too. cool.

maybe when the front yard is finished, I'll open an underground restaurant.

progress!

This isn't a great picture, but I took it in a hurry and had to get going this morning:



but I have some grass now. I must say that this is the first time that I have used sod, and it sure is "easy". My whole body is exhausted and sore, but I have a complete lawn. I am conflicted from an environmental/sustainability standpoint about installing sod, versus seed (transporting hundreds of pounds of grass & dirt vs. 10 lb of seed), but decided that the area is small and so much of our yard will be low impact environmentally, that is it was a small impact overall. Frankly, I have done everything the hard way, we could stand to do something the easy way.

I celebrated the completion with a nice Fat Tire (Thank you Adam & Maggie!)

underlying all the cooking...

must be a community growing great food.



Portland is a lovely place for those of us who think about food, esp. growing food, too much!

Amazon.com Widgets

I have thought the same thing at times...

Just When You Thought it Couldn't Look Worse...

just when you thought things couldn't look worse in my front yard...

This was a few weeks ago actually, when a few of my friends got suckered into doing my work for me. In particular digging trenches and laying pvc pipe. Tod and Adam deserve special mention for their masterful construction of the valve assembly. Things are looking much better now and I hope to get grass in this weekend. I will post them soon. Thanks to Derek and Larry as well for the thankless tasks of digging trenches through countless roots.

Melons!

One of my favorite things to grow is melon. In particular, I like to grow cantaloupes. Highlighted in this picture is Prescott Fond Blanc, which is an antique heirloom from france. The cool thing is that you know when it is ripe because you can smell it in the garden. In my case, I probably could have waited an extra day or so for maximum ripeness, but still it was really tasty!

This makes me look forward to next year, when I will have more room for melons. It should be noted that I grow them on a trellis to save space.

The book that inspired me and is a great source of info and drooly good pictures can be found here

Just When You Thought it Couldn't Look Worse...

just when you thought things couldn't look worse in my front yard...

This was a few weeks ago actually, when a few of my friends got suckered into doing my work for me. In particular digging trenches and laying pvc pipe. Tod and Adam deserve special mention for their masterful construction of the valve assembly. Things are looking much better now and I hope to get grass in this weekend. I will post them soon. Thanks to Derek and Larry as well for the thankless tasks of digging trenches through countless roots.

Melons!

One of my favorite things to grow is melon. In particular, I like to grow cantaloupes. Highlighted in this picture is Prescott Fond Blanc, which is an antique heirloom from france. The cool thing is that you know when it is ripe because you can smell it in the garden. In my case, I probably could have waited an extra day or so for maximum ripeness, but still it was really tasty!

This makes me look forward to next year, when I will have more room for melons. It should be noted that I grow them on a trellis to save space.

The book that inspired me and is a great source of info and drooly good pictures can be found here

It Rained

Ok, I won't post EVERY time that it rains, but it is so unusual for us to have rain in September! It felt really good, and I always feel like I hear a sigh of relief from the plants all over the yard.

By the way, this is what it looks like when kids in So. Cal. confront a light drizzle. You might think we were facing a tropical storm.