Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Everybody saw this coming.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

The willow is too close to the house.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Battle won, war still ongoing.

I was promised a recession.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Back Yard Garden Update

Back Yard Garden Update

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I was super jealous of Marvin’s garden when I saw it this morning, but realized mine is doing ok since this is the first summer for it (last summer I just tilled up half the yard and threw in some tomato plants and yelled “You’re on your own, produce”). At any rate, some pics:

Did some more grass seeding today, and we are slowly but surely getting a thick, lush grass everywhere. Just a couple more thin spots left. Pulled up all the onions today and picked a ton of roma tomatoes:

Planted some broccoli where the onions had been:

Watermelons are doing well, looks like I am going to get a dozen or so out of four plants. The seeds were 99 cents so that’s not a bad deal:

The pole beans I put in last week are doing well (and I sneaked in a broccoli plant where I ran out of seeds). You can see the sunflowers still doing their thing in the back:

Finally, looks like I am going to get about a dozen decent sized apples this year. I could have gotten more, but I picked about a dozen or so and threw them in the compost pile because I didn’t want to stress the limbs on a young tree:

I’m seriously considering putting in three more raised beds next year. Also, I think I am going to hold off on the pathway until next year. I’m tired and broke, and it can wait another year.

WHAT COLOR SHOULD I PAINT MY SHED?

Reader Interactions

123Comments

  1. 1.

    SWMBO

    WHAT COLOR SHOULD I PAINT MY SHED?
    What color is on sale? Personally I like rainbow so it looks like your yard is the pot of gold.

  4. 4.

    SWMBO

    What is with the lattice on the left leaning against the fence? Are you trying to stop someone digging? Or offering shade to something that is getting cooked? It just looks untidy and incongruous otherwise.

  9. 9.

    sukabi

    What color is your house? Paint it that color…or invert your houses color scheme for your shed…

    Fyi, the save nym / email fields checkbox has disappeared on android mobile…and it isn’t saving them anymore either. ?

  10. 10.

    Charluckles

    Whatever color is on clearance at Lowe’s. If rebates line up and the wind blows in the right direction you can get gallons of new high-quality, but mistinted paint for free.

  12. 12.

    MoxieM

    I vote that John should paint the shed with colors that coordinate with the porch and house, but not too much contrast. (Alternately dark green or dark red. There are a lot of dark brick red sheds in my neighborhood and they’ve weathered nicely, i.e., you don’t have to paint them that often.)

    I have a question for Jackals with larger dogs or lots of them, whose dogs pee in the yard. I am finding with Murphy that I have a drastic case of dog-pee-brown-spot.

    I’ve re-seeded with the Scotts dog-pee reseeding mix, which sometimes works. But it’s expensive. Oh, I should add that her fenced OK-Corral out behind my condo/townhouse is about 25 x 35 ft rectangle. Not huge but adequate for dog beeswax and lying under the lilac in the shade. (Yes, I am rigorous in keeping it cleaned up, and Yes, she gets several long walks each week to stretch her legs.)

    I have been filtering her water with a super duper filter that eliminates a lot of the nitrites in her urine, besides what she manufactures from protein (I read that’s what turns the grass brown).

    I know fuck-all about chemistry however, and am a lousy gardener.

    Hence: looking for tips on taking care of the grass with 90 lbs of dog giving it a good pee once or twice a day. (Since she’s a girl, she tends to pee in the same general area.) Poop zone–pee zone–play/rest zone.

    thanks much!

  14. 14.

    dexwood

    My wife, the painter, says if you want it to stand out a bit, turquoise blue, pale green, or barn red. Though, she first said white if you want it to fade into the fence and surrounding houses. I like the barn red idea against the white fence and green lawn. My second choice is a pale grey with white trim.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    The shed I would love to have (but have not place for) is charming and I would use it as a feature.

