or how (Bob &) I finally stopped procrastinating and put the money down

The problem with blogs ...

2012-01-23T10:18:00.001-08:00

... is that you're too busy doing things to write about the things you've been doing! "Blogger's guilt" must be a true existing condition right?

The house is coming along:
- Revamped the guest bathroom - new subfloor and tile, new vanity top and sink, new faucet on the vanity.
- Finally (after 5.5 yrs) put up real window treatments in the living room.
- New roof on the back porch
- New siding
- New windows (this was done with a 0% CT Energy energy loan)
- And to round out that little project - blown in triploymer foam insulation in the parts of the house that we hadn't put fiberglass in. This was not without it's difficulties - they tell you it will go into stud bays with existing fiberglass but when the sheathing came off to do the siding we could see that the tripolymer install had failed miserably. It's still in the bays but we got a refund from teh installer. When we strip the 1/4" plywood and replace with sheetrock we will deal with the tripolymer nastiness. Probably rip it out and replace with fiberglass.
- New A/C unit (we received a nice $1500 state energy rebate on this)
- Lights on the back porch and the removal of the ghastly 10'x10' platform that the previous owners had up. I took it apart and made it into two drop-in doors to cover the stair and still had lumber left over to build a compost holding bin and raised veg beds.
- Raised beds and productive veg growing in the back garden
- Hummingbird garden is flourishing and such fun to watch our two h-birds return!
- Stripped the wallpaper out of the 1/2 bath, painted but that's as far as that got.

So the big projects still to go:
- Master bath remodel (this might get done this year)
- Half bath makeover (constantly being stalled over due to the vent/duct that comes out half on the wall and half on the floor.) So the 1/2 bath project will be preceded by a little duct work project.
- Sheetrock the DR, office and back stairway.
- Repaint the LR (5 yrs on from buying it needs a refresh)
- Get rid of the clutter!!

Oh and my reason for posting today - "doing" the garden. Since taking the Brooklyn Botanic Gdn design class I've been doodling when time permitted but mostly garnering ideas and filing them away. Last week I stumbled on a person who I felt would be good to help me mold the garden to what I want and after that I had a break through on the main patio design so with that obstacle out of the way I called them up to have a chat about how we might work together.

She doesn't live down here but she has all the wildlife garden, design, natives knowledge and experience that I'm looking for. We chatted and decided that I would send up a package of drawings and photos and she would see if it was a project she could help with and we'd do it remotely.

We'll see. I'd like to have a nice garden to enjoy by the time I turn 50 (2014) and I had asked Bob for garden design/plant list help for this year's b'day prezzie.

What's Growing ...

2010-03-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

A recent spell of 70 degree days in mid-March has set the garden going. Here's what's starting to grow.

Winter birds

2010-01-28T12:54:00.000-08:00

So I signed up for Feederwatch and as I am not great at ID'ing birds so the idea was that would take some snapshots so that I could ID the ones I didn't know. I got some nice pics so then I was reading up on Photoshop, courtesy of thepioneerwoman.com and here's some of my visitors. I have to say I have a soft spot for the woodpeckers, the Red-bellied in particular. Although I am in awe of any bird with colour, U.S. birds are so much more colorful than U.K. birds, I find. These pics apart from the Nuthatch were taken during a snowstorm today as I was working from home.
All photos copyright me.

Fall clean-up

2009-11-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

Phewf, have not got to a lot of Fall gardening due to racing bikes but sprung for a new leaf blower/mulcher this w/e and blew all the leaves in the front yard into a pile. Then I mulched them and but them back on the borders as mulch. No more leaves and free mulch. I did this last year and it works great, the leaves decay over the year adding to the soil. When I blew any debris and new leaves off the beds, I could see the good quality of the soil.

Now i have to tackle the back yard which is currently covered in about 6" or leaves and is about 75'x75' - bit more of a project than the front. I'll do the same with the borders but most of them get mulched and blown to the back of the yard and then i use them throughout the following year to augment the garden and especially to build new beds as my soil is quite rooty in places and stony in others.

Fall nursery clearance

2009-10-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

Taking the garden design class at Brooklyn Botanical Garden really helped me not splurge on plants this year. It really taught me to plan and think and make lists and sketch. Then, with the arrival of October, I realised that it was time to go and visit my local garden nursery to see what they had on sale and were trying to get rid of. Choice is not always great but I find it's an excellent way to stretch my gardening dollar.

First stop was Hollandia Nursery in Bethel, CT. There was slim pickings but I managed to get:

3 Monarda didyma Jacob Cline (HB)

6 Agastache Blue Fortune (I had to remove the bees from these before putting them in the car) (HB)

2 flats of 10 Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal flower) (HB)

2-3 Aster divericatus (white wood aster)

2 Heuchera "velvet night" (Coral Bells)

1 Aquilegia canadensis (Wild Columbine) (HB)

1 Aquilegia Ruby Port (HB)

1 Aquilegia (I forget the name) (HB)

This past weekend I hit up the local Agway - perenials and shrubs etc were 70% off. I admit I did go a little nutty but because I've spent most of the summer not buying but researching, planning and sketching, I was able to look through what they had on offer and buy things that I needed rather than things on a whim. So from Agway I got all the following 26 plants - some large well-established) for $100 (labelled prices added up to over $300)

2 large Nepeta subsellis 'Candy Cat'

2 large Nepeta faassenii Dropmore

2 Salvia sylvestris Blue Queen

2 large Salvia Endless Love (HB)

2 Deparia pycnosora (Big Brother Fern) (need to get the woodland area started)

1 Aster diveraticus (White Wood Aster)

1 mystery plant - I had no clue what Centaurea dealbata was other than I liked the leaf shape (it's a cornflower)

1 Oenothera fruticosa (Winter Primrose)

2 Heuchera Swirling Fantasy (Coral Bells)

1 Aruncus Misty Lace (Goatsbeard)

1 Solidago Sweety (dwarf goldenrod)

1 Veronica Darwin Blue (Speedwell) (HB)

4 Eupatorium dubium phantom (Dwarf Joe Pye Weed) (HB)

3 Aquilegia Nora Barlow (Columbine)

1 Aquilegia vulgaris Grandmother's Garden (Columbine)

I took Tuesday off work as Bob was home and while he worked I gardened and got the hummingbird garden (HB) established and structured, I moved the foxgloves that had self seeded in the wrong places around the yard and also moved and divided my Echinacea magnus (the 4ft high buggers) so there's some height at the back of the borders to. I'll take a pic shortly to show how its coming along. I also had plants for the partial shade perennial bed I am wanting to start in the back "garden" (euphemism).
I'd like to fill in some gaps I left in the HB garden with Salvia Coccinea, Lupinus perennis and also plant some Scarlet Runner Bean and Purple Hyacinth bean on the arbor in the front. I'll grow these guys from seed.

Humingbird garden

2009-10-06T13:15:00.001-07:00

So it has begun. A south-facing area of the front garden has puzzled me for the longest time as to what to do with it. It is the area. When we viewed the house almost 4 years ago it looked like this - it's the area on the right hand side in front of the addition.

We very quickly ripped out the yew bushes and started over cutting back the depth of the border and enlarging the lawn. The depth of this one area made it hard to design. The hummingbird garden seemed to fall into place as I had also wanted to ring hte house with a 24" band of pea gravel for when we eventually have the siding replaced. I also had some very tall echinacea magnus (tall purple coneflower) hogging the front that had to be moved.

So the first step was digging out the gravel buffer and putting in the edging.

Then I laid landscape fabric and topped with gravel. I recently did my fall visit to local nurseries to see what they were clearing out so I've had lots to plant both here and elsewhere but I'll cover that in another post. Oh and I added a half barrel and liner so there will be a wee pond for them which also breaks up the area into more manageable borders.

Hummingbirds

2009-10-06T13:08:00.000-07:00

I had been thinking more about my magic encounter with the hummingbird and started researching plants for them as I have an area of the garden that I have not really known what to do with. So I drew up lists (like you do) and acquainted myself with all the top hummingbird attractors. I also noticed that the landscaping at work had large areas of lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal Flower). I did not look for h-birds though.
About a week later I was walking to the cafe when I noticed that the landscapers had ripped out all the lobelia and put in 'Mums. Still I made no connection until I saw two women by the door, staring at the ground and then staring up. There were two hummingbirds on the ground by the door. One was dead and one was just sitting there. They thought they were baby birds that had fallen out of a nest. It was clear that they were RT Hummingbirds. I picked the dead one up and the other one flew off. Poor buggers suddenly had their mega-lobelia buffet disappear just like that.
The next day I went to the cafe and there was another dead h-bird lying in the same spot (the picture above). They really do weigh literally nothing - amazing to see them up close (in the photo you can actually see the long tongue sticking out to the left.

Now totally resolved to build a hummingbird garden.

Hmmm ...

2009-09-15T23:05:00.001-07:00

Can't get the hummingbird that I saw at Earth Tone Natives off my mind. It was stunning. A female Ruby-Throated I think. I would love to do a small hummingbird garden but am concerned with the low fragrance of flowers they like that the deer would just eat their way through them all.

Productive weekend

2009-09-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

Good stuff. Yesterday I got all my projects done so that I could start the project that I intended to be doing!
- Rotated my compost stackers and transferred the finished compost to the new compost corral - might be my best crop this year!
- Then I could restack the stackers and move the side compost pile into the stackers in my effort to tidy, reorganize and plant the side yard.
- Then I dug up my raspberries and blackberries from the side yard to move to the other side yard (too much shade, planted them there when I knew nothing about gardening).
- Cut the grass on the other side of the house really short so that it was easy to dig and plant the berry bushes.
- Cut back the existing blackberry bush, so that is all sorted, all my berry bushes are together in one spot in the sun.
- I kept 6 raspberry divisions back so that I can take them to "Skippy's Garden" Plant/Seed swap, Oct 3rd.
- Laid brick down on part of the side yard border and assembled "The Earth Machine" compost bin that I got at reduced cost through the town of Ridgefield, CT. This bin will be for kitchen compost so it's right by the side door. Have not personally composted food waste, only garden waste, will be interesting to see how it goes.

