Making a Mess

My neighbors love me.  Ha.  Hopefully I won't make a big enough mess for someone to actually complain.

So I've decided to make a mess of my yard.  The previous owners had it all nicely landscaped and pretty.  Well, since I bought it, I didn't water the lawn so I let the grass die and the weeds take over.

I never really cared for that planting strip at the front.  What purpose does it serve? So I decided to plant some tulips last fall.  Directly into the grass because I didn't feel like figuring out how to get rid of the grass.  

Well, then spring came along and the tulips started coming up.... and I realized I needed to do something.  So I laid mulch.  To kill the grass, I put newspaper down under the mulch to help suffocate the grass.  

So far this hasn't worked out so well.  First, I didn't buy enough mulch and so I ran out and the newspaper was peeking out from under it.  At the time I didn't think it was that hideous but the next day, as I was leaving or work, I realized how absolutely horrendous it was.  So that night I went and bought more mulch and laid that down.

Well, now it's been a few weeks.  The grass is peeking out at the edges.  And in places where the paper has shifted, leaving a gap for the grass to come through.  And next to the plants.

I also decided to cut some babies off a spikey plant closer to the house and plant those.  No clue what it is other than a spikey plant.  I transplanted 4 of them and it looks like 2 of them should survive.  I'll probably try another 2 or so again.  The original plants are pretty big and over grown and haven't appeared to have been harmed by my earlier attempt so I have more material to play with.

If you take the picture at the right place and angle, it doesn't look too bad.  Look! I have flowers.  What's that thing next to the flower?  It must be some glare or something.  It couldn't be newspaper peeking out.  Why would there be newspaper there?  hah

  

The garden center is not a good place for me.  It's a really nice garden center and they have tons of cool stuff.  It's really hard for me not to spend an hour just browsing what they have.  It's also really hard not to walk out of there with way more than I have any reason to buy. 

Case and point, the tree I bought.  It's a persimmon tree.  The reason this is relatively good is because it's only one tree, where I had 3 others I was also seriously considering.

 

So far it's just a stick in some mulch.  Hopefully something will happen soon.  I have no idea what I'm doing or when some signs of life will show up.

New Table

So my hoarder tendencies are going strong.  With the warm spring weather, everyone seems to be cleaning out and I have picked up a ton of furniture at the curb.  My garage is now packed with furniture.  A dresser, shelves, platform bed.....

Here is one piece. When I brought it home, I was figuring would be a really nice table for garden planning in my seed growing room and I can use one of the random chairs that I hoarded with it.

Well, only when I reassembled it, did I realize it's only about 1.5 feet tall.  Yes, I realize when the legs are just over a foot, it's not exactly going to be a standard table height but for some reason I didn't realize that until I assembled it and stood it up.

So now the question is, what is this table supposed to be for and what the hell am I going to do with it?

Seed Starting Update

I have my first sprouts!

See em?
They are in there
Broccoli and Brussels Sprouts have sprouted

Yes I do realize it's really early to be starting them but the weather's been so warm, I figure spring's gonna start early and they like a little bit of frost right?  That and I'm excited to have my first garden.  Garden that I own, that is.  Well, I guess technically the bank owns it.  hrm.  I'm good at sucking the joy out of things.

These were new seeds.  Most of my seeds are from 2010 and none of them have sprouted yet.  I'm hoping it's just because these ones sprout fast and the other ones will come up in the next week or so.  Otherwise I will be sad.

Seed Starting

 

 

The first batch of seeds has been started!  That is my water heater.  It's the warmest place in the house.  Until the plants actually sprout, they need heat, not light.  Once they have sprouted, they will move to a shelf where I will set up flourescent lights to get some seedlings going.  

I am anticipating 8 weeks to transplant.  Last frost date here is listed as April 11-18.  Hopefully it will be earlier rather than later.  Most of the seeds are from 2010 so we'll see how they do.

The seeds are a bunch of herbs, a bunch of tomatoes, a bunch of peppers and a bunch of other stuff, don't remember what other seeds I randomly chose.   Very descriptive, I know.

