After four years of work, the garden is coming along, and the Norway maple is still healthy in spite of all the added soil.

Takeaways:

• Norway maples (Acer platanoides) are invasive in most areas and are an incredible pain to deal with. If you have the option, don’t plant them.
• Because of their surface root system and prolific seeding, gardening under a Norway Maple is very difficult.
• Raised beds can help new plants get started before their soil is invaded by the tree roots.
• You’ll need to do more feeding and watering and weeding to help understory plants thrive.

Before the raised beds: bare yard with lots of weeds.

In 2017 we bought a house with a big, beautiful old maple in the front yard. Little did we know that far from being a stately old gentleman with refined tastes, this tree was a vampire, sucking the moisture and nutrients from the soil.

When the snow melted and we saw the front yard for the first time, it was a bit disheartening. Under the unfurling burgundy leaves of our tree was the saddest, most patchy, weed-filled lawn I had ever seen.

After a bit of research, I decided to give up on the idea of a lawn entirely. Typical grasses just don’t thrive under Norways.

And so my gardening adventure began! Here’s what I’ve learned over the last four years of trying to garden under a Norway maple.

Pros and Cons of Norway Maples

Once we had identified our tree as a Norway maple (ours is a cultivar called Crimson King), we did a lot of thinking as to whether or not we should keep it.

The good news about Norway maples:

1. They’re trees, and right now we need as many of them as we can get. In spite of all of humanity’s research and technical accomplishments, we have yet to design a more efficient and cost-effective carbon capture system than a tree. Additionally, any tree will provide a bit of refuge for wildlife.
2. They provide shade from the hot summer sun, which reduces our air conditioning use.
3. They are pollution-tolerant and will survive in city environments.
4. Their roots are not known for aggressively attacking house foundations (more on root systems below).
5. They aren’t overly susceptible to pests and diseases overall, although they are prone to getting tar spot (a fungal infection) and reportedly Asian long-harned beetles love them in Ontario.
6. They’re fairly salt tolerant, which is important in a city like Ottawa that uses salt to keep roads safe in winter.
7. They’re also tolerant of drought and soil compaction.
8. They tolerate a reasonably wide range of soil pH levels, especially into the acidic end of the scale.

These factors are probably why Norway maples became the urban tree of choice in the 1950s and 1960s, after Dutch elm disease killed off most of the urban canopy.

There are, however, a lot of down sides to these trees. Here’s the bad news:

1. They are unbelievably invasive in Canada and the USA for the reasons mentioned below (they feature prominently in Tree Canada’s “Tree Killer” list).
2. Their root systems tend to be of the more fibrous, surface-feeding variety (as opposed to having more thick taproots, like oaks). This means they are great at competing with other plants for water and nutrients, which makes it difficult to grow other plants underneath them. To make matters worse, the roots extend well beyond the drip line of the tree.
3. They are very prolific seeders, dropping two big crops of seeds in spring and fall (at least ours does—this may depend on the cultivar). Because most wildlife don’t particularly like to eat the seeds or foliage (including squirrels and chipmunks), these seedlings have to be ruthlessly weeded out by hand whenever they’re found.
4. They create a very dense shade that tends to starve smaller plants of light.
5. When their leaves drop in fall, they can create a thick layer that composts more slowly than other leaves if left in place.
6. They co-exist with a wider variety of soil microbes and fungi than native maples, and some researchers think this may help them invade native forests.
7. This point may seem insignificant to most people after everything else, but their fall colours are a bust compared to native maples, especially if you have a burgundy-leaved Crimson King cultivar like we do.

In the end, we decided to keep the tree, especially because there aren’t any forested areas within miles of our house that its seedlings could invade. We wouldn’t be inflicting a seedling army on neighbours either, as we’re surrounded by asphalt on three sides, and our neighbours have a Norway maple of their own. Also, we liked having a mature tree, and after living through the damage to Ottawa’s treescape from the emerald ash borer, our area needs as much tree cover as it can get.

That being said, if we ever had to take out the tree, we would definitely plant a different species.

How We Decided to Garden

1. Talk to an Arborist to Assess the Tree

Before we started any kind of gardening, we wanted to make sure our tree was in good shape. There are a few worrying things about our particular tree: it had a crack in one side, and some limbs that were growing over the roof of our house—we were concerned that one of them could come down in high winds. We asked an arborist for some advice on what the risks were and how to manage them.

There were also some worrying attempts at pruning that the previous owner had made, leaving in some cases almost a foot of branch and some odd sprouts. I already knew that when cutting a branch, cutting just above the collar (a slight bulge at the base of the branch) makes it easier for the wound to heal and prevents epicormic growth (the aforementioned weird sprouts).

Our arborist said the tree didn’t need to come down. He used a rod, driven through the trunk, to deal with the crack, as he felt that would work to support the main trunk. A set of pins and cables tied the big branches together for mutual support.

Then, his team donned harnesses and ropes and went into the canopy to give the tree the haircut of its life. Several medium and large branches came down, including the ones over the roof. Overall, many of the lower and mid-layer branches came out, in a process called “limbing up”, to let more light down to ground level.

2. Use Raised Beds to Give New Plants a Fighting Chance

A note of caution before you try raised beds: if you want to keep your Norway maple, don’t cover too much of the ground with thick soil/mulch at once. Trees use their roots to breathe as well as collect water and nutrients, and too much mulch or soil cover will suffocate the roots. This is even more important if you have heavy clay soil, which doesn’t have as many tiny air pockets between granules.

I added my beds and mulch over the course of several years because of budget limitations, and my tree is healthy and thriving today. I don’t know if other tree species could thrive with raised beds around them—they may not be as tough.

Design

Because most of my garden was shaded, I decided I wanted to do a woodland-style garden. It’s not a popular choice for front yards because it’s quite informal, but I felt that with the right touch it could work. I adapted a combination that my Mom used in her backyard: hostas, ferns and periwinkle.

Raised Beds Step By Step

On the advice of a post in a gardening forum, I decided to try raised beds. This would give the new plants a year or two to establish before having to compete with the Norway maple for water and nutrients. In keeping with my woodland theme (and also for budget reasons) I did informal raised beds, with no boxes around them, simply mounds of dirt with some mulch to protect from weeds.

