Sunday, June 9, 2019

Garden Update #4 and #5



Got  a little behind in the updates so I'm merging them into one, May 1- Jun 1. So many changes!

Front right
May 1- Slowly growing! June 1- Poppy explosion!

Main front
May 1- Some weeding! June 1- Hose holder attached & African daisies planted! And can't forget the required summer time activity: Hopscotch!

Left front

May 1- Growing! June 1- Happy lavender!

Between houses
May 1- No changes. June 1- No changes.

Back left
May 1- Weeded and watering mostly fixed! June 1- Ground cover planted!

Left raised beds
May 1- Weeded and tomatoes planted! June 1- Happy tomatoes and peas!

Right raised bed
May 1- Soil prepped for planting! June 1- Lettuce, basil, carrots and the totem plant for 4 year olds: Impatiens!

Middle of yard
May 1- No changes. June 1- No changes

Back right side
May 1- No changes June 1- No changes
The rest of summer will likely be spent on tending the veggies, enjoying the yard, maybe getting a third raised bed prepped for next year's garden (would love to have some zucchini and C wants sunflowers next year) and figuring out how to eventually grow some strawberries that won't get grazed on by Kiwi...





Friday, April 12, 2019

Garden Update #3

Actually got some things accomplished in March!
Weeded and planted some California natives
 including poppies and lupine.
 Hope they last through the summer!

Weeded! And some tulips were coming up!
Close up of some funky tulips










Lavender filling out!

Set last stepping stones and weeded
Weeded raised bed AND dug up lawn water pipes AND fixed them!
Weeded some more! Need to set final stepping
and fix water
No changes
Got the back wall weeded thanks to the
help of our neighbor!
No changes
So much more weeding to do, fixing of the watering system and then planting of vegetables for the summer!! 

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Monthly Garden Update #2

Only a few changes this month...
Weeds are growing

The mandarin got a big haircut and the daffodils are blooming!

No changes

Really zero changes

More weed growth

Bought replacement stepping stones but still need to set them

Bountiful harvest of weeds

More lovely weed growth

Still a mud pit but the nectarine is blooming!

Friday, February 1, 2019

Monthly Garden update

This year is all about recouping from the renovation, so I'm planning on doing a monthly update of the garden (since that is something that can change quickly! ie. weeds can go fast, ha ha).
I didn't take any photos for January but just imagine anything that survived the renovation went wild and overgrown and anything that didn't survive there is just a mud pit, or weeds. There's always weeds...

I have been able to do some gardening in fits and starts last month while Nora was napping. Here's the recap!

Right side garage
 I was able to set some stones and stepping stones in preparation for getting some ground cover eventually. Even though it's the rainy season it makes it much easier to dig holes! I was also able to plant some Breath of Heaven in the back, hopefully it will get bushy and take up some weed space!
Front of house
The front section will be the next section to work on but there are some tulips and daffodils coming up!
Left of stairs


Between houses










Replaced a lavender bush that loves next to the stairs. And we just recently repotted our lime tree. The previous wine barrel pot had rotted out the bottom, hopefully now we'll get some limes again this year!










I'd love to get this area cleaned up! First step will be to clean up the left over pieces of construction garbage...



Right side of deck
 The abutilon needed a major prune. I was pulling 10-15ft branches out of the neighboring trees. Hopefully it will bush out. I was also able to plant some ground cover in the hopes that they will get established before the summer and Kiwi wants to lay in the cool dirt! I still need to replace some stepping stones that went missing.


Main raised bed
The sweet grass is taking over!
Left side of deck
Lots to do on this side. Kiwi agrees. I was able to get the watering system re-attached but the smaller hoses still need fixing so it's not usable yet. Good thing we're getting all this rain!
Left yard
Main area


The mud pit that is where our lawn used to be. Our nectarine badly needed a trim to prune back 2 years of growth and some branches that were killed off during a rare frost last year. Hopefully we'll get enough nectarines this year to make some more jam!

There's still tons to do but I'm trying not to get overwhelmed and just take one small project/section at a time and am currently focusing on trying to take advantage of the damp earth and take care of anything that might involve some digging (up soon, remove the root graft that's growing and replace with our third try at an Asian pear tree...Third times a charm?). The one silver lining is that for the sections that I'd planted before I know what goes well in some areas and so am just looking to replace plants which will take less time wandering around the horticulture center. 

Monday, January 7, 2019

House Remodel 2016-2018

We had always discussed the possibility of expanding our house to add extra room, but it was always contingent on whether or not we decided to have kids. Well kid #1 showed up and we decided that, yes is it was a good idea to add some extra space. Over the course of a few months towards the end of 2015 we met with our lovely architect Laura Natkins (www.natkinsarchitect.com) and worked out the plans to fit what we were looking for (another bedroom with walk-in closets, bathroom and office). It was important for us to keep the feeling of the original house while adding the new space and Laura helped us to achieve that. After 11 months of the permitting process, we were finally able to start work the week of Thanksgiving 2016! Blue Dog Construction (http://bluedogrenovation.com) was our contractor of choice. It was a pleasure to work with Andrew, even when the project took way longer than initially expected to. We were able to move back in January 2018 and the final finishing touches were done by June. We are still in the process of figuring the best use of the new spaces but absolutely love it! Now it's on to getting the front and back yards back in acceptable order.
Here are just a couple of Before and After photos. If you want to see the full photo story it's here!



Before
After
Back After




Saturday, September 3, 2016

Sandbox

Wow, it's been three years since I've last posted here...you'd think we've been busy or something. Briefly, in the last 3 years we've replaced all of our indoor pipes, planted some more permanent landscaping, added a second raised bed (tomatoes!) and had a baby. That baby, who's not really so much of a baby anymore, was the inspiration for our latest project. She loves digging in my raised beds, so I figured she would love a sandbox. She plays in the sandbox at the park and at daycare so I guessed this would be a slam dunk. Additionally, the box would take up some valuable weed space and mean one less patch to pull come next spring. Win, win for everyone.
I found a design that I liked that included a lid, which was definitely required to keep out the neighborhood cats and other critters that may make use of it as a commode. Multiple trips to the hardware store later and we were in business to start building!!
After a week of cutting, staining and varnishing we were ready to starting putting all the pieces together. Thank goodness I had directions, although some parts didn't quite make sense to I improvised some things.
C helping me place the boards

Enjoying the new set up!
Did I mention that the lid folds back into little kid sized benches??! To be honest I'm pretty proud of this project and kind of wish I could make an adult sized one too. C seemed pretty happy to kick her shoes off and stick her feet in the sand while I kept puttering around the yard. All in all a pretty successful addition to the garden!!