In the veg plot, noticed that the carrots are coming up, the zuccini is trying to stage a post-mildew comeback with new fruits and the eggplant has flowers again. So far they have all fallen off so, after a quick google, I have been out with a paintbrush trying to ensure that they get pollinated.

Today I treated myself to a trip to Earth Tone Natives, a garden nursery that sells only natives, based in Woodbury, CT. Much better to visit and see what they have in person. Unbelievable amount of bees and insects on the plants. I also heard a fast whirring and looked over in time to see a hummingbird. As if to say "why, yes, I am a hummingbird" he flew over and sat on a branch right by me. Very beautiful and shiny and TINY! I don;'t think I have seen one before, closest thing in the UK was a kingfisher.
Got some great plant ideas at Earth Tone Natives - for the deep shade of the side yard: wood iris, jack in the pulpit, variegated solomon's seal, and 2 others I forget were top of the list for there. I don't think I need a huge amount of stuff down there, just enough to make it productive for insects etc, make it attractive to me and functional.

the rear porch platform ...

2009-09-07T18:26:00.001-07:00

The house has a large rear screened-in porch: at least 15' x 28'. However it was rendered mostly unusable by the previous owners. This was mainly because to cover a set of basement (access/egress) stairs they had built a 10'x10' platform which occupied the center of the porch rendering almost all of the surrounding space non-functional.
Here's how it looked on the day of viewing:

The space on the far side of the platform didn't get used because of this abomination:

Clearly intended to be "a fountain", and I use that term generously, it was a pile of rubble held together with cement and various colours of paint. I intended to demolish it soon after moving in, this got moved up the list when my cats decided it was the biggest cat litter tray they had ever found! When I took the sledge hammer to it, I couldn't believe how much stone came out of that pile. It was cathartic however and I got to use a cement mixer and heave 80lb bags of ready mix, surely any girls idea of fun.

But I digress. So you saw how it was before. I had looked up under the platform from the basement (the door leaks water in when it rains, has to be coming from under the ground). The porch had originally just been dirt and then they had poured a concrete slab and not really squared off the edges so the lip to place a door was not the greatest.
I decided last weekend that enough was enough and it was the weekend when the platform had to go. Plan was to take the platform apart, look at the situation and use the lumber from the platform to make a door.

Halfway through taking it apart it looked like this:

The platform was built "sturdily". 10ft 2'x6's every 16 on center gave me more lumber than I knew what to do with. I had wanted to do a hatch door with a continuous hinge mounted into the concrete but I didn't like the state of the the cement and decided on a drop-in door. Two actually, to keep them reasonable to lift.
I lucked out as the drop from the "floor" level of the concrete to the usable part of the lip was approx 6". Looked like I could get away with reusing the 2"x6"s. So I built a frame with 2x6s and topped it with the plywood that had been part of the floor of the platform.

About 3/4s of the way through it looked like this:

So far, so good and going smoothly. Just had to cut in some recessed handles ($4 each from HD or Lowes), add some rubber feet (2-pack for 78c x 4) and then paint them. I chose to paint with some texture as the porch can collect some moisture. Paint: $11.98 for a quart of exterior satin latex and $4.98 for some sand/texture (quartz). The quartz makes the paint into slurry so after a coat of primer, I just managed to get one coat and a touch up out of a quart!

Looks pretty good, me thinks and totally opens up the whole porch area, just need to arrange the furniture:

So much water had leaked into the stairwell that the sill in the door well had almost totally rotted away over the 58 years since the house was built. The previous (also the original) owner's approach was to slap on cement and make cement dams, really to no avail. Extending the downspouts away from the house and installing a 28' run of gutter on the back of the porch roof helped immensely. So I lifted the remnants of the sill out and then dug out some perfect humus to reveal a nice 5-3/4"-wide channel. So new on the project list is installing a new sill, looks like "2"x 5-3/4" will do it. Just wondering how to customize it for run off - don't want the runoff to just trickle underneath the sill as before, would rather ti was encouraged to run towards a near by drain to the sump pump.
More chores but all good progress and finally getting to use the WHOLE of the porch is very exciting (and relaxing). The porch has really had an upgrade this summer with the platform removed and the screened walls painted and installed with new screening.

Can't get to the real project ...

2009-09-07T17:55:00.001-07:00

The "Work Bench"

So one of the projects for this weekend was to blitz the side yard. Disheveled and untidy, I wanted to move some plants, clean it up and install a compost bin for kitchen waste. First of all it got delayed as with the great weather I decided to take advantage and paint the garage door.
Then as ever I realized that to move the berry bushes out of the side yard (too shady) I needed to make room where I intended to plant them which meant I had to trim two huge bushes. So trimmed those bushes yesterday evening (still not sure what they are - an Ilex of some type I presume, maybe needing a male/female as have green berries and I've never seen them develop).
Then to be able to move the compost heap from the sideyard I needed to sort out my compost area. I use homemade compost stackers - I made them out of some barn board that the previous owners had installed in the wall of one bedroom(!). However, I wanted to keep the stackers for making compost (and accommodate the sideyard compost heap) and needed an area to store my finished compost.
So seeing as last week I dismantled the totally dysfunctional 10' x 9' platform that the previous owners had installed on the rear screened in porch, I had more 2"x6"s than anyone would ever need. Not treated but perfect to make a compost corral. So this morning I put the miter saw out on the bench we made from part of the 90ft oak and made up a nice compost corral. I only paid for 6 joist holders (< $4) and that way I can take it apart and move it if needed.
Then this evening I bagged up the cuttings from trimming the bushes and I think now, next weekend, I am ready to tackle the side yard!

I also found a few extra pieces of barn board and made up one more compost stacker to augment the "stack".

The New Compost Corral (foreground) with compost stackers from scrap wood in background

Where the wood for the compost stackers came from (!) (Piece of paper behind these boards said installed 1971.)

Contrast

2009-09-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Before (day of viewing)

After
First good painting weekend of the summer so the bland green garage door of the previous owner's had to go. Primer Friday night (the last panel by headlamp), 2 coats of exterior satin latex Saturday, final coat Sunday a.m. The "no contrast anywhere" style of decor of the previous owner's has driven me crazy. Green lawn blended into green bushes, blended into green siding, blended into green trees. Slowly we are creating a bit of contrast. New siding in the next couple of years hopefully. (Oh and we changed the dirt to grass (it's green, I know, goes against the anti-green thing.)

Learning ...

2009-08-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

This year was my first growing veggies other than having a couple tomato plants around. Thanks to the weather I have learned more in this one season than I ever imagined. Having found a strategy for late blight on the tomato plants, colorado potato beetle on the eggplant and slugs everywhere, I now notice that the zuccini is getting mildew. "They" (the internet) say to spray with a 9:1 water to milk solution. I've done this once and they almost look worse (why spray wet on a mildew problem?) so last night I did what I always do with plant problems, I pruned back all the mildewy stalks and leaves. Not sure if this is good zuccini care but it opened up the bushes and so maybe they will get better air circulation.
Found a wierd looking thing on the eggplant which finally has flowers. Crushed it. Also found a ladybird on the eggplant in the raised bed. Congratulated myself.
Not exactly sure when to pick the corn, it is slow coming on due to lack of hot days, tassles were brown but cobs were a little small so need to leave them til tassels totally shrivelled. Plenty more cobs to come.

Fortunately the annuals that I grew from seed are doing great: zinnias, gomphrena and lavender. I love the gomphrena.

Garden blitz

2009-08-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Was away this w/e but took Monday off to drive back from The Shore so squeezed in a much-needed, 3-hour blitz on the garden. Very satisfying: mowed back (mid-setting) and front lawn (highest setting). Trimmed edges. Weeded. Swept. Picked beans and tomatoes ready for harvest. Checked zuccinis (one ready but left on bush) and corn (needs aday or two more). Offered encouragement to eggplant (first real flower - very exciting!). Replaced bricks in patio that we removed to paint/re-do porch screen. Re-installed rain barrel that we moved to do porch screening.
Then I pored over Johnny's Seeds catalog, BBG's Fragrant Design book and sketched out a new design for the front garden in front of the FR window.
Then yesterday and today i ached like crazy!

Veggies

2009-08-20T10:16:00.001-07:00

Harvested the first zuccini this morning. They have come out of nowhere, I kept staring at the zuccini flowers wondering where hte zuccinis developed and all of a sudden I have zuccinis. Beans need picking and I have 2 ears of corn coming in. Still managing to get cherry tomatoes off the majorly pruned blighted tomatoes. This is my first year growing veggies - I get such a kick to pick something that I have grown. Crops are not great but I think the rainy summer has a alot to do with that.

Also found this booger on the tomatoes - a parasitized Tobacco Hornworm, I believe. Combo of fascinating and horrible.

DigginFood Recipe & Seed Swap PtII

2009-08-17T11:18:00.001-07:00

I got to pick the first beans from the seeds I received through the DigginFood Recipe and Seed swap. I didn't intend to grow beans in this my first year of veggie grpowing but have found them to be one of the most satisfying and rewarding crops because they grow so fast. Funny thing was I couldn't make out one direction on the recipe: "add a handful of your favorite ?", Bob finally deciphered it as "nut". Der. they were yummy. Bob likes them raw straight from the bush.

DigginFood Recipe & Seed Swap PtII

2009-08-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

I got to pick the first beans from the seeds I received through the DigginFood Recipe and Seed Swap. I didn't intend to grow beans in this my first year of veggie grpowing but have found them to be one of the most satisfying and rewarding crops because they grow so fast.

Funny thing was I couldn't make out one direction on the recipe: "add a handful of your favorite ?", Bob finally deciphered it as "nut". Der. they were yummy. Bob likes them raw straight from the bush.

Zinnias

2009-08-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

Even though it's been a strange summer for gardening due to all the rain, the zinnias have recently started blooming like crazy to catch up. I always thought that annuals were a waste of time but these have been very satisfying to grow from seed. Plus I love the bee in the shot.

Zinnias

2009-08-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yr 4 - Day 166?: Reviving the porch

2009-08-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

Bob, splining machine!

