Tart Cherry Crumble Recipe - Yum!

This year, we had our first cherry harvest from the two 'Carmine Jewel' dwarf cherry shrubs we have. I'd gotten two seedlings from Gurney's at a regional GWA (Garden Writers Association) meeting in 2011, and after being gnawed to the ground one winter by rabbits, they came back like gangbusters.

I had my first experience at pitting cherries and I can tell you it was more fun than shelling peas. I don't enjoy shelling peas, which is why I no longer grow them, but pitting the cherries was another one of those tasks that you can do without thinking. Or you can think about the pie or cobbler or liqueur that those cherries will become.

There are several ways to pit cherries if you don't have a proper cherry pitter. I opted to use a straw - a stainless steel straw, which I knew would hold up well. I simply put the end of the straw at the stem end and pushed the pit out the other end. Don't wear a white shirt while doing this, although it doesn't seem to cause a permanent stain if you wash it right away.

The harvest yielded 207 cherries, which was about a pint of cherries, weighing ¾ of a pound after pitting. That wasn't quite as many as the recipe I used them in called for, but it was enough. And it was good.

I pretty much followed this recipe found on The Kitchn:

Tart Cherry Crumble

For the cherries:

1 pound tart cherries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger, optional (I didn't use this)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of salt

For the crumble:

6 tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
⅔ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg, beaten well

Position a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375°F.

Spread the cherries in an ungreased 9x9-inch baking dish, deep pie pan, or similar-sized dish. Toss the cherries with the sugar, flour, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Cut the butter into several pieces and melt over low heat in a small saucepan. Raise the heat slightly after it has melted, and cook, swirling frequently, until the butter has turned nutty brown. Remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the beaten egg and use your hands to combine the dry ingredients and egg. As you work the egg into the flour, it will form small moist crumbs. Sprinkle these over the cherries, then drizzle the browned butter over the topping.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is browned and the cherries are bubbling. Cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or unsweetened whipped cream.

I'd make it again.

Dwarf Sour Cherry 

(Prunus cerasus 'Carmine Jewel')

This is a dwarf shrub-type of tart or sour cherry. It is suitable for growing in Zones 3a to 8b, in sun to part-shade. It prefers neutral to alkaline soil, but is adaptable to most soil types, including heavy clay.

Developed at The University of Saskatchewan (Canada) and introduced in 1999, this black cherry is consistently highly productive, with a high fruit-to-pit ratio.

Field notes on 'Carmine Jewel'

________________________________
*I received these cherry plants as seedlings from Gurney's in 2011, free of charge. I have not received any other compensation for writing about them.

It Was an Actual Cherry HARVEST!

Back in 2011, while attending a regional GWA (Garden Writers Association) meeting in Chicago, I received a couple of small seedlings of a dwarf sour cherry shrub - 'Carmine Jewel'. Gurney's supplied them to us as part of the swag that we usually get when we attend such meetings.

I brought them home and planted them back near our apple trees. They didn't grow much the first couple of years and then those pesky wabbits chewed them off at the ground one winter. (Grrr... That's what I get for boasting about never having any rabbit issues.) I was certain they were both goners, but they came back from the roots - like gangbusters!

Last year, we had three blooms on one shrub and ended up with one cherry. I couldn't decide what to make with that cherry, so I simply ate it. 

Did I mention these were sour cherries?

This year, I was taken aback when I saw how profusely both shrubs were blooming and I made plans for pies, cobbler, jelly... Once the cherries started turning red, I netted them so the birds didn't get to them before I did.

In the end, there weren't as many as I'd hoped there would be, but...

CHERRIES, Y'ALL!

I haven't yet decided what I'm going to make (after I pit them...gah), but I think it might be this:

● Tart Cherry Crisp ●

(Recipe from Taste of Home)

________________________________

The 'Carmine Jewel' Dwarf Cherry was bred at the University of Saskatchewan and was introduced to the public in 1999. It is a shrub-type cherry that reaches a maximum height of about 6½ feet and a spread of about 5 feet, making it ideal for limited space gardens. 

Self-pollinating, it is one of the first cherries to ripen in early summer, with stunningly heavy yields in its fifth year, with 20-30 pounds of cherries per shrub not uncommon.

