Project 7: Vegetable Garden

In previous years I've had a tomato plant during the spring and summer. It's fun when a batch of tomatoes are ready for picking, and they usually are sweet, juicy, perfect little treats.

And then last year we had a very bad tomato plant experience. We decided to plant it upside-down instead of worrying about staking it. The upside-down hanging tomato plant looked cool, and it did work (water didn't have to fight gravity as much, although the plant kept trying to grow vertically); but, it was a beast to manage when we needed to bring it in during hurricanes, and the tomatoes that the plant produced were horrible. Green, shriveled little things that I refused to eat after tasting briefly.

So, I think I avoided getting that type of tomato plant again this year, but we can also plant any tomato in the ground now, rather than a pot, and that should improve the quality of the fruit.

The first thing to do was to clear a spot in the backyard for the garden. The corner closest to the house made sense, because the fence is completed on either side, and the space is in a southern-ly section of the backyard, but wouldn't be too in the way or out of the way for visiting.

Ripping out the old McVicker plants was easy, and Nate and I quickly decided that a roughly six foot by six foot square would make sense, since it wouldn't be too big, but we could always expand it if needed.

Ripping out all of the other weeds and little grasses that had grown up took some time, but leveling the whole was very taxing.







I picked up three bags of soil (2 cubic feet each), and then we went about spreading it around.



Then Nate and I used the old stepping stones to create a little path through the garden, and also divide it into sections.





Basil and pineapple sage:



Tomato plant:



Jalapeno peppers:



Tools and remnants of the project:



I want to edge the area with rocks like the tree in the front yard when I get the chance. This is a project without end, much like the herb spiral. We left space to plant some okra and arugula later on, and we intend to expand it further down the fence (onto the side of the house) as time goes by. I can see us growing more than just herbs - but it will take time. I sometimes regret not making the herb spiral twice as big, since it's almost 80% full now. Anyway, we have lots of space to do whatever we want in.

Project 5: Fix the upstairs bath, Part III

Another project begun during my family's recent visit was removing the old vanity bar of lights from the upstairs bathroom and installing two new lights in its place. The old lights was removed, and a larger hole was cut so that we could better access the original electrical box, and then two smaller holes were made at equal points away from the original hole, and two "old work" boxes were installed.

My grandparents, mom, and N worked on connecting the old wiring to the new, and later that week N and I installed the light fixtures and I began to patch the drywall. N actually cut the piece, and then I glued it in place and began to mud it. It's funny, because since then I've patched two other holes (one in the blue bedroom, the other in the closet of the orange bedroom), so it's been wonderful to know how to fix the wall when it's damaged.









We still have a lot of work to do in the upstairs bathroom, but we're putting it on hold for a while to consider what we'd like for the cabinets/sinks/etc.

Project 2: The front walkway, Part III

The walkway project has been unhappily neglected the last couple of months. Between finsihing the 1/2 bath (which we begun around the same time), and wrapping up other projects, and the generally cold/wet weather, we haven't made lots of progress. The bed is still being cleaned up, and we haven't really come up with tons of ideas for the space.

However, in order to make it look like we are planning on doing something at some point with the front yard, I decided that the mulch beds around the trees could be redone (the landscaping fabric was showing in places). Then, I was thinking of all the rocks that my mom has been trying to throw away the last, I don't know, several years. I asked her to select some for me, and last week I brought them home.

Friday afternoon I did this:



I love it! I know now that I want to do this for the other two trees, and may end up outlining whatever we do with the front bed, or the vegetable garden out back.

Below are pictures of a balloon that got caught in our tree a few weeks ago. It appeared after Valentine's Day, and disappeared between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning:

Et cetera: Fence, Part II

So, the Fencing Company did our fence a month ago, and we're really pretty happy with the results!



















With the fence fixed the backyard seems a foot or two deeper. Our yard is still shallow - but now the fence looks sturdy and we have an extra foot or so of privacy. Thanks for finding these guys Rob!

Project 1: Redo the Half-bath BEFORE & AFTER

Note: the yellow looks different in this picture, because I took this photo with my camera phone, while the other AFTER pictures were taken by Nate using his camera phone. The yellow in my picture is closer to the real-life look.

Project 4: Redo the second bedroom, Part III

The weekend my grandparents were visiting they helped us install a new fan (actually the old Hunter ceiling fan from my childhood room in a David Weekley house similar in some ways to this house).



N and I picked out a color for the bedroom. We considered the artwork we wanted, the other colors we have selected in the rooms near it (green and orange), and our preference for bright, striking color. This shade of blue is Valspar's Enchanted Sea.

A couple of Thursdays ago N removed the remaining baseboards in the room, and I began taping off the moldings around the windows and doors. After sanding and texturing the patched areas of the walls, we began to paint every area except the patch from the previous door.

I decided to remove the plate for a telephone line that was run into the bedroom, and left it as is in the closet. There was a bundle of wire/cable that ran up from the electrical box through the closet ceiling and into the attic. I simply shoved the cable up the hole in the ceiling, and patched the bed room wall. There was no true electrical box: the phone line and cable were hanging out next to a two-by-four. I kind of made a mess of the wall cutting a hole to pull out a non-existent box.





N sanded down the wall patch (after a disastrous attempt at painting it - did not do a neat enough job with the MUD), and we spread out the patch significantly.







But, not enough. After N finished painting most of the room and everything dried, we realized that it was not as smooth as we had hoped. N sanded the area again, and then applied MUD. Less of the area needed sanding/mudding, which is a sign that we're getting closer to the right job. Here's a spot with a little of texture on (a different texture - the knockback texture without the knockback).



Pictures of the painted room:









Meanwhile, I sanded down the window sills and painted them with the good white alkyd paint. They and the door frames and doors will need to be painted completely.

Project 3: Herb Spiral, Part III

The construction of the herb spiral was completed in January, but since the initial work I've added some plants:

• Planted a sage plant a month ago - bought from Lowe's





• Two weeks ago began growing lavender, dill, and jalapeno pepper seeds indoors. On Saturday N and I transplanted the tiny dill plants into the herb spiral.









• Replanted my Mexican marigold plant into the top of the spiral. Last year this plant got to be very tall with lots of flowers. I'm hoping for the same effect this year as well. This plant had suffered from neglect after the move, and I had abandoned it before Christmas. But about two weeks ago I noticed that it had started growing anew, and I admire determination.





• When removing the marigold from its pot, I discovered that my dill plant from last summer had come back! This plant died sometime in August and had never even made it to the house. Herbs continue to amaze me - I just can't seem to kill them! I removed the dill plant from its pot, and placed it next to the new dill spouts in the spiral. I will probably have to thin this area in the next month, but I want to see how well things do - because everything could die.





• Well, the exception to the "I can't kill plants" rule would be cilantro. I've killed it twice - once three summers ago, and again last summer. But, since the spiral seems to manage itself well (and I don't need to water it), why not try again?
  

Herb spiral from far away:





I love spring!