The Simple Poppy

Kitchen Update and Others (Prettier) Things

 

Tiles down. Gray grout to be applied tomorrow. White paint finished, mostly. That light fixture will go, we'll be getting a ceiling fan, which should be nice in this weather. Still a long way to go!

 

    Last week was so busy I couldn't blog. The Simple Man laid the floor, a tile very deliciously named Rialto Terra. I have spent most of my life never seeing my name outside "Terra Cotta" (gardening pots and tiles) and "Terra Firma" (old maps), and now my name is impossibly hip; it's on anything and everything eco-conscious and chips and God only knows what else. It's very disconcerting. Anyhow, then I primed and painted the walls ULTRA. BRIGHT. WHITE. Yes, you read that correctly. I was hesitant about going this white, but my eldest was adamant. "Mom, this one is CLEANER. BRIGHTER. AIRIER. YOU WANT THIS ONE!" I cannot argue in Lowes with a 9 year old while my two year old is trying to eat grout powder and hide in a bidet. We purchased a no VOC paint and primer, both by Olympic. The primer didn't smell until you put your nose right in it, and even then it was mild. The paint was definitely stronger, but even then, if you walked out of the room, you couldn't detect any odor at all. I was really pleased because I wanted no VOC paint, but I didn't want to pay sixty dollars a gallon. While I painted I think the whiteness overwhelmed The Simple Man because he kept mouthing "insane asylum" at me and shaking his head. I refrained from a lecture on sensitivity because, well, he lives with me so he kind of knows what he's talking about. And he's building me a new kitchen. And I was happy.

    I think I'm really going to love the white.

 

View a gallery of subway tiles in kitchen here

    I also want white subway tiles for the back-splash. This presented a conundrum because our base cabinets won't be fitted into the wall, so do we tile the whole lower wall or just the foot or so of back-splash? I poked about on the internets, but all I could find was that it was better and typical to tile all the way to the floor behind the stove since it can be moved. So we decided to tile all the way down to the floor across the whole wall because it seems like it would look ridiculous to see a 12 inch span of tiles half way up the walls. Of course, after we made that decision, I saw several kitchens (mostly in Europe - all free standing) that had back-splash tile to the floor behind the cabinets. We were also a little worried about the subway tile because it's common in bathrooms, but I found a lot of great pictures of kitchens that use it, so I think it should be alright. We'll be using very white grout also; I saw some with darker grout, but dang if that doesn't look dirty to me. We haven't bought it yet, so if you can think of any enormous reason why this wouldn't be a good idea, please feel free to chime in.

 

    The cabinets. Gah. I went to Ikea to drag my exhausted self around their Swedish exuberance and I just can't get into the kitchen cabinets at Ikea. There were some I liked, but to be honest, I imagined my kitchen to be free of textures and materials not found (fairly) directly in nature. We'll forget the liquid nails, cement board, and five gallon buckets of joint compound and focus on what my family will actually be running their fingertips along in the end. I wanted wood, rough linen, earthen tiles, glass - I did not picture laminate. It's a laminate lament. I might have to cave and get them; it's basically what we had planned when we started, but we'll see. We still have a bit more to do before thinking about it becomes crucial, and even if the kitchen is ready for the cabinets, I have an island I can move in there for counter space and my makeshift sink - so that gives me some time to think about it.

 

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    Other happenings around our house? Our neem tree has exquisitely tiny white flowers blooming on it, and the scent is heady and exotic. It's similar to lily of the valley but with an intense, but light, green note. Our entire front porch is olfactory heaven.

 

 

 

 

The Simple Man has a miniature pomegranate tree. It was poorly looking all winter, being inside and everything. The moment the weather warmed he put it outside and now it has these amazing buds/flowers all over it. I'm not sure we'll actually get edible pomegranates, but it's look alone is worth it.

 

 

 

Made my own mayonnaise. This was more out of a desire to placate a hungry horde and cover up my inadequacies in grocery shopping than some foodie wish. BUT . . . this is the third time, and it's so easy, and inexpensive, and yummy that I've just stopped buying it.  ETA: The recipe I used is from the fabulous and local (to me) Food In Jars blog. Many delicious canning recipes on there. I differed from the recipe in that I whisked my eggs with about a Tbsp. horseradish mustard. Nom. Nom.