'Carmine Jewel' is is rated for zones 2b-7, making it very hardy. It is a firm cherry with small pits, making it excellent for drying. It has few disease and pest problems, making it a good choice for organic production.

It seems that it's a common error among backyard gardeners to pick these cherries before they're completely ripe. They're nearly black when at their peak and will be quite a bit sweeter if you can be patient. I noticed a few cherries falling off the trees, so I started harvesting them - in error. They will still be fine to eat in recipes, but next year, I'll know to wait a little longer.

___________________________

A tardy thanks to Gurney's for providing these shrubs free of charge at our GWA meeting.

___________________________

2016 - The Year of the Cherry

Several years ago, I received a couple of cherry trees at a garden writer's event. I can't remember the event, and I don't know which kind of cherry trees they are. I planted them and hoped that one day I would have enough cherries to make a pie, even though I don't do pies. If I got cherries, I'd make a pie for my husband, because he loves pies.

Oh, who am I kidding? We've had apple trees for nearly 40 years and he's the one who makes the apple pies. If we get cherries, he'll be the one to make the cherry pie.

The cherry trees didn't get a very good start. One winter a few years ago, we forgot to cage the small trees and the rabbits chewed them right down to the ground. I really thought they'd chewed up our cherry pie dreams. But the trees recovered quite quickly and nicely, even though they're now more cherry shrubs than trees. It was amazing, really.

Last year, we got a cherry. Three blossoms - woo hoo! - but just one cherry. I netted that thing because there was no way the birds were going to get our very first cherry. But in my anxiousness to taste it, I might have picked it too soon. Too soon for a sweet cherry, maybe not too soon for a sour one. So I still don't know if we have sweet or sour cherry trees.

A couple of weeks ago, I walked to the back of the property and was taken aback by those little cherry shrubs.

Hundreds of blossoms! Cherry pies! PIES! More than one. Maybe two pies!

I was an amazing thing. I just stood there and stared at them. And then I ran to the house and got the camera. So. Many. Blossoms.

It can take up to eight years for a cherry tree to produce a fruit crop of any size. It depends on the variety and the climate and growing conditions. In general, cherry trees that are slower to produce fruit will produce for a longer period of time and live longer.

Time will tell as to how many cherries we'll get. You can be sure the entire trees will be netted. And I'll be more patient in picking them this year. But I wish I knew which kind of cherries they were. If any of my garden writer friends remember getting these and can tell me which kind they are, I'd be happy to know. (Thanks to Linda Nitchman, they are identified as 'Carmine Jewel' bush cherries.)

I'm so excited about the prospect of so many cherries, I think I will make the first pie with them. Unless Romie really wants to. I wouldn't want to deny him that privilege, you know.

Wordless Wednesday: Cheeky Peachy Still Life

We enjoyed our first peaches ever (that we grew ourselves) this week!

Elberta Peaches
Prunus persica 'Elberta'
Semi-dwarf
Zone 5

Fruit-infused Water is a Refreshing Treat! (+ a giveaway!)

It's the height of strawberry season here and while I like my strawberries best just-picked off the plant, there's a plethora of ways to enjoy their ruby red juicy goodness. I just for the first time have started enjoying them another way - in water.

When I was contacted about testing and reviewing the Fruit Infusion Pitcher by Kitchen Frontier, I jumped at the chance. I'd not used such a product before, although I'd had strawberry cucumber infused water in Seattle one time, when I was attending the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in 2012. It was delicious.

My pitcher arrived and while I generally hate plastic-y anything, this BPA-free hard acrylic one is not objectionable. I don't know how it will look when it's had a few trips through the dishwasher, but right now I find it quite attractive. It's also shatterproof and comes with a lifetime guarantee.

Fruit Infusion Pitcher by Kitchen Frontier

Juneberries on our serviceberry tree.
(Amelanchier sp.)

So I went out to the strawberry patch and picked some, sliced up a peach, and also picked some juneberries from our Amelanchier or serviceberry tree (yes, they're edible for humans, too!) and loaded them into the infusion chamber.

Once this was full, I screwed it into the lid and popped the whole thing onto the pitcher. (It snaps on.)

Then I put it into the refrigerator and waited until the next morning to try the infusion out.

