Friday, July 19, 2013

Garden of my Dreams

Holy Moses do I love my garden.  I like to talk to it, I like to sit next to it, I like to pull weeds, and I like to harvest things that I grew in my honest-to-god-backyard.   It is my favorite place in the entire house and I have already had a huge bounty of crops.  Besides the arugula and spinach, which are earlier summer veggies, I planted beets, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts and peppers. 

Here's a small beet I pulled so that the other beets could have room.  You can't let them get too  crowded!

My cucumbers were doing very well and then Jon built me a cucumber trellis for them to climb and the plants on the trellis dried out (even with every day watering).  So, I moved them off of the trellis and am hoping for the best for my diminished cuke crop.   I have a serious pickle addiction that needs to be fulfilled!



My tomatoes have exploded.   I am learning several things this year about gardening and one is that I must have larger tomato cages next year. This is necessary to contain all of the tomato branches, I want them to extend upward, not outward!  My cherry tomatoes cannot be contained and they have become some sort of mutant tomato plant that extends into all of the other tomato plants.  Plus, there are hundreds and hundreds of cherry tomatoes.  We are going to be eating bruschetta for months.  It is still early for tomatoes and I've picked a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes almost every day for the last week.

I have also learned that we are drastically expanding the garden next year.   I need more room than 25x5 to have the perfect garden.  Plus, as a previous container gardener, I didn't anticipate that my plants would get so big so quickly.  Everything is huge!  And, that, makes me the happiest gardener in the whole world.

Happy Gardening!

Monday, July 1, 2013

J & J Electrical: At Your Service

This weekend, Jon picked out some beautiful ceiling fans for the back bedroom and the master bedroom.  He also tried out his internet-earned electrical skills and installed both of them!  They look great and it is nice to finally have working ceiling lights in the rooms.

 

We bought the Hunter 52 in ceiling fan which you can find at Home Depot.  It is a really nice fan with a remote control and pretty dark wood blades.  It is neutral and goes really well with the flooring.

We only had one minor incident of electrical shock when Jon tried to jam a screwdriver next to the electrical socket without turning off the power.  He didn't fall down, so we judged it as a very minor shock.

Then, Jon finished the baseboard in the back bedroom while I spent a lot of time outdoors with Moe.

 

The base looks great with the greyish color that I vetoed for our master bedroom.  We weren't about to waste that paint!

Finally, we went to IKEA and bought new hall lighting.  The old lighting was wretched and the new lighting is much prettier.

                                   


Things are shaping up at BB.  There's a lot yet that needs to be completed, but I'm excited that some of the finishing touches are going up.  We have house guests this weekend for a wedding and we are super excited to show off the place!