Planted

After a few long days all the plants are in and alot of the beds have been filtered. We doubled the size of the garden for next year. I used up all the compost so a new batch is starting for the Spring. We have 4 apple trees now. I was reading the garden should always have apple trees. The second coat of mudd has been put on the walls in the back bedroom. I hope to have the room painted by the end of next week. Still along way to go but I think our house can now safely say it is no longer an eyesore in the neighborhood.

Still digging

I woke up this morning and said the garden looks small. I think I will rent a machine and make some new beds. I found this one below at a contractors rental store. Oh how sweet it is to cut through the rocks, coat hangers, glass and trash in the yard. So now we will get out our screen device I made and filter the new beds. The other cool thing we found today is plants at 75% off. So I bought about 40 potted plants to sink into the ground over the next 4 days. All that good compost is about to come in handy.

Plant some bulbs, get a free pocket knife

The other day I found a store closing out Spring bulbs for 50 cents a pack. I bought $6.50 worth and now we have 250 bulbs. Today I planted 48 Hyacinth's and 60 Crocus here in this space for next years show.
Of course digging in the dirt requires one to first filter the garbage, broken glass, rotted garden gloves and this Old Henry Pocket Knife. I must say it is the first time I have found anything I could use.

Garden Progression November 10th

Another garden progession shot. From then until today.

In the back corner of the yard I have been gathering leaves for the garden. People bag these things up and just throw them away. I steal them from the curb late at night. I hope to get another 50 or so bags. For the garden composting of course if you are wondering why.

She cleaned the garden today

While I did the house my wife made the garden nice. Just look at all the food still growing.

Before & After

The outside painted

I finished painting the new siding this evening. It is Nov. 7th and it was 76 degrees outside. All week it has been beautiful which is nice since it took me 8 days to install the door, put on new siding and a new roof. I still have to re-motar the foundation. That will only take a day and then it is back to the inside room.

Progress

The sliding glass door is in and today I started the tear off on the old siding. Even tar paper looks better than what was there. The door lets even more light into the kitchen.

So it has been a while

So remember way back in April when we started the back bedroom? Well this week I started at it again.The floor was insulated and the decking was laid down. The above picture shows the old window removed and the new wet wall installed for a washer & dryer.
Friday I was going to just put the plumbing in for the washer and decided to put new copper on everything going back to the main shut off. The bathroom and kitchen was complete already so it wasn't so bad. Except for when I broke the main shut off and water shot into the basement. I was prepared however with a main water shut off key for the access panel out on the street. The only problem was, my key didn't fit the city meter. So I ran into the house with water still gushing into our basement, I ripped open the filing cabinet to find the water company phone number. They answered the phone right away and tranfered me to a field person. After a short wait on the phone I explained that I was making an indoor pool. They would send someone right out, they said. So I waited for them. Have you ever waited patiently by the curb while your house is being flooded? They arrived and afterwards I went to the hardware store and bought the right key to shut off the city water out at the street. Now you know the real reason I replaced all the plumbing in the house.
The garden is getting tired. We have winter lettuce, spinach and such, but the peppers and tomatoes have slowed way down. I will miss the them.

Our Table

May this always be a house with a table so bountiful.

Petit Gris De Rennes

This is a European Melon. It is growing along with our watermelons. We fought the beetles bravely for many weeks, squishing them between our fingers, thinking we would actually be able to grow this heirloom melon. All I ever saw was flowers and beetles eating them. Suddenly tonight while watering the melon bed, I saw what looked like two soft ball size melons growing in our melon patch. Upon closer inspection I was glad to run into the house and get my bride. I proudly told her, like an Indian Chief, "Me big melon grower." I am told that growing a melon to completion is an accomplishment that any gardener ought to be proud of. I will be if they grow to completion. The variety of melon we are growing is of the best French Variety and a favorite of a melon expert and author Bruno Defray. It is rare in the USA.

Black Watermelon

One of the things I do not understand about our watermelon is we have what appears to be two different kind growing from the same vine. We have one that looks like Harvey and then these black ones that are round. Does anyone know what is up with that?

Harvey for Breakfast

Harvey finally became full grown this morning and we invited him for breakfast. Along with eggs, home made salsa from the garden and home made biscuits. I must say I haven't tasted watermelon like this ever from a store.

I flipped the compost yesterday and then put it all back in to cook some more.
Our red peppers are starting to come in.

Last October and today

I love the before and after shots. Perhaps it is the way God feels about a life that has been submitted to Him. The bottom picture is the garden last October, which was an improvement from where we first found it. This morning while looking through the old pictures I found it and had to take a picture to compare the difference. There is so much more to do but we are making progress.

Just a whole bunch of things!

Well first of all, we spent most of the weekend painting the house, which there is plenty left to do. We did get the first coat of paint of the front door and installed a dark brown door handle that matches the brown trim and deck. A door handle can make all the difference in the world. The front door always seemed kind of cheap, but it was the handle that was cheap. Now when the door closes it has that nice solid feeling.
Harvey the Watermelon continues to grow about an inch a day. This picture is two days old, so he looks totally different than this picture here.
Harvey also has several siblings, here is one. You know it's always the first child that gets all the press.
A couple of shots of the garden on August 2nd. (how did it get to be August?)
The melon covers pulled back to allow the bees to do their thing.

Here is the enemy of our garden Sleeping with another enemy of our garden.

Here is the enemy of our garden wishing they were paying more attention to that tall skinny guy with the camera.

We have dozens of peppers, all types and sizes. The bell peppers you see here are from seeds my wife saved last year. A lot of things in the garden come from those seeds she saved last year. The bulk of our garden next year will be from seeds she saved this year. My wife is not only a seed eater but a seed saver too! She's kind of "seedy" but I like "seedy."

This is one of the favorite parts of the garden for me. The compost pile. I can put everything in here and there are millions of hungry critters just waiting to turn it into rich soil for us. Last Spring I put all the old sensitive tax papers, banking statements and such in this box. It works better than a shredder. Two months later we were feeding it to our garden. I think Harvey the watermelon could do our taxes after all that financial information went into the melon patch.

Our table has never been without cut flowers. My wife makes everything so beautiful.

Last but not least, in the kitchen this morning these three cabaleros were thinking of making salsa out of this lone tomato. I didn't want to get involved. I hope the tomato came out of it ok.

Harvey

Harvey the watermelon has grown to 5".

Look at the melons grow

This is Harvey the watermelon. If you just stand there looking at your garden long enough, food appears. This morning I was doing this and there was this 3" melon growing. It is the first one as far as I can find. So his name is Harvey the watermelon. Now if I can just learn to speak melon I could tell Harvey to encourage all his friends to grow and I will put their baby pictures on the blog too! I am praying that Harvey becomes a nice 40lb watermelon in September. Just imagine an organically grown, pesticide free, sweet melon melting in your mouth. This must be close to the food angels eat.

Melon Cage

We have these little creatures called Cucumber beetles down here that will not only eat your squash, cucumber, pumpkin & watermelon vines but once they bite the vine they inject a bacteria that is unstoppable and will kill the plant. So while we did get a lot of squash and such the plants have died and we replanted melons where the sweet corn was growing. To protect the melons we have made this melon patch cover that I retract a few hours a day for the bees to pollinate the melons. I put a ton of good compost in this bed after the corn so we are hoping we will have too many melons to eat and can give some away.