Here is a pretty, and inexpensive garden seat and planter.

I left it unfinished to show it’s construction.

Looking closely at the corner,  almost all the details are clear.

The vertical T structure has the side plates screwed to it, and the angled top board screwed to it.  The Top side plate will further support the top board.  This gives is a stable structure.  The total height of the planter is sixteen inches.

First I made four T sections 15″ long, and attached a small bit of scrap to the bottom so the planter will be less inclined to sink into the ground over time.

Then I usually put the top boards on and then add the side plates.  If I want to grow a tree in it, I then just put it in place and fill it with soil.  If I plan to use it for a garden planter, I line it.

The small boards on the planter are for holding the liner in place.

The liner keeps grass from invading from the bottom.  This stuff is rated for 15 years, it will be a while before I can back that up with experience.

After the liner is in, I put it in place and fill  it with soil.

Finally it is all done and ready to plant!

Being able to sit on the planters edge makes weeding, planting and all manner of other operations much easier.  It is rather nice to have seats in the garden.

Bob

I asked, “Were these grown from a large bulb?”

“Yes.”

This is not typical.  Usually people grow from starts or seed.  You need a disease resistant, very productive onion to grow one like this.

I asked, “Did this produce ten or more onions from one bulb?”

“More like twenty or more.” was the answer.

After hearing how they grew, I bought every onion they would sell me.  A local onion that produced annually instead of biannually, and gave you a 20 to one or better yield, makes this a very nice onion.

I am pretty enthusiastic about onions.  Half of my garden consists of edible alliums in one form or another.  My favorite type is the dividing onion.  By dividing onion I mean an onion that does not make ring within ring as it grows.  Instead it makes a new onion right beside the first.  So instead of making eight concentric rings, it makes a new onion instead of a ring.  This means you get a lot of delicious green onions.

It is possible however that I may have just gotten a new favorite.

Now my want list on edible alliums is one smaller.  I am still looking for a few others.

Alliums I am looking for:

1. Beltsville Bunching.  it is possible that I have it, but I would love one with a positive ID.
2. Perlwetzel
3. Texas Natve Bear Garlic
4. Perpetual  Leek
5. Texas Potato Onion  (most Potato  Onions require a bit longer day and cooler weather)

I will be heading out to the farmers market early two week ends from now.  I plan for a pair of wonderful gardeners to sell out of onions early.

Bob

Click on the picture of the China Berry flowers to see it larger.  This is a graceful and lovely tree.  It is also an invasive non native.  It is also a mahogany.   The lovely flowers are from a tree that I am planning on cutting down this Thanksgiving break.

I salvaged some wood from a tree that had split and part fallen, but the wood was quite pulpy.  Hopefully this does me a bit better.

Bob

Dry Pods

Split Pods

Clean Seeds

Bob

It was made from willow saplings, and was treated with milk paint and borax.  After that it has been out in the garden holding up tomatoes and other vines.  It is about 11 feet tall and has done quite well.  Light, sturdy, rustic and in it’s own way charming. 

Sadly as I adjusted it today, it is quite apparent that it will probably last about one more year before it fails.   Untreated willow lasts about two years in my garden.  This pyramid will have survived but a scant five years. 

This spring I will make another and will try my luck with a new treatment and see if it lasts a bit longer.   I will try soaking it in borax and copper sulfate to preserve and color it green.  It will start out blue, but will turn green over time.  Then I will heat soak my wax mix into it before I assemble it. 

Then  I will put it in the garden to see how it holds up.

Bob

The reason why I have been trying to find an older listing, I want to make my own unique set.  Stamps help to reduce the effort of leather carving.  They allow areas to be filled and consistent and complementary patterns to be added with greater ease.  The do have a bit of a Bob Ross quality to them.  While allowing an artist to quickly produce the basics with greater ease, stamps can lead to a sameness.

The experiment I want to try is to make functionally the same stamps, but artistically very different stamps.  I am curious to see if the basic stamps that we use are perfected, evolved forms or functional forms that could have been different if the original artist had a different style.   They are probably somewhere between, and if that is the case, then there may still be room for innovation.

Bob

This is the Iris Ellene Rockwell, but really it is a frog picture.  I will use  any excuse to at all to sneak in photos of frogs.  Click on the picture for a better view.

