The Grand Finale

This is the last official post for my blog during my Online Publications class. Thank You to my instructor, Grill Girl: http://www.blogger.com/profile/02902450883159711629 blogging has been a great experience and has been fun.

 
This is the view from my deck. When the fire-pit isn't used regularly, we keep boards across it and I put plants on it. These plants are my Roma Tomatoes. The side tables are also some of my handiwork using the left over wood from the deck. They are great when we have fire-pit nights as I place Smores ingredients and hot dog fixins.

Last night for instance, we played Corn-Holes. We made ours and I painted the designs. One is of the Davie County High School (Go War Eagles!) where my husband an I graduated together in 1981, both of our kids, Jordan (2009) and Collin (2011), as well as both of my parents (1961). The other is obviously Catawba College (Go CATU !!!)

And finally, I wanted to include my very favorite plant....the majestic Magnolia.

I have artwork in my house that is magnolias. My fine china has magnolias in the design. My little white long-hair Chihuahua's name is Magnolia Grace (we call her Maggie). This picture is not from my yard, regretably. I would love to have one, but my husband refuses to put one in the yard. His grandmother has two flanking both sides of her house and it was his job when he was younger to keep the fallen leaves raked from underneath. So, there was nowhere else I could get a beautiful picture of such a fine specimen except for Catawba College!

Christmas In July

As the end of our Online Publications class nears, I wanted to let you guys see my house as it was Christmas and the Holidays.....

This was taken couple years ago when we got that big snow between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love my little house, even though there still is alot of work to be done to call it our. We moved in it November 1st, 2003. It was a spec-house where this was the first house a builder completed as a new contractor. There are alot of upgrades like hardwood floors, chair railings, wainscot moldings, and crown moldings. However, there are some very generic features in the house such as taupe walls and off-white carpeting in the bedrooms.

This is what if looks like normally. There are alot of things I would like to do with the landscaping such as create an area where a small wrought iron bench would sit on a stone patio, venear the walkway with stone, stack stone edging, and add path lights or a welcome post light.

This house has a lot of memories for us. Our kids were only 10 and 12 when we moved. They would ride their bikes down the streets of the subdivision. This house was also the first house we bought after we rented for a year. My husband lost his job with the airlines after Sept. 11, 2001. We came within two week of forclosing on our other house before it sold. Our credit went to crap. That year of renting was good for us though. There were lots of lessons learned in how and how not to do financially in the future. This house was a sign that, Yes....we will get through...God is in control....he knows what is best for us! 

Since we've been in this house, both kids have went through high school, got their own cars, got their own jobs, going to college, and my husband got his job back and never lost seniority status. GOD IS IN CONTROL....He looks at the big picture... while we focus on the pixels!

My Back Side

Since the Online Publications class is almost over, I wanted to at least bring things full circle between now and the last day of class. I was trying to figure out how I would do this, but since my last post, it has kind of segwayed for me.

Here is the back of my house as it is seen from the fire-pit.

 

My house is nothing special as you can see. I do have future plans for my backyard. I would like to expand the deck as far to the left, right under the small window you barely can see hidden by the tree hiding our air conditioner unit. That corner of the house is our Master Bedroom. My hope is to take that window out and put a walk-out door so that we can access the deck. The little skinny appendage is the gas fire place for the living room. That area will be covered in stone tile with an electric outdoor fireplace mounted. The existing deck is rather small. The gazebo is 10 x 12 but our deck is 12 x 12. Just to the right of the fireplace appendage is the door to the living room and to the right of it is the dining area picture window. When we rebuild the deck, it plan on taking the door out and replacing it with a window so that there will be window flanking the fireplace in the living room. In order to access the deck, then the picture window will be replaced by frech doors. The deck will at least be covered, and later on, we will probably make it into a 4-seasons room.

I word of advise if you are purchasing outdoor furniture/decor. The gazebo was bought through Sears. It is a metal structure with a cloth cover that you can shift from side to side to shade. It was regularly priced at $599 but right before Memorial Day, it was on sale for $399. online, $425 in the store. If you don't know, Sears own K-mart, so I decided to price shop. K-mart had the same item for $350, same brand, same everything. However, K-mart didn't have any in stock...Sears did. So, I went to Winston-Salem to see if they would price honor. They said they would...and they did. Long story short...always, ALWAYS price shop before you make big ticket purchases. It'll always be to your advantage.

Since we've had the gazebo for a year now, the cloth, which they said had a 5-year warranty, did not hold up especially with all day sun, and our violent storms. When it would rain, the cloth would sag with the weight of the rain and eventually drip through like a sive. Replacements are around $99. On day, my husband, being the jerry-rigger he is famous for, came home with an idea. He went a bought the fiberglass panels (smoke color) and mounted them to the struts on top of the gazebo, which channeled the rain and protected the cloth covering. You would never know it was there. Everything under stays nice and dry and we don't have to replace the cloth every year now. For once, He was right !....You will never hear me say that again.

BTW....here is a close up of my eclectice flower pot that was in the previous posting.

It's my Thriller, Spiller, and Filler.......mostly Filler. But, I will know what to do for next summer for sure!

 

Pleasant Surprises

Today, as I was walking the doggies, I discovered something.

 

These little clusters are from the Muscadine vine that I planted from seed a few years ago. It has not produced any fruit to date and I was going to pull the vine up in a few weeks as it has overtaken my grape vine fence. However, now that these little beauties have shown up, I will not be yanking this thing out of the ground.

