fence

a walk through the garden

| circadee

A thunderstorm washed through the area last night leaving everything in the garden looking extra lush and green this morning.  So much so that I decided this was the day to snap a few photos and share a status update on how things are progressing in the garden.

annuals garden box

This is the first year we’ve gardened this plot.  It runs about 4o feet long but only 18-24 inches deep on each side of the fence that divides the vegetables from the flowers.  These border gardens get full sun most of the day.  We decided to start out with a manageable size garden and we’ll add-on annually as desired.

vegetable and perennial border garden

On the exterior of the fence I’m working on a perennial garden.  Most of the plants are immature so I’ve been filling in with annuals.  I can’t wait to see how the perennial gardens thrive over the years.  Perennials gardens have always been my favorite to grow.  I am anticipating a cottage style cutting garden out here.  The thought of garden flower bouquets all summer long is delightful.

milk paint picket fence

The other side of the fence is where most of the action is happening as the flowers get established.  We started this vegetable garden in late March mostly from seed, directly sown.  We are now harvesting the early/cool weather vegetables such as lettuce.  If you come for dinner I can assure you that there will be a salad.

lettuce salad garden

And the snap peas are just darling.  I love their little tendrils and sweet flowers.

snap peas

We upcycled a trellis out of two crib rails.  Ryan just screwed them together making an A-frame.  They’ve already grown about 4 feet tall so looks like we’ll need to give them more space to climb.  Some snap pea varieties grow up to 8 feet.

upcycled snap pea trellis - crib rails

The other vegetables include carrots, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, beans and kohlrabi – planted mostly from seed.  Plus, we have a galvanized container garden for herbs.  I want to make tea with the relevant herb harvest.

vegetable garden milk painted fence

The fence is a new addition that we added in the fall.  Would you believe we used milk paint on the fence to achieve that subtle light blue?

milk paint on a picket fence #mmsmp

Yes, you can use milk paint outdoors!  It won’t fade from UV light and will be protected when a topcoat of tung oil is applied.  We sell tung oil with milk paint for this purpose.  The color was custom mixed eulalie’s sky and linen in more of a wash consistency. Then two thin coats were applied on a raw pine fence.  Perfect little cottage garden accent, don’t you think?

the beginning of a perennial cutting garden

But the best part of the garden is definitely the bounty it produces.  This morning, I harvested my first bunch of kale to enjoy with some locally grown strawberries in a breakfast smoothie.  Life can really be that simple.

locally grown produce

What are you growing?

garden fencing and rakes

| circadee

Well we took full advantage of that warm front that passed through over the weekend.  How about you?

We worked outside non-stop in Cape May.  Mostly on a garden related project that we originally thought we’d hold off on until spring.  However, we recently had some utility work done (not the topic fun blog posts are made of) so the yard was already dug up.  It just made sense to move forward with the garden layout now instead of waiting until spring.  Plus, the weather felt like spring anyway!  Bonus.

But before we can get to the fun part of the garden, actual gardening, we needed to work on the fence.  We inherited a homemade fence of horizontal 2×4’s done by previous owners post and rail style.  Their day had come.  It was time to remove the old fence and unfortunately I didn’t take a before picture but there wasn’t much to look at anyway.  The funny thing is that whoever installed the posts, installed them completely unevenly.  Instead of placing them 8 feet apart, they were like 7’9″ or 7’11”.  No two posts were the same distance apart.  But sturdy rails that they are, we were determined to reuse them instead of recreating the wheel.

picket fencing

We headed to Lowe’s and picked up a portion of the American dream.  Picket fencing in 8 foot widths.  Before finishing the unfinished fence, we temporarily installed them with the leftover posts.  This meant measuring and cutting a picket here or there to fit the aforementioned wonky post distances.

At the end of day one, we had what looked like a newly installed fence.  However, we quickly labeled each portion of fencing and removed them from the posts so they could be finished.  Once they’re finished, it should be easy to install them in order.

installing a fence

I thought we were moving onto the beginning of the fun part…customizing the fence.  Boy, was I wrong.  Painting a fence is so incredibly daunting.  We decided to use milk paint to stain the raw wood pickets a nice, custom mixed light blue.  At the end of day 2, they had a beach cottagey, blue washed look to them.  Fun!

But they’re still not ready to be re-hung on the fence posts.  We are planning to seal the milk paint in with tung oil which will protect the finish in the elements.  I can’t wait to share the color and finish.

tung oil

As soon as we can find time to oil them, we’ll re-install the fence and work on prepping the garden for spring.  I am planning on a perennial cutting garden since this space gets full sun!

Here are some of my inspiration photos for this garden space…

I am liking this rock border.

garden source unknown
source: unkown

Yes, I am considering a bike planter. Thoughts?  It seems like a very Cape May thing to do.

garden source french country cottage
source: French Country Cottage

While everyone else is on fall, I am dreaming about my spring garden .  Go figure!

All of that work in the garden had me inspired to bring a portion of it in.  I have been looking for a way to organize our belts for some time now (other than downsizing my belts because I have too many).

garden rake belt organization

I am sure you are no stranger to the idea of repurposing an old garden rake head as hooks for everything from jewelry to stemmed wine glasses.  Well, I decided to install our extra garden rake as a belt hook.  However, I did not remove the handle.  Honestly, I felt guilt cutting a perfectly fine rake in half.

garden rake belt organization

This was a no brainer.  After cleaning the rake followed by a hemp oil application to moisturize the wood, I positioned it against the wall near our master bath.  All set and the belts have one place to live. I like that I can see them all.

garden rake belt organization

And if I get bored of it, I can still use the rake outside again.