Planting Ahead

With phase 1 of our backyard complete (fence) we're anticipating phase 2 (deck) to hopefully happen next summer. To prepare for this, and to add a little more interest to our yard, we've framed off some flowerbeds. The idea is that when you walk in through the side gate, stones set into the ground (coming soon) will wind between the flowerbeds as you walk toward the deck steps at the back corner of the house.

So, we took our side yard (to the left of the house)



and dug out some flowerbeds. We tried to make a nice flowing shape to accommodate a gently winding path. All three beds are mulched, and I'm slowly getting flowers planted.



I'm planting perennials in hopes that they'll come back thick and lush next spring. So far I've planted several types of coneflowers, shasta daisies, tiger lilies, lavender, hibiscus and ornamental grass. Here are some shots of the plant starts - hopefully we'll have some beautiful afters next year!

Making a Compost Bin

Today we finished building a new compost bin for Becca's garden. She has been talking about composting for years — now she has a box to get started.



It's built to last, made of western red cedar and treated pine. I spent Sunday framing out the form and adding the side pieces from left over fence pickets. Tonight I sweated out the final touch — a hinged lid.


The box is kinda heavy, hopefully this spot works (garden corner)

Our design was inspired from a This Old House tutorial. Generally speaking, TOH has a way of making simple projects overly expensive and complicated, so I basically took dimensions from their plans (25" x 25" x 32.), and scrapped the rest. One other detail I gleaned from their instructions was to affix the pickets from the inside of the frame which hides the screws from sight and makes for a prettier outside.


Adding a hinge to the lid - it was so hot outside, I taped my glasses to my head so they would not slide off my face.

We put leftover 6' and 4' cedar pickets to use in an alternating pattern along the sides. Covering the frame took about 20 pickets total. The overall cost was probably around $40 - $50, with the hinges being the most expensive item.

I don't really understand the ins and outs of composting, but I have a hunch Becca will become a pro.

Fresh from the Garden

We're beginning to bring in more from our backyard garden. I love fresh cut flowers, so now that our sunflowers are beginning to bloom our table shall remain adorned for some time.



I just brought in our largest tomato harvest yet - a few dozen grape tomatoes AND . . . our first Roma! We've been enjoying lots of grape tomatoes - on salads and just for a snack. They're very hearty and juicy. We have a few Big Boy Tomatoes (a name that deserve capital letters) that are green and should be ready very soon.



Also coming soon: cantaloupe



bell peppers



jalapenos



corn



and mammoth sunflowers



just to name a few . . .

I've learned a few important lessons from this year's garden. First, I will never plant pole beans again. Apparently bush beans are the way to go. I love fresh green beans and definitely want to grow them again, but not if I have to stake the plants and regularly untangle the long shoots off the plants. Next year - bush beans. Second, I've had to thin out this year's plants. It broke my heart to pull zucchini, squash, cantaloupe and cucumber plants out of the ground, but they take up MUCH more space than I allowed for them initially. As of a few weeks ago, we could no longer walk around the garden beds. I like to attribute this problem to my incredible gardening skills, but it's a problem nonetheless. So next year, maybe 2-3 of each plant (rather than 23 - oops!)

Before and After Wrigley

Our very furry friend requires regular maintenance. Sometimes, we get a little creative with it. We're pretty sure he likes it that way.



ROAR!!!!

Blinds

We bought curtains for our windows when we moved in last year, with the intention of eventually buying nice wood blinds as well. So, one year later we have finally begun the process of adding blinds to our windows, just a few windows at a time. We got the first two up on our big front windows in the living room, facing out on the porch today. So . . . 2 down, about 30 to go.

Before:



After:

A Finished Fence

The fence is complete. The garden is protected. The dog has a yard. All great news. It feels like we have a real home.

We built a fence with metal poles, cedar pickets, and pine runners. Hopefully this will last a decade or two—sure was not cheap, but it was fun to build. Becca made sure we had the nicest gate hardware for all three gates. We could not be happier with the results!

View from back door.

View from garden towards back of house.

The dark picket in the middle is the color we want to stain the rest of the fence, eventually.

South end of garden.

View of front of garden.

A new side yard of our own.

French door style gates.

Garden Dinner

We had our best garden dinner so far last night. Our rosemary seasoned the chicken and made a great salad dressing, and garden green beans and salad made with our lettuce and tomatoes made up the rest of our meal. We just noticed this weekend that our tomato, pepper and squash plants are starting to grow little fruit and veggie buds, so I have a feeling this is the first of many great meals!

We're Surrounded

The fence is finished! It took two weekends, 335 cedar pickets, 29 metal posts, over 500 linear feet of 2x4's, and about 20 pounds of decking screws, but we're thrilled to have our yard fenced off. Here are some highlights of the project.















Special thanks the the Grays for helping out (and bringing snacks!)

Progress

We have been terrible about posting for the past month or so, so I'm going to try to get us caught up!

First of all, a baby birds update. Sometime between the mornings of June 21st (Chris' birthday) and June 22nd (my mom's birthday) the baby birds in our porch ferns hatched, so these lucky little guys share a birthday with one of two very cool people I just so happen to know. We're pretty sure there are two birds in there - it's hard to tell because they're all snuggled up together. We're actually not sure what kind of birds they are. The parents are very small with a rust-colored neck, and have grey markings down their bodies. We'll try to sneak a picture of them - let us know if you have any idea what they might be.



Also, remember those tiny seedlings we posted a while back? They seem to really like their garden beds!



We've been eating lots of lettuce . . .



tomatoes . . .



and bruschetta (with fresh basil).



And we have lots more great things coming soon. I have a feeling we'll need some help eating all the zucchini that's about to come in, and our mint is almost mojito-ready!





Finally, we began our much-anticipated fence-building project last weekend, and hope to finish it this weekend. We used metal posts (which are supposed to last forever, so hopefully this means we'll never have to use an auger again!)



We painted the posts and hardware black to match our handrails on the porch, and make them look a bit less industrial. The runners and pickets will be cedar, so the end result should look like a pretty traditional dog-eared fence.



Watch for final fence photos this weekend. I can tell you one guy who's pretty excited about this!