from yawning to AAWWW-ning

The previous life, death, and rebirth of a tattered old awning: Below is the house as we bought it three and a half years ago. The sad, beige, paint-splattered aluminum awning did it’s job well, but otherwise sat there with no joy. Some of the hardware was removed to drop it out of the way […]

the unbearable weightness of mowing

Keeping a lawn makes me crazy. The time, energy, and money spent on keeping a growing thing from looking like it ever grows. Seed and water and fertilizer and weed killers and weeders and edgers and push mowers and riding mowers and zero-turn riding mowers and treatment companies and lawn care companies and and and. […]

faring the storm

An abrupt and aggressive storm swept across the Kansas City Metro this morning, knocking out our power for over three hours while I was at work. My husband informs me that the wind was so strong and rain blew into the kitchen underneath the back door. He watched the garden in the side lot and […]

episode 130: where my hand is used for scale

As it goes, the Giant Marconi pepper is aptly named. This one is still going and hasn’t even started turning red. This will be an awesome stuffing pepper! Blauhilde beans: They’ve gotten bigger faster than last year. We only have a few stalks that volunteered from last year’s crop. I plan to just save the […]

good fences make better neighbors…

…than bad fences do anyway. Our pseudo-neighbor is flipping the house on the other side of our extra lot. He informed me some time back that he would be taking out the chain-link between us and putting in a privacy fence. He was neighborly enough to check in about the property line and where the […]

maters

We might be seeing the start of our best tomato crop yet. Many large fruit varieties are doing well in the original bed. The from-seed starts are behind but are budding prolifically. The plant above (and below) is a volunteer. At this point I would say it was a red beefsteak, and it already has […]

this week in the gardens

The daylilies are pushing their dazzling display. While the basic orange “ditch lily” has mostly bloomed out, the special varieties are just hitting their peak. Also, the crazy orange triple bloom just made its first appearance yesterday. The spring radishes and baby bok choy totally got away from me this spring and have gone to […]

returning to queue

Our street has been ripped up for over a month while the gas company runs a new line and connections. Such luck that the main line runs under the sidewalk on our side of the street. (Yay!) Last week, the storms passed long enough for the cement contractor to pour the sidewalks along our double […]

the award for final not-red goes to…

RED!!! The randomness of what was thought to be all red bee balm has become the happiest of accidents. Red and purple and violet and lilac and lavender, pink and hot pink and mauve. What a great color palette. It fits beautifully with the purples and reds of the earlier gladiola planted behind it.

little visitor

I sowed three different parsley patches this year, mostly for swallowtail caterpillars. I mean, we might use parsley once or twice through the summer, and the roots are pretty tasty in the fall… but the patches are for them. So, today I find this guy munching away in our garden. On my freakin’ dill. LOL Okay, […]