Porch {part 4}

I love my big porch! It's added living space in the summer, shelter in the winter plus what's not to love about a big roomy porch? I'm very visual in my head before it's a reality but even I didn't know how grand this was going to be.

 2014

 It became a family project all the way through. 

Son L, who is in landscaping, offered his expertise and equipment. I explained my vision using the boulders and he took it from there. It's beautiful and even better than how I saw it in my head. 

 

(Notice the hanging baggies? It's to keep the flies away; the jury is still out on that one for me. I think the porch is too tall for it to be effective but does seem to make a difference at the side door.)

This chandelier was an electrical indoor light fixture bought for a few dollars at a yard sale. I took it down to its bare bones and use it outdoors. It was painted white for a wedding and will be painted another color again. It's the perfect heft for the farm table made by my honey before his illness. 

Years ago on a BH&G's magazine cover, I saw a large boulder with an indention where rainwater collected as a birdbath and thought it was delightful. Now I have my own thanks to L for doing a fine job of balancing the rock...love that too!  

~ Esther

Courtyard Entrance {part 3}

I had a long-time dream of a U-shaped house with a courtyard in the center of the U. I don't have the U-shaped house but I do have a courtyard. And I love, love it! It's an easy-care space with my very, very favorite perennials and annuals planted in it.

It was a lot of work and heavy lifting but I also had a lot of live-in help. And I learned how to run a Bobcat that saved me a lot of time and energy. I was in my element!

It started with this: a piece of plywood, a few pots and a dream.

The dream included old brick, recycled wrought iron and stone walls.

After the concrete for the porch was poured I started with the first stone wall, which was a backward way to start. I ended up taking it back down again later because it wasn't lined up with the porch. (Lesson learned...start from the house out instead of the other way.) And this was AFTER everything else was in place!

I back-filled in with good dirt and composted horse manure as the wall was built. The ground here is stones, rock, clay, shale and is hard. My mantra is when you get lemons, make lemon aid!

My helpers! After watching me do the first brick column J wanted to learn how to do it as well. P got in on it too, then it was brother teaching brother. As the dry-stacked brick columns were built, the recycled wrought iron was put in place and the clematis' were planted.

Wayne dug the other side loose enough for me to work with it. I literally hacked it out of the hill but, again, it was worth the work.

I wasn't sure how this was going to look like and designed it as I was building it. It turned out well. Today it looks like this.

I LOVE lavender! Out of the twenty-six plants I bought this spring only one died...not a bad record for the type of soil that's here. I was told it also keeps ticks away...yay for that!

The finished bones of my long-time dream courtyard. 

Wayne was on the look-out for brick and got some from a friend/employee. The brick will be used as a walkway from the arbor to the porch. It really doesn't take much to make me happy!

Last but not least...the porch!

~ Esther

I Love My Garden! {part 2}

The veggies I'm getting from my garden are so good! The heirloom pineapple tomatoes are so large one filled my two hands. The onions were replanted twice; I left the purple onions re-root to grow again and whether they'll amount to much, time will tell.

Top left: free pot-bound banana peppers that are producing madly. Top right: heirloom purple tomatoes though I haven't seen the purple and will not bother with them again.

Bottom left: heirloom pineapple tomatoes that will definitely be on my list again.

 

Bottom center: my summer crop of onions. I know, I know, pitiful but they were still good. Bottom right: purple onions re-rooted and growing again.

And the cotton plant? It's a monster at 8ft tall with one pitiful opened cotton cluster and lots of unopened seed pods. Suffice it to say it is an interesting plant. I'm ready to lop it off.

I hope you won't weary of my garden posts because it will need to be broken down into four posts instead of two.

Coming next: the creation of the garden courtyard.

~ Esther

I Love My Garden! {part 1}

My vegetable garden is just steps outside my side door. I've long thought I'd enjoy vegetable gardening much more in raised beds instead of having long, endless rows of produce that take constant weeding. I'm blessed to live in a county where there are produce stands everywhere so having my little plots within my plot is a dream come true.

The best part of my boxes is a sweet reminder of my honey who made me a raised strawberry bed when we lived at Fleur Cottage. It came with me when I moved to Apartment 12 even though I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it. It wasn't until I was halfway through the courtyard side of my gardens that inspiration came to break the long box into four smaller boxes. They are perfect and I love, love them!

Because there are too many pictures for one post, I'm doing this in two posts with before and after pictures...the difference is amazing!

 

When I looked out the side door last winter, this was a common scene a good bit of the time.

Today, when I look outside from the same spot, it looks like this. Don't you all just love it with me?

I prettied it up as much as I could. The door behind the bench came from Wayne who almost burned it but thought of me in the nick of  time. It was also the area where I kept my gardening tools handy.

