Category Archives: Backyard
Seat cushions, why not?
The weather forecast looks very, very hopeful for a real Summer coming soon.
This great news makes me feel bold. It’s time to get our place ready!
With a bunch of free outdoor fabric (thanks Mom!), I am going to attempt to recover our outdoor seat cushions after my success with the sofa pillows.
The cushions belong on these chairs. We purchased them two summers ago when it came apparent we needed somewhere for people to sit outside. You can read the whole post, but I got a great closeout deal on these guys.
The cushions that came with the chairs worked out fine at first, but they have declined rapidly over the last two years. With the free fabric (thanks again Mom!), it made sense to replace the cushions now.
I started by ripping apart one of the old cushions to use as my pattern pieces last night. (Loki thought the old fabric would be a perfect place for a nap this morning.)
Tonight I try my first cushion. I don’t have to pre-wash the outdoor fabric so I am ready to go. Still deciding if I will add a zipper or Velcro along the back, but I have both on hand.
Here goes nothing!
Porch Update
These last few weeks, I keep repeating this mantra in my head so I stay on task with the home projects –
Must finish the list before working on back patio. Must finish the list before working on back patio.
So far, its keeping me honest. I am hoping to be done with most of them in the next week or two.
Focus on the back porch
Over the last two weekends, in between rain storms, we’ve been working on the back porch. Yes, we have a back porch and soon to have a back patio. Hope that’s not too confusing! Back porch is the outdoor space sandwiched between the great room, front room and our bedroom. Back porch will be directly behind the great room next to the pool.
Window Trim
First we started by sanding down and painting the window trim surrounding our back porch. Since we replaced all the windows last year, we had decided to wait and paint the trim once the new windows were installed. Most of the trim hasn’t been painted in years. We gave it a good two coats of Kilz’s primer to seal that unprotected wood.
Next we painted two coats of Behr’s Frost, our favorite trim color.
Underneath the windows, we had a section of unfinished concrete that also needed some attention. I primed and painted it the house color.
New Flowers
With most of the painting completed, we added flowers back to the beds after a a winter without.
Instead of Nate’s beloved Alyssum, we went for two new annuals.
Mexican Evening Primrose (Oenothera berlandieri Twilight) a low-growing perennials that’s very popular here. It can become invasive to other plants so we will have to keep it in check.
Along with the Evening Primrose, we planted Helichrysum Icicles (called the licorice plant). Its a part sun – sun annual which is drought tolerant and considered low maintenance. I think it’s a nice contrast to the primrose. We’ve been watered them well so they get nicely established before our potentially hot and dry summer.
Porch Color
Finally, our last immediate project is to repaint the porch and this time seal it.
I got six samples of Martha Stewart in the purply blues and maroons.
From left to right: Claret (MSL027), Blueberry Pie (MSL190), Weathervane (MSL196), Chianti (MSL183), Griddle (MSL194) and Purple Elderberry (MSL193).
We wanted to test them out properly this time. I applied a couple swatches around the porch to see how they looked with a little grime and dirt on them. Funny thing is once I got all the swatches painted, it started to rain. It was perfect timing for a test run. Horrible timing for Memorial Day.
After much discussion we decided we liked Chanti the best. Hopefully by the end of this weekend we can paint the porch. We want the sealant to cure for at least 24 hours so we’ll take of that either Sunday night or Monday.
And on the personal front
It’s safe to say I need to invest in more band-aids. Nate and I both had run-ins with sharp objects recently.
I scared Pixel into scratching my neck (totally my fault) during the flower installation.
Nate cut his finger with a razor blade while working on the windows.
Oh well. I am glad these accidents didn’t result in a trip to the Urgent Care!! That’s progress.
New tool for the belt
I have one rule I follow while shopping at the home improvement store.
Do not buy tools or materials that will not be used for the current project.
Otherwise, I’d be picking up every new fangled tool I come across and I just don’t have the budget for that.
A drill mixer attachment has been on my wish list for quite some time, but I was not going to spend the five dollars on it unless I had a use.
So when I needed to use some old house paint that had separated, I finally had a reason to go buy a mixer. Yahoo!
