . . .

 . . . and by cat I of course mean my husband.

I was off work on Friday and Chris was not, so I took the opportunity to expand one of my flowerbeds. Ok, for the sake of full disclosure I've been talking about doing this for about a year, so I was maybe not so sneaky about it. Still, I felt a bit scandalous killing his beautiful grass with mulch while he wasn't there to object, groan, whine, etc.

I was so excited about the task at hand that I completely forgot to take a before photo, but to be honest you're not missing much. When we moved in the flowerbed ran a straight line about 15" out from the house, which left not nearly enough space for interesting or dramatic planting. So I dug the border bricks out and moved them.

And somehow when I moved the bricks from the straight line to this wide-arcing curvy line, all the while worrying about where I would find additional bricks to make up for the larger space I was covering, I ended up using three fewer bricks than the original configuration! We're calling them the Hannukah bricks. It's basically a miracle.

So, at this point I've move the bricks (and boy are my arms/legs/back sore), smothered the grass with mulch and planted the following:

1 sky pencil holly. This guy will grow in a great vertical column, approximately 2 feet wide and 8-10 feet tall when it's all said and done. It is a rather delicate plant, so it will require a lot of attention at first and it may look worse for the wear for a year or two while it gets established. Hopefully, though, if all goes well it will start springing up soon and give a nice vertical accent to the corner.

1 yellow twig dogwood. I usually think as dogwoods as the flowering trees, but this little shrub is a small-growing garden accent. It will flower like the trees, and then in the winter when the greenery dies back it will display bright yellow/orange branches. It should get no taller than about three feet though.

and a few perennials. I also placed an order at a good cheap online retailer I've used a few times before for a rose bush and a few additional perennials and prairie grasses to begin filling in my new space.

Over the next month or so I'll keep on planting. My hope is that by the end of the summer, when you approach our house from the south, you'll be greeted by a lush flowering little oasis. That's not to much to ask, is it?

And speaking of oasis, spring has officially begun to bloom at our house. In addition to crocus, we have daffodils and hyacinth blooming, as well as buds and sprouts all over. And . . . I spent today prepping the veggie beds for planting. I should hopefully have more to report on that tomorrow. 

Burlap and Balloons

Things have been crazy around our house for the past few weeks. I'm actually writing today from St. Louis, where I've been all week for work. I'm taking tomorrow off though, and have some big yard plans.

I was perusing some of my favorite blogs today, and found this great guide to what can be composted. (Thus the title). Quite a few of the items listed are pretty common sense, but there were a few surprises to me as well. Here's the list (via networx)

1. Dryer lint
2. “Dust bunnies”
3. The insides of a vacuum bag (just empty the bag into the compost bin)
4. The contents of your dustpan (just use discretion)
5. Coffee grounds
6. Coffee filters
7. Tea bags/loose leaf tea
8. Soy/rice/almond/etc milk
9. Nut shells (but not walnut, which may be toxic to plants)
10. Pumpkin/sunflower/sesame seeds (chop them to ensure they won’t grow)
11. Avocado pits (chop them up so they won’t sprout)
12. Pickles
13. Stale tortilla chips/potato chips
14. Stale crackers
15. Crumbs (bread or other baked goods)
16. Old breakfast cereal
17. Bran (wheat or oat, etc)
18. Seaweed/nori/kelp
19. Tofu/tempeh
20. Frozen fruits and vegetables
21. Expired jam or jelly
22. Egg shells
23. Old, moldy "soy dairy" and other dairy substitutes
24. Stale Halloween candy and old nutrition/protein bars
25. Popcorn kernels (post-popping, the ones that didn’t make it)
26. Old herbs and spices 
27. Cooked rice
28. Cooked Pasta
29. Oatmeal
30. Peanut shells
31. Booze (beer and wine)
32. Wine corks
33. Egg cartons (not Styrofoam)
34. Toothpicks
35. Q-tips (not the plastic ones)
36. Bamboo Skewers
37. Matches
38. Sawdust
39. Pencil shavings
40. Fireplace ash (fully extinguished and cooled)
41. Burlap sacks
42. Cotton or wool clothes, cut into strips
43. Paper towels
44. Paper napkins
45. Paper table cloths
46. Paper plates (non wax- or plastic-coated)
47. Crepe paper streamers
48. Holiday wreaths
49. Balloons (latex only)
50. Raffia fibers (wrapping or decoration)
51. Excelsior (wood wool) 
52. Old potpourri
53. Dried flowers
54. Fresh flowers
55. Dead houseplants (or their dropped leaves)
56. Human hair (from a home haircut or saved from the barber shop)
57. Toenail clippings
58. Trimmings from an electric razor
59. Pet hair
60. Domestic bird and bunny droppings
61. Feathers
62. Fish food
63. Aquatic plants (from aquariums)
64. Dog food
65. Rawhide dog chews
66. Ratty old rope
67. The dead flies on the windowsill
68. Pizza boxes and cereal boxes (shredded first)
69. Toilet paper and paper towel rolls (shredded first)
70. Paper muffin/cupcake cups
71. Cellophane bags (real cellophane, not regular clear plastic)
72. Kleenex (including used)
73. Latex
74. Old loofas (real, not synthetic)
75. Cotton balls
76. Newspaper 
77. Junk mail 
78. Old business cards (not the glossy ones)
79. Old masking tape
80. White glue/plain paste.

Greening Up

We spent the morning going through the local nursery, and I'm feeling especially inspired for the summer ahead. In addition to our regular vegetable garden, I have some big flowerbed plans for this year. A nursery employee walked around with us this morning and helped me sort through some ideas. Long story short, there are exciting things ahead. Here's some eye candy.

 

Most of my planting so far has been perennials - flowers that die down each winter but come back in the spring. I love them and the life they give our yard through the growing season. This year, though, I'm going big. This means shrubs that will give shape all year long, and yes even another tree. It's exciting stuff.

Not that things aren't already happening. Due to the warm winter we've experienced here in KC, my spring bulbs are about a month ahead of their usual spring schedule. And I love it. It's nice to start seeing some life after a very grey and brown season. So far we've seen lots of crocuses and some daffodil buds.

 

  

Also, we came to the realization this winter that when we purchased our eight boxwoods for out front our first spring in the house, we must have accidentally purchased seven of one kind and one of a different kind. (Can you find the odd one out?)

We described the issue at the nursery today (it grows out rather than up and has a slightly more purple color to its leaves) and the nursery employee confirmed our suspicions. So, we'll be replacing the "one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others" shrub this summer. Maybe our little odd guy out will become part of our newly expanded garden areas after we plant his replacement.