Before (day of viewing Winter '05/'06)

After

So ... it's not all about the garden, believe it or not. Summer project has been to repaint and rescreen the rear porch. Bob and I sanded, replaced rotten parts, primed, painted, installed ScreenTite track system, installed screening using roller and spline. thought we might have to buy a new door but the old one is looking quite splendid with new paint and having vacuumed the screen panels. The ScreenTite system is fab. Large areas are definitely a 2-person job especially if the width you are screening is close to the width of your roll of screen.

We have the other half of hte porch to do and are being thwarted/interrupted by CT's summer of heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Colorado Potato Beetle

2009-07-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

Hmmm ... so my most successful seedlings this spring were my eggplants. I had so many that I gave away many in 2s and 3s to friends. I was late getting mine in the ground due to all the rain we had in June and they have struggled/been eaten/looked fairly pathetic since plating out.
Recently they have staged a comeback and have begun to look hearty, robust and flourishing. I was giving them a little TLC and weeding at the weekend when I happened to notice insect eggs under one of the leaves. Then I saw a beetle on a leaf that looked like an unshelled sunflower seed. Looked it up on bugguide.net and found out that it's a Colorado Potato beetle and the eggs were likely it's eggs. They favor plants in the nightshade family - potato, eggplant etc, lay eggs under the leaves which then hatch and devour the plant. Yikes!
I killed the beetle and eggs and went and did another check this morning to check for any more. So far so good.

Does this count as garden? Hmmm?

2009-07-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Before

After

We have started on renovating the screened in porch using a fab product called Screentite. Of course we have to sand, TSP, prime, paint and THEN we get to install the ScreenTite track but it is childs play compared to stapling and all that malarkey.

Eyed Click Beetle

2009-07-06T14:16:00.000-07:00

While gardening this weekend, a large beetle landed at my feet. It was one of those beetles that you look at and think "my god, I bet that could devour my house and all of my plants". It was about 2" long, slim (rather than a fat stocky beetle) black with white speckles and two large white rings on it's front end.
I took a photo, trapped it under a flower pot, finished my gardening and went inside to try and ID it. I had it under the flower pot on the front step when I thought "if this beetle is just might eat my house maybe I should put him and the flowerpot at the end of the driveway" at least that way he'd have to walk a long way to get to my house.

This was a perfect example of the power of the internet: I googled "black beetle white circles" and found a reference to "Eyed beetle". Then I googled that and got to a great bug ID site: (http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740) and ID'd it as an Eyed Click Beetle. Then I did a little more poking around and found http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-2-9-1296,00.html. They said the following:

"But the larvae of eyed click beetles tend to leave gardens and lawns alone, preferring instead to prey on the larvae of wood borers (pests that you definitely don't want in your yard). So the next time you see one of these guys, rest assured that it won't harm you or your plants, and let it go along on its merry way."

So I went back outside and released it. I did find one other beetle in the garden this weekend with an orange rear proboscis/willy thing! which I still need to ID. This guy:

The raised bed

2009-07-05T18:16:00.000-07:00

I also planted the raised bed. This is something, as a somewhat neophyte gardener, that I am especially proud of. I designed and built the raised bed after the original plan (4' x 1'H fire pit ring from Tractor Supply) was not available, I grew the plants that I have put in it from seed (salvia farinacea/salvia gruppenblau, achillea millefolium/yarrow colorado and gomphrea globosa/globe amaranth) and I filled the bed with leaf mould from our leaves, compost from the pile and top soil left over from digging for the temporary patio. Of course right now it looks like I am growing a harvest of popsicle sticks (my plant labels).

Moving day ...

2009-07-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

As I looked at the asiatic lilies, that I bought thinking they were day lilies back when I knew less, towering in the front! of my border, I knew that this weekend could be only for one thing: moving day.
And so it went. I dug up and moved the asiatic lilies whilst in full bloom. Most likely not recommended at this time of the year but they were (beautiful) but annoying the hell out of me. I was careful not to snap the stems and they moved very easily into the back garden.
The front border immediately looked better for it's loss but today I planted the Speedwell (Sunny Blue Border) and the white Salvia (Snowhill) that I scored at Hollandia - 10 perennials for $30 plus 20 off this w/e. The BBG class has really helped restrain my impulse plant buying but I'm afraid we could not resist a Lace Bluecap Hydrangea. I was actually looking for a few hydrangeas for some winter structure in the borders.
I also moved some smaller asiatic lilies to in front of the a/c unit.
I moved some sedum and artemesia to make a space for the hydrangea - at the end of the driveway border. Fingers crossed that the deer do not snack on it, at least until I get some cuttings from it.
I planted out the remaining lupine seedlings so that I will have a mass of them in the front border - they and the lupine really got clobbered by the month of wet that we just had.

This weekend has been two days of gorgeous sunshine - 70s-80s temps - and the garden has to be loving it after all of June's rains.
Once some of the coneflowers in the front (echinacea purpurea? etc) have died off I need to move them 3-4ft further back in the front bed. They are towering 3-4ft high now. Moving them back will make way for some continuation of something else I have out there (most likely salvia or coreopsis).

beans, beans

2009-06-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

So ... CT's crazy rain has kept me somewhat sequestered during the week so imagine my surprise this weekend, thinking that I should find some bean poles just in case, that the Diggin Food Seed Swap beans are about 4-5" high. They were probably thinking that it was about time they got a little support.
I guess not hovering over plants like a mother hen gives more rewarding updates: the zuccini seedlings are a robust 2-3" high and the corn, although easily mistaken for grass at this early stage, is also 3-4" (a pygmy elephant's eye in some countries I believe, LOL).
I lost almost all my yarrow seedlings and 3/4 of my native lupine seedlings to the soggy humidity so am tempted to grow some more from seed.
Eggplants are being massacred by slugs so, after chatting with my mum, I outlined the edge of the bed with ash from the fireplace. Other solutions she suggested were copper rings, slug traps and beer plates. She discouraged using slug pellets because the birds eat the dead slugs and the poison. Not good for the birdees.
Started filling up the new raised bed - I got one grasscutting compost pile froma year or so ago and two large piles of leaves shovelled into it - so got the garden cleaned up and the bed almost filled into the bargain. I will top it off with top soil from the brick patio.
Pics to follow.

Rain, rain go away

2009-06-22T12:21:00.000-07:00

So, June 22nd and we are pushing 6" of rain for the month and almost rain everyday. Interestingly the sump pump in the basement has only just come on in the past two days so the water table must've been very low.
Of course, getting into the garden to plant seedlings and generally work has been nigh on impossible. Some of my seedlings are rotting in pots becuase of all the excess moisture in the air - we need a good few days of hot sun to dry the poor blighters out or I am at risk of losing all my lupine seedlings - they seem to be the most sensitive.

So this weekend I took on the projects that I could: finished building my custom raised bed (I have to admit it looks sweet!), planted out last of my seed packets - mainly wildflowers and natives - mowed the grass (Front is looking the best yet since I went organic) and tarted up part of Bob's patio by putting stones that come up in the garden around the euonymus.
Slugs or some critter is massacring the eggplant - I might have to get some of that finely ground stone to put around the plants to keep them off - but I noticed with excitement that the zuccini seeds have sprouted.

Yr 4, Day 91 (ish)

2009-05-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Temp Patio
So ... master plan is in the works but what to do until then? as I really wanted to have a wee patio area so that Bob had somewhere vaguely nice to BBQ. So this weekend I took some of the bricks I got over the winter and whipped up a small, rough-and-ready patio area for him. Not bad. I will name it Phase .01 as it's not the real plan. And of course I have a place to sit and drink beers/coffee while my hubby BBQs!

Before

After

Before

After

Phase .01

2009-05-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

So ... master plan is in the works but what to do until then? as I really wanted to have a wee patio area so that Bob had somewhere vaguely nice to BBQ. so this weekend I took some of the bricks I got over the winter and whipped up a small, rough-and-ready patio area for him. Not bad. And of course i have a place to sit and drink beers while my hubby BBQs!

Before

After

Before

After

DigginFood Seed/Recipe Swap

2009-04-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sent off my seed/recipe today: the Balsamic-Glazed Chicken Sandwich with Goat Cheese, Red Onions and Arugula from Cooking Light and arugula seeds. they were kind of hard to find.

First tulip ever - chuffed I am.

2009-04-27T13:45:00.000-07:00

my first tulip ever is up (as are many of it's friends). I adore this orange color - note to self - plant more of these this fall.

BBG 4-23-09

2009-04-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Last week's BBG class was interesting. We were split into two groups according to urban or "rural" and then Joan took the urbanites and I was in Jim's group along with others with non-urban properties.
We all went around and described our spaces and had open discussion and suggestions for plants etc. For next week we have to come up with a planting diagram for one section of our garden. I am trying ot work on the woodland/shadier area of mine as Jim said that the sunny side would be easier to come up with on my own.
I am looking through all the lists for CT natives as I would like to go that route and also have plants that encourage birds etc where possible.
Today (4-27) I made up my plant list and am trying to break it down into ground cover/shade/fringe(part shade), bloom time, height and ? (can't remember) so that I can identify areas in the plan and then match up to plants.