 

 

   

Each year my neighbor, whose entrance adjoins mine, has this hydrangea bush that explodes in the most perfect, purplish blues. I've sadly killed about six of my own, hoping to recreate her magic, but now I just enjoy hers.

 

 

 

The delight of finding wild raspberries in the wooded park near our home. It was particularly awe inspiring to the toddler to find food in the "foyest" - she didn't want to leave.

 

 

 

    

Knowing that this small, pale, lavender coloured flower is going to be an eggplant sometime soon.

 

 

 

 

Our mint is flowering. Looks wonderful. It's amazing how incredibly lovely fruit, vegetables, and herbs can be in the various stages of their life.

 

   And that is that. We hope to be finished by August, or at least mostly finished. We're both heartily sick of the kitchen, though we know it will be worth it, and I am about tolose my mind with all the mess it's made! Want to get back to normal!

 

My Sad Garden

    My garden has been less than stellar this year. I was incredibly excited at the beginning of the year and then...real life arrived with boxing gloves on. And while I quite like to watch, occasionally, a good bout of boxing, I'm not a participant. Real life knocked me...um, down.

    I did a lot of careful planning, I bought heirloom seeds that would do well in micro conditions, and I double dug our entire yard, as well as building brick raised beds. But through all of this we had a series of unfortunate events. For months on end I had no car, rendering it pretty difficult to purchase some of the soil amendments I really needed. I guess I'm not hardcore enough to wrangle my children and some 50 lb bags of whatever soil improvement I needed, onto the bus. When The Simple Man finally bought a car in April, guess what it needed? A transmission! More waiting. The weather was also changeable; it would rain for weeks on end, then get too cold do put anything out, then we'd have some nice days. On account of Little Red Chili's sleep debacle , by then I'd be too exhausted to do much of anything. I also didn't take into account how hard it is to concentrate on planting when you live 5 feet from a busy street and your two year old might be a shapeshifter who transforms into a cheetah once we step outside the front door.

 This sunflower attracts more insects that I thought possible. It's not one of the really large ones, but it doesn't have to be to brighten up our deck.

Some lettuce mix, Mesclun, I believe, growing in a bucket. I'm leaving it alone even though it is clearly over seeded because it belongs to Pumpkin.

Waiting, oh waiting for my Paul Robeson tomatoes to get ripe. Planted them a bit late, so they're a tad behind.

 

Jalapeno peppers

Horseradish planted in an old mop bucket. Yeah, this wasn't my idea. I like the way it looks but my soul is crawling out of its skin thinking about the germs. The Simple Man always has novel potting ideas.

My Pixwell gooseberry tree/bush. I don't know why it leans like that; it has nothing to do with the sun. I received it with its 2nd year wood, so I'm hoping that next year it will bear fruit. And these things are so hardy, it's one of the best looking plants we have after this atrocious summer.

Sweet potato, carefully edited because it doesn't look so hot. This is the second year we've grown only a few sweet potatoes and both times we've just winged it. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on them. Or we aren't smart enough to find good info.

 

 These Morning Glories are twining themselves all over our front patio. It's a lovely sight, particularly in the very early morning.

    I'm a regretful that I couldn't or didn't make a better show of it, but I'm also trying not to be too hard on myself. It was a hectic time with a lot of unforeseen challenges and I learned a lot. I've been gardening for years, but you always learn something new. I'm hoping that the fall plantings do well and that we are able to grow some nice winter greens all winter in a cold frame.

    How are your gardens coming along, if you have one? Wish you did more, like me, or are you happy with the way it is?

The Destruction

 

The far right hand corner is where my butterfly bush was - amidst some sad daffodils

that have been here since before we moved in.

    I'm getting a pathetically late start on my garden. It was too cold for awhile, then it got warm but rained pretty constantly for about two weeks before finally stopping. By that time The Simple Man and I were not only awash in kitchen plans and taxes, but we also had a moment of temporary madness where we were interested in this particular rural property that ending up not working out, but subconsciously made me hold back on wreaking havoc in the front garden, just in case.

