What to do with Radishes Seed Pods

My radishes went to seed.  For a few days I felt like a radish gardener failure.  Should I replant them? should I dry them, what does one do with Radish Seed Pods?

Apparently they can be eaten, or pickled. I ate a couple, they were ok.

And if they are pickled you can use them like capers.

I made a simple brine:

1 part water

1 part white vinegar

1 tbsp of salt per pint

1 tsp of sugar

(hmmm I might have been a a little bit light on salt and sugar....)

And canned it. It was a bit of a wing it canning experience, that is what I get for having projects after Wednesday night racing.... I will know in two weeks how they turned out.

Paver Border Around the Strawberries and Onion Beds

As the process is the same as it was for the composter, I am going to tell you my first impressions about landscaping instead of about the pictures.

My main impression is that you spend all this time digging the hole, clean it out the best you can.  And there is a feeling of accomplishment when that hole is done. But then you refill the hole and its like you are back to where you started.  So at the end of the day there is no hole, and it doesn't feel like anything got done, but you are really tired.

Then you walk out the next morning to water and its like 'wow' that looks a lot better. 

Then there are the weeds, and I have been wondering, 'are they really that big of a deal?'  so I have been checking out other peoples weeds, and its like 'well I never noticed those before...'

but maybe other people are checking out my weeds....

And then there is all this extra dirt soil that I have been digging up.  We put a lot about the walk but there is more, and I am not done digging holes and refilling them. I checked out Craig's list an there are a lot of people that want you to come and haul away their dirt, not a lot of people that want to come and pick it up.

On the composter we weren't all that picking about the pavers being level.  On this project I was a bit more picky and found myself pulling them out and adding more sand, packing the sand down...

Next year before I plant the garden I plan on spraying the creeping Charley, I like to call it the creepy Charley. Which made me realize last night that if I do spray I can't compost the weeds then.

My hose spigot is still not fixed, but it has been cooler and rained pretty good on Sunday.  

I think that is enough rambling for one day.  Thanks for stopping by.

No Garden Update

Well I was hoping that I could make Fridays Garden Update Day, that is not what life had planned for me.  I got back from sailing last night a little bit before nine.  I needed to clean the kitchen, eat dinner and pack for my weekend trip.  I heard the sound of water as I walked up my front steps and to my horror I found water spraying out of the outdoor spigot. 

I tried to turn it off but it was already was. It appears that its inner gasket dry rotted. So I turned it off from the inside and vacuumed up some water. Then I ate some dinner and vacuumed more water, I cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed and then packed and vacuumed.  

Finally I put the fan on part of the basement and let it to the work so that I could have a drink with housemate Andrew and go to bed.

But it presented a different problem of water the garden before I left for the weekend.

I got up 40min+ early and water with buckets out of the kitchen sink.

Time to call the plumber.

So I would have taken awesome pictures of the garden veggies today, but alias, all I have is a picture of the first garlic bulb I picked.

Not even a good picture.

The basement looked better this morning, I vacuumed up a few small puddles and moved the fan around.

What a bummer, but it could have been worse, it could have happened over the weekend. So technically I am lucky?

A little bit of Landscaping

Half of the process of putting the composter in was moving the dirt around.  Dad was in charge of most of that.  We filled in around the concrete that was put in last year.

On the right dirt soil has been added, the left side is still 'empty'

This is another before picture.

We covered it in landscape fabric, because I need fewer weeds.  And then spread out the mulch that had been there. I am a little bit short on mulch... But I am not going to get any until the gravel is all in place for the patio. Makes me tired thinking about it.

Composter

After being less than impressed with the barrel composter, I put together the temporary pallet L last winter.  Over the next couple of months I decided that there were a few things that I needed out of a composter:

1. a decent floor so that I can use a shovel to turn it.

2. more than one compartment also for turning capability

3. build out of materials that I already had.

4. as close as possible to the back fence in case a critter gets in it they are not close to the house, but not too close that gate can't open...

and it would be nice if you couldn't see the pile from the house.

My plan was to build an E-shaped structure out of the bricks that had been removed from a different part of the yard, on top of pavers to create as surface for the bottom. But I have seen what happens when you put pavers directly on the grass- they sink in and grow weeds between them.  So I also planned to use gravel and sand to keep the 'structure' level and prevent that whole disappearing act.

I staked out the area of the composter, I also used a string around the bottom, which you can see in the next picture.

I waited until the gravel arrived and Dad came down to actually start digging. Here is the hole after a lot of digging. I would definitely say that my digging skills have improved.  Dad worked on dealing with all the extra soil.  PS if you need some soil please let me know, I have a lot to get rid of.

Once the hole was deep enough ~6" or 7", Dad and I put 4" on gravel in and then sand on top.  This went quickly and we were both getting tired so I didn't get a picture of the gravel.  Between the two layers I used a tamper to compact it, and then also used it on the sand, though I am not sure if that was part of the directions I read, it sounded like a good idea.  Dad encouraged from a lawn chair.  By then it was really hot but we were pushing through it because Dad was only down for the day.

In went the pavers:  

Dad had to do some finagling on the last corner.  We put down a little bit more sand and swept it into the cracks, then hosed it down.  I had read to do this twice but dad convinced me that this is a composter and one layer of sand fill is enough.

Using bricks that had been in a different part of the yard we built the E-shape in.

Did I mention how hot it was by this point, like the hottest day this summer so far.

I better like this composter because it seems pretty permanent. 

Now to move all the compost over to it....