Here’s how I created my raised beds:

1. Lay out newsprint in the shape of your new bed. I covered the area of my bed with a layer of newsprint to kill the weeds below, and to buy some more time for my new plants before they’d have to compete with the Norway maple. Within a year or so, the paper decomposes and the bed becomes integrated with the garden. I should mention that I’m not a fan of landscaping fabric, as it eventually tears and lets weeds through, but doesn’t decompose. As I learned later, by not allowing the roots to get into the beds eventually, I could have killed the tree.
   

   Step 1: lay out clean newsprint in the shape of your bed to provide a barrier to weeds. (It was a windy day when I did this, so I have bags of soil holding the paper down.)

2. Add soil. I piled soil on top of the paper, a mixture of black earth with a little bit of peat moss thrown in to help with aeration and moisture retention. Trust me, the tree roots had no problem invading each bed over the course of a growing season.
   

   Step 2 – adding soil to create a raised bed.

3. Add plants. Each bed got a selection of hostas, periwinkle, and a few white bleeding hearts. Many of the hostas I planted were free; they were donated by my parents whose neighbour was getting rid of them.
   

   The finished raised bed, with mulch added around the sides.

4. Mulch the edges to help the bed keep its shape. I soon learned that mulching the top prevented the periwinkle from spreading, so I removed the mulch and got much better results. The mulch around the edges helped prevent erosion (although it didn’t prevent squirrels and raccoons from digging the sides). Decorative rocks also helped hold the beds together.

Over time I expanded the beds, sometimes adding a new variety of hosta that caught my eye at the garden centre. Expanding the beds was easy: I would simply remove the mulch and add more soil.

I should also mention that the raised beds (at least the way I did them) is definitely a very informal look, and some people might not like the appearance. As my husband joked, “it looks like we hired a bunch of ants to do the landscaping”. Given my budget and my theme, and after several years have passed and it’s begun to fill in, I think it’s starting to come together.

3. Water the Whole Yard, Not Just the Beds

When I first planted each bed, I would water it to help the plants establish themselves. I didn’t water the entire yard, because I felt I’d be throwing money away, thinking that the tree could probably fend for itself.

What I was actually doing was training the tree roots to seek out the moisture, nutrients and air it needed from the beds.

Now I try to water the whole yard, to encourage the tree to seek water throughout the yard. Keeping the yard from drying out too much also makes it easier to weed.

You’ll definitely want to keep watering, because hostas need the moisture. If they don’t get enough water, they get smaller every year until one year, they just never come up. Don’t forget that they’re competing with monster tree roots for the necessities of life. They may not reach their maximum potential size, but they can reach a decent size for their particular cultivar.

4. Keep Weeding out Seedlings

If you hate weeding, don’t keep your Norway maple, because you’ll have a lot of work to do to keep up with the seedlings. I basically spend a few hours every weekend cruising the garden looking for sprouts, which crop up in the beds and even in the mulch. In the first few warm weeks of spring, when most of the seedlings get their first big growth spurt, I spend a full day each weekend dealing with the seedlings.

5. Mulch Those Leaves

I couldn’t believe how much of a game changer leaf mulch could be. Every fall, I’ve started mulching the leaves and covering the beds with them. In the spring (as early as possible) I remove the leaves, keeping them in the back yard and scattering some to improve the soil and using others in new plantings, mixed with soil.

While all the plants I’ve selected are reasonably hardy in my zone, the mulch has improved how lush they are. I’ve even experimented with having some parts of a bed mulched and others not, and the uncovered areas experienced more wind burn.

It’s important to remove the leaf mulch as soon as the snow melts in spring to allow perennials to grow properly, instead of having to push their way up under all that weight.

There is No Taming the Monster, But You Can Become Friends

Norway maples aren’t low-maintenance. It takes a lot of weeding, watering, and tidying to make a garden work under them. But after four years, I’ve learned to enjoy the tree and the amount of success I’ve had with the garden. I’ve even had a few compliments from my neighbours.

Note: I’m in Canadian Plant Hardiness Zone 5A / USDA Zone 3

The post How to Garden Under a Norway Maple appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

It’s not a decision most people are making. My cousin, for example, was going to pass over a house because she didn’t like the colour of paint on the walls. Most people want convenient homes so that they have more time to deal with jobs, families, and whatever they think is cool.

But not us – I like to think we’re a special kind of crazy. Here’s why we chose our fixer upper, and still love it in spite of the challenges.

1. Location, Location, Location

We both hate sitting in cars, and fiercely resent the wasted time involved in commuting to work. The new house is fairly central, and a reasonable drive to work (my husband’s commute is 8 minutes, mine is about 30 minutes if I avoid the peak of rush hour). In Ottawa, mass transit is not well developed unless you’re going to or from downtown, where neither of us works.

When we were looking at houses, we saw some really nice ones further out of town. Each time, we talked about the fact that it would be a twenty or thirty minute drive just to get to the edge of the city on a Sunday afternoon, let alone in rush hour. It’s a distance that would mean the end of cycling to work for me in summer, which is something I love to do.

The new house isn’t downtown, but is close enough. It’s also really close to the Queensway (Ottawa’s central freeway), so travelling further isn’t a hassle.

The new neighbourhood is older, and has lots of trees. It’s a lot like the neighbourhood I grew up in – and every house looks different from the others. That’s not something you find very often these days unless you’re prepared to pay a serious amount of cash.

2. We Wanted a Single Family Home

Our old house was a townhouse condo, and we were tired of paying condo fees and especially of hearing our neighbours. Our house was also tiny (903 square feet of living space, plus a basement), and didn’t have enough room for our projects. Every time we wanted to renovate, we lost a quarter of our living space. If people came over, there wasn’t a lot of room for them to sit at the table.

While we looked at a number of townhouses, we didn’t feel like we’d be getting our money’s worth. We didn’t like the compromises in layout, the lack of parking space for visitors, or the idea of sharings walls and roofs with other people.

The new house has a driveway, and an entryway that’s more than nine square feet. Several people can enter at the same time, easily remove shoes and boots, and hang up their coats without bumping into each other. That’s important to us, and we were prepared to take the hit in convenience to get it.

3. We’re Handy

In this house, we’ve learned that there are a lot of people out there who think they’re handy, but who are really not. In fact, people like this are a menace to themselves and to others.