Douglas Tallamy

2009-04-27T13:31:00.000-07:00

Went to a talk on Saturday afternoon by Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home. Interesting, straight-forward guy with a good sense of humour. Talked in very simple yet well-illustrated terms about how the deforestation of our nation through development and, on a local level, the use of non-native, exotic aka foreign plants can lead to a breakdown in the support system for insects, birds and other wildlife.
Although we often leave small woodland pockets thinking we are doing good, these pockets are often not large enough to support sustainable populations and thus insects and wildlife are lost, sometimes, irrevocably from our environment.
Graphically illustrated "carrying capacity" or ability of a plant to support multiple forms of life. Interestingly he did not touch on America's (lawn)chemical dependency as a part of the eradication of natural bugs and insects that do good. Talked about how we can all help to change the direction in which this is going by doing simple things and making simple choices when we plant and landscape.
He had been mentioned in passing by someone in the BBG class and I happened to see he was talking nearby. A very interesting hour.
Link to his carrying capacity chart of most plants is at http://copland.udel.edu/~dtallamy/host/index.html

Yr 4 - Day 60 ish

2009-04-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend laying and finishing flooring in Bob's office. Used up the last of the wide board pine that was laid in the LR when we bought the house. Most of it was used to floor the MBR but I had kept the decent-ish amount that was left as it was quite a lot of wood. Finally it has been put to use, we have a floor in the office that is not faux crazy-paving linoleum form 1965 and I have more space in the garage! An all-around success.
Laying went well after the very first piece which was a challenge as I had to join into the tongue of the T&G flooring from the DR. The pine I was laying had no T&G and I did not have a table router to cut tongues. After much brain racking I remembered I had a stair nose piece in my offcuts bin. Then how to rip the nose off it so that I had flat one side and keep the groove on the other. of course after much headscratching, Heath Robinson rigging with the circular saw (I also have no work bench or vise) I headed to HD in the hopes of tracking down a fence for my saw.
Of course, no chance of HD stocking something so specialized and all they had was a "universal" fence. I alwasy think that when it comes to tools, "universal" means "doesn't do the job very well". However, I did not want to be sanding the floor when Bob's new computer was set-up so I bought it. Long story short it worked well-enough and in fact I ripped down quite a few boards with it.
Nice thing with 11.5" boards is that you get a lot of coverage for just a few cuts. I laid it over resin paper and I know that there are two layers of 5/8-3/4" subfloor underneath. Even so I nailed it to the joists which I calculated from the nail holes in the 1/4" ugly plywood (yes, another project to come).
As usual it took longer than I thought. Did half Saturday and then finished it by Sunday lunch. Didn't look fab but it was still to be sanded. Of course a trip to HD was needed to find really course sanding pads - coursest I could get was 50 grit.
Then four coats of Varathane. This is a water-based polyurethane which I picked for quick drying (2hrs), low smells and easy clean-up. Vacuumed and mineral spirits prior to applying with a 4" nylon brush.
After each coat I then had to kill 2 hrs. Weather was on my side - a heatwave: 85 degrees and 30% humidity meant the floor was dry in about 1 hr 45 mins.
Got the final (4th) coat on just after midnight. It looked very nice this a.m., can be walked on lightly in stocking feet. No furniture or heavy traffic for 3 days.
Fortunately this was less than 50 sq. ft. Pics to come.

Seed/Recipe Swap

2009-04-23T06:43:00.000-07:00

So I was cruising a few gardening blogs and came up with a seed/recipe swap that was being organised by a blog new to me: DigginFood.com (see the article here: http://www.digginfood.com/2009/04/reminder-sign-up-for-the-recipe-seed-swap/)
The idea is that you swap a recipe and the seeds to grow one of the ingredients. Sounded like an intriguing idea.
I just found out my swappee to whom I am sending so I goggled her name and came up with a blog (http://daxiang.stefmike.org/). My motivation was to find out if she was vegetarian. This seems to me that it could be my swappee and instantly I am gripped by intimidation. I see she is growing already what I intended to send her. Hmmm. I will not let that put me off. I also see that she shares my affinity for galvanized containers. I like her already. i have already decided to send two recipes, one will be a personal fave that I have found in the US and one will be a personal fave from the UK/my own cookbook.

On the homefront, I transplanted my eggplant seedlings. They are looking good although I am still holding my breath a tad. How hardy of them to survive my "care". Also, tonight is the second class in BBG's Your Garden Tutorial: Right Plant in the Right Place and I am behind on my homework.

The Zen of Stacked Wood

2009-04-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Although the temptation when log splitting is to do pie slices or triangles, I quickly learned that these do not stack well. The optimal shape for me is square. We cut the large logs into halves and then "slabbed " the halves so that we could then split the slabs into square logs.

Then the stacking becomes a lincoln log project rather than an engineering project.
We only split about half of the wood, keeping the larger pieces for seating. Gawd knows where we would have put the split wood had we kept going. The large pieces - 18" long by 18"-24" diameter give enough wood when split for one of the piles up against the fence - a lot of wood.

Not exactly gardening ...

2009-04-19T13:21:00.000-07:00

... log splitting to be precise.

We have had a stack of large logs left from the white oak that we cut down and it seemed time to tidy things up and get them split. We rented a log splitter from Keogh's Rentals in Ridgefield. Man, that thing is unbelievable and kind of scary at the same time. It will split, cleave and generally crush a large piece of white oak like it was nothing. We very quickly learned that we had to operate it seated and it helped to have one person wrangle the wood and one person operate the lever, run the wheelbarrow full of split wood to the pile, stack and generally do all the other stuff.

Bad technique

Good technique - you can fly doing it this way.

BBG 4-16-09

2009-04-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

Last night was the first class in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden class "Your Garden Tutorial: The Right Plant in the Right Place". I indulged myself by getting there early so that I would have time to walk around the garden (and grab dinner in the sunshine at the cafe, nice!). The cherry esplanade is not in bloom yet. All the trees over towards the 900 Washington entrance are out - some early flowering cherries? and magnolias and alot of bulbs and the daffodil hill was lovely. I also loved the swath of grape hyacinth? under some bushes up towards the Osborne Garden. I did not go up to the Osborne Garden: I want to have some parts left that are new to me when I bring Bob down here.
The class was good - a lot of "theory" - and background knowledge to give us the foundation to move forward and reseasrch and make successful choices. there are 12 people reg'd and 10 showed up so quite a lot of folk. There are 5 of use who took the first half of the class. Some "homework" - reading handouts, beginning a plant inventory of what I have, a form for individual plant research and an example of a spreadsheet of plants that would work in the space (the big palette). All good stuff.

Little lavender

2009-04-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

I just watered my inch-or so high lavender seedlings and I could smell lavender! I know this should not surprise me but it did - these tiny seedlings already smelling like a huge lavender bush. Eggplant seedlings need transplanting but i am out of newspaper to make boxes. Yarrow also needs transplanting - that is a gangly plant - all over the place. I remember when I bought some plants last summer they were staked. Lupines are doing great - soakers lag behind the scarified seedlings but they are all up - I have 27 lupine seedlings!. The annuals come up straight away - zinnia and mexican sunflower are looking good.

Bee balm, of all things, did not do well. Nothing has happened since a couple tiny green specs - this plant grows like a weed in the garden! Salvia also not good germination - some. Globe amaranth about half. lavender reasonable.

Outide, the forsythia is in bloom, the cherry, apple and dogwood are budding nicely and the second part of the BBG class starts on Thursday. "Garden Tutorial B: The Right Plant in the Right Place"

The master garden plan (5th go-over) is just about done and shaping up nicely.

Garden plan #5

2009-04-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

Taking comments and input from the last week of the first class, I have been working the garden plan again. It's an enjoyable process for me and I think it is coming together. Still have that one vague corner that needs a little definition.
The lawn is smaller. The veg/flower border is defined nicely with the 4ft galvanized fire rings as raised beds surrounded by lower plantings.
The design started with the path out of the screened-in porch and I also didn't want to have a huge patio just because there's space as that just adds cost. We eat in the screened porch all the time so I have made the patio 14' diameter which is enough room to take the table and chairs should we wish to go out there but bascially it will be a space for lounging and sitting. The BBQ area works as well: it's close to the house as Bob wanted but seems to work with the patio layout.
The stock tank pond is potentially back but this also could be the low shallow Keith Davitt-style brick-edged reflecting pool-type water feature - very shallow with a layer of river stone and then 2-3" of water.
This second option would give us a water feature without the challenges of an above ground, metal-clad pond in a New England winter! (Unless of course we wish to make the world's largest hockey puck!)
So I'm happy with how it's going. There's a weeks respite before part two of the BBG class starts ("The Right Plant in the the Right Place") so I have a little time to ponder and work on this still (and show it to Bob too.)

Never doubt a soaked lupine seed

2009-04-06T11:39:00.000-07:00

So ... soaked lupines seem to have gone a bit mad over the weekend.

Scarified: 10 of 11 pots for 19 sprouts.
Soakers: 10 of 10 pots! for 16 sprouts.

Slow-developers. Late-flowerers and other such cliches.

Office Stairs Before & After

2009-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Before

After
I also opened up the space under the stairs. It was a small bookcase, it is now space for two file cabinets. Just the floor to lay in this room and paint the walls (oh, and paint the window trim - always something, eh?)

Office desk before & after

2009-04-05T18:32:00.000-07:00

Before

After

Office

2009-04-05T18:27:00.000-07:00

So ... did a project and managed to take some pics and get them up here same day! Bob is ordering a new computer and seeing as the office is pretty much untouched since the day we bought it, I thought I would put some effort in there this w/e to make it a nicer place for him and his computer to be. I painted and added new hardware to the desk. I removed the off-center shelves, blocked the studs so I could remount the shelves centred and painted the stair risers and trim gloss white. Not bad for 3 days slog. I also added a nifty shelf under the desk high in the footwell so that the modems and routers can go under there and all the cabled will be invisible!
Fortunately I had all the paint I needed. I used an exterior paint on the desk - semi-gloss - because it was the color I wanted. We painted the porch and the front door with this paint last year. Hardware was $35 from HD. I had 2x4s in the garage. The bitch on that one was removing the 1/4" plywood fake panelling when it was installed before the desk. I have a secret technique for that. Stairs were painted with primer and gloss white. Photos above of the office the day we viewed the house!

Happy now Steve?

Landscaping Class #4

2009-04-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

A really fun part of this class has been seeing the spaces, challenges, ideas and solutions of the other people in the class and how we have all critiqued and offered suggestions to each other.
Last night was the last night of the class and we had to do an informal presentation of how far we had got: differing levels of completion and very different challenges -hot, sunny roof space; surrounded brownstone gardens and me with the suburban sprawl.
The "vision" as they call it, and the plan has come a long way in just the 3 wks of the 4 classes, further than you would think it could.
I had worked a bit of color into my plan as the drawing was getting too ill-defined. The color helped beyond just showing areas, it actually made me think about colors of materials etc. Good exercise.
Excellent constructive criticism from Joan, Jim and the class on my space - make the lawn smaller still, make the river stone areas less expansive, enlarge the woodland area by the bird feeder to create a sense of 'entry'; bbq area near house ("Bob's corner") is very scrunched - expand it and let it breathe; re-work "wave forms"/bricks in the gravel; think of ways to break up the gravel expanse.
Still (of course, (laughing)) more designing to do but my mind was goin on the drive home and I even got some ideas flying up I-684.

This class has really been fun and worth the $$, time and effort.