The pitcher has a capacity of 93 ounces.

The infused water has a slight pink blush to it.

The flavor of the water isn't intense by any means, but of course that increases the longer the fruit is immersed in the water. It was refreshing and a nice departure from just plain water.

If you wanted a more intense fruit flavor, you could slightly crush the berries or whatever other fruit you put in the infusion column and wait a couple of days before serving it. But I found that overnight was sufficient to subtly flavor the water.




Now, here's the really good part for you. Kitchen Frontier has offered to send a free pitcher to one of my readers. All you have to do is leave a comment to this blog post, telling me what fruit you would use in the pitcher if you win one. (Maybe you'll give me a new idea for what to use in mine! I'm contemplating watermelon next.)

Be sure to include a way for me to contact you, should you be the winner. An email address is ideal and to keep the bots away, you can write it like this: ourlittleacre at gmail dot com.

The giveaway will run through Sunday night, June 22, 2015, at midnight EDT, when I'll use Random.org to randomly pick a winner. What a way to celebrate the beginning of summer, eh?  Good luck!

Giveaway rules can be found here.

WINNER!

I used Random.org to pick a winner from the 24 entries and it picked commentor #17. That means Sally Wannemacher, you win a pitcher! I'll be contacting you to get your shipping address so Kitchen Frontier can send it to you! Congratulations! And thanks to all who entered. You can purchase one here at Amazon, if you're interested!

________________________
I received a Fruit Infusion Pitcher from Kitchen Frontier free of charge for the purposes of trying it out and posting my true opinion of it. As always, my opinions are my own. This blog post may contain an affiliate link to Amazon.

Our Little Acre's First Cherry

Several years ago, I acquired two small cherry tree seedlings at a garden writers event, which I planted in the northeast corner of our property, where most of the other fruits are. (Apples, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries...)

The first couple of years, they grew as they were supposed to and we caged them over winter to protect them from Thumper's destructive behavior. Two winters ago, we forgot to do that and we paid the price. The cherry trees were gnawed off all the way to the ground.

I thought they were goners, as the trees weren't all that large to begin with, but as the weather warmed, we began to see little shoots of green coming from the roots. The trees both survived, but it was clear that they were going to be more of shrub now than a tree. No matter.

This spring, one of the trees bloomed.

Three glorious blossoms meant that for the first time, there would be cherries at Our Little Acre. Only three, but three is better than none.

And then something happened to two of them. They simply disappeared. It was early in the game, so who knows, but now we were down to one. I didn't want to lose it so that meant I would have to protect it from the birds and whatever else might enjoy a ripe, red cherry.

Today, I noticed it had turned red. 

Since I don't know what variety the cherry trees are (I forgot to tag them), I don't know if they're a true red when they're ripe or if they're a little darker than that. I'm going to keep a close watch on it to see if I can determine when it's perfectly ripe.

In the meantime, that precious lone cherry is wrapped up in netting because I'll be darned if our very first cherry is going to the birds. Now, just what to do with it when it's finally ready to be picked?

Suggestions?

Let's Drink to Apples!

My husband and I have taken many, many evening walks down our road over the years. As far as country roads go in these parts, this one provides some interesting scenery. There are the neighbors that have an assortment of animals, a cemetery that has many familiar names, and we cross two creeks lined with wildflowers.

Many years ago, we also noticed a mature apple tree growing in the deeper ditch on the west side of the road about three-quarters of a mile south of our house. I've always been curious as to how it got there, knowing that there are random apple trees planted by Johnny Appleseed in our general area.

Wikipedia

Logic tells me that while it's fun to fantasize, that tree more than likely grew from an apple that got tossed out the car window after someone long ago enjoyed it as a snack. And if that was the case, then it's highly unlikely that Johnny Appleseed had anything to do with planting it.

John Chapman planted several apple orchards as he traveled these parts, but the trees he planted didn't produce eating apples. Apples eaten for their fruit didn't become popular until the last century. Until that time, apples were almost exclusively used for cider.

This is because apples don't come true to seed and though they grow readily this way, the resulting fruit is almost always very, very sour. Henry David Thoreau described the taste of apple fruit as sour enough "to set a squirrel's teeth on edge and make a jay scream." So how do we get those deliciously sweet varieties such as 'Honeycrisp', 'Gala' and 'Jazz'?

