More progress in the yard

Made some more progress in the yard this past week.

Used some left over gravel to edge the walkway:

After much hand-wringing, I decided to not go whole hog with a vegetable garden this year. So much work! After finishing school, all I want to do on the weekends is goof off. So, why not?

AJ trimmed back the jade in the front yard this weekend -- I grabbed some of those trimmings and planted them in the vegetable bed, along with some wildflower seeds. No longer looks like a dust patch:

But of course I do have my peas. And they're very happy, especially with this piece of corrugated steel behind them, adding light and heat (although obviously not in late afternoon, when I took the photo):

Lastly, the hanging chair arrived:

AJ approves:

Next, a few more plants for that bare spot in the triangle bed on the right of the brick path, and for a bare spot to the left. Then we can call the yard done!

(for now...)

Finishing Things Chapter 1

Now that I have all this time on the weekends, I can get on to the very serious business of finishing things.

With some cooperation from the weather, I was finally able to finish the tiny patio for the tiny grill:

Complete with tiny concrete brick and paver table:

Finished!

That box on the left is a tiny planter I made a couple years ago. I will get that planted when I get some more potting mix. Maybe next weekend...

I also spent a lot of time moving a lot of dirt from the big pile I created when I did the brick path, to a low spot on the side of the yard. Finished!

Here's how the yard has shaped up:

Ready now for some Earthboxes, a lemon tree, and some lavender! And a hanging chair in the corner, by the panda.

Celebratory pie!

Just wanted to post a picture of this beautiful strawberry rhubarb pie (homemade crust!) that AJ made me for celebratory brunch on Sunday.

Can't think of a better way to celebrate having finished that damn MBA than a slice of this pie and a glass of champagne!

Landscaping & Big News

In between (numerous) weekend rain storms, we've been working on the landscaping in the back yard.

These photos are a little hard to see, but I took some of the especially insect-damaged timbers from the old back part of the house -- stuff too big and too damaged to do much else with -- and created a raised area for a swing in the back corner and a raised garden bed next to the new wall:

Big thanks to our houseguest Corrie Jo for her ideas! She is a genius. That is a fact.

We planted some dahlias in there, and some California poppies. And six snap peas. Because snap peas -- even just a handful -- are essential for summertime happiness.

Meanwhile, the radishes, lettuce, and carrots in the gutter are very happy:

And the sedum in the other gutter is also very happy:

Thank you to Momma Arave for the advice on transplanting the sedum into this gutter! Another genius!

While Corrie Jo was here, enjoying beautiful weather in the hammock and directing my efforts at landscaping, I also got started on a tiny tiny patio for our tiny tiny grill.

It's about 2 feet by 3 feet. Tiny.

And yes, made out of materials left over from other projects.

First I made a form and poured the rest of a bag of concrete into it:

Not quite enough to fill the form, but that's ok, because I had plenty of mortar left over from the kitchen floor to fill up the rest of the space. And, of course, plenty of left over terra cotta tiles:

That was a couple of weeks ago now. If it ever stops raining for more than two days in a row, I'll be able to finally grout this sucker and call it done.

Speaking of done, as you know, 2017 is The Year of Finishing Things. Here is something big I just finished: this morning, at 11:30am, I officially turned in the last assignment for my last MBA class (please click here). I am completely done and on my way to graduation!

Looking forward to a less break-neck pace to my week, and to having some time on the weekends to relax and have fun doing projects.

Onward & upward!

Laundry Table

Continuing on the theme of meeting furniture needs with stuff left over from the old kitchen, I bring you...

... Laundry Table:

Vertical Gardening, v1

Having such limited space, I've been interested in vertical gardening for a while. This weekend, I finished the planters for my first go at it.

I took an old 10' gutter that came down in The Big Project of 2014, and some short lengths left over from a recent replacement, and mounted them all to two 9'-long boards left over from the kitchen demo last year. Then I put them up on the new fence.

Lettuce will go in the top one (new materials) and succulents will go in the bottom one (old gutter) -- I'm not putting food in the bottom one because there is old roofer's tar in it.

Very interested to see how it goes!

In other vegetable garden news, I have held off on planting because I made a large pile of dirt digging the hole for the brick path that I need to deal with first. I am going to use it to level the yard a bit, but I can't do that until the rain stops long enough for me to do the work & then spread more mulch on top to prevent muddy paw prints. Maybe this weekend we'll get lucky.

Pickles doesn't care about the dirt pile problem. She thinks the brick path is the best, warmest bed ever:

Holding off on planting has given me a chance to consider the virtues of self-watering planters: improved yield with less work. Based on Farmer Wasserstrom's recommendation, it seems like they are worth a try. And no, I won't be building my own out of recycled materials. I'm actually going to *gasp* buy them new.

Anyone else try one of these systems (ex. EarthBox or Growbox)? Any pros/cons to share?

Brick Path

Forgot to post this last week. The sun came out, so I finally got to put in the brick path!

Dug a big hole:

Put sand in the hole to give the bricks a bed to settle into:

Put bricks in the hole:

Ta-da!