Gardening

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It’s a sad story. Our garden progress thus far this spring has been almost non-existent. The weather has been absolutely abysmal — persistently cold (like in the 50s during the day, 30′s at night), windy and rainy, not like any April I’ve seen in quite some time. By this time last year, we had a great garden going, a plush yard and plenty of days we’d spent outside working in it. This year, we’ve only been in the yard working once — and it was a muddy, disgusting mess. The past few days have finally been sunny and in the 70′s and 80′s, however tomorrow it is forecasted to dip back into the 50′s with rain, and possibly even flurries!

To be fair, I could put up our cold frame and dutifully go out and nurse some plants along until it gets warm. But for me, the enjoyment of gardening comes from cultivating plants and being outside in the weather to enjoy them, not merely trying to rescue them from it.

So over the weekend, at the height of my desperation at yet another Saturday hampered by cold and rain, I ended up at Ace Hardware on another errand and came across the most gorgeous selection of succulents. They were absolutely beautiful, and there were so many I’d never heard of. I couldn’t resist, and rationalized that if I couldn’t garden outside, I’d do a little inside instead.

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I bought six succulents, along with some new potting mix, and set to work potting them and finding them places to live in the house.

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While I was at it, I also repotted my oldest houseplant. I took it under my wing while they were living in Texas for my dad’s job. My parents have had it since I was born — so, it’s old. The winter was kind of rough on him.

Freshly potted:

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And in their new homes:

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(Yes, I realize the painting is upside-down)

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Goes well with Neil’s brakes doesn’t it?

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I figured the turtle should live in the bathroom.

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And look! A bird decided to nest in our bathroom window. Hopefully this nest works out. The little egg unfortunately didn’t make it.

Edited to add: Still have the rock/sand layer to add to each of the pots.

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Japanese Maple in the ground…

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Some boxwoods on deck (or next to?) to replace these:

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I call them “evergreen vomit.” Anyone else have these in their yard? HATE!

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Some salvia for the herb garden. Hope it perks back up soon…

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Approved evergreen…

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Some starts from my mom’s garden. I love some of their names…

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Jack in the Pulpit anyone? I love it, but we had to plant it in a place we’d be sure the dogs would never eat it but we could still enjoy it. Can’t wait to see it come up some more…

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More pretty things.

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We have six pepper plants, and I’m starting to think it isn’t enough…

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Snoozy pups.

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A little beer to kick of the weekend…

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We unearthed a bird bath in the back yard, score!

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Neil puts his CrossFit technique to good use…

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Perfect place for a bird to take a bath…

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“I’m hunnnnngryyyyy…”

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“How about some food Dad!?”

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Pork chops + salt + pepper + coconut sugar = AMAZING

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Some tender grilled asparagus with a hint of balsamic completes the meal.

Now off into the night for some computer games!

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Welcome to the Jungle!

by Jessica on June 20, 2011

in Gardening, House

With all the money we’ve spent so far on the house, it was refreshing that the improvements we made this weekend were mostly free. The karma to being free as we discovered was that they were instead insanely labor intensive. Our biggest project by far was spending nearly all of Saturday tackling our jungle yard. That’s right, cue Guns N’ Roses, because in retrospect, “tackle” doesn’t seem like a strong enough word. We battled. It was all out war. Being that we were totally preoccupied (read: filthy scumbag dirty) I didn’t take a lot of “before” shots, but picture this:

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Okay just kidding, that’s what it felt like. Here is reality:

Full House!

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And now a few “after” shots:

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The driveway area has now been pruned to the point you can see the house when you drive in…

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We can now see our entire backyard through the windows and not just the vines growing up the windows.

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Naively in my mind I thought it would be about two or so hours of easy pruning. I was so wrong. We hacked, pulled, dragged and pruned our way through the yard. We’re still not even close to done, but we made some serious progress. Diving in to get some work done also gave us a chance to get a better picture of what we have vs. what we want. We’re definitely going to be doing some landscape blocking (a la Young House Love) on the east side of the house and adjacent to the garage to make the backyard more accessible and usable. We’d also like to re-landscape the east side of our house, because at this point it is just dirt and we think it could definitely be a lot prettier and a lot less muddy over there.

Now that it’s getting hot, these projects are definitely on the books for later in the year or early next spring, but it’s good to plan ahead and watch for building material sales, which shouldn’t be hard now that I nearly keep a second residence at Lowe’sAnyone else feel like they’re constantly making trips to the home improvement store?

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April Showers Bring May Flowers…and Flower Thieves?

May 11, 2011
Thumbnail image for April Showers Bring May Flowers…and Flower Thieves?

A snapped these while out with Clive on Saturday. Gorgeous doesn’t begin to describe them! Sometimes I find myself looking looking directly into each flower, because the beauty seems infinite. But apparently someone else thought so too, because just after midnight last night, someone came and scooped up a good third of the poppies, one [...]

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Scenes from Our Weekend: Weekend at Kohler’s

April 21, 2011

We finally made it down to see my in-laws in Springfield this weekend. Such a welcome break after the crazy semester I’ve had. I snapped a few pics on Sunday, but I’m not sure they quite capture how beautiful their property is. First up (above) are my mother-in-law’s beautiful chime’s. I think these are Flox? [...]

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Scenes From Our Weekend

April 5, 2011

The weather was almost summer-like this weekend, which in Missouri seems to be as close as you can ever get to Spring. To think that just over a week ago we had snow is mind boggling, but we definitely wanted to capitalize on the brief glimpse of spring while it was here. On Saturday we [...]

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Pan-Roasted Pheasant with Carrot Purée and Watercress Salad

March 1, 2011

Every Valentine’s Day, Neil and I make the effort to try something completely new. Something way out of left field. A new ingredient or genre, something that we can learn and experience for the first time together. Last year, we mastered our sushi-making technique. This year, someone else had an idea for us, and it [...]

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