Just like other new cultivars are created by crossing two varieties with the desired traits, so it is with apples, but because of their extreme variability, once a favorable result has been found, propagation is done by budding or grafting.

I personally learned about apple genetics by reading The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan as well as watching the PBS series by the same name. It never occurred to me that the apple wasn't commonly eaten until our not-so-distant past.

Like so many heirlooms, the apple varieties have dwindled to just a fraction of what used to be grown years ago. Back when they were open-pollinated, there were no less than 7500 different varieties of apples. Cultivated varieties for commercial use have basically created a relative monoculture, but apple enthusiasts are growing some of the older heirlooms in greater numbers.

The U.S. is number two in the world's apple production (China is number one), but apples aren't native to our country. They originated in what is now Kazakhstan and were brought to the U.S. by the Puritans. 'Red Delicious' currently leads all varieties in production.

I've not tasted the apples growing on the tree in that nearby ditch, mainly because there's a huge swath of poison ivy in the way of being able to reach the tree. But my curiosity may get the better of me and I might just have to figure out a way to pick that apple. I feel a bit like Eve...

Previously published as "Let's Drink to Apples!" by Kylee Baumle in the Paulding Progress newspaper in October 2013.  Reprinted and modified here with permission.

The Big Apple - In My Garden

When we moved to our present home in 1977, my parents bought us two apple trees. Both were 'Red Delicious', a popular cultivar at the time and especially in our area, because of its resistance to cedar-apple rust. We planted them at the back of our property and it wasn't long before both trees were giving us apples in the fall.

Several years ago, the smaller of the two trees began to rot at the base and one day, Romie simply gave it a shove and that was the end of that.

A few years later, it seemed that the remaining tree was going to go the way of the first one, and we planned for a spring removal by planting four new trees around it. (Two 'Honeycrisp', one 'Idared', and one 'Gala'.) There would be plenty of room for the other trees to grow after we removed the ailing one. It had lived a good life for an apple tree and we were ready to move on.

But spring came and the tree leafed out and bloomed profusely so we put off removing it, thinking it had one more good crop in it. That was in 2010 and the tree is still with us, still producing. Part of it did die and we cut that large branch off, leaving a large enough stub for me to use as a pedestal, with the intentions of putting a blooming planter there - something that spilled out over the pot with viney lushness.

Before that happened though, I was walking through Molbak's in Woodinville, Wash., earlier this year and spied these:

Wheels began to turn in my head when I saw that large red apple, but I didn't know if I wanted to spend what it would cost to buy the apple and have it shipped home. I'd have to think about it.

Spring came and I thought about that big red apple again and I wanted it. I called Molbak's and guess what? They were no longer available. In fact, the manufacturer wasn't making them anymore. You snooze, you lose. But of course, that just made me want the apple all the more. I had plans for that big ball of shiny scarlet goodness.

I put out a plea on my Facebook page and as nearly always happens, someone came to my rescue. To make a long story short, my friend Karen Chapman (of Fine Foliage fame) used her landscape designer skills to locate one and before long, a big red apple was residing in our orchard.
 

Thank you, Karen. That apple makes me smile every time I see it, not only because I like how it looks, but because of how you went above and beyond to make it happen.

The Grafted Tomato Experiment + A $50 Giveaway!

Earlier this year, Jung Seed Company contacted me about growing one of their grafted tomatoes. I'd first heard about grafted tomatoes just prior to and during the Garden Bloggers Fling in Seattle in 2011. I was somewhat fascinated with the science behind them, but since we are a family of two - only one of which likes raw tomatoes - I didn't give them much thought. We usually only grow two or three plants and two of them are cherry types.

Young 'Indigo Rose' fruits.

But this one that Jung wanted me to grow was different. First of all, it was GORGEOUS and I love growing beautiful edibles and beautiful plants for the sheer joy of looking at them. It went by the name of 'Indigo Rose' and not only was it a beautiful tomato, its reputation preceded it and I wanted it in my garden.

What's so special about 'Indigo Rose'?

