Urban farming update: Out with the old {lettuce}

Posted in Around the house, Garden by mszerwo

It’s been two months since our last urban farming update and a lot has happened in that time!

This is where we started:

Our new planter boxes/raised beds

And this is where we were at in the end of April.

Fast forward to the end of June: Our lettuce went crazy! I’m pretty particular about my lettuce (romaine heads, please) and with the abundance of kale we’ve grown, we decided the lettuce was taking up valuable raised bed real estate, so we harvested it all.

Our lettuce, pre-harvest (6-2015)

So many greens!!

We made made great use of the harvest with lots and lots of salads!

The romaine part of our harvest. (Bibb lettuce portion not pictured.)

We tilled our soil and planted two tomato plants and a pepper plant. And now our beets can see the light of day and continue to grow big and juicy!

Our new and improved crop: tomatoes and peppers

Such a beautiful garden! So healthy and pretty!

20Apr2015

Urban farming

Posted in Food, Garden by mszerwo

It’s official… we’re urban farmers! The tricks to our success? Creating a nutrient-rich environment (tilling our own organic soil and compost, sand, coconut husks, and organic fertilizer) for our fruits and veggies to flourish in and doing nothing.

About six weeks ago we constructed and planted some planter boxes. After planting, we basically did nothing but monitor nature doing it’s thing. Job well done, nature!

Here’s how our kale box started in early March:

Raised bed #1: Raspberries, strawberries, kale, beets, garlic bulbs and carrots!

And at the end of March:

They’re growing! The raspberries took the early lead in growth

Easter Sunday:

Kale has taken the lead, but the raspberries are holding on strong

The next week:

Holy greens! Nothing like April showers and sun to get that garden growing!

This past weekend:

Kale progress: ready for harvest!

And today:

Harvesting our first kale crop!!!

Thanks, kale, for a delicious dinner!

Yum! Kale, sausage and mushroom pasta for dinner tonight

19Mar2015

Spring has sprung {2015}

Posted in Garden, Gone Pinning, Holidays by mszerwo

It’s here! It’s here! Happy spring to you!

Here on Megan’s Island and in the Pacific Northwest, we never really saw a winter (sorry to rub it in, east coast) so this spring transition isn’t as big as it is some years.

Look, this Magnolia tree is almost done with this round of blooming! It’s been spring for SO long here!

It’s raining flowers on Megan’s Island!

With the days getting longer and warmer, I’ve scoured the internet for some ideas to help spring shine inside and out.

Spring!

Tulip wreath

Flower cookie bowls

So many other great things about spring: Easter, baseball, tulips, the list goes on!

Here are some more signs of spring in our yard!

Signs of spring in the backyard

Flowers for days!!

For all of my finds, visit my “Sunshine-y days” Pinterest Board! And get out there and enjoy the warm sun-showers!

9Mar2015

New planter boxes!

Posted in Garden by mszerwo

Or are they raised beds? I don’t really know the difference. What I do know, however, is that I love them!

Our new planter boxes/raised beds

I’ve been thinking about some iteration of these boxes for the past couple of years and other things (like the pizza oven) have taken priority… until now. Brandon and I took advantage of our early spring weather and the leftover cedar from the front fence to build these beauties.

Planting beet seeds

Each box is 4′ long x 2.5′ wide and is planted with all sorts of goodies: raspberries, strawberries, garlic bulbs, kale, carrots, snap peas, peppers, beets, and a couple of lettuces. (Letti?)

Raised bed #1: Raspberries, strawberries, kale, garlic bulbs and carrots!

Raised bed #2: Lettuces, sweet peppers, snap peas, and beets

Here are some of the in-progress photos for your enjoyment:

Before shot of our new garden area

Before photo: stocking up on soil, plants and seeds

Box construction

The boxes are Brandon-sized!

Lightweight!

Proud of his work!

Is it spring in your neck of the woods? Did you take advantage of the nice weather? Tell me all about it!