        Well, the madness has passed and now I realize that I am woefully behind. We chopped and shoveled for a good part of Sunday. Seeing my beautiful butterfly bush dismembered, its limbs tossed about the patio, made my throat get all lumpy. I DID NOT CRY, but I've had that bush for 6 years and it was the biggest and most beautiful on the street.

     Every summer it was alive with fluttering butterflies and I guess I was less prepared to see it go than I had thought. I'm not such a fan of flowers, (with the exception of poppies, ha) preferring to grow food and, if I had more space, probably some ornamental grasses. I do like wildflowers. But this butterfly bush - well, it was like my little buddy. It shaded our window from passersby, it brought some lovely butterflies and hummingbirds around, and I didn't kill it like so many of the other plants I've touched with my black, but slowly turning green, thumb. It seems pretty hardy though, and I'm happy to know that a gardener who works with The Simple Man is going to take some cuttings and perhaps even the hacked up root ball for his own garden.

Poor little thing.

    I have to just keep telling myself that it wasn't leaving enough room for the vegetables, particularly my Paul Robeson tomatoes, which are destined for that spot. And my expectation of these tomatoes is high, especially if they taste anything like how Paul Robeson sounded.

    As you can see, I've already dug up a large portion of the garden. I was going to double dig, meaning digging down 24 inches, but I haven't measured it. I'm fairly sure it isn't 24 inches deep, but it is deep, and I intend to build brick beds with our extra bricks, at least 12 inches high. Right now I need to finish digging, throw a lot of good topsoil and compost on top, churn it up, and then build my brick beds. Wow, I'm making it sound so easy, but after digging the garden up on Sunday, I knew why my mom yelped with horror when I mentioned double digging.

    What's happening with your garden plans? Are you right on schedule, or late like me? Or even not gardening this year at all after reading this?! 

Blizzard #2 = Tropical Tree Craving

 

You can hardly tell this is an alley in the middle of the city

     The other night, while we were hunkering down waiting for the snow coverage to begin,  I offered to order The Simple Man's list of plants. Isn't it strange how meteorologists seem to provoke mass snow hysteria in people, but it's combined with a sort of hand-rubbing glee they can't hide? Anyhow, everything looked good until I got to the Mediterranean Olive Tree. What? I went ahead and ordered it anyway, but later asked him about it.

 

    So I made my way to the basement, where The Simple Man was sitting on a board, surrounded by a group of high-pitched, whining, power tools.

     "You're getting an olive tree?" 

     "Yeah." 

      "Will it be alright here?" (In this frozen, snowy, urban land up north) 

      "They said so. You can put it in a pot. Grows up to ten feet."   

    The Simple Man is a man of few words. "They" is some internet source, and I take it he researched it enough to know that an olive tree can live in this climate in a container. He  has a great green thumb.

    Now, we have an orange tree, a Kaffir Lime, and before I killed it, sigh, a beautiful Meyer Lemon, all in containers. Why I was so surprised by the olive tree is that I had never heard of growing one in containers. I went online to check it out and found some really fantastic information on growing dwarf fruit trees in containers. This site was particularly helpful, because it focuses  on those of us who have very little growing space. And because we now have nearly 4 feet of snow outside, I thought it was a sensible time to start planning a container orchard on my front patio. At one point, through my frenzied googling, I did hear The Simple Man inquire as to whether I would be on the computer all day long, but I whipped around and glared at him, and he got the hint. I had to ignore him because someone suggested that strawberry guavas make good container plants. Strawberry guava? Strawberry guava! Just the name itself was like a balm to my frosty heart. Anyhow, I realized later that I needed to restrain myself, we are already planning on doing a lot gardening this year and I don't want to spend a lot of money on these trees that need a fair amount of care, without being solidly established in our gardening plans. But we'll see. That strawberry guava keeps whispering my name.

