Backyard Stuff

I've been spoiled this week with fling-your-windows-wide-open-weather. The patio furniture has slipped out of the shed, the dogs are panting, and there's color in the world again. It's only right that we should grill out as many evenings as humanly possible.

Of course, grilling out happens in the backyard, and every time I go out there, I am reminded of the lovely mess of dirt trails my dogs have created. Last weekend, we ordered 2 tons of flagstone and it was delivered Monday. We didn't have a chance to dig into the project much during the weeknights, but when Saturday morning rolled around, Jesse was quick to bust out the wheelbarrow and start moving it from the driveway to the backyard.

As it turns out, rock is really heavy. Poor Jesse did the bulk of the lifting (and by "bulk", I may or may not mean all of the lifting). We still have more in our driveway to move, but it's coming along nicely. I'm hoping for some productive evenings this week and with any luck, this project will be wrapped up in a week or so.

Yard Work Season Has Arrived.

We have some serious yard work to tackle this spring. Today was the opener and it felt so nice to be outside working!

I'm pretty sure Bean felt the same way. He loves when we work outside. (It's super fun to eat seed packets, run away with whatever tool I was using in his mouth, eat new plants, and generally undo all that we have done.)

Cutting down/dividing our ornamental grasses. I love them, but when it's time to divide...oy.
Boy bonding...

Dear John Lawn,

Remember this lush, green grass in my backyard? You were so pretty...so soft under my feet. I loved you. I cared for you.

And now, all I can say is that...well, I don't think I can ever see you again.

See, about a year ago, I met someone. He makes me laugh a lot, we like to spend time together, and he's nearly as soft as you were.

And, to be honest, he's made it pretty clear that he doesn't want you around.

So, I guess this is goodbye forever. Please understand. We're just not right for each other anymore. I have new needs that you can't meet. I need someone stronger who can weather the challenges of life with me. Someone who doesn't get jealous and just curl up and die when I spend time with my new friend. I know you'll move on, and so will I. In fact, I'm already "out there" again. I've seen mulch, flagstone, pavers... and I'm pretty sure I'm going to ask one of them to live with me.

I know this is hard, but I will never forget you. (After all, you were my first.) I never had a luscious lawn until you. Thanks for the memories. XOXO.

Around Here

Besides night time trail races and lots of marathon training, the Canuck has been busy in the garage. I have helped approximately 1% to this point. (As in, I lifted and held one piece of drywall while he screwed it in.) I guess that's okay, as I imagine my work will come when it's time to tape and mud. I love plaster, spackle, and anything else of that general consistency. Drywall mud is so delicious....I can hardly wait to plunge a trowel into it.

The ever tough 1% ...

The ever tougher 99%....immigrant labor is the best!!

In other house news, I should have kept my garden savings calculations up to date after all. The garden got off to a slow start this year, but it has really perked up lately. I have been freezing tomatoes (lots of romas this year!), making salsa, trying to think of ways to use cucumber, and finding new recipes for kale.

This has to be one of my favorite summertime visuals.

And, with that, I just realized I haven't watered the gardens for some time. I should be off. In the meantime, I'm hoping your summer has been full of sticky popsicle hands, fresh lemonade, and good company!

Garden Update

One thing I am trying to do better at this year in the garden is planning. As I was out working this morning, I kept making new diagrams in my head, trying to figure out the timing, remember what was where last year (I try not to put the same plant in the same bed two years in a row), and keep it all straight. Lots of people told me I should keep a garden journal every year, which I thought seemed so silly, but the more years that go by, the more I find myself wishing I would have kept better records.

Anyway, I got my chard and sugar snaps planted today, but after that, my fingers were feeling too chilly in the soil, so I decided to leave the rest for later this week. Here is what I am thinking for my plan this year, though I realized after I made this, that I already have strawberries where my swiss chard is on this diagram, so I think I will probably relocate the chard to the pepper & herb bed. That bed is pretty flexible anyway. I still haven't decided for sure what I will put in there, so I may scrap it all together and start anew. I will probably end up putting the peppers to the pea bed, since they won't be going in until the peas are winding down anyway. Then, that will free up an entire row where I could put in something like cucumbers or watermelon.


