New York Renovator

What a lousy year for gardening. It seems I’m not alone– a lot of you gardening bloggers are also bemoaning the soggy spring, cold summer, and lackluster crops. I managed to pull out a big turnip and a few snowpeas, but so far NO eggplant, just ONE pepper, ONE zucchini, and ONE tomato (out of two plants)! Awful! Terrible! My local weatherman recently said out of the past 30 days, it’s rained for 20 of them!

ANYWAY, I’m still gardening. We’re turning our attentions away from our miserable vegetable gardens (hey, at least we have lots of lettuce!) to the flower gardens, “hard -scapes” (like concrete walkways) and improving our garden fencing and the compost area. My compost area is torublesome– it always has been. I have TOO much stuff to compost! Grass clippings, loads and loads of leaves and weeds, plus all our waste vegetable matter. I am going out tomorrow to look for a larger, more suitable bin to hold the waste. I’m also doing a little online shopping for some “compost starter.” My compost piles just don’t seem to do very well. I’m not sure if it is because the backyard is so shady, or I’m just not doing it right. But I’m getting some starter. I saw some great stuff at Buy.com, and it’s very affordable: Woodstream Compost Starter. It’s filled with all sorts of bacteria and stuff that compost piles find absolutely yummy yummy! Mmmmm. Well, I know we need it, because our pile STINKS like all get out, and I may have the neighbors with ther pitchforks coming after me if I don’t fix it! (It is said that a stinky compost pile means that it is not decaying properly).

Buy.com has all sorts of helpful stuff for gardening– even some good garden books, too (I found this book, “How To Cook Compost” very intriguing). I really recommend that you check out Buy.com’s sale website page that they update every week. Most of those items are electronics and gadgets– hey, those come in handy, too! You can find garden tools, power tools, small and large appliances, and a ton of all sorts of stuff. If you have not checked them out, you really should! And happy gardening!

One of the great things about having a perennials-only garden is that you get free plants after a few years. ALLLLL my perennials are bursting at the seams, so we have been enlarging our garden beds to accommodate them. And like the saying goes: “Many hands make light work.” The biggest difficulty is obtaining affordable mulch. The cost of mulch has really gone up, and I have been very tempted to outright buy a wood chipper to make my own! The prices per bag are ridiculous! And the bulk mulch from the nearby farms isn’t much lower.

Anyway, we are expanding our Secret Garden, presently, really trying to beef up the neighborhood PR New York. This area of the yard is the most visible as you drive down the street, and it has a lousy view for us (the garish parking lots and the car collision shops down the road). It’s been in desperate need of beautification.

Busting the sod:

We chop it up into small squares, and transport the sod to a shabby part of the property, an area we are trying to improve. It’s an old parking lot we’re trying to cover. It’s in very poor shape. There’s a very large parking lot next door, and years ago it was connected to ours (the neighbor’s and our properties were once one large lot). All the rainwater spills down into this ugly area, creating a very large pool of murky water. It’s in some serious need of public relations New York big time!

I’m laying sod here along my property line to cause more rapid decay of the asphalt and to absorb some of the water that collects here.

If I can keep the kids from playing in the water and stop them from creating “rivers” in the mud, this may look nice after the grass grows in!

In the next post or two, I’ll have some photos of our plants.

Our growing season is so brief here in Upstate New York, we tend to get exuberant over seemingly small things. Such as, MY PEAS ARE NOW ONE INCH HIGH!!!!!!!! Look!

Aren’t they beautiful?! (Ignore the weed).

The grapes are also doing very well. I am really enjoying watching these things grow.

And our lettuce is doing well. I have to get in here and thin the rows, though. We eat a lot of lettuce and fresh spinach during the summer, so I have five rows of this stuff planted!

The only thing not doing well is the cantaloupe. It’s been a very chilly and cloudy spring, and looks like the summer is starting off that way, too. It is unusually cool. So I don’t think my melons are going to do so well. It’s a good thing I never got around to planting the watermelon; I would have wasted my seeds.

My apple trees have dozens of tiny little apples on them! This is the first year we’re going to have a real harvest. I just hope I can keep the flies and caterpillars at bay… I may spray my trees to keep the bugs away.

How is your garden growing?

I’m giving more responsibility to the kids this year, to get the spring planting done. We are the latest we’ve ever been with the planting. But we had frost warnings as late as earlier this week! Crazy! I really hope our warm autumn weather lasts well into September, or we may not see much this year. It’s tough when you have such a short growing season; I can’t imagine how scarce it must be in even colder climates as Canada.

We’re working on enlarging the garden beds. I think I’m only going to get one bed enlarged, due to time constraints.

Those old perimeter boards are 150 years old. We got them from the attic floor. They worked really well for a few years, but now they are full of ants and are going to the burn pile.