Bob

I doubt I would have ever found this amazing collection of classic artwork, still being produced, on my own. There is a bit of humor to this, as the comment giving me this particular link, expressed disinterest with the post I had made. The truth is, that I am not nearly talented enough to come up with enough good content to fill the five posts a week that I make. So I suspect that I will and have, come up with some regular losers. But taken in the context that my other posts were of interest, this may actually be high praise.

One of the joys of blogging is finding interests, that you did not know are your interests.   I am sure there are thousands of thousands of people out there doing things that relate to strong interests of mine, but I have no clue about them.  I am unlikely to do a search on the subject and even if I knew that I would be thrilled by what I found, I would not know what terms to search on best.

It does make sense however that others that share your interests would be doing things that might well interest you.

Bob

This got me to thinking, Tage Frid, an expert among experts,  liked to use a ripsaw  for cutting dovetails across grain.  If Tage Frid was comfortable with a ripsaw  for dovetails, It seems likely that, as long as a striking knife is used, and you are able to truely saw to a line, that a cross cut saw is in fact unneeded.  From my own experimentation, a cross cut saw tooth for tooth, is a bit slower, It also is more prone to shifting from a line.   The actual cut is a lot smoother with a crosscut and I rather like using a crosscut, but it could be  that a master carpenter of that day might have had little respect for the crosscut saw.

This also brings me to an odd point, history is being explored actively at Colonial Williamsberg.  This is a bit of a surprise to me, as I personally have good reason to have little faith in the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.  When I went to Colonial Williamsberg for the first time, My family made a point to sit in our family pew.

This was the front right pew, it was labeled ‘Uptigraph.’  When the church was built, one of the ways it was paid for, was  for the wealthy families to ‘buy a pew.’  My father’s mother’s family had  donated a hefty amount for the honor of having this be their official seat.

When I went back there with group while I was going to camp, the pew had been renamed.  Apparently Uptigraph was not important enough sounding, it was now the ‘House of Burgess’ pew.  It was pretty silly, but it made me somewhat question the authority of the place.

When I went back there when I was a camp councilor, the pew had changed names again.  Apparently the House of Burgess was not important enough sounding, it was now the ‘George Washington’ pew.   It really makes me wonder what else they have altered.   I have not been back since, nor have I taken my family.

So while I have good reason to have little faith in Williamsberg in general, it does seem that there are historians associated or employed by the organization, that are doing good work.

I don’t know how important an issue it is with them, Uptigraph is not that common a name, and it certainly isn’t my name, yet I suspect that any of them who knew of the pew and regularly visited it as a point of pride, are much less likely to donate or visit again.

But, back to the saws, I wonder if perhaps all the cross cut saws were worn down, or if woodworkers altered them on their own.  It seems that looking at cuts in wood is probably the best way to tell for sure.  Another possibility is that having loose fibers in a cut, made the cut hold well despite changes in humidity, and made the cuts glue well.  At a time when end grain and joints were mostly hidden in fine furniture, perhaps the smooth cut of a cross cut saw might have been a disadvantage.

Bob

I am quite sure that someone has a much better way to collect basil seed,  there is no way that what I am  doing  would work commercially.   I will however share the method that has worked pretty well for me.  If anyone out there has a better method I would be greatful for the information.

Here is some lemon basil going to seed.  The dry stems have already lost their seed.  The green tufts just above where it has dried, still have seed in them.  As the plant drys, the seeds will fall out.  A tuft or two above and the seed is not yet mature.

in the picture below it is too late, the seed is gone.

Here is a flower stalk removed and viewed from the bottom.  Right where the brown at the bottom meets the green at the top, black seeds in green ‘bells’ can be seen.

Despite only being able to harvest a few of the ripe seed, one stalk can provide quite a bit.  Notice the tiny black seeds at the bottom of the bowl.

Here is a different sort of basil.  It produces a head.  This is a nice sweet tasting basil with a touch of cinnamon scent.

Below you can see one bright flowering head at the top and a duller head down at the bottom.

The duller head is more mature and is producing seed.

When I turn it over you can see the black spots where the seeds are.

A bit of massaging and shaking allowed me to gather enough to be sure I can grow this again next year.

Bob