One of the primary assets we acquired last year was our hose.

Having a large area that needs to be watered was getting to be a pain, just using our watering can.  We decided to get a hose and an adapter to hook up the hose to the kitchen sink.  It worked pretty well. Soon after, we got a multifunction spray nozzle and a hose wrangler that I mounted to the fence.

Every time we watered, we’d have to lift the bundle of hose off the holder, pull one end inside the house to hook up to the faucet, then wrestle the other end with the sprayer from under the knot that was still in the middle of the patio.  The bundle would tend to crush our pansies and trip us up as we watered.  When done, we’d have to completely unravel the bundle, then re-wind it around the holder.

Over the winter, the freezing temperatures must have cracked the nozzle.  The first watering sprayed Allison in the face instead of the grass.  We purchased a new one from Target, but decided that it wasn’t worth the price due to lack of features.  Our original had a “jet” function that worked like a power washer.  It was very handy.  The new one lacked the power.  So, on our next trip, we paid a little more and got a better one.

We also got a new storage solution for the hose itself.  We got one of those reels that you reel up the hose on.  You’re supposed to connect the inside of the reel to the spigot and then the hose to a pipe on the reel itself so that the unit can stay in place and you only need to unwind the length of hose you’re going to use.

Well, our situation isn’t that simple.  Since we don’t have an outside spigot, we need to unwind a length of hose to go into the house, in addition to the bit connected to the nozzle. The short length of hose that came with the reel to connect to the spigot would not work to connect it to the kitchen faucet.

We laid out a length of hose just long enough to get from the reel to the kitchen sink and cut the hose in two.  I used a hose mender thing to add threads and, essentially, make it into two hoses: one leading to the kitchen, the other to the nozzle.

The kitchen length was attached to the female-female length meant to connect the spigot to the inside of the reel.  The other half was connected to the reel itself.  So, essentially, we made a pseudo spigot that the reel could be connected to like normal.

I finally attached the reel to the fence in place of the older hose holder, though I moved the holder over to hold the to-kitchen hose.  That way, we can manually unwind just enough hose to get to the kitchen sink, while we can unwind as much or as little as we need to get the nozzle, and thus the water, to where ever we need.

Now it’s easier and quicker to setup and cleanup AND we won’t trip over the hose or trample the pansies.

The whole point of Tiny Lawn was to grow grass. A lush bed of greenery to take the place of a pile of broken red bricks.

Our initial attempt was very successful.

Last year, we used a ready-to-grow seeded blanket thing as our starting point. It worked to an extent, but we put it down wrong. We laid it on top of our well crafted bed of dirt, rather than putting the dirt on top of the blanket.

A few sprouts showed up, but my main concern was that they weren’t able to root into the soil. Ultimately, this resulted in a sad, sad brown lawn.

I eventually got frustrated and used some Pennington 1 Step Complete to give the lawn a little boost. That boost developed into a mighty fine patch of grass.

The grass lasted for what was left of the summer, but I was sure that it would die off over the winter. I came up with this grand plan of how to do things better this year. We’d start over and do things the right way, starting with seeds instead of the blanket.

Of course, thanks to the unusually warm winter, the grass didn’t completely die off. This year, we had something to start with. Unfortunately, it was still kind of sad and not up to my standards.

The main thing worrying me was that the initial paper-like base of the blanket had not eroded away as we anticipated. This needed to be rectified.

On our first run to the store, we bought a new shovel, some dirt and more of that awesome Pennington stuff. We’ve already got a starting point, so I didn’t want to get rid of what was there.  My new plan was as follows:

1. Break up the paper covering the dirt with the rake we bought last year.
2. Spread some seed on top of the broken up dirt.
3. Cover with a small layer of soil.
4. Spread more seed.
5. Water.
6. Wait.

It took relatively little time and effort.  I assumed it would be more work than it was because of our experience last year.  Of course, this year there was no gravel to move and no tree to extract.  So, that was nice.

We set everything up and waited.

Just today I stepped outside to see if anything came of our latest attempt.  While not wearing my glasses, I bent down and passed my hand over lawn.  Apart from the grass from last year that was not squashed down by the extra dirt, there were little baby blades sprouting.

So, that’s awesome.

It was actually our tomato plant that started this whole thing.  My theory goes that tomato growing is one step in the direction of adultness.  My next step was then to grow a lawn that I could yell at kids to get off of.

The real reason to grow tomatoes is to eat them.  Last year marked my first attempt at gardening, and needless to say, it didn’t go so well.  Our plant yielded a few very green tomatoes which we let ripen for a few weeks before we could eat.  Those few that we did eat, however, were probably the best I’ve had in my life.  It’s true what they say about home grown vegetables.

Last year, we tried to go the “topsy turvey” route with an instructable we found on Instructables.  The idea is that you hang a pot from the ceiling of your porch (or a Shepard’s hook in the back in our case) and the plant hangs out the bottom.  It’s great for small apartments and stuff, but we’ve got a back yard.

We did several things wrong on our first attempt.  It was late in the season when we started growing, so by the time we started getting some good looking tomatoes, it started getting cold. We were probably lucky to get as many as we did.