Anyway, here is my diagram, but I guess it's already out of date due to my strawberry forgetfulness and change of heart on my pepper location!

Spring has sprung and that means garden geek out time.

Every year about this time, I get my seeds and I start prepping my soil, and I doubt.

Will my plants grow?

I don't know why I have this feeling, but inevitably, as I'm sowing my seeds, there is some fret that nothing will come of it, and I find myself praying.

Please make these plants grow.

Sure enough, each summer, I watch as the seeds grow, and each summer, I am amazed. The simple awe of a growing plant still gets me every time, as if I were five years old. I have been proud lately because spring is here and we are still eating tomatoes I grew and preserved last summer. I love the idea of being able to feed my little family (which I guess is just Jesse at this point) a meal that I literally made from scratch - from soil to table. It's a beautiful storyline that makes me go all vegan geek out.

Anyway, none the less, today falls in the in the season of doubt, before anything has grown, and I can't help but wonder....

What if this is the year nothing grows? What if I neglected my soil too much last year? What if I have overworked my beds, demanding too much of too few square feet?

Even so, despite the doubt, I will prep my soil and I will write love letters to my earthworms, and I will yell at my dogs when they jump in my gardens.

Also, I decided this year, I will do the "garden savings" tracker again. The first year I did it, I started a bit late, so things weren't completely precise. Plus, I find myself forgetting details of my garden that I wish I'd have written down somewhere. (Like what variety of lettuce I used last year...it was very slow to bolt.) My blog will be a good record for me, even if no one else cares to read it.

Thus begins my garden savings for 2010. (I am in the hole right now.)

Seeds:

Spinach (Double Choice Hybrid...I think I did Grand Teton last year) - 1.88

Peas (Cascadia Sugar Snap...have never ventured away from this variety) - 1.07

Lettuce (Little Gem) - 2.47

Marigold (Petite Yellow) x 4 packs - 1.25

*New for 2010!* Swiss Chard (Large Ribbed Dark Green) - .97

*New for 2010!* Kale (Dwarf Blue Curled, Vate's Straing) - .97

Total Garden Savings to Date = -13.11 (I'm including tax)

Birthday Fun

Jesse has the entire week off work. He had originally scheduled his vacation week for April, which is when he ended up having hernia surgery. That meant he was on medical leave the same week as his vacation week, so his union rep told him he could pick a new vacation week, and this week is it. Since he had so much time off, I decided to take Monday and Tuesday off so that we could have some time together. (Plus, it was nice to have the day off on my birthday.)

I am smack in the middle of an audit at work, so I guess it was good to get some time away from that as well. I'm not sure. Part of me just wants to get it over with, but I am sure the time away has given me some perspective, which I am really awesome at losing.

Anyway, for my birthday, I received the very cool composter that I blogged about a few weeks back. I'm pretty impressed with it. Only a couple days into it, and I can't even recognize what I put into it, which means it's all breaking down super fast. The irony of using electric resources to compost is not lost on me, and I do admit, it's a pretty luxurious way to go about the whole thing. But, in my defense, it uses extremely minimal power, and allows me to compost more food scraps than my traditional outdoor bin allowed me to. I like the idea of self-sufficiency in terms of food, and I like that I can follow much of what we eat the entire way through - from table to trash to turning it back into the soil.

Gardening is also good for my problematic loss of perspective syndrome. Seeds remind me how miraculous and ironic life is. One thing, that I can hold on the tip of my finger can feed my family all year. If I didn't know about gardening and someone told me that, I would laugh at them and tell them it was impossible. But, somehow, year after year, I put these tiny little specs in the ground, and suddenly, I have more food than I can eat. That is really stinking amazing. And it always makes me wonder, if this little itty bit thing can make so much, how can we have people starving? Obviously I know the answer is much more complicated than seeds, but still - something so simple and powerful that fits on my finger tip can literally sustain life...and for lack of it people die. Guess it's part of that cruel irony that the world is so wonderful at.