We weeded the other bed.

We only had enough home-grown compost for one large bed. I try to add compost every other year. I may grow clover or rye in the other bed, after the harvest is over, to replenish the soil. I’m going to write a post about how to enrich your soil for vegetable gardening, in the near future.

As we Northeasterners have been crawling out of our hibernation, spring slowly arrives. My spring flowers are now blooming. Spring came early this year for Upstate New York– i.e., no snow in April! Usually, we don’t allow those sporadic 70-80 degree days to fool us. We know a snowstorm could (and has) happened. But this year- nothing! What a treat! Still, most of April was chilly, and I balked at doing anything outdoors.

But now it’s May. And we’d better get going on the growing season or else nothing will be ready. Autumn’s frosts are just a few months away.

Lilac buds! At last!

And tulips! Beautiful!

The kids and I have a few projects set up for this year. For one, I have GOT to get my dining room, kitchen, and bathroom electrifed. *sigh* Even if I have to use conduit. I have been waiting until I can gut the walls to run electric wiring… there is NO WAY I’m going to snake wiring through these plaster-and-lathe walls. But right now, I still can’t gut the rooms (not unless I win a million bucks or something!). And I can’t have wires hanging all around us. So I may just grab some conduit and plug things in, until I can renovate. I’m not too pleased about this choice, but we’ve been without electric for almost two years now, and it’s getting kinda old.

We’re also enlarging our vegetable garden beds.

As you can see, we have two large beds surrounded by gravel. We used to have four beds, but it was impossible for me to maintain it. I was gardening more square footage than my house– too much for me! Well anyway, I surrounded the beds with gravel for a few reasons– to keep the zillions of weeds at bay, to help with drainage (our property has an underground stream and it is always soaking wet), and to retain heat (slightly increasing our growing season time). Now that the kids are older and can help with the gardens (plus, they eat a lot more!), we’re widening the beds. This means that they have to dig out a linear foot of gravel all around the beds. I will install new boards to enclose the beds and we will add more soil. Those old boards are 150 years old, having been taken from our attic floor for the garden, lol! Yeah, we sure do know how to recycle.

The extra gravel that we are getting from the garden will go toward our next project- a new drywell system on the other side of the house. Like I said, there’s a lot of water around here and we experience flooding in our basement. It’s gotten better since the my town cleared out a drainage pipe across the street, and since we installed a drywell on the other side of the house. You can read about our project here and here. The kids found a few old coins during their dig. This side of the house we’re going to conquer may reveal even more treasures, as this side of the house was traditionally the well and garbage heap.

So that’s all I have on my plate for this year. I work at home now, leaving me very little time to devote to renovations. I’m still hoping to renovate the whole house, but especially the kitchen, which has fallen apart (literally). More to come!

Here in Upstate New York, we view March with a wary eye. ANYTHING can happen in March in the Northeast. A few years ago, we had a freak snowstorm that dumped a few feet on us. And we’ve seen 80 degree weather in March, too. So I’m still guarded about announcing that spring is officially here for March. But all the snow is gone (which is great).

Less than two months ago, the backyard looked like this:

Now it is this:

The weather has been really nice– cool, but sunny, until today (now it’s overcast skies with rain expected). And usually, March is a soggy month; but it’s been drier than usual so far this year (no complaints from me!). Still, the melted snow has left great gobs of mud and sludge in areas. It’s really too early to pack up the winter coats and boots, too early to break out the t-shirts and Walking Boots. March is the month full of surprises.

Nothing is really green yet. And I have a ton of work to do. Last autumn, I did rake my garden beds of the billions of leaves that fell in our yard! But either they returned or new ones took their places. My yard is a leaf magnet, I tell ya.

See? Here’s the evidence– we compost a lot of our leaves (not all). That’s about 10 cubic yards of compressed leaves there. And the town leaf patrol probably hauled off 30x that.

For some reason, the old wood pile looked like it needed a photo taken. We don’t have a woodstove, but the kids like to chop the wood from our felled trees. I do wish we had a woodstove, though.

I haven’t ordered any seeds for the growing season yet. I am so behind, it’s crazy! Usually I have everything assembled by the end of February. I have been visiting gardening blogs, and some folks have sprouted seedlings already! :S

I’m looking forward to being outdoors again, though. Campfires in the firepit… star-gazing… smelling the lilacs again… winter is worth it, just for the delights that spring gives.

How is your gardening coming along? Is spring weather more advanced where you are?