Hey look!  It's another post!  This is no way guarantees future performance.  Apparently I've heard too many investment commercials.

So I guess I should provide some other updates as well.

Well.

So what do I have to update.

The year started out with a bang.  A bunch of changes going on in my life.  Really stressful start to the year at work.  A few weeks in, I was really disturbingly close to having a complete psychotic meltdown.  Some may say I wasn't just close, but I was way over that line.  Of course some would say I've never seen the right side of it.  But I'm better now.  Relatively speaking anyway.  I never claimed to be the picture of normal.

Anyway....

I am preparing to start seeds for spring.  That's all sorts of exciting.  Except that I am so indecisive  that I keep changing what I want to grow, where each plant goes, how I want to lay out the garden, etc.  You would think, considering I now have probably double the space I have had before, I would have plenty of space for everything.  But I keep adding more stuff I want to grow!  Well (theorhetically anyway) I will have more posts in the future about that.

Now... I will actually publish this without a picture because it'll never get posted if I wait until I dig up my camera, take the pictures, copy the pictures over, choose one, post it... Yes I realize in the amount of time I spent typing that out I could've done all that.

This is a pretty simple recipe.  A good way to get a nice sugar kick going.  Maybe a way to kick off my return to blogging.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge
based off Alton Brown's fudge recipe.  Google it if you want that instead of my version.

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
8 oz butter
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Coat an 8x8 pan with cooking spray or butter.  Heat peanut butter and butter in a pyrex bowl, covered, for 2 minutes in the microwave.  Stir.  Heat for another 2 minutes in the microwave.  Stir thoroughly.  Stir in confectioners sugar and vanilla until combined and mixture has a dull finish.  Stir in chocolate chips and let sit for a minute to allow them to soften.  Press mixture into the greased pan.  Chill until firm.  Cut into squares.

Playing House

Yay for taking some vacation! One that I apparently desperately need. For weeks now, every time I would say anything, my coworker would respond with 'man, you really need to take a vacation'

I am taking the week off for Thanksgiving. I am cooking the turkey and stuff. I can't say it's a terribly exciting vacation but it's relaxing. I've sat around the house. Watched a season of Mad Men. Painted my coffee table. Played with my compost pile. Cleaned assorted surfaces. Although I still can't seem to get the grout in my kitchen/lining room floor clean. I lead an exciting life, I know.

After numerous rounds of scrubbing it with a toothbrush, scrubbing brush, all purpose cleaner, bleach and a mop. It's still not quite clean but at least it's better. A stiff toothbrush wes the best way I've gotten at cleaning the grout. The scrubbing brush just didn't get into the grout as well as the toothbrush did. I will probably pick up a bunch of them the next time I am at the grocery store. Although maybe an electric toothbrush would cut back the amount of elbow grease needed.

Anyway... this post is supposed to be about the coffee table.

There was a time when I didn't really care for this coffee table. It is a handmedown from my parents. Who had probably picked it up at the curb at some point. When I got my first apartment after college, they gave it to me. It was beat up. It's particle board with a wood veneer and the squares on the legs that you can't really see in the picture are plastic with some sort of coating on it. There are spots where the veneer is worn away, and paint drips and spots where it was warped from moisture. I decided I wanted to get new furniture but I'd hold on to this one until I got the new one. Well, it's been almost 10 years and... well... as you can see I still have it.

But I still don't love it. I put it in the basement, still with the intention of getting new living room furniture. I have accepted that I'll probably keep it for a while longer.

So I decided to at least make it less ugly. I sanded it down and painted the whole thing bright red. It's still back in my basement and at least the warped damaged parts of it are not so noticeable.

Compost

The leaves have been falling and suddenly my compost pile is full.

Although actually it was a lot fuller a couple days ago when I loaded it up so hopefully the leaves will break down more before I have to add more.

And yes that picture was taken through my kitchen window.  It's cold out and it's before 7AM!

On a related note, everyone who has seen my compost pile thought it was weird that I had paper in there.  Why is that weird?  Newspaper is a lot like leaves. 

Though really I need some nitrogen in there.  Any suggestions for where to get some that's free?