Rummaging

Recently, I went rummaging sale-ing with my friend Jenny.  I had some good successes.  Like this clock that I bought for $1.

I also bought two boxes of canning jars.  I feel like I will never have to buy canning jars again.

But the best find was the cart.  This green beauty cost me $4.  Jenny and I had seen a white one that was shorter for $15.  Everyone at the yard-sale was admiring it as I purchased it in the past owners drive way. 

I am still working out what and how to put on it.

Shower Curtain

The shower curtain that I had up I got several years ago.  It is a fabric one with a liner.  The ceiling around the shower has an angle to it so I installed some cleats and then tied the shower curtain on.  This was not intended to be a long term solution.  

But I never came up with a better way to keep the water in the shower.  So here it is more than a year later.

I went and picked out a new curtain, no liner this time, too many things to keep clean, and a grommet kit from Jo Ann Fabrics.  

I lined up where the grommets should be, used a knife to cut some slits to fit the grommets into, and then a few taps of the hammer and I had a modified curtain.

I did learn that the grommets have a front and a back and that the tool only works one way. 

It has only been up for a day but I really like the new curtain.  It is a lighter color and makes the small awkward space feel better, and it has those accent colors my sister was talking about.  

Garden: Second Week in July

The garden is growing fast.  I thought I should share some of the plants each week, these were taken this morning. 

 Here is the zucchini.  I have two plants and each one has a bunch of zucchinis on it.  

I also have a bunch of hot peppers that are looking good.  The front plant has ones that will turn red.  I plan to dry them out. I haven't had a pepper plant before that grows the peppers pointy end up... 

The plant in the back also has a bunch of peppers, I plan to make bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers this weekend....though looking at that picture they don't look like jalapenos, probably should have kept that label.... 

And then I saw the broccoli.  I was hoping I could leave it until Sunday before picking it, but this morning I saw that I couldn't wait that long. The florets turn to flowers in about a day if you don't catch them soon enough.  I trimmed almost all of it off that two plants.  I took some of it for a snack (its gone already) and boiled water to blanch the rest of it.  

Then I vacuumed sealed it and put it in the freezer.  I read that if you plan to freeze vegetables for more than a month or two that they should be blanched because otherwise they turn bitter.  Which I think happened to the brussel sprouts last year.  It made for a hectic morning. But I look forward to having some home grown broccoli in the dead of winter next year.

The Front Entry gets Some Class

The entry way has needed some sprucing up for awhile.  I created a mail holder which has decreased the clutter but not eliminated it. I still wanted coat hooks and and shoe rack.

this was the current state:

Then I added the shoe rack. I can tell that I do not use this entrance a lot because I only have ridiculous shoes here. The rest are Andrew's.

I had spent some time looking for a mirror and come up short, but I had some pictures that I also thought would look nice but not everything could fit. So that decided it for me and, honestly, I get sick of making decisions, so that I ok with me.

And for the final touch I put the shoes back on, a jacket and an umbrella

The top picture has my address on it, Rachel created it for me out of math related objects, its pretty sweet.

So I am loving this because it is in the living room so I do see it, even if I am not 'using' it.  Now, if only the walls had trim....

Shoe Rack: Super Simple and Low Profile

For the front entry way I wanted a place to store shoes that was more finished looking than the white metal shoe rack I have from Shopko that is 8+ years old, so really anything would have been better.  

In terms of space, there is about 10 inches from the wall to the door. I investigated options of slender cabinets that can be purchased from IKEA or what not, they look good but in reality they don't hold that many shoes. I looked for other ideas that people had made and I came across a super simple idea that uses two board to catch the toe of the shoe and hold them in place.

Rachel had told me that I am in need of some accent color in my house.  (she is totally right, and I can admit that even though she is my older sister).  I contemplated stenciling the boards, but decided to cover them in fabric to get the right color and pattern and then coat with polyurethane to try to make the fabric water resistance and easier to clean up.

I picked out some fun fabric and trimmed to leave a couple inches on each side so that I could attach it like a canvas and also roll the edges over to help it look more finished.

I started at the ends and attached the fabric with one staple on each side, then moved to the middle of the long sections and did one staple on each side.  Working out from the center I tried to get the fabric wrapped tightly around the board without pulling the pattern out of whack. 

The corners were a bit tricky, I tried to wrap the board like a present but with the thickness of the fabric there was more tucking and rolling than what happens with wrapping paper.

Getting finish on these buggers proved to be more difficult than I had hoped.  I wanted to use spray finish; one: to reduce the chance of the fabric warping, two: I was hoping it would go faster, and three: have good coverage.  But the fabric soaked up too much. After going through most of a can I ended up using brush on polyurethane.  The fabric did warp but from a couple feet away it is not noticeable.  

I purchased plain steel brackets and painted them with the oil-rubbed bronze paint.  Each shelf got two.

The first board is a 1x6, it is mounted about 13 inches off the ground.  The second board which is the one that will hook the toe of the shoes is a 1x4, this one is mounted 2 1/4 inches above the 1x6.  I used boards as spacers and a level .

The next 1x6 is 3 1/2 inches above the 1x4.  And the process repeats.

Here it is with shoes on it!  

But I would have done a few things differently.  I probably would stencil and paint the boards next time, the fabric was a nice idea but the execution was a bit tricky and didn't turn out as nicely as I had imagined (what does?). The shelves aren't super rigid- I think that either they need larger brackets, more brackets or larger screws, but I am going to wait for the first one to come down to see where the weak link is, isn't that terrible?  They seem stable enough for the shoes but I don't think they will take much more abuse than that.