I say this because within weeks of moving in, my husband found and fixed a number of exciting electrical code violations, like ungrounded outlets, light switches without covers, unboxed connections lurking within walls, and even a live wire sticking right out of the furnace!

We also had roof leaks, a raccoon in the fireplace chimney, and a couple of plumbing leaks. Luckily I found these problems right when they started, and my husband had the know-how to deal with them.

If we weren’t handy (for real), we would have had to spend a lot of money to fix these issues, not to mention the possibility of injury, water damage, and fire. There have been a lot of weekends spent dealing with the issues, and even rooftop adventures at 4:30 AM in the freezing cold. Some problems we know we’re going to have to pay to be taken care of by professionals (more on that another time).

I freely admit that with my current level of knowledge, I couldn’t have dealt with these issues on my own. My better half’s engineering problem-solving ability and experience often saves the day – that, combined with my willingness to deal with drywall finishing.

4. We’re Introverts…

I love people, but I need quiet and solitude to recharge from my busy work week. I also like working with my hands as much as possible.

We spend a lot of time at home doing all kinds of reno projects. For a pair of homebodies like us, spending on a home makes sense. For people who need to have lots of money available for clothes, travel, and the latest whatever, a townhouse makes more sense.

5. …Except that We Love to Entertain at Home

I spent my twenties and early thirties out on the town at night, watching great bands almost every weekend. I loved those years, but now I’m more of a morning person and the idea of staying up late just isn’t fun any more.

So whenever we can, we invite our friends over. We enjoy making food and having great conversations, and like having a house that’s large enough so that everyone can be comfortable.

6. We’ll Be Able to Age in Place

The new house isn’t a bungalow, but it’s a split-level ranch house without long flights of stairs. Most of the living space is on one floor, so someday when our hips and knees go, we won’t have too much trouble getting around.

Buying a new home that’s better laid out for reduced mobility costs money. There’s land transfer taxes, lawyer’s fees, etc. Not to mention the costs of setting up the home the way we like it. I didn’t want to put time and energy into a house, only to have to do it all over again when we’re seniors. Thanks to my ability to think ahead to an almost absurd level, each renovation that we do is as future proof as possible.

7. It’s a Good Investment

Our house is the ugly duckling of the neighbourhood. While it would have been very stylish when it was first built in the 1960s, the house and especially the yard have been neglected for years. A few questionable design decisions had been made during the renovations, including the in-law suite that had been added, didn’t help. The kitchen was from the early 1990s, and looked it. The house had been on the market for 6 months – not a good sign.

But the foundation was fine, thanks to the slope of the land. The roof was in OK shape, and the house was basically sound overall.

When we purchased the home, it wasn’t priced to sell, but it was priced hundreds of thousands of dollars below the asking price of other houses in the neighbourhood. While we’ll have to spend a lot of time and money to get it into shape, we’ll be saving by doing the labour for many of the projects.

If we need to sell someday, we feel we’ll be getting a good return on our investment. But just to be clear – we won’t be able to flip it in a couple of years. That may work in some areas, but not where we are. While we’re very close to things like grocery stores, pharmacies and other basic amenities, it’s not one of the city’s hottest neighbourhoods.

It’s a Win…For Us

For us, a fixer upper is definitely a challenge, but a doable challenge. We knew what we were getting into (for the most part), and are able to roll with the inevitable unexpected situations. We spend a lot of time reading and learning to try and solve problems. If you’ve got a good grasp of how home systems work and are good with the idea of spending most weekends making drywall dust or up on the roof, a fixer upper might be for you.

Any house will have problems someday. Fixer uppers have more problems right now. But some have unique living spaces that can really improve your outlook on life – we find we feel better about the time we spend at home because we have more space.

We also like knowing we have a lot of reno projects waiting in the queue, and a lot of skills to develop. In the end, it’s all about making sure your weekends are about doing what you love to do.

The post Buying a Fixer Upper – Why We’re Glad We Did and Why You Might Want to Avoid Them appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

Even the ones that work have problems, however. First of all, because apples come in different sizes, these don’t always take out all the core from larger apples. Secondly, large or small, these tools waste edible flesh. If you’re trying to keep your kitchen gadget collection to a strategic minimum, they add to kitchen drawer clutter.

But if you have basic knife skills, there’s an easy way to core apples quickly without wasting anything, using the kitchen knife you already have.

Here’s How

1. Assemble everything you need.

You’ll need a cutting board, a sharp knife (we used a chopping knife, but a slicing knife also works well).

2. Chop the apple in half, then in half again.

Remove the stem, and make your first cuts. You can turn the remaining half upside down on the cutting board to reduce oxygen exposure to the half you’re not working with yet. (If you’re fast enough, you don’t need to.

3. Slide your knife under the the edge of the stem.

Notice he’s holding the knife correctly to ensure good control. This is essential to ensure you don’t slice your hand. If you don’t have basic knife skills, this method isn’t for you!

Starting at either the top or the bottom, place your knife just below the stem, and cut toward the centre of the core. Depending on the size of the apple, you’ll just be going a centimetre or two.

4. Change the angle of the cut to follow the outside of the core.

If you miss it, no problem. Just turn the apple around and start again from the other side.

5. Pivot the sharp edge of the knife upwards to pop the core out of the apple.

You’re done! On to the next quarter.

Why it Works

The core is made of a denser tissue than the fleshy part of the apple. There’s a line called the “outer pericarp” that encases the ovary of the fruit. If you follow this line with your knife, the core pops out seamlessly.

On some apples it’s hard to see, on others it’s almost invisible, but it’s always there.

This method can take some practice to get, but once you’ve got it you can core an apple in seconds. The key is develop an eye for spotting the outer pericarp and the dexterity to follow it with your knife.

Why Should You Care?

Apples give a unique and delightful flavour to desserts and breakfasts, but chopping them can be a pain.

If you have a lot of ingredients to chop, you have to time it so the apples don’t turn brown. While not a disaster, the appearance of brown apple flesh can put some people off, the flavour changes and so does the texture.

Pro tip: if you’re cutting a lot of apples, you can soak them in a bowl with water and the juice of one lemon water until you need them. This article says saltwater works better, but salty apples is not a flavour I like.

Happy chopping!