It’s time to prepare for the orange thumb season! The Project Orange Thumb is underway! What, you ask, Project Orange Thumb? I mentioned it last year- it is a terrific community gardening grant program. This is really great for solidifying a community and making your area a prettier, cleaner place. The Project Orange Thumb grant is sponsored by Fiskars (that company that makes those excellent scissors and other stuff– the only brand I’ll buy). It’s a grant program open to any community group (whether you be part of a gardening club or a youth group or a school) interested in improving the neighborhood with gardening, horticulture, “greening,” or desiring to improve your area with gardens. This is a terrific way to jumpstart a beneficial and beautiful community project! Twenty grant recipients from the United States and Canada will be chosen. Application deadline is February 17, 2009. That’s only a month away! Winners receive $1000 in gardening-related stuff and up to $1,500 in Fiskars gardening tools. Fiskars is an excellent brand, by the way. This is a really phenomenal project.

This is the 6th year of Project Orange Thumb; it’s been very successful, providing more than $300,000 to over 100 community groups throughout the U.S. and Canada! If you have been looking for an excuse to get your neighbors gardening, this is the perfect motivation. Go to the Project Orange Thumb grant website to see how you can apply, and read the rules for the grant. It’s not a contest or sweepstakes, and only groups (not individuals) may apply. But the deadline is February 17, so you won’t want to wait too long.

I love going back through the past year and seeing all the stuff we accomplished. It’s easy to forget all the little changes that have been made. Reminding myself of them makes me feel much better!

January: We started off 2008 with a stomach bug. I discovered the wonderful wonders of ginger beer, but got sticker-shock at the store prices. I found a recipe for making it myself! I also found out the hard way what to do if a washcloth is flushed down the toilet. And here’s another little tip about clogged drains. I also did a little research into managing excess (or any) rain for recycling: here’s my rain barrel idea, and here’s how we rigged up our sump pump pipes to irrigate our garden. (Not too many photos with these, sorry– this was before I got camera-fever!). Here’s some thoughts on whole-house surge protection. We had a spectacular, record-breaking January thaw of 70 degrees! That was great. Don’t want to wallpaper but like stripes? Paint them on! It takes a little time, but it’s much more enjoyable than hanging wallpaper.

February: I blogged about my concern over the flooding and water run-off problems plaging New York State, and my own property. NYS has been very negligent with maintaining its infrastructure, and allowing bloated over-development. And the State doesn’t seem to be doing much about the mysterious bat deaths. It was a great month for dwelling on creepy critters– I blogged about the Mother of All Wasp Nests that formed in our maple tree, and reminisced about having to remove a huge bee colony from our bedroom wall (inside the studs). Oh, and if you haven’t bookmarked my post about a formula for removing skunk smell, be sure and do that. You never know when you may need it.

March: March is a soggy month– here are some tips for coping with a wet basement. Here’s our wet basement in action. I was reading headlines that foretold of a coming financial crisis in the banking industry. Here are some posts where I made some calls for thriftier, more resourceful living: with kitchen appliances; avoiding the home improvement magazine temptations; diluting your laundry and dishsoap detergent (and I also dilute my liquid soap in my bathrooms); changing one’s lifestyle; new does not always mean better. My thoughts on curb appeal as we gear up for spring. And is sometimes the case, we got a winter storm warning– for March 28!

April: GARDENING! FINALLY! I spent a lot of time choosing seeds and starting my seeds indoors and prepping my large vegetable garden. I also planted a grape vine, my first! My electrical wiring that I had done last autumn was approved and I got a certificate from the electrical inspector! I was feeling discouraged about my renovations (lack thereof), and reminded myself of my buried treasure. I did a lot of thinking about our society and economy– does money make you happy? And what will happen to our food supply and food costs in this country? And I wondered if I would ever “go Amish”? (I would love to). I also posted a few quick and frugal tips, for keeping your laptop cool, and gardening uses for coffee grounds.

April and May: I slowed down blogging a little, as we were preoccupied with a caterpillar invasion; planting my little seedlings in my flower and vegetable beds (such lovely green!); thinking that American citizens really need to resurrect community living again; watching my gardens grow.

June: Seeing an infomercial got me seething mad about how easy it is to create a serfdom in this country. In the garden, I blogged about treating chlorosis in your young trees. I also blogged about fixing up your paint cans for less messier painting. And I did a post about Our Renovator Story, with links to all the things we have done around here so far. We had an Energy Audit done, no big surprises there– our house is a money pit! Speaking of money pits, I wrote this. And suggested that everyone make one of these. On the light side, my kids made cool Lego models of Jim and Elisabeth Eliot’s mission to the Auca tribe in Ecuador.

In July, my lilies bloomed. Ooooo.

Everything was growing like crazy! My Adirondack Red Potatoes grew! Yum! And I just love the color! We worked on our Secret Garden. I also wrote about the plight of the natural gas mines here in the Northeast. We got our Weatherization Grant job done– wow what a great job!

