New Life for an Old Cellar

This is our above-ground cellar.  It's been here a long, long time.  Slowly but surely it is 

losing the battle with rain, wind and time.  And I love it.  And I intend to enjoy it

til either it or I no longer exist! This first picture was taken 3 1/2 years ago in

the heat of summer, with Sunflowers standing tall alongside the little structure

and Morning Glories wrapping themselves shamelessly around

it and everything else within reach.

 Here the cellar is last Friday, March 23rd.  

No flowers to cover her nakedness this time.

The broken and missing pieces are clearly visible. Not as fun as the 

summer shot, but she still has a lot of character, don't you think?  

Now prepare for utter awfulness....let's peek inside....

Um...

 Oh....my.

Obviously there is something terribly wrong here.  

Turns out this sweet little building is a "hoarder"!  

Over the years she has collected old doors, windows, tools, dirt, straw, and an 

unbelievable amount of miscellaneous junk.  Time for an intervention...that's where 

a dear friend comes in.  I shared my dream of transforming this mess into a 

wonderful potting shed filled with my gardening tools, pots, bags of soil and mulch, 

and space to putter to my heart's content.  Where anyone else would have thought 

I was losing it, she got excited and pushed me to go for it.  In fact, she wanted to help.  

She saw the very thought of it overwhelmed me, but she would not be deterred. 

If not for her, I would still be dreaming of this transformation rather than sharing it.

Credit also goes to my daughter and sweet husband who shoveled and 

sweated right alongside me and my friend.

Isn't she beautiful?  Inside as well as out!  I have so much more I want to do - definitely needs a bit of color here and there. A screen for the window in summer and plexiglass for winter - that view is just too pretty to ever cover up completely.  A couple of pots of shade-loving plants will bring some life to her, and as she comes along, I'll share more pics.

Spring Growing

Of course it isn't officially spring - yet - but the flowers, trees, birds and everything else around here is acting as though it is!  I've done a bit of this and that - digging, sowing, weeding, mulching - and wanted to share some pictures of what's growing.

 

My favorite garden food - Green Zebra tomatoes!  I sowed several seeds indoors in a styrofoam bowl and will transplant the best 10-12 into cups after the first true leaves appear.

 

I've never tried starting Snapdragons, Allysum and Petunias indoors before....hoping to have tons of flowers to plant in pots all round my porch.

  

And would you believe this?  One of my little wild-type strawberries has a bloom....yes, a BLOOM!  It's mid-March....still nearly a week away from official Spring...and I might just get a few of these tiny, delectable berries before May! 

 

First blooms ever on my itty-bitty ornamental peach tree!  Just yesterday they were a very pale pink and the day before that it was covered in tight buds, and only a couple had bloomed. Wonder if any of the tiny inedible peaches will grow...

Pansies and Johnny-Jump Ups brighten our front porch in their purple and yellow hues.