21Oct2014

Spring bulbs

Posted in Garden by mszerwo

It’s possible we had our last warm day of the year this past weekend — it was 75 degrees on Sunday! — and I took advantage of it by spending some quality time in the garden.

A couple of weeks ago I spotted some Hyacinthus bulbs at Costco for a reasonable $15. There were 28 bulbs in the pack, far too many for us to use, so we split them with my parents. They had purchased a different pack of bulbs and split those with us. We’re going to have so many flowers come spring!

My first time planting bulbs

Using my genius idea from last year, I found my leftover golf tees and painted the tips purple. Once everything dies back for the winter, these will help me know where to look for new growth. I used a $0.59 bottle of acrylic paint that I had on-hand (it’s Husky purple!) and painted the tops. They dried within a couple of hours.

Purple bulb markers

Once the paint on the tees was dry, it was time to get to planting! I dug my holes per the specifications and covered them back up with dirt.

Bulbs = planted

And…that’s it. Bulbs are so easy!

Looking forward to the spring and all of our new flowers!

14Sep2014

Pizza, pizza: We named the oven

Posted in Around the house, Food, Garden by mszerwo

Our glorious backyard pizza oven

We capped off a wonderful summer with a big, ‘ole party. It was the prefect weather and we invited all of our friends for a full-on Italian feast, complete with a make-your-own pizza bar.

Backyard pizza party toppings bar

Brandon and I thought up some unique Italian names for our pizza oven and narrowed the list down to four:

Name ideas for the oven

We had our party guests vote (I love elections!) and we chose the winning name…

Oven’s got a name: Fatto e mano!

Since the oven is short and stout, we think Fatto (or Fattie, as we like to call it) is perfect.

Now that we have the name I’m working on a fun logo (it’s a pizza place, right?!) and a fancy door for the oven. More to come on both of those fronts soon! Have a wonderful week!

UPDATE: It appears as though Google translate failed us! “Fatto e mano” isn’t the correct, rather Fattie’s new name is Fatto A mano. Thanks to Sarah for catching it!

Fattie in action!

25Jun2014

PIZZA OVEN!!!!

Posted in DIY, Food, Garden, Homemade by mszerwo

Remember that pizza oven that we keep talking about? (Here, here, here, and here)

Well…after almost a year, we finally finished it over the weekend!

Finished pizza oven with Geroni-gnome, our watch’gnome’

Our brand new, almost-done pizza oven!

It’s not quite pizza time yet. We have to wait for the mortar to dry fully and then start lighting consecutively larger fires, curing the oven. All-in-all it should take another week and a half or so. Then…it’s pizza time! Over the past year, the oven has gone from a pile of bricks…

A truckful of fire bricks

To a base…

So it began: Memorial Day 2013

More of a base…Firebricks, red bricks, and kiln insulation

To a real-looking oven!

Building up the walls and ceiling arches

The arches hold! We’re really doing this…

Almost there!

So close to pizza time!

It looks like it was meant to there, right!?

The backyard is READY!

Two big questions remain: When is happy hour? And what should we name it!? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below! Winner gets invited to our pizza party!

22Jun2014

Basil-mint pesto

Posted in Food, Garden, Homemade by mszerwo

Oh, look! A new post! Sorry about the blogging hiatus, my day job has been occupying all of my blogging time and energy.

Anyway, over the weekend Brandon and I made a delicious dinner, that was also extremely photogenic. It was also very popular with my Instagram followers, including a recipe request. So, here it is:

A few months ago we planted a “basil-mint” plant with our fig tree, in hopes that planting them together would be mutually beneficial. Our experiment has been somewhat successful, although I don’t know if it’s my master gardening skills or the combination of sun and rain the garden has been getting.

Our basil-mint bush

We definitely won’t have figs this year (although the tree has doubled in size since last year!) and we have more than enough basil mint. This stuff is great. It tastes like basil and is hearty like mint. It also spreads like crazy. We cut off a whole stalk of basil and used Brandon’s Dad’s not-so-secret recipe to make the pesto (see below).

Basil-mint pesto

We took the extra time to make pasta from scratch for this dinner, and it was well worth it. We used our pasta maker with the rigatoni attachment. The pasta was perfect.