Though I'm about two seconds away from going all "circle of life" on you, I'm going to stop. I shall save the virtue of worms and respect for all life forms lecture for another day - perhaps this spring when I am inspecting my freshly composted gardens and clapping each time I find an earth worm.

Anyway, I also received some other very cool items, one of which was a homemade vegan birthday cake from my mom! And, since it came complete with candles, Jesse did the honors and sang the happy birthday song for me.



The cake was super yum, and unfortunately also came complete with 2 flavors of vegan ice cream that were also super yum...and we ate dinner out Friday night which was super yum, and Saturday night which was super yum, and Monday lunch which was super yum...oy. My tummy has had too much super yum!

Other than eating, which is apparently 90% of what we did over the weekend, we shopped a bit and rented a couple movies. I also got birthday snuggles from my "other favorite boy". All in all, I cannot complain!

Coveting

Going garden geek on you -

I found the coolest thing ever online today! Check out the Nature Mill Plus XE indoor composter. It basically eliminates all of the inconveniences of composting.

While we do use our current old-school outdoor composter, and I do like it a lot, we don't use it to its full potential due to the inconveniences. For instance, you have to walk out in the cold winter to dump your food scraps. (And actually, now that I think about it, that's not even convenient in the summer time when you are making a meal.) And since it has a lid and rain doesn't get in, you have to make sure the moisture level is correct. And it speeds things up if you turn your pile on a regular basis, but this is hard to do given the size and stability of our composter. Plus, it is a traditional method, so takes patience - as in give it a couple months before you can harvest anything.

By contrast, you can keep the Nature Mill inside, next to your regular trash can, or tucked away in a cabinet, which means you can dump your scraps in as you are cooking. And, genius - it provides heat to your pile, so you don't have to wait around for the microherds to do their thing and generate the heat for you. It also mixes for you, so it's always aerated...another key for composting. All of this means you can harvest compost in 14 days!

It says it can handle 120lbs per month, and I have no doubt we would max that out. When we first started composting, I was shocked at how small our weekly trash bag was. (And for the record - compost, when done the right way, should never smell. I think a lot of people are leery of composting because they think it stinks. If it stinks, that means there is too much nitrogen in the pile, which is really easy to correct by adding some carbons, like newspaper or dried leaves. So having this inside would not equate stinky house.)

I am SOLD! This is officially on my list of things to covet.

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

10 lbs tomatoes @ 3.29/lb = 32.90
1 lb cherry tomatoes @ 3.99/lb = 3.99

Total Garden Value As of Today = 241.88

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

6 lbs tomatoes @ 3.29/lb = 19.74
1 lb cherry tomatoes @ 3.99/lb = 3.99
9 oz. basil @ 2.79 for .66 oz = 38.05
.5 lbs green beans = 1.20

Total Garden Value As of Today = 204.99

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

3 lbs cherry tomatoes @ 3.99/lb = 11.97

Total Garden Value As of Today = 142.01

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

1 lb green beans = 2.39
1 lb tomatoes @ 3.29 lb = 3.29
2 lb cherry tomatoes @ 3.99/lb = 7.98

Total Garden Value As of Today = 130.04

Sunflowers Will Stay After All

My sunflowers out front are looking pretty leggy and just generally unkept. I finally decided I was just going to pull them all up.... until one day Jesse and I were sitting in the living room and saw this pretty bird eating from the flower.





(Photos courtesy of Jesse. I don't know how he managed to get such good shots, considering he was shooting through an Abe-slobbered window.)

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

Adding:
2 lbs green beans = 4.78
1 lb strawberries = 4.99

Total Garden Value As of Today = 116.38

Running Total: Garden Savings Update

I'm adding.

-2lbs green beans (with lots more on the way!) at 2.39/lb = 4.78
-3 more bunches kolhrabi = 5.25
-Can't find a price online for basil, so I'll use the same price that the oregno was, 2.79 for .66 oz. It's just filling out, so I'll probably have more to add, but for now, let's say 3 oz. = 12.68

Total Garden Value As of Today = 106.61

Running Total: Garden Savings

Here's my geeky project of the summer.