Besides being dark purple, almost to the point of being black, 'Indigo Rose' is loaded with all the vitamins that any tomato is, PLUS it's very high in anthocyanins. These are what give it its purple color and anthycyanins are a type of antioxidant thought to fight disease in humans. 'Indigo Rose' has been called the healthiest tomato in the world because of this.

You have to eat the skins to gain the benefits of 'Indigo Rose' that makes them so good for you. The tomatoes were bred at Oregon State University and first introduced to the public in 2012. Breeding first began in the 1960s however, when cultivated tomatoes were crossed with wild tomatoes from Chile and Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.

Some of these wild tomatoes had anthocyanins in their fruit, but cultivated tomatoes had them only in their stems and leaves, which are inedible. The result of many crosses eventually yielded 'Indigo Rose', a 2-inch variety. Sold as both a grafted and seed-grown tomato, its beauty and health benefits are poised to make it a popular selection by home gardeners.

Here's the plan...

I had no intentions of eating this tomato - my husband would take care of that - but I wanted to do an experiment. I'd seen seed grown 'Indigo Rose' at our local Meijer store, and I thought it would be fun to grow the grafted and seed grown varieties of the same tomato side-by-side and do a comparison. Both the grafted tomato and the seed grown plants were nearly identical in size when I planted them.

Grafted version of 'Indigo Rose' on September 11, 2014

Why grafted?

Grafted tomatoes are supposed to have these advantages:

• better disease resistance
• increased vigor
• higher yields

I wanted to see if this would prove to be true in my own garden.


My tomato experiment

I grew both the grafted and the seed-grown 'Indigo Rose' plants in the same location and treated them both exactly the same.  I didn't feed them and only twice did they receive any supplemental watering during the summer. We've had plenty of rain this summer and they didn't really need much extra watering. I pretty much planted them and then let them do whatever they wanted to do without any intervention.

Along with an abundance of rain, we had a cooler than usual summer, and we know that tomatoes prefer warmth. I think that's why these didn't start blooming and producing until later in the summer, but once they started, both of them really went to town. Both plants behaved nearly identical with neither one pulling ahead of the other, until late in the season.

'Indigo Rose' tomatoes are dark purple on the outside, but are
traditional red on the inside.

How do you know when they're ripe?

I began picking ripe fruits a little over a month ago. Deciding when they were ripe was sort of tricky until I knew what to look for. Since they're mostly purple, you really can't go by the color, although the shaded part of them - the bottoms - don't turn purple (because they're shaded from direct sun) so you can check that for the typical tomato red color. The purple parts also start out really shiny, but when they're ripe, the luster dulls. They also soften up a bit and a ripe fruit will come off the stem easily with a slight twist.

The results

Like I said, I couldn't tell much difference between the two plants in the early days of fruit production. But as time went on, the grafted tomato started pulling away from the seed grown one. Both continued to produce (and are still producing), but the number of fruits has differed. The grafted plant has been bearing more tomatoes in the last few weeks than the seed grown.

The grafted plant also looks healthier, with thicker foliage. Both plants were afflicted by late blight a bit, but not to the point of causing any real detriment to the plants. I had no issues with blossom end rot at all, and almost no splitting until just recently.

Taste-testing

You can't trust my taste buds to judge a good tomato from a bad one, because I don't like fresh tomatoes. I can't help it - there's a scientific reason for this. But my husband loves them, so it was up to him to let me know how these tasted.

While 'Sungold' is his absolute favorite (even after growing 'Sun Sugar' this year, which is supposed to be an even sweeter variety), he did say he liked 'Indigo Rose'. He thought it tasted like a traditional heirloom tomato, although the flavor wasn't quite as intense. Some of the fruits had an abundance of seeds and some strangely didn't have any, but the seeds were very tiny, so they weren't objectionable.

FINAL VERDICT:  The grafted tomato performed better when it came to length of productivity and number of fruits on the plant. I'll grow it again, for both its beauty and its healthy fruit.

A GIVEAWAY!

Want to grow a grafted 'Indigo Rose' of your own? Jung Seed Company has graciously provided a $50 gift certificate for me to give away that you can use to buy it! They've got much more than grafted tomatoes though, so you could use this gift certificate for any number of gardening goodies. They're shipping lots of items for fall planting right now.