I purchased the Husky All Steel Spiral Mixer. It can mix up to a five gallon container of which seemed more practical than buying the half gallon size. Not only will it mix up paint, it also will come in hand for all our future concrete work.
After attaching the mixer to the drill just insert it into the paint and let the drill do the work. Trust me. It’s so much easier than using a paint stick on separated paint. I already tried that and it didn’t work out well.
30 seconds later….Voilà! Paint’s ready to go.
Now I can paint under our doors and windows along the porch to match the rest of the exterior. Success!
Farm Box – Green Garlic
Like most of America, I am a little obsessed with Groupon and other group coupon sites. Even though I have made a few bad choices (like a Yurt rental that expired 2 months after purchase), overall my experience has been great. I’ve been able to try a bunch of local services at a fraction of the cost.
Recently, I purchase a Groupon for a farm box of organic vegetables that was delivered to us last week. We got all sorts of great local produce including potatoes, spinach, asparagus, kiwis, turnips, radish, green onions and green garlic.
I was pretty excited to try the green garlic. I had heard rave reviews, but never tried it myself.
For some background info I did a little research and found through the web that “green garlic is simply immature garlic and looks like a slightly overgrown scallion or green onion. They are pulled by growers when thinning crops and, increasingly, grown as a crop in their own right. Look for specimens with fresh green tops (no dried ends or soggy leaves)… Use as you would green onions or garlic, noting that it is stronger than the former but milder than the latter.”
I decided to try it out with some sauteed kale.
Kale with Onions, Green Garlic and Red Pepper
Ingredients:
A bunch of kale
1/2 a onion chopped
1 green garlic stalk chopped (both stalk and bulb)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
Coconut oil (could also use Olive oil)
3 tbsp water
Salt & pepper
Directions:
After heating up my saute pan, I added my oil and onion letting the onion cook for a couple minutes and soften up. Next, add the green garlic plus a tsp of red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt. Mix and cook for a few more minutes.
Prepare the kale by ripping the leaves from the stems and rinse. Add the kale leaves to pan and let them wilt before tossing all the ingredients. Next, add a little water to continue to steam the kale. Let it cook until the water has evaporated. Season with salt and pepper.
Nate and I add this along with some roasted rosemary potatoes (yes from the farm box!) He also had a grilled steak. Green garlic has a slightly sweeter taste than regular garlic. It worked really well with the onion and red pepper flakes. I am excited to use the rest of the bulbs for another recipe.
As far as the farm box, I loved the variety and quality of the produce. I don’t think we will sign up for a membership right now though. With the warm weather, I can find plenty of fruits and veg elsewhere. I may rethink the membership in the winter months though.
In garden news
Our little container garden is growing. Look at the fast growing radish and cat grass.
The rest of our seedlings are starting to sprouts. My goal is keep all the pots nice and moist during our hot weather.
Welcome to May
I can’t believe it’s May. April was fun and exciting, but May is going to be all about action. Patio action.
In typical Northern California fashion, the weather decided that three weeks of Spring temperatures was quite enough and fast forwarded to Summer. Egad. Warm weather means swimming, BBQs and lots of outdoor evenings. Now wouldn’t that all be nice with a brand new patio?
There is no more dilly-dallying. I got to get this back patio project started pronto! Its six weeks until Nate’s birthday. That’s my goal – the official beginning of summer at our house.
I am going to be sketching out the final plan tonight plus going to do some research on the supply budget. Time to move out!
New Idea for the Back Porch
This month’s Sunset blew our socks off with this photo. We love the blue pebble border between the cement slabs and the modern landscaping. I feel we finally found the right inspirational for our future back porch.
Remember how we left it last year?
A barren wasteland of dirt and weeds. I can’t wait for the weather to warm up so we can tackle this beast. The hard part is forming a plan to execute, but I think we are finally getting close!
Inspiration from Maui
While visiting Maui over New Years, I saw the best example of modern tropical landscaping. The Mauian, a boutique hotel on Napili Bay was originally built in the 1950s. It was recently renovated and I think they did a great job marrying the retro vibe with modern aesthetics.
This is exactly the look I want for the back porch. I love the look of the deep greens and purples. I think they would look fabulous against our celery green house and grey concrete.
