May 18, 2003

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  Time for more pictures!!

  
  

  

  
  

  This is our house as it looks today. And it is officially our house, too! (as of last Wednesday – see previous entry)

  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  The flowerbed I planted last week… you really can’t see the new plants in this picture, they are pretty small still, but they will grow up. There is a statue of Saint Francis in the center of this garden, it is surrounded by irises that I planted in the fall. They should bloom soon (I hope)

  
  

  I have two flower beds on this side of the house. The one pictured above is is Saint Francis’ garden, between the front door and the side breezeway door (the one we use — the front is really only used by company) The other flower bed, Buddha’s garden, is on the right side of the breezeway door.

  
  

  

  
  

  Buddha’s garden, as you can see, is still full of weeds and needing lots of work, a pair of trellises and about 6 inches of new soil to fill it up to the proper level. There are two climbing rosebushes sitting there waiting to be planted. I think this flower bed will be this week’s project!

  
  

  There used to be a lot more flower beds on the other side of the house, but it was too much work and expense to plant them all with annuals every year, so I have cut back to these two, plus some rose bushes against the back side of the garage, some container plants, and my flowering shrubs along the front of the house.

  
  

  

  
  

  This is the back side of the garage…still a lot of work to be done here, including weeding the rose bed and pruning the winter’s dead wood out of the rose bushes, splitting and cutting that pile of firewood, and a fresh coat of paint on the wheelbarrow and those old milk cans on the left (they were on my steps by the breezeway door, but they are so rusty – I want to paint them)

  
  

  

  
  

  We have a new toy!

  
  

  Our old mower bit the dust, so Bernie went out and got this (very slightly used) nearly new mower on Thursday. It is self-propelled! Its a little hard to get used to after one I had to push, but it cuts much better and mulches, too. Still, an acre is an awful lot of lawn to mow without a riding mower. (on my wish list)

  
  

  Anyway, Bernie was a real sweetie and mowed the whole lawn today with the new mower! That was really  wonderful because my asthma is acting up a little and I am still not over my sinus infection. I am going to the doctor tomorrow to see what’s going on this time with my respiratory system (beside trying to breathe New Jersey air)

  
  

  While he was mowing the lawn, I did this:

  
  

  

  
  

  This is our veggie garden. We had the plot ready and bought the plants last weekend, but this week’s bad weather got in the way of planting until today. The plants are hard to see because they are still really tiny, but they will grow quickly (as long as no critters eat them)

  
  

  I put landscaping cloth between the rows to keep the weeds down and the moisture in, and I have the sprinkler all set up permanently so all I have to do is turn on the faucet. I am a pretty lazy gardener…

  
  

  The decorative cement blocks sitting around the edges still have to be moved, I used them to mark off the plot for tilling, just because they were handy. They used to be part of my compost bin, which I moved form this spot and set up across the yard. When I moved the compost, I reduced it to half the size it was, so these blocks were left over. Before they were a compost bin, they held up wooden board shelves in my shop. Now I wonder what I will figure out to build with them next…

  
  

  

  
  

  This is a photo from the other end of the garden.

  
  

  You can only see 6 tomato cages in this picture, but there are 12 total. I had six old (larger) ones, and they are not as shiny as the new ones. What you see are the new ones. I alternated the large and small cages, and mixed up the varieties of tomatoes I planted.

  
  

  If you are not familiar with the legendary produce of New Jersey, the Garden State, you may not know that we are pretty famous for our tomatoes. There is something about the combination of climate and soil that really grows excellent tomatoes, and some of the Beefsteak type varieties grow huge here, too… a slice is often too big for a sandwich! The soil in my little garden is not too good, because it is planted where my dad filled in our old in ground swimming pool, with lots of rocks and clay, mostly. But with a little help from my compost and Miracle Grow, I still can grow some things pretty well, and the soil is getting better every year as I keep picking out the rocks, tilling and adding compost and stuff.

  
  

  In the back row of this little garden I have planted 4 regular beefsteak tomato plants, and one pink beefsteak. I have also planted 4 Champion tomatoes, a variety advertised as “the sandwich tomato” for good reason. They are one of my favorites, very tasty and not too juicy, so they don’t make your sandwiches soggy. They are a little smaller than beefsteak types, but they produce earlier. I also planted one “Early Girl” tomato, one of the earliest to set fruit, one “Mister Stripey” a new variety that makes orange and pink striped tomatoes (thought that would be fun) and a Grape tomato plant. I love those sweet little grape tomatoes in salads, or just for snacking! I also have 2 patio tomato plants in pots.

  
  

  The next two rows have basil and peppers. Sweet yellow banana peppers for frying, and sweet bell peppers in green, yellow, red and purple (!) varieties. Four plants of each. I will probably grow some kind of hot pepper plant in a pot on my patio too, because they are as pretty as they are tasty!

  
  

  And in the first row, I planted six hills of bush cukes, and three hills of zucchini. you can’t see them because they were seeds, planted in the traditional way, in “hills” — groups of seeds together in clusters several feet apart. There is an old saying about planting this way, very good advice:

  
  

  Five seeds in a hill -

  
  

  One for the rook, one for the crow,

  
  

  one to rot and one to grow!

  
  

  I sure hope at least one seed per hill grows!

  
  

  

  
  

  This is a view of the rest of the backyard, taken from the corner of the veggie garden. Our property ends just before the big trees on both sides. The white building next door was my grandfather’s old barn. The compost bin is the low structure in front of my old truck (which is, by the way, for sale, anybody want it?)  I planted grass seed last week in a couple of big bare spots in this lawn. At least the rainy weather was good for something, you can hardly tell where the bare spots were now (just a little brighter green)

  
  

  

  
  

  Two final pictures of things that are blooming today:

  
  

  

  
  

  My wheelbarrow of pansies, and a patio tomato, on the left side of the breezeway door.

  
  

  

  
  

  Rhododendron – “Scintillation” variety, next to the front porch steps. These blooms are fading a bit, they were even more spectacular early in the week before it was so windy and rainy.

  
  

  

  
  

  Well, that’s about it for now. I have some more books to write auction descriptions for tomorrow, and doctors appointments the next two days too, so no playing in the dirt for me until at least mid week.

  
  

  Hope your weekend was full of whatever makes you happy, too!

  
  

  

  
  

   

  • 8:05 pm
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