Friday, July 10, 2009

Painting and planting. House, shed, and garden updates

I'll start with the shed. Daniel put a new roof on while we were at the beach a few weeks ago. Then he painted it purple and brown. It looks so much better and very cheerful next to the garden.
Next is the kitchen. I couldn't decide on a color. It was a pale green color. Here it is while I was sanding and trying out 4 different colors. I thought I could be bold and use a nice blue or rusty red, but I was too scared.
I went with a neutral taupe/tan color. Next I'll be sanding and painting the cabinets and replacing the hardware. Sorry about the bad pictures but you get the idea of the color.

In the garden we've (I really should say Daniel since he does about 95% of the work) made quite a few changes. He cut down all the bush beans that were finished then cut out the brussels sprouts that didn't do much. He pulled out all the potatoes and planted more bush beans. He has also pulled out the tomatoes that got blossom end rot (or some disease) and has planted a cover crop of buckwheat in all the empty spaces.

This is the bed of bush beans. You can see how he has put lots of wheat straw on the bed. The beans are growing right up through it.

Here's a shot of the buckwheat coming up through the straw. There's a cabbage and some peppers still at the end of this bed. We've harvested 3 medium cabbages and have loved having that for a change. There' s still a few out there.

Here's a close up of the okra. I'm sorry that flower is not open. I could grow these plants just for the flowers because they are so beautiful. We've got a lot of okra but not too much yet. I've really enjoyed it this year cooked in everything -- soups, sautes with pasta or rice, on pizza and of course deep fried.

Here's a few butternut squash on the vine. Daniel already harvested a large one a week ago. I haven't cooked it yet since it stores well.


The watermelon, okra, and sweet potato patch.
We have four o'clock flowers in several spots around the yard. Most of them are yellow, some are pink and some are like this one below.

4 comments:

Anna Morrison said...

Thanks for the update. I was wondering what kind of projects you all had been up to. I knew it had to be something. :) Like the paint colors. You make painting look easy.

I enjoy seeing your garden from time to time. Wish I could walk through it. You all are always giving us great ideas for our garden.

Miss you.

Unknown said...

I love the purple shed! Paint some flowers on there!

jbulluck said...

nice yall. Keep at it. Sorry i missed your call Daniel. Did you finally find us a great piece of property in the foothills where we can grow food and make all the money we need from selling macrame plant holders and chalk drawings at the local post office?

jbulluck said...

and Jennifer, the kitchen looks great, btw. good choice.