The post The Fast, Easy Way to Core an Apple – No Gadgets, No Waste appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

They’re also super easy to make.

The directions below are approximate, because every pumpkin is a different size, and some have more seeds than others.

You’ll Need These Ingredients and Tools

1. The seeds from 1 large pumpkin.
2. I large cookie sheet.
3. 1 large bowl and 1 medium bowl, any kind.
4. Colander.
5. Water for rinsing seeds.
6. Tea towel for drying the seeds.
7. Olive oil, about 2 tablespoons. Vegetable, canola, or corn oil would also work. If you’re feeling sassy, use melted butter.
8. Large spoon.
9. Spatula.
10. Oven mitts.
11. Cajun spice mix. My husband Justin makes his own blend using:
    • Sea salt – 1 tbsp
    • Paprika – 2 tbsp
    • Chili powder – 2 tbsp
    • In a spice grinder, blend together:
    • Black peppercorns – 2 tbsp
    • Basil – 2 tbsp
    • Black mustard seeds – ½ tbsp
    • Cumin – 2 tbsp
    • Onion powder – 2 tbsp
    • Garlic powder – 1 tbsp
    • Cayenne – 1 tbsp
    • Mix them all together in a small bowl, and then pour into a suitable storage bottle.

Let’s Get Cooking

1. Separate Your Seeds from the Pumpkin Guts

When you first scoop out your pumpkin, you’re left with a pile of guts and seeds. Normally, separating the seeds out is the only hard part of this recipe, as they’re attached to the stringy bits from the heart of the pumpkin.

Tip!

The best way to do this is to soak them in a bowl of water – use your large bowl for this. Just drop the whole mess in, and most of the seeds float to the top. Scoop out the seeds and put them in the medium-sized bowl. For any that are still attached to strings, you’ll have to dip your hands in, and just rub the seeds until they’re free.

2. Clean off the Seeds

Rinse the seeds in a colander, and then put in an old tea towel and pat dry. Distribute them evenly on the cookie sheet.

3. Heat Oven to 400 Degrees F and Roast

Once it’s heated, put the seeds in. Keep an eye on them and use the spatula to flip them over after about 8-10 minutes. Allow the seeds to cook for 15 – 20 minutes total, until both sides are golden brown. You can flip them a few times and cook them a little longer if you don’t find they are cooking. The smell of the roasting seeds should be tantalizing, and they make a crackling noise.

4. Allow to Cool

Once the seeds have had 5 – 10 minutes to cool, they’re ready to spice.

5. Coat Seeds in Oil

Clean and dry one of the bowls and put the dry seeds in. Add the oil to the seeds, and mix thoroughly with a spoon.

6. Add Cajun Spice

Put the seeds in a dry bowl, and while continually mixing the pumpkin seeds, gently sprinkle the Cajun spice.

7. Enjoy!

They’re ready to eat. You can store them in a container for a few days.

You can also add the Cajun spice mix before you roast them, but you have to watch out or the spice gets charred. We think it works better with the spice added after.

The post Roast Your Pumpkin Seeds to Perfection appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

It may take you, as it took us, into the realm of engineering. For you see, gentle reader, it was not enough to make a small plastic scarecrow. It had to be a gigantic 9 foot tall one, that loomed over the viewer in a menacing fashion, and had a real pumpkin on top.

We had decided, as they say, to go for the gusto.

Why Do It This Way?

So, at the bottom of this post you’ll find some links to some videos showing some much easier ways to do this. Here’s why we went to all this trouble:

1. This stand is really freakin’ stable. It has a wide base that makes it really hard to tip over (we tried). After a almost a week’s worth of testing, it doesn’t blow over, even in some excitingly high winds of more than 30 kph/18.6 mph.
2. This framework will also support the weight of real pumpkin, even a large one. Most other tutorials require a plastic one that, let’s face it, won’t look as good.
3. This one can be disassembled and reused next year, or for other holiday decorations, like your Christmas scarecrow (?!).
4. This way is perfect for small yards because it doesn’t require a stake in the ground. The risk of pounding a few feet’s worth of rebar into the ground was, for us, hitting a gas line. Natural gas leaks are dangerous, expensive, and makes you and your neighbours miserable for days or weeks until the city fixes them. People with septic systems will have similar concerns.

Difficulty Level: Low to Medium

This method just requires basic woodworking skills: simple tool use without injuring yourself, power tool safety understanding, and measuring skills. It takes about 8 hours to build and decorate.

One person can do this on their own if absolutely necessary but there are times when it helps to have two people.

What You’ll Need

Here’s the list of tools and supplies.

Materials

Most of the materials we needed we sourced from our scrap wood collection. Everything else was easy to find at our local hardware store.

• 3 eight-foot lengths of 2×2 lumber. One can be warped if you want the scarecrow to loom forward at you, but the others should be reasonably straight. Get pieces without splits.
• Burlap. We used a almost a whole 40” x 100’ roll, but you can get away with 12 metres (40 feet) or so.
• 2 dried bunches of corn stalks for hands and miscellaneous decorating. You can alternatively use scary sticks for hands.
• Plywood – about 8”’ x 8” total
• 1” dowels – about 20 feet
• Twine
• Optional: 1” thick sisal rope – about 5 feet.
• One pumpkin, carved. You can do this the day before and leave it in the fridge tied up in a plastic bag.
• Light for inside the pumpkin. We used a bike light with an orange photography gel wrapped around it – we found that candles didn’t stay lit.

Tools

Building the stand:

• Work bench or other secure work surface
• Carpenter’s square
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Jig saw with a nice sharp blade.
• Hammer
• Drill
• Drill bit assortment to match screws listed below. We also used a countersink collar on our bit
• #2 Robertson (or “square” for our American friends) screwdriver attachment
• Large spade bit – big enough to get a jigsaw blade through. Over 1” is great if you can get it, but don’t go over 1 ½”.
• 2 clamps
• Hack saw – just in case you have askew screws that need their sharp ends trimmed.
• #2 Robertson (square) screwdriver – this isn’t essential but is handy for final tightening
• 12 x #2 Robertson (square) 2” screws
• 12 for construction
• 4 for securing pumpkin to stand
• 16 x #2 Robertson 1 ¾ “ screws
• You may need a small shim or two to make it perfectly stable, depending on how level the patio or ground is where you set it up.