First daf from 4/1

2009-04-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

Brave wee soul.

Lupine day 15

2009-03-31T07:45:00.000-07:00

Lupines are putting up first true leaves - this really looks like a lupine. plus more are germinating:
Soakers: 7 of 10 pots for a total 10 sprouts.
Scarified: 10 of 11 pots for a total of 18 sprouts.

Other seedlings ... eggplant is growing nicely - robust and straight. Laveneder is up but small. Yarrow is up but crazy, a littel bit all over - needs to learn from eggplant. Globe Amaranth has a good few shoots and I can see one unrolling before my eyes today. Salvia is also up, small and of course looking similar to lavender in leaf shape. So everything that I planted has sprouted at least one so far. just planted some Mexican Sunflower yesterday. Also need to get the poppy and one other seed in the true ground - first seeds to go outside.

Lupine experiment

2009-03-27T12:14:00.000-07:00

The lupines are still sprouting so there's still time for the experiment to swing in favor of the soaked seeds. Not!
As of today the scarified seeds have 10 of 11 pots with sprouts for a total 18 sprouts. The soakers have a measly 4 of 10 pots showing anything, for a total of 5 sprouts.
The packet said germination in 14-21 days and we are only at day 10 so maybe the soakers take longer. Personally I doubt it.
Some of the sprouts are just beginning to show their true leaves (I think that's what the leaves are that come after the first two on the sprout, right?)

Photo from Bob

2009-03-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

Simply gorgeous. Lovely. And in my garden too boot!

Concept sketch #4

2009-03-27T11:40:00.000-07:00

Concept sketch no. 4 - where we stand after class #3 of Brooklyn Botanical Garden's "All About the Space". It's coming together, still need to work on the area near the RH side of the house.

Landscaping Class #3

2009-03-27T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last night was class #3 of 4 in Brokklyn Botanical Garden's "All About the Space". Homework had been working up to concept sketches for your space. Lsat week Jim had suggeste the diagonal approach. I worked on that one first and it went together very easily. Still hard to balance what you want to have with where you can put it when you figure in sun/shade, poor soil, shallow tree roots, proximity to house, view etc etc.
I struggled to come up with a 2nd concept sketch, worked hard, drew furiously and ended up with an almost carbon copy of the first concept. Oops.
yesterday morning I got to work early and taped the drawings to my desk so that anytime I got an idea I could just swing over and do it. And I came up with a good 2nd concept: more "woodland", work the patio area to combine with the screened-in porch as a unit etc.
At last night's class we each got time one-on-one with Joan and Jim individually where we explained our 2 concepts and then picked them apart. I had Jim first - he liked both of my concepts but preferred the one with more woodland as having a more natural feel. He made some good suggestions such as looking to move the currently centred door on the porch to another location to open up space in the porch and to then work on a third concept that worked on shapes (focussing on a shape for the lawn rather than just have what's left as lawn) and to fill in activities afterwards.
This I worked on while waiting for Joan. She too liked the woodlandy, more natural concept and pointed out that my "shapes" concept drawing was quite similar in basis to the woodland layout.
There's still some work to do to work out the side of the garden that gets the sun as certain things can only go on that side and the layouts weren't working (flower beds, veg areas/beds, pond? etc). Joan is keen to hack down the ash? on the eastern border as it throws shade on the sunny edge but i don;t remember it having hard shade so I would rather keep it as there is no other tree on that side.
Next week is the last class - we each get to present our concept sketches/layouts and resources/ideas/vision and then the group discusses/helps etc.
I have to do some research and work on my layout for the sunny side of the garden.

It was a good evening and my drawing really progressed.

First crocus (croci)

2009-03-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

Landscaping class

2009-03-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

So homework is to come up with 2 concept sketches. I went with Jim's suggestion to go diagonally and that actually really worked well: the design fell together with an ease. It puts the patio where we were thinking it would go, it moves the shed which I wanted to do to gain 12ft of backyard back and makes it a focal point (it would definitely need to be paintes and/or shingled) and it gives a view that diffuses all the house views as you are not looking directly at the house behind. Plus it allowed for a centred pond which fits in between the two huge white oaks (good?, bad?) which could be lawn until we get around to it.
Then I decided to have a go at a second layout when I realised that if we want to have vehicular access to the back yard for the tree guy then the patio can't go all the way into the corner. Man, that made it very hard, so I am still working on that concept. It's tempting to move it to the other side of the house more in the shade on the soil that doesn't support grass but I'm not sure that works and that side tends to have more potential tree root issues (unless it was raised - hmm, now there's a thought).
Also seeing as we just took down a 90ft white oak that cast a lot of shade, this next growing season will hopefully help the whole yard in the way of sun, breeze, less dampness etc.

Eggplant day 14

2009-03-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Eggplants are coming along great. The lupines are coming up hearty not like the yarrow which seems a little frail and spindly. In the lupine test the soaked seeds really did not do well: only 4 of 10 pots have anything for a total of 4 shoots. It seems that scarifying is the way to go: 9/11 pots have seedlings for a total of 14 shoots.
Spent the weekend on some lawn care. Scarified in my battle against crabgrass - can't believe how much stuff comes up. Next year I will not mulch/mow leaves into the lawn - they tend to cake on it. I'll mulch them into the leaf pile. I had a bunch of compost delivered from Ferris Mulch. Saturday was taken up with scarifying, overseeding and topdressing the front lawn. Sunday was taken up with scarifying and topdressing the back and then making a storage spot for the remaining compost, I could've got maybe 1 less yard although I'll use it for sure. The yard looks a lot tidier (kind of like me, I had a spring haircut and got rid of the mop on Saturday) and I gave all the plants a good shovelful of compost.

Landscaping Class #2

2009-03-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last night was class #2 of Brooklyn Botanical Garden's class "All About the Space" (part 1).
Six of us turned up (2 suburban gdns, 2 rooftops, 2 brownstones overlooking gardens). There was a little theory but the mian part of the evening was taken up with each of us individually showing our site photos and plan, drawing/discussing activity areas to produce a first concept sketch and discuss options. Homework, amongst other things, is to come up with 2 concept skteches for next week.
It was a very interesting process and great to see what other people have - some alread have quite a bit of hardscaping in place, one gal had a beautiful double stairway out of a sunken patio below a large deck with a nautical-ish railing. Another gal had a 600 sq ft roof area that they had already built lovely slatted integrated raised planters. The floor material on her deck was sheet metal - it was like something out of a magazine! in the area sthat they had done but she still have other areas to define and work on.
Don't know about anyone else but I am ready to get beyond concept sketches and get drawing!
There was also one bush at the garden in blossom - I forget the name - very early blossoming - white. Need to find the name.

Loopy Lupines

2009-03-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

I planted the lupine seeds 4 days ago. packet said germination: 14-21 days. Already I have sprouts coming up!
Interestingly my little experiment on soaking or scarifying is favoring scarifying: 7 of 9 pots have a total of 13 sprouts. The "soakers" are 5 of 12 pots for a total of 5 sprouts. We shall see how they fare down the road.

Landscaping Class #1

2009-03-17T06:54:00.000-07:00

So I realised thast I did not post on the first night of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden class 'Your Garden Tutorial: All About the Space."
It was a good first class. There are 8 of us. The class is run by Jim Russell (bio at http://www.bbg.org/edu/bios.html#russell) and Joan McDonald (http://www.gardensbyjoan.com/). They are a good yin and yang, he seems more arty and emotive, whereas Joan seems more realist and practical, which I guess is the ideal mix.

We all had to briefly describe our space to start things off and we have a mix of 2 suburban gardens (inc. me), 2 rooftops, 2 brownstone small gardens and 2 more I forget but a good mix. I have to admit I almost envy the folks with a smaller space.

Jim went through different styles of gardens and then we had to write three visions of our garden: in 3 years, in 10 months and in 1 month. This was hard to do, you had to project how it would be and try to get more descriptive and make it into something real. Then the process is that you use the vision to outline what you have to do, to create a list and from that make a project list, prioritize etc. it was a good exercise and I will have Bob do it too.

Then we went through the workbook they provided to keep all our stuff together and then it was pretty much the end of the evening. Took me 2 hrs to drive there from Stamford and 1:15 to drive back home.

The class notification had asked us to draw a plan of our space and collect inspirational photos etc. That became the first night's "to do" (grown-up word for "homework") so I am ahead of the game there.

Last night I went out and checked some measurements. When I first did them I used a wheel on snow, last night I used the tape measure and got a different reading which still throws off my drawing so maybe I have to go measure for a 3rd time.

Fussy lupines

2009-03-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

So with about 40 yarrow seedlings showing and one teensie lavender popping its head up, it was time to plant lupines. I was going to do it yesterday and decided to split my pack of seeds between indoor seed and outdoor direct plant and also to split the indoor seed into a soaked group and a scarified group. That way I hoped for future years to get the best way to grow these.
My trays are pretty small and as I was reading a little about lupine on the packet, it said "sow directly into cell packks, nothing smaller than a 32 tray" it continued "transplant when ready, do not delay, established plants do not transplant well." I'm not sure what a 32 tray is but combining the comment about transplant I was pretty sure that my tray was to small. Also some of hte seeds were already soaking so I had 24 hrs to get some larger pots.
So I made up a bunch of 2-1/2" newspaper boxes. I had seen these very briefly when flicking through a mag in Borders books. It was about frugal gardening or similar. I managed to replicate the boxes perfectly. I really like these as I can plant the little boogers straight into the ground.
To make the boxes I used 4 sheets of newspaper. The mag said to cut 7-1/2" squares, which just happens to be one third the height of a newsheet. You fold the square into thirds, rotate 90 deg and fold itno thirds again. Then you flip it over and fold on the two diagonals (corner to corner). Then flip it back over and the diagonal creases make the corners pleat in beautifully boxed. Quite amazing!

Landscaping class is tonight

2009-03-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

First class of the Landscape Design session at Brooklyn Botanical Garden is tonight. Exciting to finally be here. Not so excited about actually driving down there from CT for 6pm. We shall see how that goes.
Also 22 of the yarrow seedlings are just peeking through in my pots on the office window sill.

First seedling.