To enter to win the $50 GC, just leave a comment here, telling me your favorite variety of tomato and why you like it so well. Then enter your information in the Rafflecopter form so that I'll be able to contact you should your entry be chosen as the winner. Do this by midnight EDT, Friday, October 3, 2014, and a winner will be chosen randomly by Rafflecopter, which I will announce on Saturday, October 4th. Best of luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
WINNER! Rafflecopter has chosen Emily Smith as the winner of the $50 gift card to Jung Seed Company. Congratulations, Emily! Thank you to everyone for participating in the giveaway. Stay tuned, because there will be another $50 gift certificate to another nursery soon!

_____________________
I was provided with a free grafted tomato plant from Jung Seed Company, as well as the $50 Gift Card for giveaway. I purchased the seed grown tomato plant myself for the purposes of this comparison test.

'Indigo Rose' Information Source: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/gardening/purple-tomato-debuts-indigo-rose

Projects X 2: The Berry Barn & The Weeping Circle

It seems as if life around here is operating on a delay much of the time. Too busy? We're getting older? Maybe a little of both, but it feels good to have two of our planned projects completed now. One, The Berry Barn, should have been done last fall and The Weeping Circle was something I've wanted to do for a couple of years now. Neither really took all that long, but you know how that goes.

Thornless blackberries beginning to ripen earlier this season.

We've got six thornless blackberry plants, or at least that's what we started out with a few years ago - three each of 'Chester' and 'Triple Crown'. They've done well and we've gotten some great tasting berries from them, but the birds like them as much as we do. We've netted them in the past, but nets are a pain.

There are also three Raspberry Shortcake^™ thornless raspberry plants I received as test plants from Fall Creek Farm & Nursery a few years ago in close proximity to the blackberries. We've never gotten any berries on those, but it could be because just when they were getting big enough to possibly give us some, the rabbits decided they would do us the favor of chewing them off at the ground. We forgot to cage them last winter. Our bad.

Last year's 'Jelly Bean' blueberries

For the past couple of years, we've grown blueberries in containers, mostly because we've got alkaline soil here and blueberries like it acidic. It's easier to control the pH when you grow things in containers.  We've got some great compact varieties, also test plants from Fall Creek Farm & Nursery ('Jelly Bean' and 'Peach Sorbet'), as well as 'Pink Lemonade'. But I wanted to try them in the ground, amend the soil around them, and see how they did.

2012 Blueberries

So how did they do?  Ask the rabbits.  By the end of last summer, I really thought they were large enough to withstand a little rabbit pressure, but nooooooo... The rabbits sheared them all off right at the ground too. It was a rough winter for everyone. But guess what? None of them died, even though I was certain they were goners. We didn't get any blueberries this year, but they did recover nicely and I expect to get some next year.

To better address these bird and rabbit problems, I came up with an idea. My husband dislikes it when I do this, because he knows my ideas mean work for him. He's not opposed to working in the yard or work in general, but he likes it better when it's his idea. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't finagle this into being his idea in any way. But he agreed to build The Berry Barn. (I have other ways of persuasion.)

My idea was to build a wooden frame and put chicken wire all around it to keep the birds and bunnies out, but still allow pollinators in. Since the raspberries and blueberries would remain relatively small due to the varieties they are, and with all of those planted about 4-5 feet south of the row of blackberries, I wanted the roof line of the enclosure to be asymmetrical, being longer on that side. Hubby says, "Can't you just ever do something the simple way?"

 

 

 

To make a long story short, The Berry Barn got built (my dad even came out and helped one day), and I was so happy with the way it turned out, I literally was jumping up and down.  Hubby smiled. I suspect the rabbits and birds will not be pleased. Too bad, so sad.

In the same week, a paved circle was placed around one of our weeping trees, the Weeping Extraordinaire™ Double Flowering Cherry (Prunus x 'Extrazam'), from Lake County Nursery/UpShoot!. This project didn't take nearly as long and was made easier by special ordering the patio kit from Menard's. No cutting of pavers!

 

Hubby didn't understand the need for this project at all, but he agreed that it looked nice when it was done. There were a couple of other little projects on my list - a cinder block wall by the pool house and a short trellis near the newly-planted Eco-Lawn area in the middle of the garden. More on those later!