fall happenings

tiny pink lady apples from our tree

bougainvillea in the garden

oranges

succulents and rosemary run amok

haircut #2

(in the upper right you can see our little house)

Weekend activities included building more stairs up the path to the look-out platform, re-potting cacti, pruning a newly discovered walnut tree and weeding, weeding and more weeding. 

 

 

 I also planted more radishes and we spent some time birdwatching.

 

String Garden

This project is so incredibly beautiful. I would like to have a glass greenhouse filled with my own string garden.

Go here to see more here.

(via AT-SWIM-TO-BIRDS)

lest we forget that there was a world before elli...remember that project i mentioned a week or so ago? here it is:an incredible potting bench designed and built by one talented german. it's made completely from recycled wood. the top pieces are redwood from our giant stack and the bottom pieces were salvaged from an old deck via craigslist. C sanded it all when he was done and then applied a thin coat of beeswax. he even added a few special details, pulled from a collected pile of old construction parts, to finish it off.i especially love the way the wax really brought out the different colors in the wood he used...while C was working on the table, I painted the funky carport. we figured it as long as it's still there (until we tear it down), we could at least spiffy it up a bit....and yes those are indeed overalls that i'm sportin'.

barring weekend-long thunderstorms, there are many more projects underway for this little area (and a special side project for elli!)...

sad saturday. ripped out the vegetable garden in a fit of rage over volunteer mushrooms. i've since heard they're fine and won't kill you if you don't eat them. we were more worried about our oak trees catching a fungal disease (sounds so gross).

the good news is the vegetable garden will be back, and better than ever (third time's a charm?).
plans so far (and these are rough):

(click image to enlarge)

the light gray areas are the walkways and the gardening bench doesn't exist yet, but you get the idea. we'll be adding a drip irrigation system.

the two smaller boxes are 4' square, the larger is 8' long. the round tubs are half wine barrels and we got our compost bins from the stopwaste program.

these are a few of the books, articles and websites i've been perusing for a little guidance: square foot gardening, sunset magazine, grow better veggies, you grow girl, companion planting...a little overwhelming but very fun. in the end though it seems the best method for learning about gardening is actually gardening.

C has continued to work in the front, which reminds me that i need to take some photos....the progress is really exciting!

vegetable garden overhaul, part two

almost 1200 lbs of concrete
to make a nice path
and to keep out the bamboo (hopefully)

redwood boxes built
and ready to be placed

break to watch a zeppelin fly over our house

boxes in place
and a new side path
waiting to be filled

missing photos with actual dirt in boxes
but too tired at end of day to take photos
if the rain stops for a minute
we can still squeeze in some planting
(fingers crossed!)

(side note: yes, it's true. we're experimenting with advertising on the site, we'll see how it goes)

summer is done, fall is in full-swing and we're back to work on the house.
first home weekend in a while and it felt good.
time for a vegetable garden overhaul.
we had some tomatoes last year, a few peppers and some misshapen zucchini.
we're going for a full-on, thriving victory garden...
in the spirit of eleanor roosevelt.


vegetable garden overhaul, part one

we've been looking for a coffee table for EONS now. my mother knows (from experience) how picky i am. i'm so picky that i swear i'll learn how to do everything myself (making shoes,etc...) because i can't find what i imagine in my head. still haven't learned to cobble.
back to the coffee table. nothing doing. we've been searching and searching and went out to antique flea market (aka antiques market) on saturday, walked miles (dad, didn't count it. don't worry) and found zilch. but i'm not alone here, curt's as nuts as i am. he says he's not, but he's picky too. it's fine. we'll find something.

update: we found something! on ebay...it's on the way.


to make ourselves feel a bit productive after the sun-drenched morning, we swung by our favorite hardware store and rescued a little sequoia that's been there for a while now.
curt had his eye on it for some time now...we figured since the little guy's been living down the street from us he'd be well adjusted to the environment and not get too home sick. we picked a spot on one of the slopes with a nice view of san francisco and moved him to his new home.recognize the mulch around the base of our new friend? it's courtesy of our old dead and shredded friends...some from this very same spot.
next project for the day? dealing with our newly diagnosed case of scale. you can read about battle over here.
after finishing the work, we took off for a sunset hike up to the top of our hill. it's pretty amazing right now....all of the almond trees are in bloom and the air smells sweet and like almond oil.we found poppies in bloom, and finally, sunset and view from hill:
and sunset and view through our binoculars: