Wood chips > Cinder blocks

It was a tie for my hate... but the wood chips have gained my respect.

Documented growth

Garden now. The pumpkin really is getting big. 2nd from left at the bottom of pic.
Everything has noticeable growth. Peppers have itty bitty peppers, peas are growing taller!

1 week earlier.

On the left is the ground cover I am attempting to propagate and make it spread faster. I plucked this off the existing plant in several different ways to see if it would live.. so far 10 for 10 is good. So even when cutting it roughly and shoving the end in dirt... this would be considered a weed. Middle is Cilantro. Right is other herbs

Another working weekend! Had to work hard Saturday in order to attend a wedding Sunday.. in the middle of the day.


Here is our patio.. Travis has broken his back removing the cinder blocks. Next up, Remove last 19 of the edge blocks, levelling the dirt, adding gravel and placing these 100lb stones. Trying to get it done before July 3rd when we have company coming!
Here is our child labor posing with there task ahead. They told there mom ":They are really nice, they bought us Gatorade!" Ha!

And after: they worked for 4hrs each and we ran out of room in yard waste and had to pile up the weeds. Meanwhile Travis and I weedwacked, mowed, raked, mowed, raked and pulled weeds too.

Here is the worst part of the wedding. Cute, comfy for heels, but still torturous.

And the BEST part of the wedding. The Kiss. The overcast day was too much for my camera from this angle.

More pics on the garden growth on next post!

PS--Would you all quit lurking and say something?

Tomato WIN!

Black Sea Man FTW!

The first tomato I have ever grown! It was hiding in plain sight this whole time!

More photos

Because I'm so damn impressed with myself ;)

3 months in

3 months in and what have we finished? Check back at 4 months...

In this pic below, we have the garden at 6 weeks. You can also see a large section of cinder blocks are gone. More pics on that coming up later. We may be to half way point Monday night. We can then start levelling it out and adding new stones.




I absolutely love these angles.
Primer is finally done for the accent walls. Had to get a move on as my friend Tyana is coming back for 4th of July... and she helped me start painting April 3rd! I should probably finish! We plan on repainting the accent wall yearly.. but maybe Ill keep this color for a while. I like it alot! Its to be cajun Red.. about the same as this color but brighter.

Here is a wider shot including the beams. Looking better and better all the time. Travis will be found on a ladder every weekend morning til August! The center beam is 4ft from being done, and the one on the right is one sided so should be much quicker. We will soon get to pick the stain color. It will be glorious!

To do list be damned

A few more items crossed off this week. Nothing exciting.
The dryer is now serviced
Replaced the curtain in downstairs bath.
I've taken a vacation from making any lists for a while.

Currently our evenings are spent discussing the merits of which stones to go forward with.
Any votes? Comment?


Here are the boring curtain pictures:
Old throwback from the sellers--even THEY didnt want this curtain.

And I know its just a silly cheap white venetian blind--but it looks WAY better .
Total cost $13.67

This blog was so boring it even put Travis to sleep!
(Travis does not approve this picture!)

Sunday funday!

Week 4 of the garden! More soaker hose added and installed.


The big hole is patched and levelled.
The bricks are stacked, the rocks are piled & the concrete pieces are removed from the weed garden edges.
And the patio is still mostly useable. Compare to pics yesterday. There are only 93 stones removed. Great work out removing dirt from bricks and stacking them. Im sure Ill feel it today.

Long awaited sunny Saturday

Travis prepped the area we expected to run the main line thru. Protecting the tomatos and peppers... but in the end that wasnt how it worked out...

Anyone that was looking forward to mud wrestling on the patio, I apologize--you missed your chance! The water is gone, for good I hope! The mainline actually ran in to the house about 4ft to the left of where we expected.


What a mess! I just wanted to run around sweeping and arranging things.

What a gnarly machine. Trench digger in action.

Utter destruction and chaos.

For the price of this job I decided it was ok if I did nothing and just took pictures (Travis probably doesnt approve this comment) Look at all these muscles! How could I NOT?

And it was over... but much mess to be had. See stonehenge in the background? I think I can work with that.

And Travis got to try his hand at repairing the irrigation pipe the trencher defeated. Took him some extra digging in the mud and less than $40! Meanwhile I went to a girls party :)

Today we are going to clean it all up and make it livable again. Meanwhile with all the cinderblocks removed, we REALLY dont want to put them back. We may have a new patio vision in the near future.

PS--Did I mention the hot young labor plumbers apprentice/son really liked my shovel?

Dirty pictures

It is official! Things are truly growing. We ate the first fruits of our labor Sunday after planting the rest the garden in the rain... so cute! And tasty.

Tomatos, peas, spinach, mixed lettuce, flowers, hot peppers, bell peppers, chard, arugala, kale, zuchini, squash, cucumber, pumpkin--and a shout out to any of the vegetables I forgot!

What would YOU do with a 38ft planter box? I have some surprises in there--you will have to come see what happens! Special thank you to Travis for doing all the mind numbing chores like pacing back and forth 242 times with shovels of dirt! (and placing the stones and filling in the rocks and watering my seeds and mowing! Oh wait--not done yet--and raking and weed whacking!)

THIS is a weed garden. This is a weed garden on drugs. Any questions?
Intervention! This is after I spent 2 hours on it. Not much to look at and I have NO idea what I will do with it, except continue to pull weeds. Open to suggestions!

Remember this?

Waaaaaay back when... in early April this is what the garden started as...
6 yards of wood chips and rock hard earth.



And here we are at the end of May..dirt is now fertile and things are growing that aren't weeds!


Its gonna get even better today rain or shine!

More pictures, Less story

Sluggo makes slugs blurry.

Sticks and stones may break my fingernails, but hardwork will never hurt me.

Recycling rocks!

How can you resist this sexy thing?

Chocolate Mint and lemon balm broke up and got there own places.

I planted flowers in the earth for my first time. They have been blessed by Kermit.

Before & After

Dire circumstances.

Best $30 spent(this week)