More Plants

Our front planting strip got crushed in February when our neighbors moved in. Many of the plants died, but I've been surprised by the flowers that managed to survive and bloom. Here it is last week. There were still a few purple tulips that bloomed, the peony surprisingly managed to survive and one of the irises sent up a flower stalk.

Yesterday, I was totally stir crazy and I dragged Jeff off to Portland Nursery. We picked up a few more plants to try in this bed. 

Sorry, the photo is not so great. The light was not good when we finished.
I'll try to take a better photo the next time I see the bed in good light.

We're trying an Acer circinatum (vine maple) in the center. This time I put two metal stakes on either side of it so even if it's covered in snow they'll be able to see that there is something there. We also bought an Iris tenax (tough leaved iris), Gaultheria shallon (salal), and Mertensia bella (Oregon lungwort). The lungwort probably won't survive since it likely won't get watered enough once it's established. We also moved over another Polystichum munitum (sword fern) from elsewhere in the yard.

We mostly just filled in the deep wheel ruts with steer manure. We didn't spend much time trying to repair the damage. We raked it out a bit and called it good enough for now.

Shelves Finished!

I am so excited to finally be nearing the completion of my closet project. Today, Jeff cut down the shelves to the right dimensions and then I sanded the edges and applied edge-banding. I used the pre-glued kind and it was much easier than I was expecting.

As seems to be typical for this project, I don't have enough shelf pins so I've already ordered those. They'll be here Friday.

Next up, we need to install the closet rods. At this point, it will probably be the weekend before we finish because Jeff gets his second round of coronavirus vaccine tomorrow. Based on reports from friends we're expecting he'll be wiped out for at least two days.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

We have really been enjoying our yard this year. Every week there is some new plant to enjoy.

Dodecatheon hendersonii / Shooting Star

Iris x pacific 'Big Wheel'

Parrot Tulips 'Garden Fire'

Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Lilafee’ 

Epimedium grandiflorum ‘Dark Side’

These are violas I grew from seed and planted last year!
I can't believe they survived the winter.

Jeff pruned our wisteria way back, but what is left looks nice.

This is the shady side of the front yard that we planted last year.
It looks much better now.

There are so many more photos I could share, but that's probably enough for now. I am so much happier about our yard these days. It was definitely worth the time and energy to make it a place we're proud of.

Closet Shellacked

I finally got my act together this week and continued work on my closet. I varnished the top shelf and did two coats of shellac on all the rest of the woodwork. (I used varnish on the top because I was hoping it would be more durable when we slide tubs and boxes across the surface.) 

We still need to finish making shelves for the cabinets. Unfortunately, the guy we hired to help us with this project cut the wood incorrectly and now we have to either buy more sheets of plywood or piece some of the shelves. Right now, Jeff is trying to piece the wood. 

I've also been working on cleaning my sewing room again. For the past few months, I've had a bad habit of finishing a project and then moving on to the next project without actually cleaning up the mess from the project I just finished. I had piles of fabric all over the place and a mountain of scraps overflowing onto the floor.

I've temporarily shifted some of the stuff from my sewing room into the closet to give myself more room to work. I will likely be moving some of the tubs from the sewing room into the closet permanently, but I still have a lot of boxes I need to unpack first to see how much room I have left.

I ordered brass rods and flanges and we got the rods last week, but the flanges were back-ordered. The shipping date looks like they may come next week. I'm hoping.

Closet Installed

We made good progress on our closet the past few days. We've installed the fixed shelving on the right side and face frame on the cabinets. Most of the wood was shellacked before it was installed, but I still need to shellac the face frame pieces. I would have shellacked everything, but I was worried there may be damage during the install and I figured it would be easier to touch up just stain.

Back when we did the rest of the closet I bought all the brass rods and brackets we needed to finish this closet, but then we used them in the guest room and sewing room closets, so today I ordered more. (If I had remembered, I would have ordered weeks ago.) I was relieved I could still find them, but it wasn't easy.

We still need to cut plywood shelves for the cabinets. And I have about two weeks to finish shellacking everything before we receive the rods.

Enjoying the Yard

I have really been enjoying all the beautiful plants out in the yard. Flowers started quite early with the Hellebores blooming in winter.

Hellebore of an unknown variety. Planted by an earlier resident.

This is an Hellebore 'Apricot Blush'. The flowers are red on the outside,
but apricot on the inside. Very lovely.

The white hellebore is a 'Picotee Pearl.' It has grown really
fast so it must love that spot. The pink hellebore to the right was a
gifted plant I got from a neighborhood friend. 

Most of the crocuses came out right before our freak snow storm
but didn't last too well with all the weight of the snow on them.

Epimedium x warleyense

We have so many daffodils coming up in the yard. I tried to dig up
the clumps last year and spread them out, but I guess I missed a couple.

Corydalis solida ‘Purple Bird’. I thought this one died because
it's a summer deciduous plant but there it is! Yay!

Hyacinth 'Gipsy Queen'

The Red Flowering Currant is only days away from being absolutely stunning.

Douglas Fir Staining

I put the last coat of stain on the plywood pieces this morning. 

Then, this afternoon, Jeff and I spent a couple hours finalizing the right side shelf design and measured and cut out the rest of the douglas fir. It didn't make much of a dent in our douglas fir stash out in the garage.

Tomorrow morning I'll put on the second coat of stain. It is possible we could start installing them as early as tomorrow afternoon, though we may want to wait until Monday morning to make sure they're totally dry.