Great idea with the chicken wire, Bonnie. :) These days our dog keeps the cats out of the gardening space, but before we had a dog, cats used to be a problem. Nice bean salad recipe, Becky(booberry)! Looks tasty. We might try that one next time fresh beans become available. Good question about how our heirloom gardens are doing, Bonnie. :) Garden is going well. Several WinterSown things are now out in the patio. Moved some rainbow swiss chard, Osaka purple mustard, Mantovana chicory, Cicoria Catalogna Rossa, and mizuna seedlings over the weekend. Still have more things to sow, though, including 'Red Welsh' bunching onions! Should get to that today, along with removing compost from vermicompost bin and adding more scraps for worms to eat. One of the things I do with my vermicompost is use it as seed starting mix! Divided a sage plant and gave rooted offsets to a gardening pal who lives nearby; he was very happy to get them. The lemongrass and ginger really need to be divided too. A good time will be later today while my hands are still dirty from processing the worm bin. :) Harvested almost a bushel of collard greens and komatsuna greens recently. Didn't need that much, so we shared with a neighbor whose husband is unemployed. They were delighted, and surprised to see so much food from a 10'x 10' patio. :) The heirloom bok choy "Tai Sai" has a few hundred seedpods on it. Will collect and dry in a paper bag very soon, otherwise the pods will split open and scatter the seeds everywhere. Wouldn't want that to happen, LOL!! And the 'Rotonda Bianca Sfumata di Rosa' eggplant has several baby eggplants forming on it. :) Blooming outside right now are a large flowered heirloom zinnia "cut and come again", double flowered magenta Pentas, rose colored gerbera daisy, and portulaca "Giant Bicolor Radiance." Portulaca is edible but I haven't gotten up the guts to try eating it yet. Young Zinnia sprouts are edible, and I have eaten a few when thinning them out- they seem to taste similar to sunflower sprouts. :) A lightly fragrant bicolor dianthus, from seeds Medontdo sent me- bloomed last week, and we ate a bunch of its flowers as edible garnish. Left a few flowers on, in hopes of saving some seeds. If it doesn't set seed we may try to keep it going by root divisions. About the only thing in my garden that isn't looking happy lately is my water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica). Not sure why, but despite plenty of water it has gotten wilty all of a sudden. Maybe it is rootbound and needs to be divided and potted up in fresh soil. Our Vietnamese coriander (Persicaria odorata) is growing like gangbusters and needs to be pruned back. Time to make salsa and black bean soup with the trimmings! Might also experiment with drying some leaves for later. :)

You didn't mention if your meal would be sitting out for any length of time, but here are some more ideas. Some include mayo, so use your own judgement on whther they will work for you or not. This one will serve 6 people, maybe more, and is easy to double or triple, if necessary. Tequilaberry's Salad Dressing: 1 cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip!) 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup milk 1 pound bacon-cooked until crisp and crumbled (can use real bacon bits) Salad Base: 2 pounds bagged Dole Salad Mix ( I use my own mixed greens) 1/2 head of cauliflower, cut in small pieces 11/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese Mix dressing ingredients until they are the consistency of heavy cream. If needed, add extra milk or sugar to taste. Toss together the Salad ingredients and pour the dressing on. Toss until well coated. This one makes enought ot feed probably 8 people. Again, easily doubled. Caesar Pasta Salad From Cooking Light 3 c. cooked Penne pasta 2 c. chopped Romaine lettuce 1\-1/2 c. halved cherry tomatoes 1/2c. chopped fresh basil 1/2 c. chopped green onion 1/3 c Caesar dressing 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley 4 oz. crumbled Feta cheese 1 garlic clove, minced 3 c. shredded cooked chicken breast I think it was Ruthanna who posted this one a few years ago. Sorry if I am mistaken. Simple but very good! GEORGIA PEACH POUND CAKE 3 cups flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, softened 3 cups granulated sugar 6 eggs (at room temperature) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 cup sour cream 2 cups chopped, peeled peaches Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time,mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the sour cream and peaches. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 75 to 85 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto wire rack and cool completely. Icing 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup butter, softened 1 tablespoon milk 1/2 teaspoon almond extract 1 (1 pound) box confectioners' sugar, sifted Cream the cream cheese and butter in a mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add the milk and almond extract and mix well. Add the confectioners sugar gradually, beating until smooth. Frost cake. Store leftover cake covered in refrigerator. CREAMY DUTCH APPLE DESSERT 1/4 c. butter 1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs 1 (14 oz.) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk) 1 c. (8 oz.) sour cream 1 (3 oz.) cream cheese 1/4 c. Realemon lemon juice 1 can Comstock apple pie filling 1/4 c. chopped walnuts 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a 1 1/2 quart shallow baking dish (10 x 6 inch) melt butter in oven. Sprinkle in crumbs; stir well. Press on bottom of dish. In medium bowl, mix together sweetened condensed milk, sour cream and lemon juice and cream cheese. Spread evenly over crumbs. Spoon pie filling evenly over creamy layer. Sprinkle with walnuts that have been mixed with the cinnamon. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until set. May be served warm or cold. Refrigerate leftovers. Variations: Omit cinnamon, substitute blueberry, cherry or peach pie filling for apple pie filling. Linda

I have a design for all of it. But this room is in queue behind the master bedroom and bathroom so think... 2016? It was the garage from 1959-70. The room has five sides so it is hard to conceptualize but... - The wall with the one window will be mostly sliding glass doors and lead to a patio and pool. - The wall with the fireplace will be the same, but with a different fireplace. This one is in very bad shape and is dangerous to use. We would like gas instead. - The wall to the left of the fireplace is behind the breakfast area and will remain. Can't do anything here. It used to have a lot of windows, but they were filled in when the addition was made. - the wall I took the picture from is already open but the pony walls will go away. The dining room will go down 1' to the original height so there will be only one step between rooms. - The final wall leads to the garage. The window looking into the garage will go away because that is not a nice view. Also, fire codes. The floor will be terrazzo and the new fireplace most likely red-orange brick with a white stone rectangle... Something I saw in a picture I saved of another MCM house that I plan on borrowing the design for. The false beams in the ceiling will stay. I currently own no furniture for this room besides the rug and will need to get some.

My oldest are about 5yrs now and growth rate is off after last years trees. I will definitely plant in more berries/seeds to see what happens especially since 2 crowns produced all greens last year from original purple passions purchase. I think I'm only one in urban neighborhood growing around here (lots of concrete patios and car parks since they dont like to mow grass and I see no one buys packs at HD, when you can find they're always old dried out bags of crowns in displays) so go figure on purple coming up green unless its natural progression.