rain down on my garden

rain, rain

come and play

make my plants

grow big today 

As the rain was falling lightly I went out to transplant some bulbs that have come up in awkward places, like where we'd like to keep the trash & recycling cans... so I dug them up and planted them in a semi circle around the new hydreangea tree in the front. It should rain enough that I don't have to water them today.

Then I headed in to the hoop house to check on everyone and give them some water since they don't get the benefit of the rain. It makes me so happy to go in and see all the growth and to think about all this great food we'll have to eat. With the rain falling outside it felt like I was in my own little secret world. I did some weeding and moved some of the plants that were growing up too close together and needed to be thinned. I'm especially excited about some heirloom beans that I planted that are coming up strong. 

marathon monday madness

It was an early morning, especially for a holiday... we rented a pick-up truck then filled it with asphalt and concrete that we've dug up from our yard over the last year and headed over to Cambridge Bark and Loam where they charged a small fee to take it off our hands. Then we filled the truck bed with a loam compost mix (and went back from a second fill) that we moved from the truck to a giant mound in the backyard.  Next stop was Cambridge Lumber to get wood to build some more beds in the back yard. 

Once we had all the supplies we headed downtown to watch some friends who were running the Boston Marathon. 
  

Then back home to get to work... we purchased some plants yesterday and there's talk of rain so I wanted at least to get the trees in the ground to get to benefit from the rain. After spending the beginning of last week ripping out all the 'grass' in the backyard to be able to start that fresh too I was hoping to get to that as well but quickly became clear that reseeding won't be able to happen until the new pile of dirt gets moved into the new beds when we get those built. 


got a hydreangea tree planted in the front yard





and a peach tree planted in the back yard (back left corner)... since we're unsure about our dirt we dug a giant hole and filled it with our new dirt for the peach tree




Then it was back downtown for a post marathon celebration. 

Wedding Invitation Package

I've been working with some friends on some before & after for their wedding, designing their wedding invitations - including reply card and insert with directions & registry information - and thank you cards.  I've printed out everything and put them in the mail for the couple to get a look at the drafts before I print everything. 

impatient gardener

Hello, Spring! 
I have been waiting for you. I am ready to see life emerging from the ground again... 
As I've waited patiently I planted nasturtiums in these pots we were given, probably intended for strawberries but that would have meant an even longer wait before planting and now as bulbs are coming up from the ground this new life is emerging from seed. 

Hoop House

After my experiment with a hoop house last fall we decided to build a a better hoop house that we'll be able to use and reuse to extend our growing season. So, our Sunday project was to build a hoop house. We did some research on-line and based our design on what we learned. 


We used 3/4" PVC pipe, connectors, 3.5 mil plastic to cover it

first we attached fasteners to the inside of the beds to hold the pipes

we cut the pipes to size

and put the pipes in the fasteners and bent them to the middle and attached them with connectors

once we had the three hoops on we attached the spine 

then it was time to get the plastic cover ready, we got a single sheet that we cut in half, stapled to a thin piece of wood on either side, stretched it over the hoops and screwed the wood into the beds for a tight seal on the sides 

we used 1"PVC pipe and cut it to 2" pieces and cut about a quarter of the pipe out, filed it down and used those to clip the plastic to the hoops

the view from inside 

After all our hard work yesterday I went to check the house this morning and discovered that it was warm and moist inside. 

Some of the seeds I'd started inside have been coming up so I moved them to their new hoop home. 

birthday thanks dinner

I was taken out to two birthday dinners this year. My partner took me out last night to this wonderful restaurant that I've been wanting to try, so today I decided, since I'm babysitting tonight, that I would leave him a nice dinner in thanks for the lovely dinner we had last night. 

I made mushrooms stuffed with smoked oysters, bread crumbs, sauteed onion & fennel, mixed with a little cream cheese

fried eggplant that I then stacked with mint and cheese between the slices

sauteed chard with garlic

fresh pasta with homemade sauce - tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, garlic, onion, little olive oil 

lamb ribs, seasoned with salt, pepper and rosemary, and pan fried 

tenant search

Our tenants are moving out, their family is growing so they want more than one bedroom... we decided to make an attempt at renting out the apartment ourselves. 


We started by putting a posting on craigslist last night. But so far today all we've gotten is inquiries from realtors asking if we want them to help us find tenants... hadn't anticipated realtor responses. Hopefully we'll get responses from interested individuals too. The last apartment we rented we went to multiple realty agencies but ultimately found the apartment we took on craigslist, so we're our experience is not the exception. 


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