{"id":9851,"date":"2013-06-22T13:56:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T17:56:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canadianbudgetbinder.com\/?p=9851"},"modified":"2025-02-18T10:24:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T10:24:14","slug":"the-saturday-weekend-review-25-watch-our-garden-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalskyweb.co\/canadianbudgetbinder.com\/2013\/06\/22\/the-saturday-weekend-review-25-watch-our-garden-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saturday Weekend Review #25: Watch our garden grow"},"content":{"rendered":"

There Is So Much Beauty In This World<\/span><\/h2>\n

A little of this and that is how I describe this post today as so much has been going on in our lives now that the hot weather is here. Starting today, Saturday and through the weekend it’s going to be hot, humid and sticky in Ontario.<\/p>\n

Even though I still have to run the electrical for my outdoor lights for the landscaping I might just put that on hold. I still need to get on the roof to wash all the windows again inside and out. When I was cutting the concrete for the new path there was so much dust it has made a mess of them again.<\/p>\n

I managed to clean off the garage door the other day which made a huge difference. Sometimes just the smallest jobs like taking a bucket of water and washing down a door helps the curb appeal of a home. I also want to remove all the window caulking and put \u00a0in new caulking that is clean and not cheap builder grade junk. I replaced the garage door track and seal last week so that’s done.<\/p>\n

The more I tear this house apart the more I realize how crappy some builders are when it comes to accessories. Don’t expect anything posh unless you have your home custom-built and you pick out everything you want. That means spending some money on quality fixtures for the home. They also did me a huge favour by parking in the garage from the time the house was built which helped keep the driveway in mint condition and it hasn’t sunk at all.<\/p>\n

Many driveways we see around the neighbourhood you can see the drop from the bottom of the garage door. The other favour, they didn’t finish the basement nor touch anything else in this home. The more homes that we looked at when we went to\u00a0open houses with our real estate agent<\/a> that had supposed “renovations”<\/strong> done to it made me want to pull my hair out.<\/p>\n

I’m not a contractor but I’m also not an idiot and try to do things that the professionals should be doing if I don’t have a clue how to do it. It’s so obvious the mess some people create, what a waste of money. I would never buy a home like that. I don’t care how nice they say the renovations are or look. The one house we looked at had all new hardwood flooring. Sure it looked good but I’d have to rip it all out because some moron had no idea how to measure and there were gaps all over the place. It was sad really, the thousands they spent on it.<\/p>\n

I was thinking I might start tearing one of our bathrooms apart as I plan to do a full gut and renovate. I’m hoping to put in heated floors, new vanity, mirror, tub, toilet, accessories, lighting and floor to ceiling tile. I’m going to make the bathroom an oasis for anyone who uses it but the best part is I won’t slap up crap for the next homeowner to deal with.<\/p>\n

What renovations are you doing this summer?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gardening and Landscaping<\/span><\/h3>\n

I’m pretty much done with the front of the house for this year except I need to get that sealing done on the front steps which is another job on my list. The back of the house has gone very well and our plants are starting to come to life. Our mallow is growing at a fast rate and when the blooms come out later this summer I’ll show you how beautiful they are. Our fig tree has recovered from the wind burn and is back in action and has many figs on the tree.<\/p>\n

I made my way to the compost heap again this week as it was overflowing. I think adding more of the kitchen scraps has really helped it along this year as well as last years rotted leaves that I keep. I found a simple way to screen all the non-essentials out of the compost which is black and rich in nutrients.<\/p>\n

I use a flower tray from the garden centre that has small holes at the bottom. I rest that on top of a bucket. I fill the screen with compost and shake it over the plastic bucket. It sends all the beautiful soil to the bottom and keeps the ugly bits on the top. Try it, who would have thought it was that easy!<\/p>\n

We re-potted the lime tree into the mini wine barrel which will be its new home until it grows bigger. The small money tree that we picked up at a garage sale last month is growing at lightening speeds as is our older money tree. Its since been re-potted in a pot that was found free on the side of the road.<\/p>\n

The free lettuce bowl that we were given didn’t survive as the lettuce was all weedy. We tossed it and transferred our chive plant into that bowl and it’s looking mighty happy in there right now.<\/p>\n

Our basil is going crazy as well and we couldn’t be happier. Last year we made basil garlic cubes<\/a> in our muffin tins and we plan to do the same this year. We also plan to make mint cubes since the mint is growing like mad in the post. Just look at how huge one of our mint plants is. If you don’t want mint to overtake your garden, put it in a pot like we have.<\/p>\n

Our parsley is coming up slowly although it wasn’t long planted. The swiss chard and chives in the planter box are doing well as is the spring mix lettuce which we’ve already started to eat. You can just see the fennel coming up from the ground now and we’re looking forward to how it will turn out for us since it’s the first year we’ve grown it.<\/p>\n

Our many flower baskets that we made are all blooming with amazing colours. The cover photo on this post is from one of our baskets. Just look at how vibrant the flowers are. If you take good care of your plants they will take good care of you even if it’s only smiles.<\/p>\n

That’s all for a garden update this week… check back next Saturday to see what magic is happening in our garden.<\/p>\n

Free stuff<\/span><\/h3>\n

While we were out for our evening walk the wife and I stumbled up some free stuff in front of a home where the owners are getting ready to move. Sometimes the best finds are from local homes in your neighbourhood who are packing up to move house. I found a practically brand new electric hedge trimmer<\/strong> from Greenworks.<\/strong> It retails at Canadian Tire for $89.99 plus tax.<\/strong> I plugged it in as soon as I got home not knowing if it worked or not.<\/p>\n

Even if it didn’t I’m sure it wasn’t too hard to fix up. It worked like a charm and the next day I went out and cut some branches off one of our small trees with no issues. A big thanks to our neighbour for this beauty. They also left us about 10 plastic planters many of which were good hanging baskets and the other a set of two matching planters.<\/p>\n

Weekly blog post review<\/span><\/h3>\n

As you know if you use Google Reader<\/strong> to follow my blog posts it will be no longer available very soon. You can now follow Canadian Budget Binder via Bloglovin\u00a0and continue to get my daily post in your new reader<\/strong>. If you are a regular reader you would have already received these awesome posts \u00a0in your email or reader but just in case you missed reading one I’ve put them all together here just for you.<\/p>\n