    Cole, do you want your shed to say “Notice Me!” or “Pay not attention to me, I am just here to help.”
    The answer to that question is important in deciding what color to paint the shed.

    So many people paint their garages with multiple colors to mimic or accent their house, but garages aren’t something you typically want to call attention to. But a shed can actually be charming and be a garden feature, so it’s a whole different deal. Unless it’s an unattractive shed.

  23. 23.

    dexwood

    @WaterGirl:
    True. She has an amazing eye for color and how it works. She never uses black in her paintings, yet, you see black where you think it ought to be. Magic.

  24. 24.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    I grew watermelons in raised beds one year and the vines got so out of control they escaped the beds. Eventually they produced so many watermelons that I couldn’t keep up with them. Many over-ripened and exploded all over the lawn. I had feral watermelon vines coming up in my lawn for years afterwards. Just when I thought the seeds were all done up would pop another watermelon plant as soon as the ground was warm enough. It was funny when I think back on it.

  25. 25.

    Scamp Dog

    @MoxieM: One strategy is to dilute the urine. If she’s fairly consistent in position, or you can observe were she goes, water that area. You may have noticed that the grass on the edge of the brown spot is often taller and lusher, since there are some nutrients that are good for grass in small quantities, but can “burn” vegetation when overdone.

  29. 29.

    J R in WV

    OK, here’s the rule. If you’re going to use the shed, paint it white to keep it cooler in summer heat. If it’s a toy shed just to look good, then there are plenty of good color balanced suggestions already. Turquoise blue would be good…

  38. 38.

    MoxieM

    Thanks for anti-dog-pee ideas.

    I am thinking that a great color for that shed is Willow green.

  39. 39.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    Seems to change the chemistry of the urine, makes it less hard on the grass.

    Boy dogs tend to kill plants and shrubbery, ( leg lift), girl dogs, grass, (squat).

    Never did figure out how to deal will Digger’s urge to poop on the tallest thing available.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    @Jay:

    Never did figure out how to deal will Digger’s urge to poop on the tallest thing available.

    Made me laugh!

  42. 42.

    JPL

    John, Imagine sitting on the deck with a glass of ice tea looking at your beautiful yard and garden, and then you will know what color to paint the shed.

  47. 47.

    JaneE

    I would vote for the same colors as the house, with or without reversing body and trim colors. Dark body and lighter trim can look very nice.

  49. 49.

    Aleta

    Actually wood shingles or shakes would give some nice texture back there. Make the light bounce differently at different times of day and year.

  50. 50.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Gretchen:
    I thought they were too, but I think its water reflecting.
    Moon and Stars : Mmmmm ?

    (It seems to have eaten my comment once…..seems to…)

  51. 51.

    Josie

    White, if you want it to fade into the fence, or green to fade into the landscape. The yard will seem too small if the color stands out.

  53. 53.

    Ohio Mom

    I like the barn red idea. You need something cheerful to look at in the winter and the early spring, when everything is monochromatic.

    Maybe paint some sun flowers or vegetables growing up the sides, just for fun. They’ll blend in during the summer and in the winter, remind you what you have to look forward to.

  54. 54.

    joanne Ross

    John, put net or wire mesh bags over those apple tree limbs. You aren’t the only critter in your neighborhood who has their eyes on ripening apples.

  59. 59.

    NotMax

    WHAT COLOR SHOULD I PAINT MY SHED?

    Snarky answer #1: Pink, to match the bedroom.

    Snarky answer #2: Team colors of the Steelers.

    Real answer: Barn red, keep the trim brownish.

  60. 60.

    different-church-lady

    I’ve owned my place 12 years now, and yours looks about a thousand times better.

  62. 62.

