March Showers and Flowers

A cold weather front parked itself overhead this past weekend. Saturday was cool but not unpleasant, with a steady drizzle that occasionally intensified into actual rain. Yesterday was far less enjoyable, with high winds and a constant rain that turned into sleet, hail, snow (!), and then back into rain.

Today, however, is bright and sunny, if windy, and it looks as though spring will be with us for now. The daffodils I transplanted last fall from the lawn to around the large maple are thinking about blooming, and the hyacinths I bought last week have started to bloom and are simply lovely. It's too bad they won't be in bloom for much longer - their shade of blue-purple is exquisite.

Plus, on this morning's walk with Wes I noticed tiny little buds on the forsythia, meaning that soon the yard will be awash in a sea of cheerful yellow. Hello, spring!

Spring has Sprung

Today is the first day of spring, and after a chilly start to the week (9 inches of snow and chilly temperatures), it has warmed up and is lovely out today. Unfortunately, I did not quite manage to escape winter without a winter's cold, as I started feeling ill Wednesday and felt so lousy this morning that I took a sick day. However, by mid-afternoon I was feeling somewhat human, thanks to cold meds and a morning nap with Westley (who makes an excellent cuddle buddy). Not wanting to waste the entire day, I spent a bit of time finishing up a project begun about a week ago: the dining room faux Roman blinds. To see the how, check out the last post, but I essentially did the same thing with a different fabric and the bay window in the dining room.  This fabric is also a geometric pattern, but in a medium blue to contrast with the light gray walls. Once again, I re-purposed window panels from Target.  It's not quite perfect, but overall I'm pleased with the way they came out, and they definitely add a touch of elegance to the room.

Last night Nick helped me transplant more of our fast-growing seedlings to larger compostable pots, ones that should be able to hold them until we plant them in the garden beds sometime next month. How are the seedlings doing, you ask? Quite nicely! The cucumber and squash plants have all been germinating within a few days of being planted, and are growing like gangbusters. The tomato and broccoli plants are also doing nicely. 

 The potting bench Nick built is working out beautifully!

Cucumbers: Boston Pickling and Parisian Pickling 

 Tomatoes and Broccoli

Zucchini and Acorn Squash

Nick jokes that we are a good fit on this project: he really enjoys planning and taking care of the large outdoor garden beds, and I am obsessive about taking care of the seedlings and keeping everything organized.  How organized? I decided that digging through giant Ziploc bags of seed packets wasn't working for me; it took ages to find anything. Then I realized that none of the packets are bigger than 4" x 5", meaning that if I bought a photo album with 4" x 6" pockets, I could put the packets in there. So I found an inexpensive scrapbooking album at Michael's, bought the appropriate page inserts, and added my seeds. 

However, I did not want to organize them alphabetically, because then as soon as I bought anything new I would have to move everything else to make room. That drives me nuts. So how did I do it? 

I organized by plant family. Which I had to look up, since I don't know plant families. Neither does Nick. He thinks it's hilarious that my new organizational system is one that neither of us knows, but I think it's time to learn. For example, did you know that while broccoli, radishes and kale are in the same family, spinach, beets and Swiss chard are in a different family? See, now we've all learned something.

Blinded

A while back I started thinking about window treatments for the kitchen and dining room. Our kitchen had a cellular shade, one that I never lowered because we have no need for privacy in the kitchen. It was just a clunky white thing at the top of the window. I hoped to replace it with a decorative fabric option, but I've never liked any of the valances you see in stores. Roman blinds have a look that I love, but the only inexpensive options I found used boring fabrics without patterns. So I started looking online to see if there was a straightforward DIY option. I came across a great blog post from Richella at Imparting Grace, in which she detailed how to do precisely what I was looking for. Plus, it didn't take a sewing machine!

Going to a fabric store seemed intimidating, so I decided to take Richella's advice and try the tablecloth route. A couple of hours perusing local stores did not turn up any tablecloths, but I did find some other panels of fabric I liked. I brought several of them home and Nick helped me chose one. We went with a bright, sunny yellow pattern from Target that would pop against the blue of the kitchen walls.

In addition to the fabric I purchased three oval tension rods for this project. I measured the width of the kitchen window using one of the rods, which was actually a bit tricky, and cut the fabric to a piece slightly wider than what I needed. Hemming it to the precise width was not easy, and involved lots of pinning and ironing to get a nice crisp fold under which I could tuck the Stitch Witch hemming tape (which is amazing - you just place it and iron over it).

I brought the bottom up to overlap the top and made a giant loop of the fabric, again using the Stitch Witch instead of sewing. I don't like to sew and I don't have a sewing machine, so tape or glue are a must.

Then I slipped a tension rod inside the top of the loop and placed the rod inside the window frame. So far, so good. Once I was sure it would fit, I took the rod and fabric out to make it easier to place the second and third rods a little lower down.

After that, it was time to replace the fabric with the top tension rod, let it fall behind rods #2 and 3, and then pull it over to drape in loops. It took me a while to get it where I like it, but I think it works! The loops don't raise or lower, but I don't need them to do so - it's a purely decorative piece.

I like it, and I'm pleased that it didn't take more than a few hours. Were I more familiar with working with fabric, it would probably have taken even less time. Next up will be the bay window in the dining room; I've bought a lovely blue and white fabric for that project. Plus we need to replace that kitchen light fixture - it's so ugly! Maybe next month...

Snowy Garden Day

We're up to somewhere between four and six inches of snow on the ground. Perfect gardening weather, right? Well, good for starting new seeds indoors and taking care of our seedlings. The tomato and broccoli seedlings are doing nicely. The herbs are just starting to come up, except for the chives. I'm fairly sure the chive seeds were no good, but I had a second packet so I've replanted with those instead.

The jalapeno and bell pepper seeds have not germinated, even after having been replanted last weekend. I plan to buy new seeds and try yet again.  The eggplant has also not yet germinated so I've replanted it a third time. Frustrating. Today I also planted kale, two varieties of cucumber, and two types of basil. The tray of soil sprinkled with lettuce seeds is doing well; Nick wanted to experiment with growing lettuce in a different format.

I am concerned about all of the things that are not growing properly, but I have to try and focus on the positive and keep replanting until everything grows.  Fingers crossed!

The More, the Merrier

Last weekend, temperatures rose past the sixty-degree mark. It was a wonderfully warm respite from the chilly weather we've been having. As I type this, rain has been falling for hours, and we're predicted to receive at least six inches of snow overnight. But last weekend was lovely, perfect weather for yard work and gardening. Friends of ours looking to spend some time in the sun offered to come lend us a hand with work outside, since they live in an apartment and have no yard of their own at the moment. We were not about to turn down the offer of company and extra labor, and were delighted to have them.

So what did we do? That morning, Nick and I had purchased several bags of soil conditioner and compost. A and I opened the garden beds up, took shovel and pitchfork and turned the soil, dividing the new bags evenly between the three beds. In a week or two Nick will measure the nutrient content and pH of the newly-refreshed soil to help figure out what (if anything) else is needed. E and Nick trimmed our vastly overgrown crepe myrtle trees, and dug up some bushes that were crowding the backyard "patio". The latter task was especially strenuous; none of us had realized quite how massive the root structure on the little shrub would prove to be.

Thanks for all the help, guys!