Decorating the finished scarecrow:

• Drill bit extender (for attaching pumpkin to completed stand)
• 6’ ladder so you can reach everything.
• Utility scissors for cutting jagged edges in the burlap and cutting the twine.
• Twine
• Optional: sand bags or other weights to provide additional stability to the base. We used a rock. Normally you don’t need this but if winds get really high it can add extra security.

Cut List

• Body: 1 x 2”x2” lumber, left at full 8’ length. This one can be warped so it “looms” forward.
• Legs: 4 x 2”x2” lumber, cut to 3’ long with a 45° angle cut on each end.
• Ground-level braces: 2 x 2”x2” lumber, cut to 3 feet in length. One one end, have a 45° angle, and on the other a 90° angle.
• Cross-braces: 2”x 2” lumber, cut to 15” in length (you can also make them longer if you have more wood). One one end, have a 45° angle, and on the other a 90° angle. We used some thicker scrap wood – the stand will be hidden under burlap so you don’t have to be fussy or precise.
• Arms: 4 x 1” diameter dowels, 3 to 4’ long each, with one end a 45° angle. The length is really flexible – it’s all about how long you want the arms to be.
• Arm braces: 4 x ½” x ½” wood at 18” long. That’s what we did, but really, any similar suitable scrap wood will do.
• Pumpkin support: 1 x 4”x6” piece of wood. We used a piece of scrap 2×6 wood.
• Pumpkin mounting bracket: 1 x 3” x 4” plywood.

Let’s Get Building!

Building the Stand

This takes about 6 hours – probably less if you’re more focused than we were.

Stand Base

Here’s what you’re building in this phase:

1. Place the 9’ main 2 x 2 pole on the ground in your work area.

2. Clamp one of the other 9’ 2×2 lengths to your workbench. Measure a 3’ length. Using the jig saw, cut one leg and add the 45° angles on both sides. Repeat for the other 3 legs.

Measuring a 45° angle.

3. One each length, pre-drill the holes for the screws.

Here, Justin finds the centre so he knows where the drill bit should come out.

Then, measure the origin of the hole. Here Justin checks the path of the hole before drilling, and tightens the collar on the drill.

Action!

4. Cut the 2 ground- level braces, ensuring that one end has a 45° angle, and on the other a 90° angle.

5. Cut the 2 mid-level braces, ensuring that one end has a 45° angle, and on the other a 90° angle.

6. Attach the first leg.

Justin tightens the screw on the first leg.

7. Attach the first ground-level brace.

Attaching a ground brace from the central pole to the first leg.

8. Attach the second leg. On this leg, you won’t be creating a ground-level brace. Instead, you’ll be doing a cross-brace higher up on the leg. Making all four symmetric is fine… but we didn’t have enough wood to do this.

Second leg attached. In this photo, you can really see how far forward our main pole will lean. We chose this so the scarecrow will loom over the viewer once it’s set up.

9. Attach the third leg, and then its ground level brace.

Pre-drilling hole for the third leg. As you can tell from the shadow, you don’t need to be super precise.

11. Leave one leg unattached – you’ll attach it outside if the entire thing won’t fit up your stairs or out your door.

Neck – AKA the Pumpkin Support

In this step, you’re creating a braced platform that will provide a support for your pumpkin.

1. Take a piece of wood and cut it so it’s at least 5” x 6”. We tapered the front edge with a jig saw to reduce visual impact.

2. Using a spade bit, drill a central hole so that you can fit your jig saw in.

Once you’ve drilled your hole, you’ll have this.

3. Using the jigsaw, cut out a square hole to fit your pole.

4. Use a hammer to gently tap the pumpkin support into place.

5. Add supports on each side of the pole so your pumpkin base stays put. The top pumpkin support can then be screwed into the side supports (from the top) to secure it onto the post.

Arms

These arms will be supported in several spots from the central pole, as they need to support not only their own weight, but the weight of your corn stalks and burlap, and withstand any wind.

1. Cut dowels to length, ensuring one end has about a 20° angle or so. You can do this with one cut through a dowel, making two pieces with matching angles.

2. Each arm gets two pieces of dowel, so that the arm has an “elbow”.

You only need one screw to attach the pieces together.

3. Attach each arm to the stand, using cross-braces.

At the end of all this work, you’ll have this:

Assembling and Decorating the Scarecrow

This takes about an hour. More if you keep stopping to admire your handywork like I did.

1. Bring the stand outside and situate in a location where little trick or treaters will see it. Attach remaining legs and braces if needed.

2. Drape a long sheet of burlap over the top of the stand, covering the “neck” and central pole. This should be long enough to cover the entire stand on both sides. You may want to use a couple of layers if you have enough burlap.

3. Tip the stand over, and attach the carved pumpkin to the “neck” using what we’ve decided to call the pumpkin mounting bracket and 2 screws. This is where the drill bit extender comes in handy, so you can reach all the way inside the pumpkin without having to worry about how wide the opening at the top is. It also helps to have two people when doing this: one to hold the stand steady, and one to hold the pumpkin in place and do the drilling.

4. Tip the stand back upright again. Check for wobbling by pushing on the main vertical pole and shim under the legs if needed. If you’re really worried about stability, put weights on top of one of the braces on the ground.

5. Attach the bunches of corn stalks to the arms using 3 lengths of twine. Arrange the ends of the corn so they are eerily hand-like.

6. Use about 4 metres/12 feet of the burlap to drape and conceal the base. Use lengths of twine to ensure it won’t fall out of place.

7. Drape burlap over the arms and body, then use the scissors to cut tatters into the bottom edges of the burlap.

8. If needed, use small pieces of twine to stitch burlap in place. Our area is windy, so we didn’t want our burlap to blow away. Just thread the twine through the holes in the burlap and tie off between the layers so the knot can’t be seen.

9. If you want to make your pumpkin scarecrow look like it escaped from the pumpkin patch, tie a large rope around it, and unravel the end so it looks frayed.

10. Put a light in the pumpkin.

At this point, you may get kids and neighbours stopping by to tell you how cool your pumpkin scarecrow looks. Be gracious but not immodest, accepting compliments in the spirit in which they are given.

You’re done! Take pictures, post to Facebook, wait for the Likes to roll in!