    JMG

    WHAT COLOR SHOULD I PAINT MY SHED? Good question. If you want to express yourself, earlier posters have made fine suggestions. If you want to be practical, take it from a New Englander. Gray with whatever trim suggests itself (we have dark green at our house, but you could pick brighter and it’d be OK). Winter is coming.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    Stain it a deep blacky-brown. Your fence should be that color too so replace it :)

    Plants look great against it. Flowers, foliage, it all looks great against, in front of or behind this color. It wears to a silvery-brown that looks even better. You just sort of refresh it with stain every couple of years to preserve the wood, but you don’t have to get too manic about it because the stain just silvers and fades which looks nice, too.

  67. 67.

    cmorenc

    @JohnCole:

    Watermelons == raccoons, if there are any around. They will wait until the melon is almost ripe, close enough to have you thinking: “not quite yet, but almost – just a handful more days”. And then – blam! You find not just that melon all busted up and chewed up, but all the other melons within 2-3 weeks of being rupe all split and torun up too, leaving you at most a few itty-butty late starters that probably won’t get ripe before the weather turns.

  68. 68.

    Aleta

    @cmorenc: Same with corn. Raccoons wait until they hear you think: tomorrow it’s time to pick the corn. That night they come in and tear off almost every ear, take at least two bites out of each and leave them lying around to break your heart in the morning. You can move away, to an island miles out to sea, but the next summer they will still come for your corn on the exact night it is ripe.

  70. 70.

    ruemara

    I like your back yard, JC. It’s very neat & restful.

    Citizenship update: It took a few weeks, but I have parental A numbers and citizenship dates. I don’t have my mum’s bday, so I guess another week or so. But the application is finished and check is cut. This close!

  71. 71.

    JR

    Lost all my tomatoes to blossom end rot

    Used a bad potting soil mix. Such is the consequence.

  73. 73.

    Mike J

    Neighbors are putting on a new roof. Yesterday sounded like As I Lay Dying. Nail guns have come out today and it sounds like they’re preparing for a war crime.

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Steve in the ATL: My college has a program called Freshman Studies in which every professor and every student takes part. Set reading list that evolves little over time that gives every student and prof a common background. That book was part of it. Years later, I told the gentleman who was president when I was there that the student body had renamed it “As I Die Reading.” He laughed his ass off.

  83. 83.

    lahke

    @JR: Nope, it’s inconsistent watring, says my sister the Master Gardener (that’s a real thing in California). Water consistently and don’t let them dry out.

  84. 84.

    Mike J

    @Omnes Omnubus: My HS English teacher was a Faulkner scholar. Pretty cool that a public school teacher is publishing in journals, but we got way more than our fair share of Faulkner and field trips to Oxford.

  92. 92.

    Jay

    @lahke:

    Inconsistant watering can cause it,

    So can the flower failing to detach, then rotting,

    The VW virus has a similar effect on ripening fruit.

  93. 93.

    Olivia

    You have great talent growing things. I am jealous of your yard and garden. It all looks so organized and lush. Your shed should be teal or turquoise or the combination of both. It will look great in the winter.

  94. 94.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Dark green or whatever non ugly green they have in the mistint oops paints at Ace/Sherwin Williams/PPG/Dunn Edwards as long as it’s the really good normally expensive paint.

  96. 96.

    Schlemazel

    I have heard a song a few times now, “Re: Your Brains” by Jonathan Coulton. Hit is a hilarious bit of fluff about a zombie office mate. But it struck me when I heard it yesterday that it contains the perfect representation of the modern GOP

    All we want to do is eat your brains
    We’re not unreasonable; I mean, no one’s gonna eat your eyes
    All we want to do is eat your brains
    We’re at an impasse here–maybe we should compromise:
    If you open up the doors
    We’ll all come inside and eat your brains!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snb_rkKpIFw

  98. 98.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Omnes Omnibus: that is funny. But best to avoid the Delta in case word has gotten out.

    Did anyone see the Washington Post article from an hour and a half ago about Emmett Till? The co-founder and director of the center is married to my cousin. Unfortunately, a depressing topic in an out of the way place hasn’t brought in many tourists. He’s a super nice guy, though.

