| Home and Garden Page Winter 2002-2003 |
| HOME REPAIR & IMPROVEMENT Ask This Old House - our new favorite This Old House Sears - Craftsman rules! Home Depot - our home away from home Trading Spaces - if you don't know you must live under a rock While You Were Out |
| December/January All is pretty much quiet on the homefront. We haven't been working much on the house, besides a few decorating things here and there. We finally got curtain rods for the windows in the basement. As we bought new stereo equipment for the living room and moved the huge Pioneer speakers out of there, we had just enough room for a plant stand and small ficus tree for each side of the TV. (Check out Mike's Page for a picture.) They are the first real houseplants we have had in a while. We always worried that the cats would mess with them, but they don't seem very interested in them. They are however, very interested in the new chair and ottoman we got from IKEA. We got the medium brown beech frame with the Alme black cushion. I have to admit that I find the chair very comfortable myself (when I am allowed to sit in it). We originally bought the chair for what is now our guest room, but it went well in the living room and we can always use more seating in there, so our plan changed. We will have to either get another one, or find something different for the other room. We'll see. My latest aquisition, made just yesterday at Frank's, is a four tier growing rack/greenhouse, which looks like the one shown here, except mine is orange. I had not been able to find it online any cheaper than $80.00, plus shipping. Don't you know I almost fainted when I saw it at Frank's for $50.00. I have been looking for some type of greenhouse or something that I could use to put some of the plants I start from seed outside earlier than their planting time. I have a tendency to overdo it and then I run out of space under my grow lights. A few weeks ago I bought the plant stands and plants I mentioned above at Frank's. They seem to have really good prices, I guess due to competition from Home Depot and Lowe's, which are both pretty close by. They closed the Frank's in Bensalem about a year ago, but I hope mine (in Fairless Hills) sticks around. |
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| January Over the winter I have been going through all of my garden planning books and last year's seed catalogs, forcing myself to actually develop something resembling a garden plan. I forced myself to stick with almost all perennials and to try and develop a color scheme for each bed. (Last year I just went through the catalogs and ordered what looked pretty, without much thought. Although the flowers were pretty, they looked a bit disorganized and thrown about.) Below is a list of what I plan to use in my gardens this year: Front Beds: Blazing Stars Kobold Blazing Stars Floristan White Hardy Geranium Vision Hollyhock Mallow Fastigiata Hollyhock Mallow Mystic Merlin Delphinium Magic Fountain Mix Bellflower Odessa Penstemon Silver Carpet Snow in Summer Side Bed: Yellow Tropical Cannas Red Tropical Cannas Alyssum Basket of Gold Coleus Brilliant Mix Back Beds: Christmas Rose Bergenia Rose Evening Primrose Sundrops Miscellaneous: Hosta American Crosses Mix Goat's Beard Strawflowers I am sure there are more than I am forgetting. Most of what is listed above I ordered from Park Seed and should be delivered sometime this week. I am anxious to start my seeds, but I will have to hold myself back a few weeks considering that winter seems to be far from over. |
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