shed a little light

fellow james taylor fans, please note the blog title - it isn't entirely random, given excessive sun exposure over the weekend, and major...MAJOR (yeah, all caps there) progress on the shed.

kudos to brian the builder for getting up just about all of the siding in a couple days - it looks great! next up...chicken coop? hmm.

anyway, sunshine led to a lot of productivity over the long holiday weekend. we worked in just about every part of the yard - from shed building to weeding unpleasant rockery, creating new planting beds, harvesting tons of greens, and more.

with sunshine, things just get way bigger. seeds that i just planted start sprouting almost immediately, including several varieties of beans - purple, yellow, green, and scarlet runners. over the course of just a couple days, i could actually observe the beans evolving. we concocted a trellis of sorts by re-purposing some japanese window screens we recently removed from the living room. on the other side, we planted cucumbers. underneath the trellis, we scattered baby greens seeds.

we also planted some beans and other edibles in the front yard. after day dreaming of how to overtake at least part of the front lawn, i decided to jump in. and with shovel in hand, proceeded to painstakingly remove sod. a pain in the ass project, but well worth it in the end.

let me take you through a pictoral journey (time lapse = two days):

in the new front yard bed, we put in a variety of grasses, coneflowers, lavender, rosemary, black-eyed susans, thyme, blueberries, and we moved the huckleberry from a relatively shady spot in the back yard. at the base of the tepees (that we fashioned out of bamboo from the yard), are snap peas and the beans.

in addition to accomplishing these projects, we've been able to start enjoying the fruits (er, vegetables) of our labor. lettuces, arugula, and a number of herbs are in full swing. end product? delish veg pizza, arugula pesto pasta, and just picked salads.