Pull up re-grow

Time to plant the rest of the garden.  That means we have to tear up last years left overs.  A little bittersweet this year.  The broccoli has been full of blooms that the bees love but it had to go.  In its place is some tomatoes, pole beans and a bit of lettuce.  Of course as soon as we plant or tomatoes the heat wave decides to go into hiding so we had to cover the bed.  We were able to plant our last empty bed with zucchini, pie pumpkins and winter squash. 

So far so good.  Just have a few more things to plant for this summer.  Here are some before and after pics.

Child proofing

Had to do some child proofing of the yard the other day. You noticed in the last post we made a fence/rail on the patio. Well the next project was the fire pit. I may try and find a pic of the old fire pit but for now the new one will have to suffice. The old one was made of miscellaneous bricks and cement and what not that was found in our yard. Needless to say there were many sharp edges and it was too easy for a little one to fall in. So on one of our walks we found a pile of old brick edgers so a new fire pit was born.
Also here is a little reminder that pie season is upon us. The rhubarb is bountiful and beautiful.

Mini projects

For those of you who know us we have a hard time taking it easy. Well today we "took it easy" and built a trellis for the rose bush and a fence/railing for the driveway. The old salvaged/repurposed trellis didn't survive the last wind storm so it needed replaced. Some bamboo and zip ties did the trick.

We have an old driveway that slopes down to the basement with a patio next to it and the kiddo has be getting a little to close for comfort. So we took some old fence boards and use them to make a fence. Fancy that.

You might notice in the rose pic the beehive next to it. We will give an update post on them soon. But for now the new bees seem to be adjusting well.

On the Up & Up

Growing food in the city comes with its challenges.  The major one is space.  I am not telling you anything new here.  Growing vertical is one way to get the most out of your small space.  One thing we found out last year was if you think your trellis is tall enough, you are most likely wrong.  So this year we went BIG!

This is our trellis for the snap peas.  Last year our trellis was maybe two feet tall and soon was toppled by our peas.  So this year we decided 7 ft should do.

Snap peas coming along nicely.

Some left over welded wire from our chicken run makes a good trellis for sweet peas.

This year for our raspberry patch we used wire instead of twine.  The twine couldn't hold the rows neat enough and made for some scratch filled harvesting.  The rows are looking nice.

This picture makes me thing of Skuller's IPA ( a nice local ipa brewed at Skagit River Brewing). This is our golden hop trellis.  We have 2 skulls mounted on bamboo sticks and one hanging for our hops to grow through this year. 

Latched

Well got the gates done today as well as the little walkway up to the main gate. Starting to hit the home stretch. Still have the arbor to do as well as the trellis. We decided to run a wire trellis between the post on top of the fence rather than cut the post flush with the fence. The trellis might take some time. Mostly decisions, like what gauge wire and most important what to grow? Putting it up shouldn't be too difficult. (Famous last words).

Hops Gone Wild

The hops are coming up like gangbusters and need trellising. Last year we took and old beat up red chair and put them in the hops. So this year the wife decided to do something different. What do think?

Garden tour

We thought we should give you a little tour of the perennial gardens. So here we go. You might also catch a glimpse of our hired help as well.