working down the list...

I seem to have somehow ended up with several projects that were "almost" finished, but for one reason or another need just one or two more things to be complete...

Like the potting bench that still, after two weeks, didn't have a finished top...




Or the little glove crate in the mudroom that after a month, still didn't have a handle...



But despite the several mostly finished projects, the other evening I found myself sketching plans for yet another little something I'd like to build. (Apparently my attention span isn't long enough these days to completely finish what I start before wanting to move on to something else...)

When I thought about all the little bits and pieces of things I needed to finish up, I decided I wouldn't let myself start one more thing until I'd completed all the "almost finished" ones. So that's what I've been working on...

Yesterday I finished the top of the potting bench. I ended up covering it with tin...



... and adding a handle to each bin door.



I like how it turned out... and that the plywood I used for the lids is now protected from the elements.


Cross that one off the list.


Today I'll be adding the handle to the glove crate (cross another off the list!)...




... and freecycling the old metal patio table that ended up homeless when I cleaned off our little flagstone patio.

Little by little I'll get that list knocked down to nothing...





... because I really want to start that new project!

kitchen garden spruce up (making the beds)

I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground and cold, gray skies... Such a change from the beautiful sunny weather we've had so far this week.



I took advantage of all that beautiful weather to work out in my little kitchen garden... getting it spruced up and ready for another gardening season.



My kitchen garden is so tiny (just 10' x 12') that it's easy to "rearrange" and "remodel" and each spring I do a little of that... changing things around, making it fresh and new again.

I'd been thinking about adding a couple of small raised beds out there this year, and the raised beds that E is putting in at her house inspired me to buy some lumber and get going on that idea...

I bought BIG lumber for a change... usually I buy the smaller stuff... and came home with some 2x12's and 2x8's) for my beds. I decided to put the taller bed next to the house and the smaller one closer to the yard for a step-down look.



The beds were easy to build... just a couple of cuts, a few holes pre-drilled, and a few screws. Easy.








I bought some bags of garden soil and hauled some dirt from the pumpkin patch to mix with, to fill the beds.

Then I did a little more rearranging... moving the big pot to the other side of the garden (it's currently holding chives that had to be relocated to put in the raised beds... the ones that survive will be given away, as I don't need them), transplanting some sweet william around the pot, and adding a stone border. Once the weather warms more the pot will hold a cherry tomato plant...







I'd already moved the compost bin that used to be next to the rhubarb plants, which opens up that space (to the left of the rhubarb) for planting...



I think I'm going to put in something flowering there, possibly a dwarf lilac or something similar, that will give me blooms without spreading beyond the small space available, or shading the rhubarb too much.

The last step is to finish adding more cedar mulch to the walkway between the beds and maybe build a cucumber frame for the smaller bed... something like this:

 

This morning's snow is melting quickly from the yard and pastures and it's supposed to start warming up again tomorrow. I can't wait to get back out in the garden and finish up... and then it's only a few more weeks (ok... maybe 5 more weeks) to planting!

building a reclaimed wood potting bench

This is was going to be a post featuring a beautifully detailed and in-depth tutorial about how to build a sturdy, functional potting bench for nothing.

But then I realized that the potting bench I just built wasn't quite "nothing"... so far I've spend $2. on a piece of 2x2, and a few dollars more on hardware.

And I also realized that my in-depth tutorial might have some fairly significant gaps because I'm so terrible at taking pictures as I go along. (In other words I don't have a single picture of how it was built... I was having too much fun building it to take pictures!)

But anyway... for what it's worth... here's the slightly condensed version of how you can build a sturdy, functional potting bench for $10.




You start by making a quick sketch on the same envelope that holds your to-do list. (Yes, one of the tasks on my to-do list was super glue the car... don't ask... when your car is almost 20 years old it sometimes requires a little extra creativity when it comes to repairs.) Having the sketch on your to-do list guarantees you'll be looking at it often and inspired to start building.

Figure out a rough idea of the size of your potting bench (mine was determined by the space it would occupy on the back porch and the size of the scrap of plywood I found to use for the top.)



Then look in your stash of wood scraps saved from various projects... your carefully hoarded bits and pieces of wood that might-be-good-for-something-someday. When you don't find enough long pieces of wood there, check your barn and garage (and the neighbor's trash, if necessary) until you have enough for the main form of your potting bench.Then keep digging for more wood, measuring, cutting and assembling (no longer looking at the little picture you'd made because you've misplaced the envelope), making it up as you go along.... until have something that looks like it might be useful.

Don't forget to enjoy the amazing spring day as you work.



Run to Home Depot for hinges and hooks because even with the decades of stuff stored in the barn and garage you can't find any that will work and life is too short to waste time searching for a $2. set of hinges.





