Garden's Ready for Fall, and Upcoming Large Project(s)

The garden is ready for fall: old things cleaned out, seeds planted, cat barriers (just some plastic mesh and bamboo stakes) installed.  Refrigerator pickles made with carrots and turnips.  Beans, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants still going strong!

HOT! Thai chilies

Japanese eggplant

New mustard seedlings

Verdant pole bean vines against the brilliant sky

A rather large bean ready to be picked

But inquiring minds want to know:  what's going on inside the house?  Didn't that sunny coral colored room used to be a home office?  Why does it look like such a wreck?

New paint samples to contemplate

If you guessed baby, you guessed right!  The tiny little office is becoming a tiny little nursery.  Stay tuned for its transformation.

Future nursery's closet full of hand-me-downs and garage sale finds

Garden Update

Bean haul

Digging for carrots

Beautiful Eater

More wildlife -- a mantis!

All the carrots and lavender.  I'll probably try making a refrigerator pickle with the carrots.
Not sure about the lavender yet.

Bathroom Boogaloo, Day 2

Friday, July 5, was Day 2 of our bathroom project.  And what a day it was.  Behold the hole in the basement floor:

Pile of dirt from underneath the floor

The hole!

The main sewer line that runs under the house is visible here.  Finding this was the goal of the hole.

A secondary hole to expose one of the waste stacks.

Our permit! Posted in the front window of our house.  

Now we are well into the morning of the third day.  I'm hearing hand saw noises down below, and the occasional banging of pipes.  We'll see what today's work brings.  In the meantime, admire the cucumbers growing in my garden:

GGGGAAAAAAARRRRRRRRDDDDDDDEEEENNNNNNNN

After a few months and lots and lots of rain (especially just now at the end of June), this is our crazy verdant garden.  It looks kind of like a big, hairy, green monster in our backyard.  It includes pole beans, bush beans, okra, cucumbers (maybe), beets, carrots, turnip greens (and beautiful turnips!), beaucoup tomatoes (see the tiny yellow and red spots in the back right? those are ripe ones I'm going to pick tonight), mustard greens, strawberries, a couple of chard plants, Thai peppers, Asian eggplants, and lots of herbs.  Phew!

Things we have eaten so far (not counting herbs and greens):

Baby carrot with a few wax beans and the first okra pod

Early Girl tomato (first one to ripen) with sweet basil

Baby carrots!

Otherwise, lots of various projects have been in the works at The Ear over the past few months, and continuing on this summer.  Some were small, some will be very very large, and some will be life changing.  Stay tuned!

GAARDDENNN

The time has come...

Four raised beds are better than two, and just in time for spring!

So far, we've got planted: turnips, mustard greens, swiss chard, carrots, spinach, and salad greens.  Now we wait...

The Crappy Little Closet That Could: A Thanksgiving Project

Hello Internet, it's been a while!

Not too many projects have been undertaken for the past few months here at the Sow's Ear.  We just enjoyed the last fruits of our garden (we had so many green tomatoes when we finally ripped out our vines -- couldn't give them all away or find new recipes fast enough) and turned our attention to other things.

I realized that I would have a good chunk of time over the Thanksgiving holiday and decided to tackle a remodel of our bedroom closet.  When we moved in, this closet had two barely-functioning, barely-hanging-on clothing rods, hung at a strange angle to get around the HVAC ducts.  We took those down (by pulling just a little; it was far too easy), stacked our shoes up inside (invariably I always wanted to wear the pair on the bottom), shut the door and forgot about it for a couple of years.  I have finally gotten tired of all the stacks of shoe boxes and decided to make some shelves.

So, the weekend before Thanksgiving, we cleaned out the closet (thanks, Mr MJ!).

Then we pulled out some drywall from the corner that was eating up space, covering two small HVAC ducts and lots of wood framing.

The wood framing is well attached and sturdy; I think I will use it as shelf supports.  But, I will have to cover up the large hole in the floor.

Late Spring/Early Summer Farm Report

Hello faithful readers! It has been a quiet spring around The Ear as we have traveled, hosted, and watched our garden grow. Since I last posted almost 2 months ago (wha?), we've made two raised beds in the backyard (full of tomatoes!) and gotten lots of salad greens going in containers. Enjoy these snaps, and have a happy Memorial Day!

(Thanks to Mr. MJ's mom for the last one.)

Gardening at Night: 2 Years On

A couple of days ago, we celebrated two years of living here in The Ear. We've made so many changes to the house in that time, from stripping off most of the wallpaper, giving all the walls and ceilings a fresh coat of paint, changing out some light fixtures, installing a new sink and cabinets in the bathroom, and of course, the redoing the kitchen, our biggest project yet.

We're always working on improvements outside too, both large and small. Lately we've been focussing on edibles in the back, and our tulips have bloomed as well. It's a beautiful Easter-time scene. Happy spring!

Germinated seeds to plant:


Arugula seedlings:


Lettuce mix seedlings:


Collards:


Strawberry plants!


Mr. MJ keeping the weeds in check:


Dark purple tulips framing our birdbath:


Beautiful tulips:


Next project:

Gardening at Night: Bulbs Coming Up

While we worked on our kitchen, our front garden was stirring to life. Last week, we finally got some flowers:







The tulips are just starting to come in, and maybe we'll have some alliums before long too (if the squirrels didn't eat them all over the winter).

Gardening at Night: A Hard Rain (or freeze, or snow) Is Gonna Come

Wow, it's been a while! Not much has been happening inside the house, but I've gotten a few things planted in the front yard. Here's the round up:

Oak Leaf Hydrangea (native to this area) planted in the corner. This one is still quite small and will probably (fingers crossed) grow to 3 or 4 times this size.


And it already has a lodger (we watched the black, wooly caterpillar build his chrysalis. Don't know what he will be)!


Coreopsis hybrids (they will have pink flowers; this was a totally root bound TLC plant I got on sale) near the gravel area.


And lots and lots of bulbs: crocus, grape hyacinth (also called muscari), purple-black tulips, and purple alliums.


Unfortunately, some of the bulbs have woken up a little early (I guess these are probably the crocus). They are in for a rude shock at some point.


Porch decorated with some mini gourds and squashes for Fall!