Cold Frame!

I've been intrigued by the concept of a cold frame for a while now.  Every gardening book seems to mention one, nearly every decent garden center sells them, and I couldn't help but wonder if having one could make gardening even more fun for me.

I waded into the over-full shed, pulled out some significant sized scraps, and got to work.

Here's the very beginning where it's essentially just a box. 

Now a bit of a box with a bit of a lid:

 

I added a middle brace to the lid to support the 8mm dual-paned polycarbonate for the top.  Then I painted.   Clark + Kensington makes a paint that can handle temperatures down to 35F.  Rio the Sailboat helped (incidentally, I've decided that this color, a Farrow and Ball shade called Green Blue, will be Rio's color). 

And before I knew it, I had a cold frame! Notice the cedar along the bottom- that's tacked on as a 'sacrificial' board.

And the interior.  I'm now the proud owner of a mini greenhouse. :) Total cost:  just under $50, considering I had most of the wood already. 

And while we're talking about gardening, please join me in ogling my soil.  How rich does that look?!  Let's hope 2013 is the best year for gardening yet.

In sad news, the property that I grew up on has been or is being sold. I remember all the long hours that my parents and my grandmother spent working and improving the land on that property.  I'm heartbroken to see it go.

Chicken Salad Bar - AKA the Greenhouse

I built my three hens a little addition to the chicken run to use up some of the scrap hard wire cloth and lumber I had floating around in the shed.   It's a little 3'x3' pen that I can open up for their snacking pleasure.

 I have two points of access- the closest side in the photo below can be completely removed so I can muck it out / add more grass / whatever. 

 I threw in some grass seed that I had on hand and it's just starting to take off. 

I'll let them have access to it for an hour or so a day, once the grass is filled in and jungle-y.

My hope with this addition is to increase the nutritional value and production of the eggs that my hens provide.  I have no idea if it'll help or not, but I bet they'll have a blast destroying it. :)

Mason Bees - Summary of 2012 Season and Preparing for Spring

I've just returned from the Northwest Flower & Garden Show.  My haul included a gorgeous blue zebra striped primrose (I didn't take a photo before I gave it to my neighbor- she loves primroses AND purple, and this pretty plant had her name written all over it), along with 7 dahlias, and, the pièce de résistance- more mason bee cocoons.

Mason bees are my current insect obsession.  I think we all should have one indigenous insect species to champion, and the blue western mason bee has impressed me so much that it's now a priority for my 2013 garden.  

Last year, I started with 20 cocoons and one small house.  Here's what it looked like at the end of the season:

There are two plugged tubes on the bottom of the nest box, which indicates that I have some sort of bee larvae waiting to be harvested.

There was significant water damage to my house though- water seeped into the bolts holding the house together, and along the roof.

Despite the issues, I still had some cocoons to harvest- 8 in total.

Behold, the contents of the tubes- I had 8 cocoons (3 female, 5 male), a dead mason bee, and a bunch of miscellaneous debris.

Here's a close up of the bee who decided to use my bee nest.  I promised her that I'd take care of her offspring to the best of my ability before burying her unceremoniously in the compost pile. 

A close up of the bee tube debris- the concave brown things are mud plugs- the yellow stuff is pollen- and the teeny tiny little bits are feces.

I made several mistakes in 2012 that I hope that I won't repeat in 2013:

1.  I didn't put my house in a sheltered area.  I had falsely assumed that the home would be sheltered well enough on its own.  Building something like this is a priority for me before putting out my cocoons:

2.  I'm going to release my cocoons in two different batches, perhaps 2 weeks apart.  My first 20 cocoons were soaked and soggy due to some crazy cold rain and due to the exposure issue I mentioned above- I can't imagine it was great to emerge under such chilly and wet conditions.

3.  Don't kill before you know what it is.  I thought I had a yellow jacket in my house (it was silhouetted against a bright window) and I killed it.  Afterwards, I discovered that I had murdered one of my own mason bees.  Whoops.  

Now I have a total of 37 cocoons in my fridge, thanks to Beediverse and Wild Birds Unlimited.  I'll be building a mason bee lodge here soon, and will have photos for you as soon as I'm finished!

 This is the perfect time of year to start a mason bee colony.  If you're so inclined, I highly recommend Crown Bees and Beediverse for both cocoons and information.

Lower Salmon River Squash

Since Boat Building Season is over, it's now Planning Next Year's Garden season.  I have the basics in our garden- strawberry and asparagus patches, along with a growing rhubarb and a 2nd year nectarine tree.   But I want something more, something I can stash away in the pantry for those long winter days.  Like a winter squash.

So after digging around, I found exactly what I'm looking for- a gorgeous squash that stores well- and it's called the Lower Salmon River squash, which is native to the Pacific Northwest and is an endangered plant (information from Renewing America's Food Traditions). 

I stumbled upon it at Marishabee's Blog. 

She writes:

This year I grew only one variety of winter squash:  Lower Salmon River.  I chose this squash because it is fabulous for winter storage.  In fact, it will store so well that my partner says that we need a bandsaw to cut through it (we can process it with standard kitchen utensils too).

See?  That's what I want! 

If you're looking for something different to grow, and would like to help preserve and endangered plant,  you can buy seeds from Seed Dreams.

Alternatively, if we're neighbors/friends, I might be willing to share some of my stash.   But you will be subjected to a growing competition.  You've been warned!

Happy garden planning! 

Nail Polish Storage

I've always been crap at being a lady, much to the disappointment and chagrin of my dear mother.  That said, I do have a feminine Achilles heel, and that, my friends, is Essie nail polish.

I refuse to use anything else.  Honestly.  And I have stopped going to the salon for manicures or pedicures because my nails chip 30 minutes after walking out of the salon, EVERY TIME.  And if you're paying $40 to have your nails done, it better damn well last longer than half an hour. 

Anyway, I had some scrap okoume from the boat build lying around, along with a cedar 2x2, so I thought I'd make myself a little Essie nail polish shrine. 

They need to be finished but I'm so pleased with how they turned out. 

First Time at the Dog Park

 

Our Cardigan Welsh Corgi is turning into quite the socialite/water dog! As much as I give him grief for being so daft, he is such a delight to have around.

Photos by the husband, more here if you're interested!

Camping at Dosewallips: A Photo Summary.

We went camping at the Dosewallips State Park last weekend.

I love the Pacific Northwest.