Additionally, we didn’t realize that pruning is an important part in tomato growing. Apparently, you’re supposed to trim off the little extra branches that pop up to prevent them from taking away the nutrients from the fruit bearing branches.

We also decided to plant some basil on top of the tomatoes. The basil grew to be enormous. We’re thinking that the monster basil plant was taking nutrients away from the tomato.  It seemed like a good idea to put something up there, otherwise it was kind of a waste of space.  This year we planted the basil in its own pot.

Learning from last year’s experience, we set out to do better.  Unlike our basil which we drew from seeds, the tomato plant was bought at Lowe’s.  It’s called an Early Girl -50 hybrid tomato.  I’m not sure what all that means, exactly, but I’m thinking the 50 stands for the number of days before it grows to maturity.  That’s what the tag says anyway.

I decided we should plant it right-side-up this time around.  I plan on hanging it much lower on the Shepard’s hook so that it will have room to grow up.  Last year I had a problem with some of the branches breaking off the plant because of fruit-weight.  I’ll probably have to add a lattice or something for the plant to grow up into to prevent that.

I’m using the same pot we used last year with a piece of rubber drawer liner covering the hole we made at the bottom.  This helps keep the dirt in but tends to leak water.  Not sure how that will affect things, but at least it won’t drown.

I replaced the nasty, brittle rope that came with the pot, with some long lengths of 550 parachute cord.  I was worried about the rope rotting away and breaking, but with the replacement cord, I’m thinking the pot will fail before the ropes snap.

We used some Miracle-Gro potting soil for the dirt.  It’s what Allison uses for the flowers and it’s always done a decent job, so why get rid of a good thing?  It looks like it’s got little Styrofoam beads in it.  Not sure what that’s about, but I’m assuming it’s to hold onto water?  Not sure.

In our previous attempt, we used a couple of different plant-food products to enhance the soil’s natural dirt-ness, so we’ll probably stick with that, too.  At first we just used some Tomato Food powdered stuff that you mix up with water when you water the plants.  Towards the end we discovered plant food spikes which, I guess, are just all the nutrients smashed together into a little stick that you jab into the dirt. It’s really easy and gets the job done.

When it was time to hang the planter, I initially hung it at the level it would be when it would grow up.  After studying the situation for a minute, I decided to raise it about half way so that the small plant could get a little more sun during the day.

It’s only been a few days and it’s looking good.  I noticed a couple of bugs flying around, so I’ll probably have to get some poison to make sure there aren’t any tomato weevils getting to my plant.

We normally eat tomatoes with chopped basil, which is why we tried to grow the basil and the tomatoes in one pot last year.  As I mentioned earlier, while the tomatoes didn’t do so great, the basil went nuts.  In addition to the bit we put in with the tomatoes, we threw some seeds on a pot full of dirt and they sprang up like weeds.  By the end of it all, we had basil growing out of our ears.

This year, we’re just going to do the seed dirt pot.  Doing that yielded more than enough basil for the summer.  Allison was on basil duty, so she just filled a pot with dirt, threw in the seeds, put a little more dirt on top and soaked it down.  No doubt her basil will do far better than my tomatoes again this year.

The next big hurdle will be figuring a way to keep them alive while we’re away on our honeymoon.

Anyway, we’ll see what happens.  I’m pretty excited about getting some nice juicy fruits before summer is out. I’ll definitely keep the blog updated with any significant tomato related events.

My name is Ben and I live in a condo with my soon-to-be wife, Allison.  We’ve got a patio in the back that’s mostly concrete except for about 15 square feet around the perimeter.  Last year, in an attempt to spruce up the back “yard”, we started a project we called Tiny Lawn.  The idea was to fill those 15 square feet with a lush green turf.

As inexperienced as we were with landscaping, the project took a lot of work.  We learned a lot and probably put in an equal amount of money.  In the end, though, after a few weeks of watering and hoping, our goal was accomplished and our tiny lawn lived.  You can read about that whole adventure elsewhere on the site.

At the end of the summer and the start of the cold weather, I was confident that our poor grass would freeze and die off.  I was sure I’d have to start over this year (in my mind, grass doesn’t grow back after it freezes).

As you may know, this past winter has been relatively mild.  It snowed maybe four or five times all winter.  Needless to say, my grass did not freeze over and die.

Even so, the lawn never got quite as full as I wanted it to be.  Thanks to the early onset of warm weather, I’ve decided it would be a good time spruce up the yard.

Most of the hard work was done last year: the digging, the earth moving, the tree pulling, the crying.  So, what am I supposed to blog about this year?

Last year, in addition to the lawn, we took on a few other “outdoor” projects.  We planted numerous flowers in pots.  We tried to grow a tomato plant in a home-made Topsy Turvey hanging plant.  We even tried to take some outdoors inside by making terrariums (several of which I featured previously on here, though it didn’t pan out like I hoped).

So, I think in addition to enhancing our lawn, I’ll try to chronicle our various other home improvement tasks.  Right now, my list includes our new tomato plant, painting the fence, and fixing the gate.  As other projects crop up, I’ll talk about them as well.  I know we’ve been talking about replacing the kitchen sink and upgrading the ceiling fans in the bedrooms, but we’ll see what happens.

Though, since the wedding is less than two months away, who knows when I’ll get to all this.