I decided I am going to keep a running total of the "worth" of my gardens. I'm going to keep track on here, because otherwise, I know I'll lose whatever piece of paper I start writing it on.

Here are my rules: If the item is offered in the organic section of the grocery store, I am using that price since I do the gardens organically and that is the most comparable product. If they don't carry the organic version, then I will just use whatever price the regular version is. I am pulling the prices off the website of the grocery store that we used to shop at in Colorado, so there is probably some slight variation for location, but overall, the pricing there is pretty similar to the midwest as far as produce.

I'll subtract all of my costs from the get-go because they are fixed, so I know most of them now. Any seeds/plants not listed, I got starts or seeds from various friends/family, so they were free. And technically, I bought most of this stuff with a gift card that I got for my birthday, so I suppose in that way, it was all free.

sugar snap seeds = 1.07

bibb lettuce seeds = 2.19

romaine seeds = 2.19

spinach seeds = 1.07

oregano seeds = 1.07

strawberry plants = 9.99

green bean seeds = 1.07

kohlrabi seeds = 1.97

manure/soil admendments = 16.00 (high I think, because I compost, so we don't buy much)

cost of watering gardens for 20 weeks = $25.00?? (I think that is a pretty high estimate also)

I also spend a lot of time out there, but I'm not factoring that as a cost, because to me, it's free entertainment/exercise and would lean more on the profit side.

Total Costs = 61.62

Now, so far what I have harvested:

6 lbs of sugar snap peas at 4.99/lb = 29.94

1 lb. of strawberries = 4.99

Bibb lettuce at 1.99/bunch = 23.88

Romaine lettuce at 2.29/bunch = 27.48

Spinach, we probably ate 4 bunches fresh at 1.99/bunch and I froze 10 bags at 1.29 for 10 oz. frozen spinach (off brand price because that is what I would buy) = 20.86

Fresh Chives, .66 oz at 2.79. I probably have at least 3-4 oz. = 8.45

Fresh oregano, .66 oz. at 2.79 and I have a TON of oregano = 21.14

Can't find a price on lemon balm, so I'll exclude that.

Kolhrabi 5 bunches at 1.75/bunch = 8.75

Total value of produce as of today = 145.49

Total Garden Value As of Today = 83.90

Still to add - green beans, more strawberries, tomatoes, basil...and whatever I decide to put in for fall crops.

Not a bad start to the summer.

Yard Stuff

Just because I like flowers.

Plants and Stuff

Today, I planted some petunias, 2 honeysuckle vines, and a wisteria vine. I have been waiting all season for the honeysuckle to be in stock, and today, I finally found some! I was very excited, and then even more excited when I saw wisteria next to the honeysuckle because I had been searching all over for wisteria earlier this season and had given up. In any case, the honeysuckle plants are for the front pergola and the wisteria is for the back pergola. I also have about six or seven tomato plants that my Grandma gave me yesterday at the panty party. I was planning to get them in today, but ran out of steam after digging the holes for the other plants. Probably better, because I need to do some rearranging in my beds to make space for them anyway. Hopefully I will get to that sometime this week.


My lettuce and spinach bed...with another type of "head" being silly.

Picking some strawberries.
There are lots of strawberries, but they are relatively small. I wonder if they will get bigger as my plants get more mature? Jesse is the strawberry guard. The birds have discovered the plants and have been snacking on it, so when Jesse sees them, he goes running toward the bed, yelling "caw caw". It's really funny.
This is the wisteria I put in today (and Horton trying to get Jesse's attention). Check out how big it is already!! I am hoping that by late summer, the pergola is at least half covered so we can get some shade on the deck.
A couple days ago, I finally started painting all of the furniture that we got a few weeks back. It was a pain in the butt to paint because there were so many boards, and so many angles. I got both chairs, the table, 80% of the lounger, and a tiny bit of the bench done and then started whining about how sore my back was, so Jesse jumped in and painted the rest. (I am sure his back was just as sore though, because he was working on other projects while I was painting!) Anyway, this is the lounger. I say not too shabby at all for free furniture! (Well, almost free..we did buy the paint and new cushions.)

