Vacation projects coming along

Yesterday we got our cool weather crops planted. We have three different types of leaf lettuce growing in wine boxes on our back deck. We like to keep the lettuce up by the kitchen for easy access. (We are a family that eats a lot of salad.) We also like to keep the wild rabbits out of it and they won't come up on the deck.
The wine boxes are free: The DH brings them home from work when they're available. We use them for storage, decoration, book shelves, and when using them as planters we drill a few holes in the bottom, fill them with potting soil and they're good to go.

We also planted spinach in planters up on the deck. The big pot is from last year's Costco tomato plant. We've become very big on reusing things to keep gardening costs down. The strawberry pot in the background is still empty. Not sure what we're going to put in it. I do have some nasturiums that would work well there. We were going to outline the garden with nasturiums (they provide pest protection- I guess animals/bugs don't like the smell) but they need to be watered sparingly. We water by autotimer that gets the entire garden for a good length of time so I'm afraid the nasturiums would not be happy. But besides being a pest deterent, Nasturium flowers are also edible. They go great in salads, imparting a slightly peppery taste and brilliant color. Having them up on the deck would provide easy access for salad picking and provide a good show of color.

Here is our newly tilled expanded garden (complete with frost- which is why we have been starting seeds in the green house). We have an awesome neighbor who just invested in a bright, shiny red, brand spankin' new rotitiller. He was kind enough to offer to till our previous garden spot a couple of weeks ago and kind enough to let the DH borrow it last night to break the new ground for the expansion. THANKS JIM! Today we get to pull out all the sod, rake it and pile more compost (from the pile on our driveway) on the section. I mentioned up above the nasturiums that, now, won't be lining the garden but we still plan on planting radishes around the perimeter for animal determent and putting up Ivory soap on wooden dowels every couple feet or so around the perimeter. This works on keeping pests (deer) out of the garden. We don't want to spend money on a fence and found that the smell of the soap does indeed keep them away. (As evidenced by the eating of our squash and pumpkins last year that stopped once we put the soap "fence" up.)

Ahhh... here is my lovely new picnic table. My DH is one of those annoying types that can watch something done once and then go do it perfectly. He watched a woodworking show on building picnic tables and decided to build one. He watched the show, sketched a plan, wrote a supply list, bought the stuff and then built it. It took him all of three hours with basic tools. (Much to my DH's dismay we do not have a woodshop.) Guess who's eating lunch outside today! And Dinner! Still a little too cool in the morning for breakfast.

Okay, gotta start my chores for the day! Have a good one!