Tony Brewer

For years I have bought a variety of plants from the local hardware store to put in my garden. It is easier to get plants that already have a head start on their growth than to start them from seed.

My gardens have always done well with the plants, but this year I think I will try to start a few of them from seed. I have been saving the cardboard egg cartons and next weekend I will buy a big bag of potting soil mix from Lowes or Home Depot. The seeds should be sprouted and tall enough to transplant into the garden by mid-March.

Depending upon the weather, I’d like to get an early start with many of the vegetables and try to get a second crop of some things this year.

Teri wants to buy some flea traps for our place.  We don’t have any pets, but we have allowed some friends to bring their dogs over from time to time when they came to visit, so it is possible that some fleas came into our place with their dogs.  So I will humor her and buy some flea traps.

My brothers, sister and I grew up in a wonderful house in a great neighborhood, my parents still live at the house that all of us kids all grew up in and one day I’ll most likely be living there myself. My Dad has put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the place and I’d be proud to take over where he leaves off. The backyard is spectacular, my parents and their friends and neighbors still enjoy spending time back there all most all year round.

My father and the neighbor next door took a lot of time looking into wooden garden arbors back in the day and they both decided that they could build bigger and better wood gazebos then what was available for sale at that time back then. My dad’s gazebo is still standing strong, while the neighbor’s has been long gone, a vegetable garden taking up the room that once held one of the nicer gazebos in the whole darn neighborhood. Both of the beautiful arbors are still in place though. Those wonderful wooden arbors will always have a soft spot in my heart for as long as I live.

I’m told that our long time neighbor has just placed a “For Sale” sign on his house. They are heading south to Florida, looking for better weather to live their golden years out in. We will miss our long time friends and neighbors and we can only hope that our new neighbors are friendly people that we can get to know. It makes such a big difference if you can get along with your neighbors, we have always been lucky in that way at the old homestead.

One of the ways that Teri and I like to be creative in our house is to use flower boxes in different ways than other “normal” people would use them. For example, we hung a couple of used window boxes that we found in an antique store on the wall in the mud room/laundry room in between the washing machine and the back door.

One of them holds various things like dog leashes, shopping bags, slippers, mittens and hats. On the outside of it we put some cup hooks to hang our keys. The second windowbox holds the bottle of laundry detergent, a gallon size jug of white vinegar, pre-treatment products, window cleaner, furniture polish, and dust rags.

I’d love to hear ideas from you how you would repurpose things like that!

Guest post by Linda Maxwell

My very first full time job when I graduated high school back in 1972 was with a small Hotel Supplies & Restaurant Supply called AABCO.  AABCO was located in Shirlington, in a warehouse type building that was beside a creek that flooded in the spring. It was an industrial area, in a bad part of town, but I was too young and foolish to realize that back then. I worked there for almost a year, as a Girl Friday. Prior to my working there I had never given much thought as to how businesses in the Hospitality industry got their Resort Supplies & Catering Supplies.

What was my favorite part of that job was getting an employee discount on the items that were sold there. My first apartment had a lot of dishes, drinking glasses and flatware from that place.  To this day my flatware that I use every day in my kitchen is the flatware that I bought there on my employee discount! I only worked there for a year before I moved on the better and bigger jobs, but every now and then when I need or want an item for my kitchen, I try to find a restaurant supply company that I can use. Much to my chagrin, I have not been able to find any local places to go to and browse for items, but I have found the PeachSuite Hospitality Supply website that offers a wide variety of products that I would typically be looking for. They have a great clearance section that I could spend hours looking at!