So pretty, especially right before the sun sets

Blizzard = Seed Catalog Mania

    We had 28 inches of snow here this weekend. We're supposed to have another foot or so on Wednesday. You know the child inside you has died (or at least refuses to romp around) when you cringe at this news. I spent the whole weekend planning my garden, and for comfort against the snow I carried around my seed catalogs from room to room.  Since I'm:

a) Planting a very tiny plot

b) Companion planting  

c) Succession planting (hopefully into next winter)

...I had to put a lot of thought into it. Instead of just going through the seed catalog and ordering from the pages with the most drool dried on them, I thought about what we really like to eat, what I think I can grow, and whether or not it will all fit together. I sure hope I'm doing this right, because when I look at my seed list, and then look at my front yard, something tells me I might need help. I think I'm going to have to trick out the back deck for planting too. This is what I've ordered so far:

• Golden Beet
• St. Valery Carrot
• Suyo Long Cucumber
• Brune D'Hiver Lettuce  
• Charentais Melon  
• Komatsuma Tendergreen
• Patio Red Marconi Pepper
• Harris Model Parsnip  
• Purple Plum Radish
• Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea
•  Zucchini Lungo Bianco Squash
• Shogoin Turnip
• Black Cherry Tomato
• Paul Robeson Tomato 
  
• Wild Rocket Arugula
  

    We still have seeds left over from last year, so I'll use some of them. Generally we share our seeds also, since no one around here has much space to garden and sharing cuts down on everyone having to buy their own packet of 500 seeds when they need about 5. I'm also thinking about getting a gooseberry plant to put in a large container. They are supposed to be hardy and do well in containers, so we'll see.

    I'm thinking that I just might survive this next storm thinking about the above list. Barely.

Micro Gardening?

Our yard, in all its winter glory.

Actually, I'd love to think of us as eventually "micro homesteading" but I fear that might be vaguely ridiculous considering how little property we have. I wasn't going to plant much this year because I  had become really frustrated and hopeless about how we have no property. Then I read this post  and that made me put on my big girl pants and be grateful we have some yard and to view this as a challenge. Just how much can I get out of this space? I intend to find out.

 I will have to clear it first, and sadly, my gargantuan butterfly bush that the neighbors hate will have to go. If you live near Philly, come and get it. I'd love to find somewhere for it to live. Then I plan on double digging the whole yard. This has produced shudders in everyone I've mentioned it to, including my mom, who cried out, "Why won't you do the lasagna gardening?!" Because mom, I have my heart set on French Intensive Gardening, and lasagna gardening sounds fussy. Like lasagna. I think my chosen method will look and work better for our space. I'm going to have to put some small fencing up to protect the garden and will have 3 raised beds running the width of the space with brick walkways in between. I'll be companion planting also, to maximize the use of space and for the health of the plants. I hesitate to say I'll be gardening "organically" since these days that hasn't proved to mean much sometimes, but I certainly will not be using any pesticides etc. But for right now, even though we are having warmer weather, I'll be waiting another month or so, perhaps March, before I get to all that. Right now I'm just slavering over this:

Yep. I'm prepared to buy enough seeds to plant 6 acres. This happens to me every year. I've really got to plan carefully; I want to get the most out of this space without waste, whether it's seeds or produce. I'm also going to succession plant, so I have to think about what I can grow into the fall and possibly some winter greens. I'm excited to see where this goes.

The 2010 List

    I'm not making any resolutions. That doesn't mean, though, that I don't have ideas about what I want to accomplish in the new year, particularly since I don't have a tiny baby this year. So I'm going to make a list of what I'd like to do and learn this year, with the emphasis on making my family's life more sustainable. And making things. I like handmade.

Potatoes, peanuts, and sweet potatoes from last year

Sustainability

1. Worm composting bin (The Simple Man thinks this is gross, AND the basement is his domain, so I don’t know if this will work)

2.Use cloth bags for bulk and produce

3.Start making my own soap - I've done this before and it came out great, but I haven't made any in years

4. Air dry laundry when possible

5. Use the French Intensive gardening method  on my yard, which is a meager 10 x 12 

Crafting

1. Learn how to knit better

2. Grade all my sewing patterns for my size so they'll be ready when I want them

3. Make myself an entire wardrobe

4. Use up my fabric stash - I know a lot of people love their stashes, but frankly, I just feel like it's more "things" and it makes me anxious. 'Cause I'm weird like that.

Really, I also want to learn woodworking and make a...bench, but I'm having a hard time getting around my fear of power tools, especially after working in a shop with a girl WHO CUT HER FINGER OFF with a bandsaw. Also, every time I mention this desire to The Simple Man, I can see that he is secretly amused, presumably with the image of me actually trying to make something, and it puts me off. Maybe this year.