August: We got some outdoor work done– a beautiful concrete walkway for our Secret Garden. We used a Quikrete mold and it came out very well. I blogged more about thrift and our society, posting about the Planned Obsolescence that corporations afflict us with. I challenged a CNN article about “recession-proof” jobs– uhhh, I don’t think so! If anything, I think all these “crises” have been planned, for governments to gobble up our land and resources. One of my posts about such a thing got posted on the fron page of Alex Jones’ Info Wars website. Who really owns your land?

We installed a French Drain outside to help with the water problems, because we have too much water around here. We walked in our steamy, soggy yard early one morning to find a tiny snake.

September: With the onset of school, I was so thankful I’d installed Cat5 in the walls when I gutted the living room!!! I posted some tips about how to save $$ over the winter (take it from a pro). Now that the days are shorter, make indoors more fun for the kids– glow in the dark paint! We love ours. My back went out again and I got an exercise ball– when I could extract it from the boys!

October was busy, but I did some blogging. I discovered a very cool touch-lamp gadget– I love this! I also did a review of the Temperpedic Mattress– we got one for my bad back. Yours truly was interviewed by a real estate expert, this was fun! I won a video contest with a $500 prize! Snow fell. We had fun with our new kitty, Olivia. Gosh, she’s ADORABLE! I did a post on the secret Underground Chicken Movement, sweeping the country and throwing governments into tizzies!

November: I did a post on winter preparation. I did a paper towel comparison review, in time for the holidays. Results were surprising. My review of a GE upright vacuum gave a thumbs down.

A laminate flooring update (it’s holding up well). DO NOT cover your cold air return vents! I mourned the death of the Yugo… BYE BYE! FINALLY a can opener that works for me! I interviewed the delightful Martha Webb on home staging– read this post before your next open house!! More government tyranny. We’ll see if these kitchen trends come to pass this year *shudder*. I was bored. What’s inside a computer keyboard? The cat discovers the delights of toilet paper, terrific. But she’s so ADORABLE!! VERY cool virtual skylights, I want some!

December: Can’t afford a real tin ceiling? Try this. It works for us! Another cool touch-light gadget, love these things! We got our first bird feeder and made a video for the momentous occasion. And I thought my beagle was bad.
Lake effect snow, in pictures before and after. Times are changing– literally. We got a ton of snow to see the old year out and the new year in.

Whew! I guess I blogged a lot! Here’s to a terrific new year!

Here’s something I know we have ALL desired to do: grow some great goobers! I just love saying that word: goober. Never heard it until Jimmy Carter made it famous. Up north, we call them “peanuts.”

I never knew we northerners could grow peanuts– er, goobers. But we can! Here’s a cute little site that has more information about them. Goobers are extremely nutritous and make an excellent staple food.

Nutritionally speaking, peanuts are packed with protein, fiber and vitamin E, plus the kind of fat that lowers cholesterol rather than raising it. In the garden, peanuts are solar-powered wonders that fix their own nitrogen, and you can feed the plant tops to animals or use them as mulch, after you harvest the nuts. Peanuts themselves can show up in any course on the table, from salad to dessert. No wonder we eat so many of them. The average American consumes six pounds of peanut products per year…

I’m looking forward to trying to plant goobers. I’m attempting to expand ny garden variety every year. Last year I planted a grape vine, and before that apple trees. I can’t wait to try the great goober!

My firstfruits are in! I gave these to my church as a tithe. Look at how beautiful they are!

The potatoes are Adirondack Reds. It is my first year with them; it’s my first year with seed potatoes, actually. I bought these from Johnny’s Selected Seeds online. In years past, I just used store-bought eating potatoes, let them develop eyes, and plugged them in the ground. This year I just wanted to try seed potatoes. They are coming up beautifully.

The skins are very thin– even a moderate scrubbing will peel them off. I like eating potato skins, so I am careful when I scrub. These potatoes are also a little heavier– more dense– than the regular white potatoes I buy at the grocery store. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into them!

About potato growing– this year I was smart and made distinctive rows. I planted the potatoes closer together than recommended. After plugging in the potato quarters, I poured a layer of peat moss over the bed. I used peat as a mulch (it is very effective) for the growing season. Next year I will roto-till it in the soil, added with my compost. The plants just love this method.

I also heaped up mounds of soil around the potato plants when they grew to 8 inches. This encourages horizontal root growth and makes it much easier to dig for the potatoes. In times past, I had to basically uproot the plant and dig down into the hard ground to get my potatoes. Now, I just plunge my fingers into the peat and pluck what I need.

P.S. Is it true that rubbing a raw potato on one’s skin is as effective as a modern-day acne treatment?