Archive of posts with category 'Gardening'

Mar 12, 2022 Transplant Time

I started a bunch of geranium seeds at the end of January. And look at them now.

Feb 5, 2022 Starting Geraniums

Last year I ordered a bunch of geranium seeds. I wanted to try to grow them from seed because they can be a little expensive if you buy a lot of them. But I like them and they generally grow pretty well here. I read that they take a long time to grow to the size that you’d buy at the store. So you should start them in January and I did.

Jan 11, 2018 Let’s Get It Started

The weather has gotten unseasonably warm and melted all the snow. It’s supposed to get cold again, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bike to work a couple of days this week. The second day was in the rain, so my backpack, jacket and pants all had a huge muddy streak up the back. Fortunately, that came on the ride home, so it was good.

Jan 7, 2018 2018 Garden Planning

Now that it’s 2018, it’s time to start preparing for my 2018 garden. The last two years, I’ve had plenty of success with tomatoes and peppers. Last year, I also got a ton of beans and some great flowers that took no work. I also got some spinach and lettuce. And I got a single pumpkin, watermelon, cucumber and two zucchini. That has pretty much hooked me on gardening. Aside from the food, which is fun. I found it incredibly relaxing to come home after work and pick tomatoes or flowers in the garden. So I want to keep it up.

Oct 29, 2017 Season Over

Today, I finished pulling up all my tomato and pepper plants. I also took down the old chickenwire fence I had around my raised bed. And I filled five grass clipping bags full of plants and weeds that I pulled. I had thought of trying to make my own compost pile. But I found out that the city will pick up the paper bags and I can pick up as much free mulch as I can carry from a city building not too far from my house. So this year at least, I’ve decided not to do any composting. I may change my mind in the future.

Sep 16, 2017 My Latest Obsession

In my second summer of gardening, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. This year, in addition to tomatoes and peppers. Ted also gave me some beans, watermelon and pumpkin. And I also had zucchini. The pumpkin was weird. The vine grew like crazy all over the back of my house, but then died for some reason. I ended up getting one pumpkin, about the size of a 16″ softball. It was green when I picked it, but as it’s been sitting on my counter, it’s turning more orange. I picked one small watermelon and there are a couple more still growing. I haven’t yet cut it open to see how it looks or how it tastes. The tomatoes have been reliable. I planted some miniature red peppers and I like eating those the best. There are a lot of green ones out there now, so I think they tend to come a little later in the season than the tomatoes. I got a few good size zucchini. However, after I picked them, the plants seemed to die. Since I think I planted them too close together, I ended up pulling them out last month.

Feb 17, 2017 Early Year Projects

For the start of the year, I’ve been working on some little projects that I’ve enjoyed. I guess one of the projects was big. I finished three bookshelves for my cousins for xmas.

Aug 11, 2016 Been A While

My summer has been pretty crazy with a big work conference that is finally over. My life is now my own again. Yay! I’ve been very behind in doing my monthly checking, but that’s ok. The good news is that I don’t have to go back to work for over a week. So I’m trying to do a bunch of projects around the house.

Sep 14, 2013 End of Summer

Here are what was left of the roses on my rosebush before I started hacking it down. It is so nice out, just under 70 degrees, which is perfect to me. I cut my grass and even trimmed the tree in front of my house, in anticipation of my new roommate. Just trying to eliminate some of the things he’ll complain about.

Jun 6, 2013 It’s Over

There will be no more cooking or cleaning at my house for the foreseeable future. I just finished removing the sink. It’s somewhat depressing thinking about how much more work I have to do.

May 18, 2013 An Accident

I have had two snakes (that I’ve seen) in my backyard for as long as I’ve owned my house. For the most part, they can do whatever they want back there and I don’t care. I usually only see them when I’m cutting the grass and they quickly slide away. Today, the grass was a little taller and I didn’t see one of them and I think I killed him. I feel pretty bad about this.

May 19, 2012 Patching Continues

I biked out to a lumber liquidators store on Friday and ordered ~80 square feet of maple flooring. I’m going to cut out the big section between the dining and living rooms and put maple in there. It will look very different, but I’m ok with that. I had wanted to use a bunch of different kinds of wood, but since you have to buy 20 square feet at a time, I would have had to buy a lot. So I decided to just go with maple.

Sep 14, 2010 My House Style (from Google Cache)

Originally posted August 3, 2008

Mar 22, 2008 My Favorite Things

I bought myself an easter lily yesterday. They are, unquestionably, my favorite flower. I like lillies in general, but the white, easter lily just smells so nice and looks so pretty that I love it. Now my house has that nice smell as well. And since I spent today doing some cleaning, my house is rather neat as well. Altogether, a pleasant place to be.

Aug 21, 2006 Got Grapes?

I do. My grapevine, planted only a few months ago, had grapes. (Note the “had” in the last sentence.) My cousin Janet showed me some purple grapes from her grapevine over the weekend and that made me take a closer look at my grapevine. I noticed the green grapes and thought, “Cool, I have green grapes, I wonder how they taste.” Genius that I am, it didn’t occur to me that Janet had purple grapes and I had green grapes and they both came from the same vine, from my Aunt Lucille’s house. So, stupidly, I picked my grapes and thought I’d give them a try. Well, as is probably obvious now, purple grapes start out green. When they are green, they are NOT ripe or ready to be picked. And when they are green, they taste TERRIBLE. They also have a much bigger seed thing inside them, which almost caused me to crack a tooth. So, this just reaffirms the fact that I have a lot to learn when it comes to gardening.