And last but not least, all my boys hanging out.

Backyard Stuff

The pergola is all stained now and I am very happy with how it turned out. I still need to plant some wisteria to grow up it, but it is pretty much done besides cleaning up.

The lettuce is coming in very nicely. The spinach is coming in, but much slower and smaller (see back row in the photo). I am so anxious to have my first garden salad of the summer.
This is my herb bed. The chives are getting ready to bloom, and the oregano is looking really good. The lemon balm is causing me a bit of trouble. It's growing...but a bit too well. It has reseeded itself and if I don't stop it, the entire bed will be full of it within two years. See all the little green sprouts on the bed...that's all new starts of lemon balm. Not sure what I am going to do about that yet. It is a pretty plant, it smells nice, I can use it in tea and recipes, and it makes nice accents in bouquets, so I suppose having a lot wouldn't be so terrible, but I want space for my other herbs. I put in lavender this year and still need to add my basil.
Mmmm....those flowers will be strawberries in just a few weeks....

Pergolas and Petunias

The pergola is finished. (Well, we need to put one more coat of paint on, but otherwise, finished.) Jesse did an amazing job, as always. This morning, I worked in the yard and got lots of flower seeds planted. I decided this year, we will grow Hyacinth Bean Vine on the pergola, and then maybe next year, we will put in a perennial vine like Honeysuckle. So, the vine seeds are in, and I'm hoping to see sprouts within two weeks. My lettuce, spinach, kohlrabi, and snap peas are slowly making their way up. Just teeny tiny little green sprouts right now. Hopefully this week, we will get the lawn over seeded, and once that is done, then our main outdoor projects left are the back pergola and finishing up planting in the beds (too early for lots of my veggies yet, so that is on hold). I am throwing a bridal shower here at the end of May, so I'm hoping that everything is wrapped up by then so that we can be outside and have the yard looking nice. Plus, when June comes, so does the heat and it's not so fun to be working outside anymore.

We are rethinking vacation plans...we were going to do Disney again. I really want to. I would be fine going there every year. I love that place. But, there is a possibility that my family may be trying to make a joint vacation thing happen in Jan or Feb, which would be at Disney, so we'd be doing back to back, which is still fine with me. But the other thing is that we were going to go in the off season, which is right after school starts to get some really good discounts like we did last year, but it looks like I am going to be taking 4 studio classes this fall, and missing a week of that much studio work would be really insane. I don't mind missing school in general, but studio work is just so much more intense, and as such, gets really overwhelming really fast if you fall behind. So, if we did Disney, we'd need to do it before my fall semester, which would probably fall still in peak season, and Disney would really be miserable in the peak season. The other factor coming into play is if Jesse decides to leave his job in the next year, which is a possibility. We'd lose flight privileges obviously, so we got to thinking that maybe while we have them, we should do an international vacation and save Disney for when we don't have them. You can always find decent prices to Orlando, but international prices are crazy, so it makes sense to do any international travel that we may want now when we still have the passes. So, all that to say, now we aren't sure what we are doing. I admit, I will have a hard time choosing something other than Disney, but it does seem like the smarter thing to do given circumstances in life right now. But, Disney is just the "no-fail" vacation for us. We have a great time there, laugh a lot, there's anything and everything to do depending on how you feel...it's just a really good fit for us. We'll see.

Anyway, here are the pergola/pretty flower pics. (Just imagine a pretty flowering vine growing up it...)



I planned to do all red/orange/yellow flowers in the front (to set off our red shutters), but I caved when I saw these purple petunias yesterday. I wanted the trailing variety, and they didn't have red or yellow or even pink in that variety, so I decided to let a little purple slide on in. Now the theme is pretty much lost. Oh well.