Ceiling fans and lights

I mentioned before that we had an electrician come in to do some work. Here's the two ceiling fans we had him install for us. We're really pleased with the fans. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the one in the living room, when you have the lights on the switch makes a constant clicky noise.

New dining room light

Back a few months ago we finally bought a new light for the dining room. The old one was pretty but it was getting old and it didn't light the table very well. We finally found something we both liked and thought would go well in that spot. Jim had quite a time installing it.

Anyway here's a picture. Our hutch is in the background. The bulbs are energy savers and make the lights look like flowers to me. It goes really well with the wagon wheel table.

Busy weekend!

Well Jim and I have certainly been busy all weekend. Yesterday he worked on my table, did a 3 hour shift at the library, and then had our garbage disposal break when he was using it last night. Today he installed a new one! Woo hoo Jim!

Yesterday and today I worked on the yard, weeding, planting, potting, watering, etc. I did three loads of laundry and worked on my blogs. After I send you some links to the latest MS news I'll call it a day!

How does my garden grow?

Thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of our gardening efforts.
The first picture is the bed Jim made me a couple of years ago. The plant in the far middle is a Monkey Puzzle Tree, on the left is a butterfly bush, and the rest are dahlias coming up.
The second picture shows the new bed in the front yard that Jim just made for me. It has eight dahlia tubers and one tea plant in the far back.
The third picture shows our four vegetable beds in the back yard. The two large pots in front of them are columnar apples. The bed (or wagon!) on the left has four tomato plants and two hills of green beans. The one on the right has six Brussels sprout plants, two rows of bok choy, and two rows of arugula (a green salad plant). I thinned the arugula and bok choy yesterday and we will be able to eat the tender cast offs. The one in the back left has onions and two kinds of lettuce. The one in the back right has an artichoke plant (which you can just barely see it in this picture) and strawberry plants. The other pots next to the beds are blueberries, dahlias, Four O'clocks, and tomatos.
The pink ruffled flower above is my peony and the purple flower to the left is the clematis I thought had died. Not only has it come back this year but it's blooming!! So now I seem to have three living clematis! Clematis are pretty iffy to grow around here so that's why I'm so excited.

Snake dance

A small snake and I managed to startle each other today. I think he was sunning himself in the pathway by the garage. Since I'd been through there several times already today it's odd he'd pick that spot.

So there I was headed towards the potting soil and the next thing I knew something was slithering frantically under my feet. You'll be glad to know I still seem to have quick instincts, I leap pretty fast. :-)

He was a charcoal black color but the one glimpse in our frantic parting of the ways wasn't enough to determine any other details. Needless to say he didn't stick around long enough for me to examine him. Being stepped on probably didn't make his day.

I'm actually delighted. He's welcome to munch on all the bugs and mice he can find! He's probably a - Northwestern Garter snake which are known to eat slugs. I wonder how you make a snake feel at home? I hope he doesn't decide that my yard is too dangerous.

Fireworks at Williamsburg, VA

Old fashioned fireworks at Williamsburg, VA

I found a big orange slug in my garden!

Initially I thought it was a banana slug but now I think it might have been a import from Europe, or one of the other 10 species in our area per this site, PACIFIC NORTHWEST NURSERY IPM Snails/Slugs

I ended up finding two big orange slugs about two inches long and almost an inch thick but since they'd gotten into the snail/slug poison around my dahias (slugs and snails love the tender sprouts when the dahlias are first coming up) they were kind of hunched up.

Looks like they might have been red European slugs. See this video, mine looked like the orange ones. Or see this photo, b comes the closest to what I saw. Or look at this site, there's a picture of an orange one here under Arion rufus.

Initially I thought they might have been Banana slugs which are native to this area. Per this site they are the only native slug. This site has some nice photos.

More gardening

Well Dad, for the third weekend in a row we have diligently worked on our gardening and other projects. And for the third weekend in a row we are exhausted. On the plus side the yard is shaping up nicely.

I bought more row cover fabric, 6 broccoli plants, and some celery seed. That's all the vegi's I'm going to plant for now. I try different things each year in order to test which vegetables will do well in our coastal Pacific Northwest weather.

The garlic bulbs I planted around one of my roses last year are doing well. I will have to dig those up and plant new cloves this fall. I originally planted them around one of my rose buses as an experiment. Apparently they help reduce black spot on roses when planted together. Funny enough I don't think that bush has any at the moment. So maybe it's working. Bonus is that I will have my own supply of garlic!

The lettuce and arugula seed I planted earlier have sprouted and even some of my sad little onion sets seem to be surviving.

We built the new dahlia bed in the front yard! Yeah! Jim took the rototiller to the new bed and we added soil. So I was able to plant 8 more dahlia tubers. I also dug up the tea plant and transplanted it to the new bed. It just wasn't getting enough light where it was. Hopefully it will perk up now.

The other 'new' project this year is the old flower bed on the east side of the house. It has some base plantings; a pink camellia, an azalea, the rose bush, and a couple of other plants. The rest has been weeds and grass which I dug out. That was a lot of work! I see why that rose hasn't been doing well, the soil is very sandy. So I will have to do some research on what will work in a sandy soil in the shade.

Jim dug a deep trench from the craft barn to the green house so the electrician we have coming can install power in the greenhouse. He also cut the table top for the table he is building me. It's to go in my study to give me more desk space.

What's in the garden right now

Here's a list of the edible plants we have seeded, planted or already have growing;

Vegetables:
Lettuce (2 kinds) plus four plants that come up on their own.
Arugula (salad green)
Onions (sets and seeds)
Bok Choy
Artichoke
Garlic (I planted around my roses last year)

Fruit:
Columnar apples (2 kinds)
Logenberries
Red currents (2 bushes)
Blueberries (2 small bushes)
Strawberries (have lost track, over one hundred plants?)

Herbs:
Catnip
Mint
Chocolate Mint
Cilantro/Coriander
Basil
Siam Queen Thai Basil
Lemon Balm
Sage
Rosemary
Oregano
Greek Oregano
Parsley (2 kinds)
Chives
Marjorum (maybe?)

Misc:
Lavender (2-3 kinds)
Nasturtiums
Tea bush (although it needs to be moved - I'm going to put it in the new flower bed or in a barrel pot).