Re: Home and garden projects
 

I agree, it looks great, but my deer would demolish that in one night :hysterical:

Re: Home and garden projects
 

That's what happened to my cucumbers this year, all of them, ... and I'm not just talking about the fruit, one night five of six plants were destroyed - all the fruit and all the leaves, leaving part of one plant with one growing shoot and four leaves. A couple of nights later, that went too. :(
I don't know about PA, but slugs and snails are a rarity in NC and certainly not an issue enough to spend any time thinking about. Even when I tried to attract them to remove them, when we first moved here, using citrus skins, there really didn't seem to be any significant number of slugs in our vegetable patch.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Sorry to hear about your cucumber loss Pulaski. I think we are just urban enough not to get too many deer, though last year I had one that came in regularly to eat my rose blooms and it did have a go at the cucumber leaves. We are about a mile from state game lands and I think their mostly quieter life in there means we don't get plagued by them. Slugs I do see, but not often and snails less so, apparently chipmunks eat slugs as well as berries, nuts and insects (and tomatoes....) so maybe my resident Alvin and friends are why even my hostas are not eaten by slimy pests, though the deer do love the flowers.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Our deer will eat the whole d#mn plant! :frown: We used to have a lot of hostas, Mrs P likes them, but the deer have removed most of them entirely.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Slugs are the main reason that I only do a deck garden, in pots. I used to spend hours picking them off everything in my veg garden. Now all I have to keep an eye open for are Japanese beetles and tent caterpillars, though they seem to aim for the flowerpots in the main. As I'm not growing tomatoes this year, the chipmunks are going hungry . . . what drove me crazy was the fact they would take a couple of bites and then toss the tomato away and grab another!

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Our hosta are in the fenced-in area so are safe from deer, but our threat comes from below -- we have often found the foliage splayed out on the ground, with the root gone. The voles apparently eat them like carrots!

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Tomatoes are ripening now, the nibbled or ones that go squishy in places get trimmed and frozen for chutney later in the autumn.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...9a225bd53a.jpg

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...20a23b07a3.jpg

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...5a15e9742f.jpg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Beautiful, lizzyq — how I would love to be able to grow tomatoes like that!

Re: Home and garden projects
 

To be perfectly honest if we didn't grow hydroponically I don't think we could either.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

This Labor Day weekend I decided to organize the cleaning closet. So far I added three shelves - re-using slats from an old bed, and a big hook for the steam mop. I'm waiting on parts to hang the ironing board, and install a socket to charge the dyson.

Outside I'm about to add LED strip lighting along the deck and at least one uplighter for featured trees. This has been a slow job as the existing outside socket had weathered badly, so replaced that, added another socket on the other side of the deck. Then the final part, before the actual lights, is adding a waterproof control box for the lighting and 12V transfomer. The goal is to finish by the end of the month.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

The hardest part of roof almost done. A friend helped me put up the roof trusses. Cost of lumber has come down somewhat. OSB panels were up to $50 per sheet but now down to $17.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...0e8fb91e0.jpeg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/british...6942a5721.jpeg

Re: Home and garden projects
 

That is looking great. :thumbup: I'd like to do something like that myself one day, so I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done.

I actually made something a bit similar about 17-18 years ago, but it was more in the nature of a barn, so no slab or deck, just a roof on four posts, and it was back in the woods for storing logs and timber out of the rain. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had made it bigger as it was never as much use as I had hoped for, but then a couple of years ago, a fair size tree fell on it in a storm and snapped it off it's legs. :(

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Thanks
If you have some level ground it would be a much easier project. I will post a few photos as I go along.

Re: Home and garden projects
 

One downside seems to be - the view from your original 'porch' or patio or whatever seems to have been diminished!

Re: Home and garden projects
 

Maybe a little but the lake is to the right of the new structure. I have a very minimal view in summer but in winter I can see lake ok. Looking from my porch all I see is woods or water.