Definitely a work in progress here! Thanks to our neighbors, we had access to an enormous pile of composted horse manure. Josiah plopped a skid loader pile on top of the ground and I planted the lettuce in it.

For weeks this area was the designated storage area, including the now finished raised bed boxes. It was an organized mess!

My pots, work area and deck boards beside the house. I was sooo disappointed when the bulbs and hosta I had planted in the pots froze out. The elevation is higher here and the bitterly cold winter took its toll.

The strawberry box before I broke down from fifteen feet long to 5ft x30" wide. I had wonderful help from Josiah putting them together.

 

 A side view of the organized clutter. Today it looks like this from the same spot.

Amazing! I give credit to my son-in-law Wayne, who took the time off of his busiest season to help create this dream for me. Also credit goes to grandson Josiah who screwed the raised beds together and was my right-hand man many, many times.

 

From left to right plants. The gray-green plants were a freebie at a yard sale and bloomed beautifully. The cotton plant that is now seven feet tall and still growing. My third planting of lettuce and onions on the end. 

 

Here is how it looked for several weeks but just like things get tweaked in the apartment, things get tweaked outdoors as well.

I decided my "ball of fame" vignette was too "heavy" for the center so it got switched out for something else.

Until next time!

~ Esther

Entertaining On The Porch

Oh my...where do I start?! I love, LOVE my porch!

 It's a whole new outdoor room!

It's big and roomy!

It's just the coolest place to sit anytime of the day! Cool as in coolest spot to eat, read or just sit to literally cooler as in cooler on a hot and humid day!

Several events were held on the porch in the past ten days. I had an open-house for Apartment 12 and a family picnic due to out of town family being in the area for a nephew's wedding. Both were fun! 

These pictures are from both events. I was too busy doing a meet and greet the evening of the open house to take pictures of the crowd that was there. I will be doing before and after pictures in another post what this section looked like before the gardens were put in - an amazing difference! In the meantime...enjoy!

Candlelight at twilight.

A wall of Holtwood stones. They are heavy! I rebuilt this wall the second time because it wasn't lined up right with the porch which drove me crazy (not quite!). It was so worth doing it over! 

Three generations of the Zook family. 

We had quite a spread and eating along with the fellowship is a large part of our getting together. 

Fifty-five people were gathered in this small space...so, so fun! I almost panicked in the wee hours of the morning because I wasn't sure where or how everyone was going to fit in my small space. Folks entertained themselves, a game of Kubb was played (thanks, Jason!), the little people jumped on the trampoline, Apartment 12 was toured and talk was non-stop. This was the weekend of the super full moon and the twilight and night sounds was amazing!

The Petersheims were away so son Loren (in the brown shirt) took care of the fire. Definitely responsible man stuff going on here!

These were taken in the Monday morning light. The chandelier is missing because it was used at the wedding. The hanging curtains are burlap that is used to keep grass seed in place. Its perfect for this and looks good even when it rains. 

Absolutely love my raised bed garden! The plant in the forefront is a cotton plant and thrives on the composted horse manure. It's six feet tall and still growing.

A view of different angles of the whole back. Notice my paint room beyond the arbor. Already love that space and I'm excited to begin working on the projects that are inside waiting for me!

~ Esther 

Curtain Make-over

One of the first things I did when I moved was put up a curtain at the side door that leads to the outdoors. Directly across from it is the bathroom and I like to go in and out without opening and closing the door every time it's used. Hanging draperies was a hurry-up and very temporary job...I just didn't know what was going to replace it.

This is how it looked for the first six months. Not very inspiring but it covered the window and the door was seldom used.

I do love thoughts that come out of nowhere!

I went to a local store, bought a simple white pull-down tension rod curtain and was good to go. Except it was too white and too plain. Out came the sharpies! I started with one stripe at the bottom of the curtain to add some oomph but decided it needed two more stripes to complete the look. From there I thought of diagonal stripes.

I gathered my supplies and started marking with the pencil. The board I used was approximately 2.5 inches wide but any size can be used. After I penciled the marks in (which erase easily) I traced over them with the sharpie.

Ta-da!

After I hung it I thought of placing buttons below the three straight lines. I first used a craft glue but they quickly popped off. They're staying on with hot glue but I may possibly tie them on knot them from the front. This was approximately a two-hour project and because I'm a one-of-a-kind gal, I was glad there wasn't a dozen to do!

Then I got the idea to paint the mirror black to match which was a nice improvement. I also had two rolls of wrapping paper I found at TJmax that had an old world map print in black that would look great on the wall. After doing an internet search to use wrapping paper as wall paper decided to go for it. I found glue dots in the scrap booking section to put it up. I love the look!

The paper is loose but until I find a black and white wallpaper I like it will stay on.

What I would do differently:

Use a new sharpie.

Measure where the center is to start the lines right. 

(It was sheer luck mine came out okay!)

Simple but dramatic!

~ Esther