Home improvement, gardening, upcycling, arts and crafts: proving a streetcar-suburb homestead in the lungs of Seattle.
This is rarely a "How-to" blog and more of an "I did" journal, a record of the ideas, innovations, and renovations that go into my DIY-lifestyle.
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Almost ready for launch! All that is left is a few coats of varnish. Thanks everyone for all of your help!
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kiyo:
174 GRAND, BROOKLYN NEW YORK
The green roof has approximately eight inches of soil and absorbs rainwater runoff. (via Peek Inside 8...
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“I am inspired by vintage or used objects: records, books, furniture, anything that has a history.” —Mike Stilkey
Artist Mike Stilkey, whose...
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Suave Mediterranean Revival by jadalles1533 on Flickr.
738 North Tuxedo Avenue - DeLand - Florida
Architecture by Medwin Peek - 1926
This... -
Interesting bathroom…
via thestyleaddict
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Now that we finished planking the bow, we’ve decided that it would be fun to put another gaping hole in the boat. New shiny transom on the way.
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More pallet porn: Wine racks made from pallet wood.
Adding to our repurposed-pallet Pinterest board.
(photo via MyBrothersBarn on Etsy)
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How we eventually won the battle against slugs #happyherbsThis “summer” I learned the hard way that slugs and snails absolutely love basil and... -
I swear that I can’t go a day without putting another hole in the boat.
Tag Results
15 posts tagged squashes
The front terraces in mid-August, continuing to fill out and starting to bear fruit. The peppers are finally starting to thrive — two of them, at least — so we’ll see if there’s enough summer left for them to bear fruit.
This photo also conspicuously shows the gap between partial-shade areas. I think it definitely needs more water.
Store-bought squash plants are failing to thrive and home-grown squash plants aren’t setting fruit despite lots of flowers and foliage. I fed them — and everything in the terraces — with worm tea this morning, so hopefully they’ll start producing soon.
Picture is of the eight-ball zucchini, which was looking a lot healthier a month ago.
Squashes and tomatoes — at least some of them — are thriving. These two bays are shaded by the plum tree in late afternoon, and are doing way better than those in full sun. I think this is evidence I need to water more.
Front terrace plantings filling out nicely — this was taken about three weeks ago. That’s strawberries, tomatoes, squashes, peppers, and nasturtiums.
More squash blossoms, now on the pattypan varieties that I started myself. Homegrown breakfasts, here we come!
I think my tomatoes and squashes aren’t getting enough water. They certainly aren’t getting huge, and they should have recovered from any shockiness following the cool nights in early June. I’ve researched drip systems but don’t have the time or structure to set one up right now — the front faucet isn’t working right now, which would mean running fine tubing across the front porch. I’ve used soaker hoses in the past, but something always goes wrong with them. Even if I remember to use them (iffy), they get blocked, or break, or I accidentally cut off an end with a shovel, or something like that.
I’ve been using my little drip bottles for the tomatoes, but today I upgraded: I punched a total of four holes in each bottle, then buried them up to the neck in the dirt. This makes them way easier to fill — especially since I realized that I could take the head off my soaker wand — and makes them drain faster but more spread out. I’ll try watering in the morning and the evening and see how much of a difference that makes — especially since summer has finally come and it’s 80 degrees and sunny all day.
A look at my vertically layered front garden: peppers on the bottom, squashes that will (hopefully) trail down the wall, tomatoes (to be joined by basil in a few weeks), and strawberries.
In the background, the chickens are clearing more jungle, and the big woody shrubs (including a loathsome box laurel) will ultimately be replaced by blueberries.
First squash blossom of the season! It’s on the “eight ball” zucchini, a nursery-purchased start. May it be the first of many! I actually bought summer squash at the market yesterday; Yakima Valley has way earlier sunny days and therefore way earlier squash than Wallingford.
A tale of two squashes, or at least of two curcubitaceae: the plant on the left is a pickling cucumber, bought as a start at a nursery and in the ground for at least a month now. On the right is one of the patty pan squash seedlings I started at home, from seeds bought at the same time as the pickling cukes and put in the ground a week or so ago. Note which plant is larger and greener.
The Coyne-Knutzen School of Thought recommends starting your own seeds because you get healthier, more vigorous plants, and holy cow are they right — in my garden, at least.
Planting Out the Squash
After several days of hardening off, I planted out the squash seedlings this morning before work!
Last year, I planted squash in the lower tier of the front wall garden, and had a devil of a time trying to train them up the wall to take advantage of space and sun. This year, I had a brilliant idea: plant them in the middle tier of the front wall garden and just let them just trail down the wall. It seems like it will work; I’m looking forward to when they are grown long enough to test the theory.
Transplanting was more of a challenge than I anticipated, since they’d all grown quite a bit of roots that were pretty tangled. On the advice of The Seed Starter’s Handbook, I didn’t transplant the seedlings into larger containers, since they apparently have large fleshy roots that don’t like being disturbed by the transplanting process. Well, they were pretty disturbed by the planting out process, so we’ll see if I repeat these same steps next year. This afternoon, they were starting to droop in the sun, but I watered them (a second time today) and they perked back up.
Here’s a zoomed-out shot of the front garden with the new baby squashes joining the few-weeks-older heirloom zucchinis (cue ball and eight ball) and some pickling cucumbers, as well as the tomatoes and peppers:
The front wall garden has long been a constant work in progress, with the tomatoes and peppers being the mainstays and everything getting filled in around them. I usually plant basil where the squashes are now, and I’m hoping to plant it between the squashes later this summer. The peppers, in the lower tier, will hopefully be joined by cilantro and green onions, if I get a chance to plant them soon.
Also note the bottle of yuck behind each tomato:
That’s my early summer slow-drip irrigation system, and today I fertilized with worm tea: the drippings from the worm bin diluted down with water. I decided today was the day for some feeding, since we’re due for a stretch of mostly-warm weather after the Jun-uary storms. Hopefully it’ll kickstart some growth soon.
Squash seedlings are spending the night in the sunroom, rather than on the rack. I’m probably going to plant them on Wednesday; I cut gatorade bottles into cloches today to prepare.
First session of hardening off for the squashes. They’re out beside the back raised-bed-in-progress, taking up the sunshine and great outdoors.