I hope you try this, even though there are a lot of steps. Let me know how it goes in the comments below.

Additional Resources

2 easier ways to make a pumpkin scarecrow:

• https://youtu.be/lZYIP48rIi4 – This one is my favourite, but you need to be able to plant rebar into the ground.
• https://youtu.be/crt77hXXxSE – this is a quick method using PVC pipe as the structure.

The post How to Make the Ultimate Pumpkin Scarecrow appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

But if you’re just starting a garden, it’s really worth it to tour around in fall to ensure you factor all the seasons into your planning. It’s easy to get star struck by the variety and colour of spring and summer flowers, but fall has a special magic too. Fall brings new colours, sounds and textures to life, as grasses mature and leaves fall from trees.

To ensure your garden always has life and colour, no matter the season, here are some resources you can check out for inspiration.

1. Local Garden Centres

A display of mostly Miscanthus grasses at Artistic Landscapes. These varieties get big when they mature, but most stay in orderly clumps, and don’t take over your garden.

Don’t be afraid to just window shop at your local garden centre, but make sure you go beyond your local big box store.

Try and find one that has plantings that serve as “floor models”. This is especially important with grasses, where the differences from cultivar to cultivar can be subtle.

Plumes on a Miscanthus, which makes a beautiful rustling sound in the wind. Birds love the seeds as well.

Japanese sedge grasses are mostly shade lovers.

There are plenty of flowers that bloom in the fall if you live for a fresh display of blooms year round.

Many clematis vines bloom in autumn. Some have wonderful seed displays.

Don’t forget to check out different fruit trees, especially if you’re an apple lover. If you’re willing to do the work (fruit trees can be messy and require careful thought about what kinds of pest control you’re willing to do) your reward can be fresh fruit from your own tree, and beautiful flowers in spring as well. Smaller fruit trees and berry bushes are also great if you’re trying to attract birds to your yard.

Crab apple at the Experimental Farm, Ottawa.

2. Public Gardens and Parks

Most cities have public gardens where expert gardeners have been tending and updating the plantings for decades or even centuries. It’s a great way to find out about plants that do well in your area, and find out how big different tree species can really get.

3. Existing Gardens and Local Garden Tours

Many roses last well into fall even in Ottawa, like this Explorer Rose, “Champlain”.

Explorer rose, “Marie-Victorin”.

It never hurts to walk around areas where homes are older and the landscaping has had time to mature.

What I do occasionally is visit wealthy neighbourhoods and just go for a walk. When houses are larger and older, homeowners often make serious investments in their landscaping. Even if you can’t afford what they’ve done, there are always ideas you can borrow and adapt for your own situation.

Think of it as “training your eye”. Just seeing different combinations of colours, shapes and textures can help you find solutions to your own design problems. If the homeowner does their own gardening, they’re often happy to talk to passersby who likes what they’ve done. Gardening is incredibly creative, and any artist loves a compliment.

Some cities organize fall garden tours that can be a great way to get access to private backyard gardens and meet some other gardeners while you’re at it.

4. Books Devoted to Fall Landscaping

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on books – there are plenty of great ones waiting for you at your local library. Most libraries these days have online search and reservation tools. If you find one you love, you can buy a copy.

The great thing about books is that they go into much more detail than most blog posts. You’ll get great advice on plant care and better info on potential pitfalls to avoid.

Be Aware of Gardening Zones

The problem with just going online is that it doesn’t always tell you what will work in your area. Here in Ottawa, we need plants that can deal with long cold winters without too much babying. Sadly, some of the most beautiful plants you’ll see on US blogs just won’t survive here. The same thing goes for books of course!

There’s nothing like getting out and exploring gardens in your area to help get inspiration, and to just plain enjoy the season!

The post Now is the Time to Plan Your Fall Garden appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

But let’s be clear – not all of Ottawa’s beauty spots work for fall. The secret is lots of maples for that blazing fire you want to see before the ashes of winter cover the landscape.

Here are some of the consistent winners of all the parks I’ve tried in the Ottawa area.

Gatineau Park

There’s a reason Gatineau Park tops a lot of fall colour lists – it’s amazing. Even when the colours in the city overall aren’t that spectacular, Gatineau almost always delivers. At a higher elevation than the rest of the Ottawa area, the slightly deeper chill intensifies colours. There are also dozens of unique trails that are accessible for anyone of average fitness or beyond.

Beware however – Gatineau Park is consistently crowded. Go in the very early morning to catch the light and get a parking space and avoid the worst of the crowds. Bring a beverage and a snack, and stay until lunchtime to get the full range of lighting opportunities. More open spaces look better by dawn, but deep in the woods a strong noonday sun helps bring out the vibrant tones in the leaves. Dusk is the right time to be at Champlain Lookout for photos, and to increase your encounters with wildlife.

Vincent Massey Park

A healthy population of maples helps make this park one of my autumn favourites. There are also some interesting pavilions that add convenient rest stops and interesting focal points for photos. Again, go in the early morning – much of the park is exposed to the east, which is great for photos.

If you have a bicycle, you can enjoy a trek up the bike path to Mooney’s Bay and Hogsback. The colours aren’t spectacular, but it is lovely at any time of the year.

The Arboretum and Experimental Farm

While the Arboretum doesn’t deliver a lot of the fieriest colours, it’s still a beautiful place to take photos in the fall. There are lots of beautiful old trees that are easily climbable for portraits. I still find myself returning every year, because the colours don’t usually start here until after other areas are done.There are also some subtler hues and moodier photo opportunities if you have the patience to look.

Another good thing about the Arboretum is that there are nearby Experimental Farm has gardens and fields where you can take other kinds of fall photos, if you’re willing to expand beyond the trees.

Your Own Neighbourhood

Ottawa is full of tiny parks and and tree-lined streets that present endless possibilities for photos. I found this patch of milkweed in a park near my parents’ house, and spent hours on Thanksgiving tromping through the undergrowth because the light was so perfect.

More to Explore

Taking photos in the outdoors is one of my favourite ways to escape, and usually spend summer outings “scouting” new fall locations. Over the coming years I will be expanding this post as I find new spots that are consistent winners.

Do you have a favourite park for fall colours that you think I should try? Please help me out by sharing them in the comments below.

– All photos by Jennifer Priest except the corn one, which was shot by my husband Justin. I also took some corn photos, but his was better.

