March is Here

March is here and it's time to get out in the garden. Preparation now pays off later.
Cover Asparagus beds with mulch
Bury posts and wire for grapes
Lay newspaper in front gardens and mulch
Set out lettuce in raised beds
Construct trellis's for raised beds
Lay newspaper around raspberries and cover with manure

My Review of 3/8" x 3" Brazilian Walnut

Originally submitted at Lumber Liquidators

BELLAWOOD- 3/8" x 3" Select Brazilian Walnut Prefinished Solid Flooring- 50 Year WarrantyBellawood offers a fantastic line of traditional domestic and exotic flooring that includes many beautiful wood species in a variety of widths and grades. Since Bellawood floors come to you with a 50 ...

3/8" x 3" Brazilian Walnut

Warm Rich Wood Tones

By Elledive from Macomb, Illinois on 10/5/2009

 

5out of 5

Pros: Easy To Install, Attractive Finish, Durable, Beautiful Color, Easy To Clean

Best Uses: Office, Dining Room, Living Room, Family Room, Bedroom

Describe Yourself: Novice

We chose the Brazilian Walnut 3" x 3/8" thick. It is absolutely beautiful! We think it is darker and more rich than the picture LL uses. When we bought this wood, the person helping us kept warning us it's HARD wood. Is he right. My husband bought the Powernail 50P Flex pnematic nail gun. This gun allows you to install 3/8" to 3/4" wood thickness. He also used Powernail power cleats 1 1/4" 18 guage. Haven't had one jam, works well with 3/8" wood and rarely splits the tongue. My husband has NO EXPERIENCE installing hardwood. The hardest part is lining up the first 3 rows and manually nailing the wood. Once you have the first 3 rows worked in, it goes very quickly. My husband and I had a deal. We'd start in the dining room and if we didn't divorce, we continue and do the greatroom, kitchen, and laundry room. Thank goodness, he's started the greatroom.

Dining Room Before

Dining Room After

Tags: Made with Product, Picture of Product

(legalese)

Master Plan

Divide grasses under kitchen window so there is a full line of grasses. Remove grasses on retaining wall so the lilacs can spread out.












Move lilac on bottom corner. Use this one to fill in on East side of house.












Pull out hydrangea and purple salvia. Reseed next year with Zinnia Mix.

Remove black eyed susan's and iris so the roses have no competition.

Purchase 3 more butterflybushes for corner.

Use lilac from south side of house to fill in on this side.

Pull out these hostas. Leave day lillies.

Pull out B.E.S, hostas and overgrown lillies

Take out B.E.S







Trim Spruce and Plum tree. Install twinkle lights in plum tree.

Remove Iceberg Roses.

Thin B.E.S. Remove hosta. Would like to grow a ring of grass around the plum tree.

Thin B.E.S. Move the russian sage in front of the hydrangeas.

Remove iceberg and yellow roses. Line front with B.E.S.

2009 Fall/Winter Garden Journal

Fall/Winter Garden Journal

It is our goal to see how far we can extend our fall crops. We are building two hoop houses over our 4x8 beds.

Replanted Fall/Winter Garden 8/21

Peas-8/29 peas coming up

Spinach

Lettuce

Beets

Radishes-8/23 came up in TWO days

8/30 Ty and I built the hoops that will create a warmer climate to extend our fall garden

Flat Bed Update

Before & After

Brick flower/herb garden

The soil is definetely not as rich as the soil in the raised beds. But I've done my bed to mulch to keep down the weeds. *mulching considerably cut down on the summer weeding. On this side I wanted to plant my herbs, potatoes, tomatoes and some vertical plants (peas & pumpkins).

It appears the potatoes are doing very well in both the cage and garbage bags. I guess I'll be able to tell better when I harvest them. *Potatoes must grow in dirt. The potatoes grew only at the bottom where there was dirt. They didn't grow up through the straw at all.*

The parsley here is all self-seeded. As soon as it warms up, it flowers. I just never think to use my herbs. I planted chocolate mint, sage, lemon verbena, red onions, zinnias and cabbage.
Down below, I planted peas up the trellis and the pumpkins are just getting started.

Update on Raised Beds

Veggies love raised beds and square foot gardening. These are the beds that I layered lots of organic matter: manure, shredded paper, old fruits and vegetables, hay, compost and top soil.*Throughout the summer, the soil in the beds have settled down about 6 inches* To make planting more easy, I used twine and sectioned off one foot squares. Once the plants grow up you can't even tell the string is there. You can see that the lettuce loves being squished. I barely have to weed and if I do, I just pluck it out. It has been very interesting to study the critters that share our veggies. In the spinach, I found cutworms, next to that in the dark lollo rossa, I found green cabbage loopers. They like what they like and don't crawl right next door to chow on a different lettuce, even when they are right next to each other. We go out each evening and morning and hand pick off the bugs. I have even spent some time hand washing the broccoli and cauliflower leaves with a little dawn soap and water to get the aphids off. *Next year use row covers with the broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. It's almost impossible to stay ahead of the critters.* I really don't want to resort to any harsh chemicals. I want the children to be able to pick off any fruit or vegetable and eat it on the spot.

Below bottom bed, on the bottom two feet, I planted: marigolds, new zealand spinach, mascara lettuce, old simpson, dark lollo rossa lettuce and bloomsdale spinach. I also snuck some onions in between rows. On the top two feet, I planted the same, but three weeks later. Just in this one 4x8 bed, I can not eat all the lettuce that is ready.

You'll notice in the lower bed, I planted old simpson and dark lollo rossa inbetween cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower plants. As the broccoli and cauliflower plants are growing the lettuce thrives and produces more than I can eat. I absolutely love the red curly lettuces. I also planted pansies and nasturums for edible flowers. They make our salads extra special.

When I pick lettuce, I start as soon as the leaves are 5 inches or more. I just start picking from the outside and they will keep growing. I continue to harvest lettuce until the temperatures get into the 90's. When they start bleeding "milk" I know they are going to be bitter and I stop until the Fall season. I pull out the rest and compost them.


In the bottom bed, I planted onion sets, tomatoes, and herbs. I mulched heavily with straw and it has saved me a ton of time weeding. Whenever I need an onion I pick a few and it serves to thin the onions so they have room to grow. Here's a picture of some Tom Thumb lettuce. It forms miniature heads. You have to pick them when they are small. They go to seed very quickly. When I plant these next summer, I will definetely plant a small number every two weeks.

Here is a view from up in the kitchen. I just love these raised beds. Only two of the beds are 20 inches tall. Next summer, I hope to add another 10 inches to the other four beds. I have a garden caddy that I can pull inbetween the beds and actually use it as a bench. It makes weeding very handy.