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.

Front Pots 2009

We took a trip to Hart's Nursery today. Ty (12) helped me pick out plants for the front stoop. Who knows, maybe he'll be a landscapist someday. We looked for plants that would do well in part shade since the front faces the North. I think he did an awesome job choosing contrasting colors, different textures and various heights. He chose:

Mexican Feather Grass: full sun/part shade 12-18"

Lemon Twist Coleus: Sun Shade 24-36"

Blue Bird full sun/part shade 10-12" a bit trailing

Rockapulco Purple Impatiens part shade 10-20"

Ipomoea Sweet Caroline full sun 14-18" trailing

We filled two light weight pots 20" wide and 16" tall with top soil and compost and mixed in fertilizer pellets.

Update-June 11th, 2009

2009 Gardening Planting Dates & Notes

4/5/09
Tarragon

4/12/09
all transplants
Broccoli -harvested 6/18-Small heads, very tasty. Continued to send out small shoots clear through August.
Brussell Sprouts-8/30 still not doing really well. They are getting eaten by something at night.
Cabbage-getting chewed up by cabbage loopers. i hand pick almost daily. consider row cover next time.
Cauliflower-began harvesting 6/18-getting chewed
Ice Berg Lettuce-planted 4/12 in between the cauliflower and broccoli plants. It really seemed happy and healthy, but never formed the tight heads you get in the store. Maybe because I harvested the outer leaves. Bugs weren't a problem.
Kennibec Potatoes
Lollo Lettuce -loved this lettuce and it's bright red color. planted 4/17 and ate thru late June. Bugs didn't bother this lettuce.
Red Potatoes
Red Onions
Simpson Lettuce-planted 4/12 in between the broccoli and cauliflower. It also thrived under the leaves of it's friend and no bug problem.
Yukon Gold Potatoes

4/17/09
New Zealand Spinach-grew very well, no bug problems. I just didn't know what to do with it. I ended up pulling it all out before it flowered and composted all of it.
Bloomsdale Spinach-planted 4/17 and ate it thru mid June. Grow more of it and more frequently. Cutworms did seem to like this, so I hand picked them daily.
Tom Thumb Lettuce-Planted 4/17 and was ready in late May. Very cute little iceberg heads. You need to pick this when they are young or they go to seed very quickly. Bugs seemed to stay clear of this one.
Mascara Lettuce-planted 4/17 and started harvesting in late may. This leaf is very pretty and looks like a green/red oak leaf. Great in a garden salad mix. Bugs didn't bother it very much.
Forellenschluss (from transplants) Lettuce-planted 4/17 and started harvesting early may. Very pretty. Cabbage loopers love this one.
Dark Lollo Lettuce-planted 4/17 and started harvesting Mid may. Love this lettuce. Bugs not a problem.
White Onions
Marigolds

4/18/09
Sugar Snap Peas -planted 4/18 and started harvesting 6/18. These are very sweet, pod and peas. If left to get fat, the seeds are very woody. No bug problem.
Blue Pod Peas-love these just for the colorful flowers they produce and then the purple pea pods. They are absolutely brilliant in a salad. Pick when very young, otherwise they are woody.

4/20/09
Detroit Beets-beets didn't grow this season.
Bulls Blood Beets
Chioggia Beets
Muscade Carrots-didn't like the taste of any of the carrots. But pulled them long after july. A friend told me they should be picked before july heat. I'll try them in my fall garden.
Atomic Red Carrots
Danvers Carrots
Amarillo Carrots
Lunar White Carrots

4/25/09
Parsley
Basil
German Cherry Tomato-pretty tasteless.
Green Zebra Tomato
Cherokee Purple-really like this tomato
Red Grape Tomato
Green Tennessee Tomato
Kentucky Beefsteak Tomato
Flame Hillbilly Tomato
Brandy Wine Tomato
Beefsteak Tomato
Green Peppers

4/30/09
Cucumber-growing quickly, no bugs yet-6/24.
Pole Beans-growing, cucumber beetle problem; sprayed and no growth is not affected.
Scarlet Red Beans-growing, cucumber beetle problem; sprayed and no growth is not affected.
Yard long bean-growing, cucumber beetle problem; sprayed and no growth is not affected.

Need some HTML help

Can anyone help me with html language? I'd like my header picture (alium) to be to the left side of my text rather than behind it?

Sweet Potato Starter

I've read that we can start our own sweet potato slips simply by placing the sweet potato in water. Seems easy enough. I used a flower vase with a narrow neck but larger mouth. I inserted toothpicks into the potato so it would hold itself up. We'll watch it and once we have enough foliage we'll transplant some outside.

First Raised Bed of the Season

I know it's a little late getting my raised beds planted, but this is my first year. My plan was to have six raised beds 4x8 ft long and 20 inches deep built. I found some great videos on how to build raised beds on youtube by The Garden Girl/Patti Moreno. I had my husband watch the videos and then very nicely asked if he would make them for me. He started out by making 2 beds. He bought 12 2x8x10 boards, 2 2x2x8 (for reinforcement inside the box), and a box of 3 1/2 in deck screws. He and the kids were able to construct them pretty quickly in one evening. He did cuss a bit about a few warped boards, so look for the straightest boards you can buy! We placed them in our backyard so we could look at them from our kitchen window up above.

I thought I'd get these filled in no time! I started with a layer of horse manure, then shredded paper, old produce from the grocery store, straw, more manure and then topsoil and compost. 20 inches tall doesn't seem like much until you are trying to fill it. Once my husband saw how much it took to fill it, he wanted to compromise and only make two more beds and do two next year. I already have my garden graphed out, so I went for 4 more beds 10 inches deep. He doesn't have to know now, that we'll add another 10 inches next summer.

Aren't these beds lovely? I didn't put a weed barrier on the bottom for two reasons: I thought the beds are deep enough and I want the worms to be able to get into my beds. It's their garden too and I need their help.

This is a picture from the deck on the back of our house overlooking the gardens and pond. Myron built the arbor and swing and we love sitting there watching the wildlife and fish. We like to build a small fire pit close by to enjoy smore's in the evening.

Here's Trooper. He LOVE's to garden. As you can see, I marked off one foot sections with string for square foot gardening. It really does make it so much easier to plant.

This is my bricked in garden that I use for herbs, cut flowers and whatever else I need to put over there.

This year I'm trying potatoes in a bag and also cages. We'll see which they prefer.

Here you can see my six beds, not all quite ready. Ty and I filled two more of the smaller beds last night. We carried 40 40lbs bags of topsoil and compost. They didn't quite finish off the two beds. I think 25 bags per bed will do it. I keep telling Jon that next year will be much easier. We'll start making our own compost this year. So moving forward we should be pretty self-sufficient.

This year I've decided to purchase only heirloom seeds. I'll see how they grow this year and start collecting my own seeds. It's not as easy as I thought, so I'll start with baby steps. The first bed is filled with transplants I started in my grow room. The lettuce looks pretty good. We've got Simpson, mascara and lollo lettuce, brussell sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower planted.