2009-03-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

OK they are miniscule and I also said I wouldn't grow seeds again but those 3 little green specks about 1/3 the way up on the L. They are the yarrow coming up. Now, i just have to not kill them.
Also planted lavender and eggplant seeds.

2009-03-02T12:35:00.000-08:00

8" and more on the way

Aaaarghh!

2009-03-01T16:05:00.001-08:00

Tonight's forecast is for 14" of the snowy, white stuff.

More galvanized

2009-02-27T08:31:00.000-08:00

I am also trying to persuade Bob, who has always wanted a pond to do one in a 2'x8' or 2'x10' stock tank.
I love the look and the more I think about it it makes more sense: no digging, no liner to puncture, no reaching down into a hole and less drowning risk due to the edge being 2' above grade.
Seems I am not the only one thinking this way. I have researched around and found a few people doing the same including this beautiful example at http://www.mosaic-gardens.com/ourgarden.html
Mosaic Gardens is a landscape design company based in Oregon owned by Buell Steelman and Rebecca Sams.

Raised beds

2009-02-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

While I wait patiently for my Landscaoe design class to start I have certainly been reading and researching and brainstorming on ideas.
The NE corner of the garden has very shallow soil due to loads of roots from a row of evergreens that were put in byt he prev. owners as a privacy screen. I have been thinking that this area would be suited to raised beds, so I've been researching raised beds.
BHG.com had a nice plan for making a wooden raised bed. Very simple but everyone is saying that pressure-treated wood is not good etc etc.
I have always really liked the look of galvanized metal so I was poking around for something of that nature - a cattle feed bin or something and I came across this fire ring at Tractor Supply.
It seems perfect to me: comes in 36" or 48" diameter, 12" high. $49 for the 36", $63 for the 48".

First dafs

2009-02-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

The days are getting milder: 45 deg today (but windy). Saw the first daffodil of the year peeking out this morning. Very exciting.

2009-02-25T11:28:00.000-08:00

Can't wait for spring

2009-02-24T13:31:00.000-08:00

I drive by a sign every day that someone put up on a tree saying how many days 'til spring. Today is 24 (I think) and 12 days 'til Spring forward.
Am going nutty waiting til I can plant seeds (next week). Meanwhile my forced forsythia in the kitchen is coming along nicely. It is about to bloom. Very exciting - I am always amazed when I can grow something.

Also signed up for newsletter at safelawns.org

It's a snowdrop silly

2009-02-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Der! Those "crocus" shoots of course were not crocus (croci?). They are snowdrops as I found out this morning when I was rewarded with my first flower of the year. The iPhone kind of made it into a blob drop but never mind. The snowdrops were not very successful last year and I had forgotten that I had planted some here. It coincides with a nasty cold snap that has come back for today.

Snow again

2009-02-19T11:22:00.000-08:00

Argh! Yesterday it started snowing again. What a spoiler after a teasing week to 10 days of milder weather and tantalising crocus tips peaking through the soil.

As I looked out my window at work, the largest fluffiest snowflakes that I'd seen all winter drifted down.

When it snows like this in December we get all nostalgic, romantic and full of Christmas spirit. It's all "Oh-ah, look it's snowing!". When it snows like that when we are now less than 30 days from spring, the sentiment is more "Arrrrrgggghhh. More f'ing snow."

It is still on the ground as a dusting at home but as I look out the window at work today there is not a speck left.

And that is how I like it. I have mentally shifted out of winter and into spring and I do not wish to go back.

Seeds are here

2009-02-16T06:47:00.000-08:00

Despite abysmmal failures with seeds the past two years, I have decided to give it another go with natives and easy to grow (so they say!) seeds brought from companies who are based in my region (or colder). Two boxes from Johnny's Seeds arrived today. Some of them I can sow direct.
My soonest pack is 8-10 wks before last frost. Last frost is 5/15 so I have 'til end of last week in March. I guess I should've bought some onions etc but with the landscape class happening in March and the ensuing planning (and hopefully some actual doing) I'm loath to start raised beds or whatever for veggies.

Bricks

2009-02-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

Made good progress with the bricks. Between a couple trips on the way home during the weeks and a few yesterday, I think I moved about 1,000 bricks (4,000lbs!).

Been Reading

2009-02-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

To get through the winter and gather ideas I have been looking through some landscape and garden design books. Here are my faves:

The essential garden design workbook / Rosemary Alexander
This book really breaks down and shows you how to analyse and evaluate your space. I especially liked her pointers about using prominent points on your house to define areas and to work up a grid for the design based on proportions of the layout.

I am still reading this book but it really helped solidify my own design style - tending towards a natural look that includes what landscape types see to call "found objects".

Keith Davitt has two books, they are a little repetitive on material but have some great ideas for hardscaping and patio materials especially. They are "Hardscaping : how to use structures, pathways, patios & ornament in your patio" and "Beyond the lawn : unique outdoor spaces for modern living".

Because I knew I would be getting through a lot of books, I chose to go to the library instead of drop a bundle on books that I may or may not like. Everyday I drive by the New Canaan Library and although I don't live there I decided that that would be a handy place to go. Talk about good karma: New Canaan Library is fortunate to have the Susan McDaniel collection, a collection of books put togther in memory of an ardent gardener by her family and friends. I feel very fortunate to have this resource - it is the best of the best landscape and gardening books - and also think it is a great way to remember someone. For more on this collection read here: http://newcanaanlibrary.org/research/mcdaniel.small.pdf

First sign of spring

2009-02-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

The snow has been disappearing at an amazing rate. Even the large heap that I inadventently piled on the crocus (croci?) has disappeared and this morning as I walked to the car I peered closely and saw these 2 shoots. What a spirit lifter.

Growing from Seed

2009-02-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

I really suck at growing things from seed. I have tried the past 2 years and never got anything to survive long enough to go into the garden. I had decided not to try it again, however, I still need to add plants to the garden (my thinking is plant in the front and plan in the back) so I am ordering some seeds from Johnny's. I have learnt that I should by from somewhere with a similar climate, that are grown and tested there and to plant in a soiless medium. Hopefully this will help my success rate.
The decision to try again was motivated by my move into a new office at work (pic). It has a lovely large window and wide window sill and I was thinking the other day where I could put seed trays at home when it hit me - the office window is the perfect place. So I will throw down $100 or so and await arrival.
Although the pic looks somewhat arctic, the snow has actually all melted in the past week.

Measuring the space

2009-02-12T10:06:00.000-08:00

So for the class we have to arrive at the first meeting with an outline sketch of our space. This past weekend was mild so I walked off the measurements with Bob's measuring wheel from work and set to on trying to sketch it up.

A couple weeks back we also had one white oak taken down in the back. it was looking very wet at the base and the bark was coming off. Of more concern was that it had grown at a 70 degree angle right over our neighbour's house. At over 90ft tall, it would have totally crushed their house had it come down. So although we don;t like to cut down anything, we made the decision. I had Chris, the arborist, keep me two 4-5ft lengths of trunk for a bench and a water trough project I have in mind.

So I guess between them and the bricks, I am accumulating "things" for the garden.

Bricks

2009-02-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

So to distract myself while I wait for the class to start I was looking through craigslist and saw an ad for old bricks in a nearby town. Long story short, I am lugging possibly 1800 used bricks from a house in Wilton up to the house. There is no UHaul big enough to take them all so I am using the Honda Element. I can carry ~ 150 bricks at a time. It;s not the most efficient way per se but it breaks up the work and therefore means that it is manageable for me.

I can't remember how many I have lugged up so far - all the trips blur into one. It might be almost a thousand bricks. 4,000lbs. At first my left arm felt like it would fall off but it has stopped aching and is over the initial shock. My lovely neat brikc piles fell over as the snow underneath them thawed.

These will be great for edging projects and I think I will temporarily pave the area where Bob had the barbeque. It is edged with 4x4s but has just dirt inside. So I will do a down-and-dirty temporary job once we get to March/April. Tamp the soil and lay brick on soil so that the barbee doesn't have to stand on dirt. It will also be a good experiment to see how brick looks back there.

BBG Landscape Class

2009-02-12T09:55:00.000-08:00

We have had a week of mild weather and the 10" of hard-packed snow is almost all gone. Also I received confirmation of my class registration and some advance homework - a questionaire about the garden and the need to draw a plan of it as it is now.

I have been looing through copious garden design and landscaping books from R'field ad New Canaan libraries. New Canaan has a fantastic selection in the Susan McDaniel collection. A collection donated to the library in the memory of an avid gardener. I have been gathering ideas of what I like and chomping at the bit with the mild weather to get going on things in the garden before the class.

Landscape Design Class at BBG

2009-02-11T12:26:00.000-08:00

So being without ginormous disposable income to lavish on a designer/landscaper for the garden, I looked around at the start of the year for a landscape design class that would help me formulate my own plan. NYBG had a class both at NYBG and in G'wich Bartlett Arboretum had one but I ultimately settled for a class at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It is called "Your Garden Tutorial: Section A: All About the Space!"

I might regret signing up for a class that meets at 6pm Thursdays in Brooklyn when I work in Stamford, CT but the class is all about actually working on a hardscape design for your own garden. So I dropped my $$$ and signed up.

Info on the class is here: http://www.bbg.org/edu/adult/

So ...

2009-02-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

... it's almost 3 years since Bob and I bought the house. I have worked on the front garden. I was amazed that after the 51 yrs that the previous owners were here there was no color in the garden, sort of a classic IMHO American landscaping with green shrubs. So over the past 2-3 yrs I've planted snowdrops, crocus, daffs, moved hostas and an azalea, cut back soem shrubs, ripped out the over grown yew and replaced with perennials, reseeded and patched the lawn) in the front and it still needs lots of work.
The great part about a 58-year old yard is that there are lots of big well-established trees and shrubs (10-12 80ft white oaks, one each of flowering cherry, dogwood and crabapple, a hedge of forsythia and 10 ft high rhodies, a pieris japonica, a duextia (sp?), a couple of azaleas, euonymus and mountain laurel).
However, the back has all this greta structure 80ft up but is a fairly blank square with no borders. It was grassless when we moved in and I have worked on reseeding grass, adding lime and leaf mold, getting the 90ft white oaks cut back to let in some light and that's been about it in the back.
So this year is the year to form a Master Plan for back garden so that whatever I do over the next 10 years all contributes to an overall plan rather than be piece meal.
Can I do it seeing as my only gardening experience is growing up with parents and an aunt who have amazing gardens. Well, that is what this blog is all about.

