Operation Tomato: A Success

We did it! We grew tomatoes!! We've been trying for 3 years to grow tomatoes. Granted, 2 of those years were on a deck with tomato plants that were too big for a pot, and last year, when we actually had "deck" tomato plants, we moved them halfway through the summer and they died.

We've also been getting a lot of string beans and cherry tomatoes, both of which don't usually make it into the house very often.... oops :)

Garden Progress

We have a great yard for a vegetable garden! Everything is growing like crazy! In fact it has completely outgrown the garden we built. We'll definitely be doubling it in size next year.. maybe even tripling! 

The tomatoes are a little squished, but that hasn't stopped them from growing!

The strawberries are completely hidden by everything else. The broccoli grew out of control! My dad has never had broccoli this big before! Must be all that direct sunlight all day long.

We have two pretty big yellow squash so far..

And we have so many cucumbers I lost count.. Some are tiny, others are pretty big already!

We don't have any green beans yet, but the plant is growing out of control! It has wound its way around the pole we gave it, plus all of the tomato cages! Pretty soon we think it'll attach itself to the pine tree!

I think in a month or so we'll be overwhelmed with vegetables :-D

We Build a Garden

Today was a beautiful day outside, so we took advantage of the nice weather to finally build our garden. We decided to make the garden 8'x4' and two 2x6's tall. USE UNTREATED WOOD!! You don't want the chemicals from pressure treated wood seeping into your vegetables!


Step 1: R cut two of the 2x6's in half. Those 4 pieces became the end pieces. Measure 18" lengths on the 2x3 and cut 6 pieces. Also cut 4 24" pieces, and cut the ends so they come to a point. While he was doing that, I used a measuring tape and marked out the location in the yard. We chose a spot that basically has direct sun all day long.

Step 2: Using 3 2 1/2" screws, screw a 2x3 posts into the center of the shorter 2x6's. Do the same for the pointed 2x3's at the ends using 3 1/2" screws. Dig two holes in the ground at either end of this wall and lower the pointed ends into the ground. Use a hammer or mallet if necessary. Make sure that the dirt is packed down around the posts.

Step 3: Install two 18" 2x3's on the two longer sides and then screw them onto the posts on the first end.

Step 4: Repeat Step 2 for the final end. We made our garden level (even though our yard slopes down here), but it isn't necessary. As long as the top of the walls all line up you will be okay.

We have two resident groundhogs and a bunch of bunnies, so we had to take them into account when planning the garden. They're too cute for us to take measures to get rid of them (the #1 way online to get rid of groundhogs is a shotgun... that is just not acceptable in this house!). So instead, we took measures to make sure they couldn't get in the garden.

Step 5: Cover the bottom of the garden with a roll of chicken wire. This will prevent the groundhog from tunneling up into the garden.

Step 6: Cover the chicken wire with weed fabric. This isn't necessary, but we will definitely appreciate it when there is little to no weeding to do! We used a staple gun to secure the wire and fabric.

Step 7: Fill garden with dirt. We used free composted soil that our town provides (it is made from the leaves the town picks up every fall) for the bottom two-thirds. On top of that we added 2 large bags of vegetable garden soil we bought at a home improvement store. Rake the top to mix the soil around a little bit. We also added a little lime.

Step 8: Install metal fence posts at the edges and in the middle of the longer sides. We used a metal garden fence which came in a roll and very easily attached to the posts. The fence is adjustable and can also be opened easily when we need to access the garden. But most importantly it keeps out our groundhog friends.

Cost:

Walls and Posts: (6) 2x6's, (2) 2x3's - $33
Chicken Wire, Fencing, Garden Soil, Weed Fabric - $78
Vegetable Plants: Watermelon, Cucumber, Tomatoes - $4
Vegetable Plants: Tomatoes, Squash, Beets, Beans, Broccoli, Strawberries, Raspberries, Pumpkins - $0 (from my dad)


Total Cost: $115 (which shocked me at first, but then when I really thought about it the $33 and $78 will be spread out for many many years. We really only spent $4 for all of our summer vegetables, which is how much we would pay for vegetables for one meal from the grocery store)

Planning a Garden

We both grew up in homes with large vegetable gardens and got used to having fresh vegetables in the summer. For the past 4 years, we've lived in apartments, and while we tried to have some plants (tomato and strawberry) on our porch last summer, it just didn't work. I think we got maybe 4 strawberries and 2 tiny little tomatoes. So buying our own home also meant that we'd finally be able to have our own garden!