The post Finding the Fall Colours in Ottawa appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

But it’s all worth it, even if you’re not a fashionista.

Why? Closets shouldn’t be black holes into which your things disappear, never to return. You shouldn’t have to move things to find other things. It should be easy to see what you have all at once without having to slide doors around. That way, you avoid “nothing to wear” syndrome because you can combine what you have in new ways — and hopefully save some money on new clothes while you’re at it.

After. Not too shabby for something that’s not a walk-in, n’est-ce pas?

Let’s backtrack a bit. More than a year ago, we started out on our bedroom renovation, and tore out the entire closet while we were at it. Before the dust started flying, here’s what we had.

Before: the closet I got when we bought the home.

You’ve seen it before: the builder’s special. One shelf, one bar, and warped sliding doors that scraped every time you slid them. LOTS of wasted space.

I had this crazy dream that my closet would be so well-designed that I wouldn’t have to guess where things were. Strictly grab and go; that’s what I was after. My maintenance work would happen twice a year: I would exchange corduroys and woolies for sheers and flowing fabrics or vice versa. But no more hunting around in poor lighting for things that were buried who-knows-where.

We would also be able to move my husband’s things out of the study closet so that we could keep computer add ons and financial records in there instead. Everything would be (gasp!) off the floor.

I know, I know, call me crazy.

But it looks like we’ve finally done it. We’ve got a closet that is small but makes efficient use of space.

Things I Love Most About the New Closet

Aside from the fact that it’s finally done, here are some great features you might want to use for your own closet:

• Lighting in the closet not only looks good, it helps you find things easily. It makes everything look like it’s worthy of display— even it’s an old favourite that’s not exactly on the cutting edge of fashion.
• Bifold doors allow me to see everything at once. They also keep the cats out of the closet (they were able to open the sliding doors and let themselves in, resulting in clothes that were hair-covered up to kitty height).
• There’s a tall space for trousers, skirts and dresses on the left and two shorter spaces for shirts and jackets. I think that’s what makes it surprisingly easy to keep everything tidy: it’s organized by shape.
• The central column of drawers and cubbies makes it easy to store favourites.

The drawer pulls can be grabbed from above or below, then they spring back into place.

How We Built It

Most of the closet is built with 1/2 inch maple plywood, painted. The drawers are 1/2 inch thick maple from Adams and Kennedy/The Wood Source. I loved the look of the heartwood and felt it would go well with the brushed nickel finish on the drawer pulls.

The plywood drawer frams and cubbies is in place – you can see where we’ve cut the carpet to make room.

The Plywood Shelves

In our original plan, I knew I wanted to have a high shelf and a central column with cubbies and drawers. It was mostly my husband who built the central column according to my design, with yours truly on the sanding and painting. The cubbies are actually really deep, but I purposely kept them small to avoid too much stacking and cramming. I know my weaknesses.

The construction of the central column happened in our basement workshop, and we moved the entire thing more or less intact all the way to the second floor. We anchored it to the wall, shimmed it level and added the top shelf.

Once we had the shelving in and the lights connected, I noticed some weird shadows where the frame met the wall. It was just a normal gap, but with the lights on it completely ruined the effect. To fix it, I spent at least 3 weeks of adding spackle and sanding the joint to a smooth curve. It looks perfect now, but those closest to me are now convinced I’m insane. It’s all in the details, people.

We used a router to create a groove for the LED strips, so they were angled in to the space a bit.

LED Strips for Backlighting

There are two sources of light for the closet: pot lights on the ceiling light the front of the clothes. LED strip lighting provides the boutique-y backlighting.

We added the electrical outlet when we were rewiring the room for the pot lights. From there we used LED strip lighting with a warm cast at a density of one light per ½ inch. You can get strip lighting that will have more lights or fewer, depending on how bright you wanted the overall effect to be. I originally wanted brighter lights, but my husband wisely suggested the middle ground so we don’t get blasted with the light of a thousand suns every time we want to open the door.

With strip lighting it is critical to shield the light source from the eyes. Wherever needed, we added quarter rounds that you would normally use in front of baseboards.

It is also important to consider the power source when planning a strip lighting run. The further the lights are from the power source, the dimmer they will be; you don’t want one side of the closet to be dimmer than the other. This means you can’t endlessly connect light strips together and expect even results. To solve this, we opted for more branches at convenient spots.

Our plywood frame is in place, the drawer slides installed. On the left you can see the quarter round are hiding the LED strips from the eye, so all you see is the glow off the back wall. On the right, none of the quarter rounds are in place.

The Drawers

Building your own drawers is really difficult – it’s a skill that has to develop over time with practice. It’s a lot more specialized than, say, fitting sheets of drywall to some studs. If you aren’t interested in learning woodworking like I am, I recommend you hire someone to build this part for you. They can help you avoid the kinds of gotchas that we ran into. Without going in to the embarrassing details, I will admit that the drawers pictured here are not our first attempt.

Just so you get an idea of the separate sets of skills we needed, here’s a list of all the things we had to stop, research and learn before we could keep going:

1. Glueing up boards to make larger, seamless panels.
2. Dovetail joinery. We used a dovetail jig and a router, after a course in hand-made dovetails revealed to me that if we went that route, I wouldn’t get finished drawers until 2063.
3. Routering, including making the inset for the drawer pulls.
4. Sanding.
5. Finishing the wood.

One of the drawers, part way finished. It’s sitting on top of the dovetail jig we used to create the dovetails. With practice, our dovetails got tighter.

Those people in the YouTube videos make all these things look so easy, but there is a lot of manual dexterity to develop. But this was hands down my favourite part of the project – I can’t wait to build my next cabinet, in fact.

Fitting the drawers into the plywood frame was a bit nerve-wracking, but we got them in. We used special heavy-duty smooth-sliding drawer slides. There are some minor imperfections in the alignment of the drawer faces, but you need to be up close to see them.

The Bifold Doors

Because I was desperate to get back into the bedroom and stop keeping my clothes in garbage bags, the closet was left in a semi-complete state for a long time. It was a nice closet, just no doors.

We started researching nice hardwood doors, and after digging into some carpentry forums we learned that it’s very difficult to make large solid wood doors that don’t end up warping. People who’d been making custom cabinets for decades were complaining about customers insisting on this. We felt that making our own doors might be a bit more than we could do.