  99. 99.

    Suzanne

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    Ace/Sherwin Williams/PPG/Dunn Edwards as long as it’s the really good normally expensive paint.

    Don’t get PPG. Not good. I personally stick to SW, Dunn Edwards, or Benjamin Moore.

  102. 102.

    MomSense

    It’s just a personal taste thing, but I’m not a fan of the x trim on doors. It reads too cutesy country to me especially since your house is not cutesy. Whatever color you pick, I’d be tempted to paint the trim the same color as the siding. You could always paint just the flower box in an accent color or do the trim in a shade or two lighter than the body but not a major contrast.

  103. 103.

    zhena gogolia

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    We’ve commiserated about this before. Although there are some Faulkner novels that I like. I’ve never revisited that one — sheer agony! Just the name “Anse” gives me the heebie-jeebies.

  105. 105.

    Chris T.

    Urine (dog, cat, human, whatever) is actually pretty complicated chemically, but the majority of its content, by far, is nitrogen compounds (uric acid, urea, ammonia, etc) diluted with water. The water evaporates while the nitrogen stays behind and acts as fertilizer. Too much fertilizer results in the burned brown look.

    Hence, the simplest cure is simple dilution: get it spread out even more before it over-concentrates in one spot in the soil.

    (The nitrogen gets into the urine via deamination, which is how your body turns excess protein / amino acids into the glucose it needs. An amine is a chemical group including a nitrogen and hydrogen atom (well, 2 in this case to make NH2)—and removing these gives you glucose. Depending on the amino acid there might be some additional steps but that’s the core process. The freed-up NH2 immediately bonds with stray hydrogen to form NH3, i.e., ammonia. Ammonia is toxic and will also cross the blood-brain barrier, so your liver, which is doing the deamination in the first place, grabs up the ammonia and, in an energy-expensive process, converts it to urea or uric acid, which is also toxic but doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier. Your kidneys, which can also do a limited amount of deamination, get rid of the urea/uric acid. Upon being peed-out, it degrades back to ammonia.)

    This all harks back to the old saying: money is like shit: it makes great fertilizer, as long as you spread it around. If you just pile it all up in one place, it stinks, and eventually kills everything off too!

  106. 106.

    MomSense

    @MoxieM:

    Clover lawns do not turn yellow or brown with dog urine. Handles drought or too much rain. Always looks lush and green. If you let it flower you will attract bumble bees. It’s also inexpensive.

  108. 108.

    Chris T.

    @MoxieM: It’s nitrates, not nitrites, which are a different thing (but still a nitrogen compound). If your dog is peeing a lot of nitrites, your dog is not a dog, it’s some kind of mutant superpowered creature. :-)

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    I can’t post any music that could revive this thread. Sorry. The urine theme is too much.

  118. 118.

    MoxieM

    @Chris T.: Well, I DO call her Murphy, the Magical Wonder Dog … but I’ll assume she processes food & water like the rest. :)

    Thanks for the info. Very helpful .

    @MomSense: I’ve ordered my Clover seed! and even better, apparently it doesn’t want to be too dug down into the soil, which is good. (My back really hates raking &&), just scattered about on the surface.

    Looking forward to the outcome of all this. Thank you, and I hope it’s helpful to others with animals who just aren’t plastic, dammit, and insist on peeing and pooping.

  122. 122.

    mad citizen

    For the shed, maybe match the house–would look pretty cool, I think.

    On the clover lawns, yes, I love them too, and have mixed clover in to my yard. I discovered micro-clover, and it’s kind of hard to find (got some on amazon–it came from northern Europe), but worth it. Smaller than regular clover, doesn’t really flower, all around a better look.

    Once on the web I found that when they invented the week killer, they discovered it also killed clover (broadleaf plants, etc.), so from then on they marketed clover as bad. Yet another corportate BS thingy.

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