For the past year we've been trying to figure out where exactly to put the garden. Summer was almost half over by the time we bought the house, and we didn't actually move in until the fall, so we just used the time to scope out the sunniest spot in the yard. Luckily for us that spot happens to be where we have a big bare spot of grass. We think the previous owner had an above ground pool there for awhile and just never planted grass when he removed the pool.

R is concerned about the soil.. the house has been here for 240 years... who knows what is buried in the backyard. So we decided to build a raised garden. For now, we're planning for it to be 8'x4', and approximately 10" off the ground. I've also read that raised gardens help your vegetables grow quicker and better, because the sun can warm the soil faster and more efficiently, and you are able to control what kind of soil you use. So it's really a win-win situation for us.

We'll be building the garden tomorrow, but until then, here are some raised garden inspiration pictures. I like the little ledge/seat the first one has... seems like it would come in handy.

Wildflowers

We first saw the house on May 5, 2010. It was a hot spring here in New England, so everything had already bloomed by then. It was more like summer here that day. So we really never saw the house in the spring. It was nice being surprised by all of the random flowers! We first noticed daffodils sprouting up... some behind the lean-to, some by our lilac bush, some by our mailbox... even some randomly planted in a line in the woods. Those ones are a little strange.. Then the wildflowers started coming up. The whole northern half of our backyard was covered in these pretty little purple flowers.

I loved them!! After about two weeks or so, they died out, and new flowers appeared in the southeastern part of the backyard. I believe those were violets.. white and purple ones. Our backyard was so beautiful (until R cut the grass this morning and as a result also cut down most of the flowers)!

The trees in the woods grew in (except one... which looks dead on the bottom, but now has small buds on the top.. we aren't sure what to do).. I love the privacy that the woods provide.. I love looking out the back windows.. it's calming.


The bare patch in the yard where the pool used to be even filled in a little bit. R bought a bag of grass seed and spread it around the yard in the random bare patches. However, then the rain that we were promised didn't come for about 2 weeks and in the meantime the birds had a buffet of grass seed. So, it didn't fill in completely, but it still looks better than it did last year. The pool spot is where we're planning on planting a garden anyways.


And now we have a bunch of tulips randomly planted around the yard. There are a bunch around the tree by the driveway and a lot in the space between our driveway and our next door neighbor's. I love tulips. I got some more that I plan to plant later this year.


Even the bushes in front of the house are somewhat growing in. So we've decided to wait until next year to see if we need to replace them. They don't look bad from the street because we're on a hill.. it's only when you're up close to them that they look horrible. We'll see...


We've also decided to put in a walkway in the backyard that goes from the driveway to our backdoor. There is some sort of paved trench there now that has served as a walkway, but it's horrible. And it wasn't at all helpful in the winter (R just shoveled a path next to it on top of the grass). So I think we'll get some pavers or bricks sometime soon and just put in a simple path. Anything will be better than what's there now!

February Was a Slow Month..

We didn't do much around here in February (or really all winter). It seemed like every single weekend was dedicated to either shoveling or fixing yet another snow blower (R managed to break a snow blower every time we had a storm.. it was insane).

A couple weekends ago I put together my birthday present from my mom... my pretty new bookcases.  They're from Ikea and I think they look perfect. Originally I wanted to fill the whole wall with bookcases, but I think this arrangement works much better for this room. I also have curtains, my desk set up and some new Ikea lamps. And a rug picked out, but just not purchased yet. I'm really starting to love how the whole room is coming together.. I took a couple pictures but for some reason blogger won't let me upload them. I'll get them up as soon as I can.

Because our renovating has been put on a winter hold, I've been doing some unpacking where I can. Mostly stuff in the Living Room (which is almost done.. just waiting for a warm day when we can open the windows so we can use the paint remover on the trim), my office and the Guest Room. Slowly but surely it's becoming our home.

This past weekend was warm (New England early March warm... it was 40 degrees and sunny) so we had a window or two open and while R worked on cleaning up the yard I did some prepping and painting in the Laundry Room. 

The backyard was a mess.. after over 3 feet of snow being on the ground for basically 2 1/2 months we have a lot of mud. There's also a ton of branches, big and small, scattered around the yard. Once it's really warm out we'll be spending a lot of time out there cleaning up. We do have a couple tulips, daffodils and crocuses popping up though... can't wait until they bloom!

The Laundry Room deserves it's own post, so be looking for that (I'm waiting for a nice sunny day to take pictures). The wallpaper in this room was removed months ago (on a weekend when we had a lot of extra helpers!) and with the bare walls and creamy colored trim the room just looked dirty (and it looked even dirtier once I started painting the trim white). This is a room we walk through many times every day (to get to our upstairs bathroom) so it's nice to have it cleaned up and nice.