Ugh, no marks for blogging for me ...

2009-02-10T11:44:00.001-08:00

... yikes, as we approach our 3 yr anniversary in the house, I am well aware that I have not blogged in friggin' ages. Many apologies - partly we were busy on projects getting the house ready for THE wedding. Does that get me off the hook? So there are lots of projects and photos to update the blog with just need to get around to it. I promise.

Yr 2 - Day 299

2007-11-20T09:31:00.001-08:00

Countertop is in!! Just need the final plumbing and she's good to go. Oh and for some reason the Electrolux Icon induction cooktop won't power up so someone is coming to check on that.

The view to the old kitchen the day we viewed the house. (where the old stove is is where the new oven is.)

The Old kitchen now.

New kitchen - wheeeeeee! (The pendants and sink are approx. where the old wall used to be)

Yr 2 - Day 299

2007-11-20T09:31:00.000-08:00

Countertop is in!! Just need the final plumbing and she's good to go. Oh and for some reason the Electrolux Icon induction cooktop won't power up so someone is coming to check on that.

Build Fireplace Mantel Reprive

2007-11-05T13:23:00.000-08:00

This is a do over of an article about how I built my own fireplace mantel. It's now painted gloss white and the brick work is refinished (see entries below).

It's done - Bob will have somewhere to hang his stocking. I bought the lumber for everything but the pilaster molding and top and bottom blocks - that came as a pilaster kit from Lowes (?). I got some good guides to how to do the structure from here

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hi_fireplace/article/0,2037,DIY_13914_2269267,00.html

and here

http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/pages/bw0011.asp

and here

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/buildfireplacemantel

Faux Brick Finish on Fireplace Reprive

2007-11-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

This is a republish of a post from January 25th, 2007 for Houseblogs.net Fireplace tagging thingy:

Slowly getting back into some projects after a lull over Xmas. Have mainly been concentrating on the kitchen project but last night I took on the brick surround on the fireplace (yet again). Last effort was four coats of paint stripper and no brick in sight (first two coats were an environmentally-friendly stripper that you left on for 24hrs til it changed color, 2nd two coats were a chemical stripper but still no luck.
I headed to Lowes and got some heavy duty (50) sand paper for the Mouse and also a bunch of brick red paint swatches. I sanded the brick a bit and results were mixed - some of the paint came off easily but some was on there for good so I decided I have to do the faux paint. Back to Lowes but this time I had matched the swatches to the actual brick tones and bought 3 sample pots of paint ($3.98 each and a "pouncer" brush to stipple - couldn't bring myself to drop $15 on a sponge). The mid color that I painted on first was American Century Tropical Nut, then a stippling of the just slightly darker Cliveden Henna Red and then a stippling over that of a slightly lighter color - Florentine Clay - that I softened and dispersed a lot more with the brush to get that kind of effervescence white sheen that you get on bricks.
I think the results were pretty good - the flash doesn't help the photo. I painted on the medium shade first and then stippled the darker tone on top and then stippled the lighter tone over that being sure to really work it so that it looked like a soft smudge and not edgey. The samples only came in satin but I didn't want to buy a quart of flat so I might have to hit it all with a matt clear top coat. Just need to go back tonight and get a cement color for the mortar and then I can start priming/painting the mantel/wood surround.

Went back to Lowes tonight with another matching color swatch but wanted to check if there was any ready-made mortar in a tub that I could use as the painting was going to be a pain. Luckily Lowes had Quikrete Textured Mortar Repair ($1.99) - think grey bath caulk with sand and grit in it. So I just smoothed that on with my fingers in to the mortar groove and wiped off the edges of the brick and I think it looks fab. It really needs a wash coat to cut the new and clean look, to give it a bit of grime so I will have to look into that but apart from that it was a much easier, quicker project than I had anticipated.

I have since added a faint glaze as I thought everything looked too new and clean cut. I went back to Lowes and picked up a small bottle of their premixed Antique Glaze, it's in the Faux Painting display area. I was originally going to darken some individual bricks to give it the reused chimney brick look but I just faintly added some "dirt" all over - bricks and mortar with an old towel and as with the paint colors worked it really well so that there were no hard edges or obvious splodges. Fireplace mantel has since been painted gloss white.

Year 2 - Day 282

2007-11-03T17:51:00.001-07:00

It's always good to pause and reflect.

Before

After minus fridge, DW, countertop and cooktop

Year 2 - Day 282

2007-11-03T13:02:00.001-07:00

3" hole, 6" duct. You do the math.

Ay carumba! The range hood is up but not without much crunching of brain cells, wringing of hands and of course the able help of Bob. Many challenges as usual. 1) our ceiling is only 7'6" so with the hood at the recommended 28" above the cooktop that left us with just over 14" to get the duct up, through a 90 degree turn and out the wall; 2) The center point for the range hood was right on a stud, a stud which happened to be the LH stud of a panned in stud bay that was a return for the HVAC which couldn't be violated; 3) The outer edge of the range hood chimney was about 3-1/2" from the center line and had a 5/8" flange that sat against the wall, this gave us an effective useable space for the outgoing duct of approx. 3"; 4) The duct collar coming out of the range hood was 6" circular and centered on the range hood so that also compromised the fit of the ducting.

This picture shows the final solution: having hummedand ha'd and visited Lowes and HD and searched the web, I visited a plumbing supply place that I passed on hte way to my Drs. I explained my challenge to a nice chap at in N&S Supply, Danbury, CT and out of the many ducts he showed me we found a 90 degree elbow that was 6" round on one end and 6" oval on the other. This was like it was custom made for me! The vertical oval was 3" at it's widest section (see 2nd top picture) - just enough to go through the gap that we had. I had to shorten both the 6" round cone part and the 6" oval part to get it to turn a full 90 degrees in the 14" that we had to work with. I sheet metal screwed it and aluminum taped it to stop it breaking apart when we shoved it through the wall. I also extended the oval end so that it would extend all the way through the wall.

Here it is in all it's friggin' glory. We hung the range hood part first and then Bob suggested I elongate the hole in the wall upwards so that I had play to push the duct through the wall and slide it over the range hood collar. He also suggested I cut the back of the duct into a couple flanges to assist it over the collar. Bob I know you are a genius so here are your props for that. With those tweaks done the two ducts defied all physics and the 2" offset that was between them and slipped together like a charm. The only loss was that we couldn't do the chimney in one piece but you can barely see the telescoping overlap. I also had to trim down the wall flanges on the chimney as they where touching the duct on the LH side and preventing the chimney sections from nesting correctly and making it look shitey instead of fab.

So today I just had to finish off the outside. As usual still not a straight forward job as the siding wasn't level so I filled it in with some siding offcuts (see there's a reason why you shouldn't throw anything away until the whole job is done) turned the opposite way to the boards so that I got a flat surface so that the plastic cover would sit flush with the siding. I also had to customize the plastic duct vent as it was made for 6" round. After filling in the gaps around the duct with insulating foam, I cut the duct extension into flanges so that it I could sheet metal screw it to the siding. I then aluminum taped over all screws and seams to fully seal the duct exit and then screwed the plastic cover to the wall and caulked where it touched the wall. I have burnt more brain cells on this project than I did on moving the window but I think the final result has been worth it.

Year 2 - Day 282

2007-11-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Ay carumba! The range hood is up but not without much crunching of brain cells, wringingof hands and of course the able help of Bob. Many challenges as usual. 1) our ceiling is only 7'6" so with the hood at the recommended 28" above the cooktop that left us with just over 14" to get the duct up, through a 90 degree turn and out the wall; 2) The center point for the range hood was right on a stud, a stud which happened to be the LH stud of a panned in stud bay that was a return for the HVAC which couldn't be violated; 3) The outer edge of the range hood chimney was about 3-1/2" from the center line and had a 5/8" flange that sat against the wall, this gave us an effective usuable space for the outgoing duct of approx. 3"; 4) The duct collar coming out of the range hood was 6" circular and centered on the range hood.
This picture shows the final solution: I explained my challenge to a local plumbing supply store (N&S Supply, Danbury, CT) and out of the many ducts they showed me we found a 90 degree elbow that was 6" round on one end and 6" oval on the other. This was like it was custom made for me! The vertical oval was 3" at it's widest section - just enough to go through the gap that we had. I had to shorten both the 6" round cone part and the 6" oval part to get it to turn a full 90 degrees in the 14" that we had to work with. I sheet metal screwed it and aluminum taped it to stop it breaking apart when we shoved it through the wall. I also extended the oval end so that it would extend all the way through the wall.

Here it is in all it's friggin' glory.

So today I just had to finish off the outside. As usual still not a stright forward job as the siding wasn't level so I filled it in with some siding offcuts turned the opposite way to the boards so that I got a flat surface so that the plastic cover would sit flush with the siding. I also had to customize the plastic duct vent as it was made for 6" round. After filling in teh gaps around the duct with insulating foam, I cut the duct extension into flanges so that it I could sheet metal screw it to the siding. I then aluminum taped over all screws and seams to fully seal the duct exit and then screwed the plastic cover to the wall and caulked the where it touched the wall. I have burnt more brain cells on this project than I did on moving the window but I thinkthe final result has been worth it.

Year 2 - Day 271

2007-10-23T11:58:00.000-07:00

Chris, the countertop installer, came last night to measure/template. It's quite an interesting process. Also just heard that they will have the Paperstone slab by end of the day this Friday so if they can schedule it in for about a week's turnaround then we might be looking at installation the week of Nov 5th, which makes perfect sense because I begin a 10-day run of work on Sony Ericsson tennis on the 4th (f**k!) so might have to push it back to week of Nov 12th when I will likely be off for a couple days.

Year 2 - Day 263

2007-10-15T08:34:00.000-07:00

A small celebration is in order: I started unpacking the kitchen stuff and putting it in the new cupboards! Quite exciting and I vowed not to stuff it all back in but to only put what we use. Then with a couple of planks on top of the base cabinets until the countertop arrives we prepared dinner at an ergonomic counter height. I couldn't believe how different it was from stooping over a cutting board balanced on top of a 30" high bar stool! It was bliss!