Add some sturdy hooks on one side to hold gardening tools.

Neglect your children (only slightly) while you finish building your creation...



Use a bit of exterior paint to paint the shelf boards if, like me, you used scraps of pre-primed 1x3's for the shelving. It will cover up the glaring white of the primer.



Stand back and admire your work...



.. and maybe re-pot a plant or two because it's so much easier now that everything is in one place, and you aren't getting dirt all over the kitchen counter each time you re-pot something.




A few more details:

The only piece of wood I had to buy is the 2x2 piece of redwood behind the top shelf, all the rest is reclaimed wood... leftovers from projects, bits and pieces salvaged from the old outhouse that used to be on our land, and even some wood side panels from a old stake side work truck.

Except for the new piece of redwood, it's all oak and pine.

It's 36" tall, counter top height to be easy to work at.

I started by building two rectangles from 2x4's (one is the frame of the shelf, the other holds the bins for potting soil) then added legs to hold them the height I wanted them. I left the back legs longer, sticking up behind the top, to hold the small top shelf.

The top... the hinged lids... of the potting bench are still unfinished, they may end up wrapped with galvanized sheet metal or tin, or maybe just painted... I can't decide what to do with them.

I used plain plastic dish tubs under the lids to hold potting soil, etc.

The painted shelf slats are coated with a good exterior polyurethane, but the rest of the wood remains untreated.

It's a little early...

... to do much gardening here (our average date of last frost is about May 21st), but yesterday was just too pretty a day to stay inside, so I decided to clean out the front flower garden.

It was buried under a winter's worth of maple and cottonwood leaves, sticks, pine cones, and bits of bark from the firewood we've been burning all winter... all matted around the base of last year's flower stems (neatly deadheaded by the deer!)

It wasn't a pretty sight...



But in amongst the mess, I could see our lone little crocus... already blooming...



... and the columbines starting to grow.



So I started cleaning it out.

I was surprised to find that some of the echinacea were even showing some brand new tiny leaves...



... their trademark purple-green color easy to see against the mulch.

I even rediscovered a tiny volunteer blue spruce that somehow sprouted here... (If it survives a few more years, I'll transplant it somewhere else, of course... somewhere that actually makes sense to plant a tree that will reach 30' someday!)




I didn't quite finish the big clean out...




I worked until the sun started to go down... taking the warmth with it. I'll finish the last little bit another day.




The last thing I did was to give the whole garden a good spray with deer stopper, to keep the deer from nibbling my tender new plants...



... especially  my hollyhocks that I've been working to grow for two, or is it three, years now? (Yes, that is deer scat under the hollyhock... I can't decide if it was left as an opinion of my gardening skills, or to lend a helping... errr... hand with a little fertilizer.)



It was a lovely way to spend a warm early spring afternoon...

chicken coop... all buttoned up for winter

I finally finished winterizing the chicken coop. It feels good to have it done...

Last week I built a little wall for the north/west side of the coop to close it off. The wind and snow comes mostly from those directions during the winter, so I knew I wanted something substantial on that side. I just used scraps of wood from other projects to build this little wall...



(Yes, I should have staggered by little cedar "shingles" I'll fix it in the spring when I take it off again.)

Then I used long deck screws to attach it to the coop.



Here's a "before" picture showing the bottom of the coop enclosed with just chicken wire, which is perfect in summer but... brrrrr, in the winter!


Then I added thick plexiglass that we already had it to the south side.



And some thin plexiglass, that I picked up at Home Depot, to the east side.



I like the thick plexiglass much better (despite it's fogginess from being old) but I just couldn't justify spending the extra money to buy the thick kind for the fourth side... It was three times as expensive! So I bought the thinner sheet... I don't think the chickens care. ;)

I did want to definitely use plexiglass on the east and south sides (it would have been much cheaper to use wood), because I wanted to take advantage of the sun... hoping it would help warm the coop on those cold days.

Here's the finished coop, nestled behind the raspberries...



Which have been producing for weeks...



Joe wonders why I'm outside working on the chicken coop so much.

It's because I work a little, eat some raspberries, work a little more, eat more raspberries....



Mmmmm... it's a great way to get things done.

early snow

It wasn't unexpected... I'd seen the predictions, even several months ago, that we were going to have a cold, snowy winter.

And the forecast yesterday was clear... snow possible, especially early Friday morning.

But I was still a little surprised to wake up to this lovely light snowfall...



I covered my pumpkin patch last night... just in case.

I'm glad I did...



Just last week I was working outside, sweating in 90 degree heat... Last night, when the temperature in the house dropped down to 56, I turned the heat on.



It's early for a snow... even just a dusting, but it's pretty....



... and by the weekend, we should be back up in the 70's and enjoying the sunshine again.