Little Cottage Trim Around the Windows and our Urban Garden
Our little pine cottage needed some trim work done around the windows and we were making progress on our urban garden prep.
TRIM AROUND WINDOWS
Nate replaced one of our colonial windows in the living room because we had some issues with the previous one that was installed. From the inside of the house, he applied spray foam and it went through the cracks to the front of the house on the outside.
We could see how much less foam the contractors applied. Nate also saw the benefit of applying spray foam from the inside and outside of the house. This could really impact your heating and electric bills.
Some of the gaps on the inside were so tight that you couldn’t even spray in them. So there are parts that have no spray foam in them at all. This spray foam is really good though because it won’t expand to the point that it would break anything and it’s for windows and doors.
If you are in a hot or cold area, it is very important to do this because the heat or AC bill could get really high!
When I was working in the office, I kept feeling some crazy drafts of cold air all the time. So Nate pulled back the window frame to check it out. And there was no insulation behind it!
I’m so glad that we were able to discover what the contractors failed to do and fix it ourselves. That’s the thing. You really gotta check out the work of your contractors and also make sure you go with someone reputable. Otherwise, you may end up back tracking the work several times like we’ve done!
COMPOST BIN
Now, getting to the urban gardening prep. One of the first things we did was to build an outdoor compost bin before we started the garden so that we could begin preparing our own healthy fertilizer soil for it.
Typically you can tell if your bin is composting if it’s producing heat. We placed a rebar in the middle of the bin to test it out. When Nate pulled out the rebar to see if there was any steam coming off of it~ there was! That was our indication that it was actually doing the job of composting. However, your bin can also compost when it’s cold, it just may take a bit longer that way. This was really all just an experiment and learning experience for us anyway.
This was a new compost bin we started for the first time and was only a few weeks or month old. A good sign is that we saw mushrooms popping up everywhere. I’ve heard that having mushrooms in your soil means it’s healthy, so I’m sure it’s gotta be a great thing in the compost bin too.
MAINTAINING THE COMPOST BIN
Turning over the compost was harder than it looked and Nate would get it done a lot faster than me. It takes a bit of arm power, which I don’t have much of. So after trying it a bit myself, I would just have Nate continue to do this for us in the future. He was so much more better and faster at it.
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We would turn it over every couple of months or so as it helps to break it down faster. This was our lazy composting method.
I used a pitch fork to turn over the compost, but you can use a shovel or whatever works best for you. We did leave the branches at the bottom (from when we originally built the compost bin) for aeration. Yum~ it smelled like coffee with a little avocado and banana! It will be great for the garden in the spring.
The easiest way we figured out how to turn the compost was to just simply remove the top layer and place it on the ground. Then we would water the bin in layers with more leaves as we placed the unfinished compost back in the bin. And the final layer when it was finished, was a layer of leaves like a blanket to incubate our wonderful homemade soil in the making. This layering method turned out well for us.
WORM BIN
Another way to compost is with a worm bin. To collect all that wonderful delicious worm poo fertilizer for the garden. Or vermicompost, if you don’t like it referenced that way.
The second thing we did to prep for our urban garden was to start a worm bin. When I was new to the process, it took a bit of time and learning curve to understand how moist or dry to keep the bin. And to know what and how much to feed my worm babies.
I noticed that they didn’t really like the cherry tomatoes I put in their bin. I thought I read somewhere online that they may not like tomatoes that much because of the acidity. Well, it proved to be true. I would say though, they really love banana peelings (you only need one per week in the bin, otherwise it may be too much), apple cores, avocado, sweet potatoes, squash, and pumpkins. Seems like they have a bit of a sweet tooth as green leafy things and veggies took a bit longer to be consumed.
STRAWBERRY SEEDS
I planted strawberry seeds for the first time in my life and got my seeds from Johnny’s. I used a plastic egg carton to start the seedlings. Don’t forget (like I did) to add drainage holes to the bottom of the carton. Nate drilled drainage holes in each egg holder for me.
Then I poured the starting seed mix in it, sprayed it down with some water from a spray bottle, and carefully placed the tiny little strawberry seeds in each egg holder.
Be aware that if you plant strawberries from seed, it takes a long time to grow, but they do eventually grow and seem to last for a long time.
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEOS
Thanks for joining us on this journey! We hope that you will find inspiration watching us learn as we go while we’re attempting to renovate and rebuild this old small historic cottage mostly on our own~ while working full time jobs! Stay tuned for more progress updates ahead. Read more about us here.
You can also watch a video about this here.
To see more adventures of our fixer upper journey, click on the links below.