Homemade rigatoni

While we let the pasta dough rest, we sauteed Italian sausage ground turkey LINK and peas. Once the noodles were cooked, we added them to the meat and peas, added a touch of pesto and some parmesan. Voila! Dinner!

Delicious! Our basil-mint pesto final product

Brandon’s Dad’s Pesto Recipe

(Yield: 1 3/4 cups, 4 servings)

2 c. fresh basil
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese
1/2 c. chopped hazelnuts (Or any nut, really. We used pine nuts this with this pesto)
2 large cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
2/3 c. olive oil

Put all ingredients in the blender until preferred consistency is reached. You can add a squeeze of lemon to help hold the color, but don’t add too much or it will flavor the pesto. Use immediately or place in an airtight container. Refrigerate pesto up to one week or freeze up to six months.

18May2014

Spring to-do list

Posted in Garden by mszerwo

The combination of multiple 70+ degree days and record-breaking rain has done a very positive number on our garden. We’ve been maintaining everything pretty well and over the weekend I spent some time cleaning up and taking inventory of what’s next on the to do list. In honor of my favorite Young House Love bloggers, my very own Listy McListerson…

Needed: More moss ground cover

Front yard

Clean, stain and seal our bench in the front courtyard
Clean and stain fence
Drill drainage holes in the front retaining wall
Exchange busted walkway lighting for ones that work (Thanks, Lowe’s. Not.)
Get a new hose (Maybe one of those shrink-until-they’re-full-of-water fabric hoses?)
Import more moss for ground cover
Even out the concrete slabs
Think about replanting the plants along the walkway
Fix light above garage
New front door mat (Our Pinterest project gone wrong isn’t cutting it anymore…)

Side yard

Remove grass and weeds
Build and plant raised beds (It’s time to grow our own kale… and tomatoes, squash, and raspberries, among others…)
Drill drainage holes in the wine barrel planters (side and back yards)

Side yard: before

Back yard

We’re so close to finishing our pizza oven!

Pizza oven! Pizza oven! Pizza oven! We’re so close to getting it done and will this spring!
Make a wine barrel cocktail table (on wheels, with a plexiglass tabletop) for the deck
Build lower deck bench seat (Ideas here)
Have landscaper out to trim the hedges, get rid of the blackberry on the tree

Just a small little list, right? I’m not promising that this is all going to get done this year, but now that I have a list I’ll have more direction for how to proceed. We have a three-day weekend coming up soon. Maybe we’ll tackle this list then.

19Apr2014

{Gone Pinning} Backyard bench

Posted in DIY, Garden, Gone Pinning by mszerwo

Happy weekend! Last weekend we spent many hours cleaning and staining the deck, planting and re-planting new plants, rearranging the yard and plotting future projects.

Here was the main focus of my plotting: the lower deck in the backyard:

Lower deck, in need of a bench

Then it was off to Pinterest to find some good ideas to fill in that gap in the laurel that looks right at the neighbor’s house, provide some extra seating for all the parties we’re planning for this summer, and finish off the lower deck. Beyond finishing the pizza oven, this is the only thing we really have left in the back, which is AWESOME!

So, here are some of my ideas. Let me know your thoughts. We’ll have our Megan’s Island contractor/supervisor (my Dad) over here soon and I look forward to sharing the finished product with you shortly.

Standard bench with backrest

Another basic bench, this one without a back. This could double as a storage location.

Maybe something in between? I do like adding a planter into the bench design.

A more modern look, with a concrete planter as part of the base

Or a bench that matches our front fence?

So many great ideas. I’m looking forward to talking it out and making a design decision this weekend. Have a great Easter and rest of the weekend!

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Category Archives: Garden

Urban farming update: Out with the old {lettuce}

Urban farming

Spring has sprung {2015}

New planter boxes!

Spring bulbs

Pizza, pizza: We named the oven

PIZZA OVEN!!!!

Basil-mint pesto

Spring to-do list

{Gone Pinning} Backyard bench