Since the vine had not been fruitful, I was thinking that the seed/plant needed to be fertilized or pollenated by another. This appears to not be the case, it just needed a few years to mature.....As we all do !!!

 

Here is the view of my grape vine fence and a few other assorted items in our backyard. This area is about 3/4 to the back of our lot centered to the house. It is a kind of back-drop for our fire-pit that sits between it and the house. As you can see, we have some firewood in close proximity to the fire-pit. The grape vines are full of lush green leaves and promising fruit.

The trees you see are native persimmon trees. Every fall, my husband picks up persimmons enough to fill up a gallon container every day for at least a month. Birds, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and bees love to feast on the sweet fruit. It can be a little dangerous if there are alot of bees and wasps which is why my husband waits until the late evening to pick-up the fruit. You don't pick the fruit off the tree, the fruit will be really bitter and tart. Always wait until it drops to the ground before you can eat them. This is a sign that the fruit is ripe and ready to eat. My husband uses his great-grandmother's recipe for "Persimmon Pudding". Those of you that are from around this area are sure to know what that delicacy is.

In the middle, you will see the table I made from scrap lumber left over from our deck. On top is a "Fox Tail Fern". It is a rather unique plant. It has these long shoots with soft, fern foilage. I defintely looks like a fox tail, hence the appropriateness of the name.

To the right you will see my eclectic flower pot. Through the years I have accumulated single pots that do not have a mate for one reason or another. I got the idea from Pintrest. You just take several pots of different sizes and stack them using a wooden dowel through the drain holes. Fill with potting soil and plant with three types of plant...Thrillers, Spillers, a Fillers. Mine is in the not so thrilling stage as my "Fillers" have choked out the "Spillers" and the "Thrillers". I think I may have planted too many "Fillers".....Note to self for next year!!!!

Garden Updates

I thought it would be nice to update you on a few of my garden vegetables and fruits.

Here are my grapes. Compare them to just a few weeks ago when I posted the little bud-clusters on my blog. It's amazing to see the growth in such little time.

Note for next year.....When I prune the leggy growth vines that did not produce fruit, don't put the good vine branches too close together. As you can see, there are a couple of clusters that are too close together an are being choked by the surrounding vines.

Also, another note to self.....stay on top of the leggy growth during the growing season as I now have vines growing in my persimmon tree.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/hil/hil-8202.html

 

The reason you want to keep the leggy growth pruned is that the energy/effort it takes to produce the useless vine sections is taking away from the productive vine sections.

Here is the status of my lettuce garden. I have had a few salads out of my garden, but now the plants are growing tall rather than fuller. This is called "bolting". I really don't know why they do this. I will be doing some research to find out for next year. I guess we will have salads every night for the next week to get rid of them before they go bitter. My head lettuce is so scrawny that the Romaine is hiding it. Head lettuce doesn't like the heat at all !!!

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/qt/SummerLettuce.htm

 

http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/5044/why-lettuce-bolts-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

Trailing Pansies

These are my Trailing Pansies. They are a new variety that came out this year. Ordinarily, pansies are cool weather plant that most people plant in the late fall and survive over the winter. These are a hybrid kind that supposed to last the summer. I wanted to at least give them a try anyway. I got this planter as a Mother's Day present because I needed something on the section of siding that looked empty flanking both sides of my garage door. It was perfect...Don't ya think????

Pansies are pretty resilient. All you have to do is pinch off the "spent" blooms. This makes it produce more blooms. Pansies don't like to be dry, they like moist soil and even spritz the foliage and blooms to keep them clean. The blooms are very fragile and crepe-ish, yet vibrant.

If you buy the regular Pansies that are used during the cold weather season, they want to be where there is the most sunshine for the shortened winter days. My Trailing Pansies are on the side of the house that gets hardly any sun during the warm months and they are loving the shade for sure.  

On a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the most maintenance) I would give Pansies a 3-4. You need to go and pinch the spent leaves about every other day or at the minimal twice a week. And, if you have a dry weather season, you have to water about as frequently.

I think I have found my new replacement for Wave Petunias  I can only imagine what my hanging basket would look like if I had used Miracle-Gro soil and fertilizer.

 

www.wave-rave.com

 

www.scotts.com/smg

My Dream Space

While I was getting a pedicure the other day, I was flipping through an Architectural Digest Magazine. As I was held hostage for the next 45-minutes, I came across my dream outdoor living space. It has everything I want. It has a covered roof so that you don't have to worry about rain or the hot sun, it has open walls to let the breeze blow and is not obscured by screening or railings. It is ground level with no steps. It has what looks like ivy growing around the arches.

Here is my dream space....

http://www.architecturaldigest.com

You realize this is only a dream for me...right?!?!? I just think this is so peaceful and inviting. I could sit out at the table in the mornings and drink my coffee or snuggle up by the fire on a cool fall evening reading a book. I have the vision....I just ain't got the money.

Ivy is another maintenance free plant, if you keep it in a container garden. If you plant it in the ground, it can absolutely take over your yard, and the you neighbors yards, etc. There are two types of Ivy. One is an indoor Ivy for potted house plants. It is not aggressive but it tends to get mites. If not treated, the plant will die.

Ivy used in your landscaping is usually the "Hearty Ivy". As I said previously, this will overtake your yard if not kept trimmed and manicured. On a scale from 1 to 10 (with 10 being the most maintenance), Ivy would be a 5. Once it's planted, it's like "Semore" in the "The Little Shop Of Horrors"....."Feed Me...FEED Me....FEED ME !!!!"