Called the countertop guy. He is based in Kingston, NY and tries to come and measure only when he is making deliveries to Danbury. But we want him in ASAP to measure and get this thing going. I told him we're both at home tomorrow and then after that it's off until at least next week. I do not want this last step of the puzzle to become the never-ending saga.

Year 2 - Day 261

2007-10-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ups and downs. Went to DHL to pick up the Zephyr Savona 30" range hood. Order instructions said to open the box and inspect for damage BEFORE signing. DHL guy said I couldn't open the box UNTIL AFTER I had signed. So in trying to assess any damage to the inside by looking at the outside I noticed that the label said 36". Too wide. If I had the sapce I would've just taken it but we only have space now the cabinets are up for a 30-incher. Called them today and they will ship the correct size (and likely be glad to get the more expensive 36" one back). We will have to wait a bit longer.
One the upside, the kitchen sink and faucet should arrive today by FedEx. (More sexy, shiny objects.) We ordered these from a website called irawoods.com that listed them for a over $400 less than list on the faucet and about $200 less than list on the sink. There seemed to be a lot of bad customer reviews for irawoods.com so I called the gal and when she said there was only 1 faucet showing in stock I made her go back into the warehouse and actually put her hands on it. (Maybe she did, maybe she was bluffing, maybe she said she was going back to the warehouse and would call me in 15 minutes and maybe she slipped out the back for a quick coffee and a fag.) Also the price she had for the sink was $40 less than their website price so I did a rush order to be sure that it would get picked immediately.
We had shopping for the sink and faucet at Klaff's in Danbury. I arrived there about 5pm a day or so ago and I was doing research and talking to one assistant (Joan) while I waited for Bob. She was EXTREMELY snooty, put down any questions I asked about differences in product and didn't like when Bob asked why the sink on display had two large dents in it and how would ours hold up if we bought that one. Anyhoo I said we would take the ($600) faucet - the LK7420 springy thing - very stylee. She called it a "pulldown" although technically it didn't. Then to my shock she looked at her watch and said "oh, we close at 5:30 pm, I'm leaving now." And like that she was gone. Needless to say we did not even get the chance to give her any money. All I can say is what an ass. Very disappointing.
So the next day I went to Klaff's in Norwalk as I still was confused about finishes - every manufacturer has different names for basically the same finish. I had thought that Joan was just a one-off but I got "helped" in Klaff's Norwalk by a guy who was equally snooty as Joan. First of all he didn't seem to want to help me and then I said "I have a couple quick questions, I only need you for 5 minutes." However we got talking and I wanted to know about the finish onan Elkay sink. "Oh, it's all nuances," he said, "Nuances." I'm thinking "well yeah, that's why I'm asking you". Then he slagged off the Elkay faucet and told me not to buy it and recommended a 4-5ft high KRW faucet that would have touched my ceiling. So I asked him "well, what part of the Elkay faucet has the problem", "oh it's throughout". "So, how is their warranty?" I asked. "Oh, you'd be dealing with me, you'd be dealing with me." He shouted. "And how is their customer service?" I continued. "Oh, you'd be dealing with me, you'd be dealing with me", he continued. I was thinking secretly to myself, "well let me tell you buddy I ABSOLUTELY will NOT be dealing with you, my friend." Just another Klaff's ass. Incredible.
So I have decided that the Klaff's in Danbury is not there to actually serve the Danbury population, it's so the Litchfield yahoos don't have to drive all the way to Norwalk anymore to drop full list.
I will say that I then called on Torrington Supply Plumbing and Heating and wow! talk about night and day. Super helpful and pleasant, gave us catalogs and really helped us understand the rpoduct and could show us examples of finishes. If I had a bottomless budget I would've bought from Torrington but we ended up shopping for price but Torrington will be my store of choice from now on.

Year 2 - Day 259

2007-10-10T08:28:00.000-07:00

HAD to use the new oven last night so baked up some pumpkin muffins. It was from a Trader Joe's mix so still not the real deal but fun. That oven is dah bomb.

Year 2 - Day 258

2007-10-09T08:43:00.000-07:00

World's sexiest oven!

And we can do all this with it!

Electricians came yesterday to finish up the electrical and move the downlight that is too close to the crown molding over the fridge. On the phone the guy had said that he'd likely have to cut a big square out of the (new) ceiling to retreive the "new construction" downlight and move it. Mark Briganti, our kitchen installer, suggested abandoning the offending light fixture in the ceiling and cutting a new hole and putting in an "old work" downlight. We'd obviously pay for the $75 fixture that we were abandoning and the new fixture but it would save us having to cut the ceiling and patch a 16" square hole. Seemed worth it to me and when I went back downstairs to suggest it to the electrician his face lit up with the thought. "Man, I wish we had more customers like you," his assitant said nicely. Apparently any chance to not cut loads of sheetrock and get covered in plaster dust is a good thing for them. Rob, the main electrician had one concern in that the trim on the light fittings might not match but it did so I only had to patch the round hole left from the old fixture rather than a huge hole and I used the 5" circle he cut for the new one to do that.

So that was one small victory. Another part of the day was wiring in the double oven. The thing weighed a ton, 345lbs the paperwork said, and we had to get the thing over to the oven cabinet so he could wire it in. I asked if he would actually install it and he said "oh no, it's too heavy and Orlando (his assistant) can't lift anything". Fine, no worries the installer could install it but we had to get it over to the cabinet so it could be wired in. The electrician mentioned a dolly and I popped out to the U-Haul that is just about a mile down the road and rented a flat dolly for $7 for the day. I also remembered some lifting straps (those cheesy "Forearm Forklifts" you see advertised on TV, which, it turns out aren't that cheesy after all) that I had bought when I bought the U-Haul moving blankets to protect the floors.
I came home and for some bizarre reason I actually read the oven installation instructions before we installed it rather than whilst standng in front of it installed scratching my head as to why there was one bracket left over.
These instructions had good advice: "remove doors, fix levels and racks before lifting to reduce weight." Seeing as there was a possibility that I might be the one helping with the lifting this seemed a good idea. So I removed both oven doors with the flick of a lever and a gentle tug and the oven racks and then I removed the side rails that hold the racks. Curious, I hopped on the bathroom scale with one door - 40lbs! - so all-in-all that dropped at least 100lbs off the weight of the oven, maybe more.
I mentioned to Bob on the phone what we were doing and maybe he and I could install the oven when he got home and then later the electrician said we would do it. So we lifted the oven onto the dolly and wheeled it across the kitchen effortlessly. Infact it was now so light that we didn't really need the dolly and the electrician and I could quite easily have waltzed around the kitchen with that thing.
Couple of pilot holes later and I had the brackets installed and then we slid it into place, powered her up and she came to life like something from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". The clock is on all the time but when you touch the panel it lights up on a ramp up kind of lighting gradually but quickly going from off to glowing in a second or two.

Doors back on and racks and everything in and SHE IS A BEAUTY!!

Year 2 - Day 253

2007-10-04T18:35:00.001-07:00

Can't find the pic of the corner with the old kitchen and the new duct so this will have to do.

The new practically custom-built built-in that boxes around the ducts and frames in the fridge.

Year 2 - Day 253

2007-10-04T18:32:00.001-07:00

The hardware. Installed vertically on the doors and horizontally on the drawers. Adds a bit of curve and fanciness to all the straight lines and will really tie-in with the almost black countertops.

Year 2 - Day 253

2007-10-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick summary of the day by day progress:

End of day 1

End of day 2

End of day 3

End of day 4

Year 2 - Day 251

2007-10-02T06:33:00.000-07:00

Year 2 - Day 250

2007-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

The kitchen installation guys are here! Mark Briganti and Stew (and Kevvie (the cat) has buried himself deep under the bed covers) to get away from it. The cats really have put up with a lot even though these two guys are not that noisy.

I can say already what a good decision it was to hire these guys rather than do it ourselves. We hired them really because of a box-in that had to be done around a duct but they have spent most of the morning shooting their levels due to the unlevel floor and strategizing how to do the boxed in corner and make the 2-piece crown molding build-up work with the cabinet height and the ceiling height.

Gil, our kitchen guy, didn't like our idea to mount the wall cabinets a little higher but that is exactly what Mark has suggested otherwise there is a 7.5" gap above the cabinets. We will move the cabinets 1-2" higher on the wall and it will be imperceptible and then the molding will work better and be easier to work with.

So far so good. We are also shooting a time lapse of the guys installing the kitchen - stay tuned.

Year 2 - Day 249

2007-10-01T06:44:00.001-07:00

The last weekend (just about) for me. Spent priming, painting the trim and painting the ceiling and walls. I have to say it looks pretty snappy.

Year 2 - Day 245

2007-10-01T06:42:00.001-07:00

We gain cabinets (lots of cabinets), we lose a dining room (temporarily).

Year 2 - Day 244

2007-09-25T12:40:00.000-07:00

We have a date! (and no, it's not for the wedding! ha, ha) it's for the kitchen install. I went and coughed up the remaining balance on the cabinets this morning so that they can be delivered tomorrow for the installation to begin next Monday Oct 1.

We decided to hire a pro for the install so that it is done quickly and efficiently and any screw-ups are not our responsibility. I really hating picking between contractors and this one was tough but came down to availability. Mark Briganti could work better with our schedule than the other installer who was impressive and professional but way to busy to fit us in as soon as we would like. Although Mark is the guy who didn't call me back about moving the window that provoked me to do the framing work, I think he will be good for the install.

So I will take Mon/Tues/Wed off and Bob will be home/in the locale in general - maybe at the office but around for any decisions we have to make on site.

When I paid for the cabinets I picked up one cabinet door that is going to be a dummy door in the boxed in duct area. This way we can "ooh" and "ah" over it tonight.

I picked up 12 packing blankets from U-Haul to cover the newly finished hardwood floors so that they do not get trashed by the workmen next week. And now we have to clear all the cr*p off the screened-in porch so that the 40 or so boxes of cabinets and stuff have room to be delivered.

Then I/we have 'til Sunday night to finish installing the trim, priming, and painting (and probably a few other things that I have forgotten.)

Very exciting.