We’ve been redoing the front concrete patio and the front and side decks.  We tore out the wooden decks and are going back with concrete and adding new walks from the garage down to the house.

The yard is all torn up and there are assorted piles of rubble and debris.  We managed to save most of the treated lumber in the wooden decks, there is a good amount of 1″x6″ treated decking and a lesser number of 2″x6″ planks.

The new walks are something we have been wanting for a good long time.  They will let us roll a cart full of groceries or whatnot from the garage straight into the house without needing to climb any steps in between.  We are getting older and the trips carrying bags and sacks to the kitchen are getting old too.

Bitsy is enjoying the changes, she has been exploring all the new stuff.  Toby is scared of it all.

I’ve been having fun putting together patio “furniture” using the old deck wood.  I’ve even been reusing the screws that held it together.  I was thinking about a long raised bed to replace the containers we use until I calculated the amount of expensive store bought potting mix it would take to fill it and decided to do a sturdy bench where the various containers we have could be placed at a handy elevation for daily tending.  The memory of the cherry tomato plant outgrowing the cage we had for it had me thinking about a way to do that  better this year.

The bench is 6 feet long  by a foot and a half wide and stands about 2 feet tall.  I have 2 jalapenos  and basil as fresh plantings to go with thyme, chives, and oregano that made it through the winter.  The tomato is the “Sweet 100″ hybrid cherry that will grow into the 18” diameter, 5 foot tall wire cage – knock on wood.  I already see where the next bench will go, and hope to make it just a little prettier.  I’m just learning to do this as I go.