We also had some trouble finding a local custom door maker that would make them the size we needed. We decided to order just the panels, and put them together ourselves. Finding the right hardware online wasn’t hard.

By that time we were reaching the limits of our budget, so we decided to go with composite panels that wouldn’t warp. They would have a plain masonite surface that I would paint to match the trim in the room. I didn’t mind not having real wood for the doors for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted something very light to match the light curtain panels on the opposite side of the room. As interior design guru Kelly Hoppen once said, “create a symmetry and very gently break it”. Secondly, the closet doors are not where I want the observer’s eye to go. There’s plenty of other eye candy in the room.

Even though we measured very carefully, getting the doors into the space was a major pain. That’s because the angles in the closet space weren’t square, and neither were our custom-built doors! My husband ended up shaving off bits of the tops of some of the doors to make it work. Next time, we’ll be more careful about trying to fit rectangles into parallelograms.

After that it was simple: paint and add handles…and enjoy, at last!

by Jennifer Priest

All photos by Jennifer Priest and Justin Dane

The post We Build a Custom Boutique Closet appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

For those of you with no patience for emotional waffle, and just want some quick decluttering strategies, read this post instead.

My Beautiful Anchor

There was a time when I judged myself on how effective a jukebox I was. I worked at a campus community radio station and also had a radio show for a period of about 13 years. I had a moderately respectable and respectably obscure collection of records. Most of the people I knew would have been great extras in the film High Fidelity (the record store scenes, not the yuppie dinner party, of course).

I spent all my time and any money I could spare on increasing my knowledge of the music genres I was into and accumulating more records. I fought the rise of CDs, even though I eventually embraced their convenience and indestructibility. My weekends were spent in small bars mostly waiting for the bands to come onstage. I met some awesome people, including local audio guru Mark Valcour, who was invaluable in helping me learn to get my act together.

Life has changed a lot since then, I’m 20 years older and have a small house. I’ve been trying to thin out my possessions so I don’t spend all my time cleaning, or just plain moving things to get at other things. I’ve dealt with a lot of clutter, and now it’s time to face the music. It’s time to digitize my vinyl collection so I can actually listen to music again, and perhaps even get rid of my vinyl.

The sad truth is that I just don’t have the time to babysit a turntable if I want to listen to music.

There’s a lot of music that still makes me happy when I listen to it, but I haven’t listened to most of it in years. Even though my husband and I moved all our records somewhere accessible and set up a listening area so that we could listen to our records whenever we want, we just don’t. A record collection is just too high-maintenance a pastime for people with demanding full time jobs and renovations projects on the weekends.

Vinyl Records: A Superior – And Inferior – Audio Format

For those of you who are too young to remember playing records, they’re a very ritualistic music format. You have to clean the surface of the record of any dust, ideally with a brush that has had an anti-static treatment applied. You must then carefully place the needle on the vinyl surface in a way that doesn’t damage the surface. Then, if you have a floor that transmits vibrations that could cause the record to skip, you have to tread lightly in the vicinity of the player while the music plays.

When you’re done with the record, you have to remove the needle, put the album back inside the sleeve and the sleeve inside the jacket, and then place the entire thing back in its place in your library so that you can find it again when you want to listen to it. That’s a hell of a lot of work when compared to doing a search on an MP3 player.

And that’s not even counting the fact that every time you’re playing a record, you destroy it just a little bit more. As an analog format involving friction, every time the needle follows the grooves, it damages them.

Many audiophiles would argue that that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Listening to records is an activity out of another time, a time before we all got so busy with keeping up online. When you listen to a record, musical enjoyment is elevated to a religious observance. That’s one of the reasons it’s been taking me so damn long to get to this: music used to be a religion to me. I thought it would save me from despair and loneliness, but it didn’t. I did that myself, by branching out and trying new things.

So what to do? I definitely don’t have the money to purchase digital copies of my collection. For a lot of my music, digital copies don’t even exist (yes, MP3s-era youngsters, the music forest is a lot larger than you can imagine).

Why not just get rid of them outright? My monkish streak that wants to get rid of most of my possessions is on board with that. In fact, overall I’ve been winning the war against my inner pack rat for the past few years, and my home is looking a little less like a garage sale as a result. There are a lot of options for selling vinyl even in this day and age, and I still know lots of people who would enjoy playing them.

Part of the reason I have waited so long to deal with this is that I can’t just sell or give away my records without recording them. My collection represents an obsession that held me in thrall for almost 20 years. I once tried to give away my records to a friend who would give them a good home, but he refused, saying that they’re worth too much.

There’s only one option left: I have to record over 500 LPs, 10-inch and 7-inch records.

Digitizing Your Vinyl Record Collection

The technical challenges were solved for me by my husband, who recommended Audacity for recording (although there are other programs). Although I was initially leery about the MP3 format, we did a test and I couldn’t tell the difference between a full-sample CD recording and a 16-bit PCM format. The compression ratios really have come a long way since I first heard one and could instantly identify the MP3. Either that, or my hearing is worse.

We’ve started recording each side of the albums, leaving the trimming and slicing for another time. Individual songs and pop removal will also wait. For now, we’re just running through and making sure everything is properly recorded and identified. We’re recording as maximum quality .wav files, and will convert to MP3s later.

We are also photographing album covers so that I can revisit the artwork whenever I want, and even check out liner notes.

All of that takes a hell of a lot of time, but the hard part is what happens emotionally, as you take each record out for that last ride before saying goodbye. It forces you to take an uncomfortably hard look in the mirror and compare the the person you were, when music was the centre of your existence, to the person you’ve become.

Here’s What Happens When You Open The Box

The person I was at that time would have hated who I’ve become 20 years later. She had no money, but she knew how to have fun. She didn’t give a damn about what anyone else thought, and had any concern for the future beaten out of her. She had ethics, but she was really insensitive. She believed in learning and helping others, but not in spoon feeding anyone. She felt that she would probably never get the things she wanted most, so she became adept at throwing herself into the thrill of the here and now.

These days I have a mortgage and a job that involves work based on an industry built on shifting sands. I have an ageing body that requires care in the form of sleep, nutritious food and exercise. I have responsibilities to other people.

But miracles have happened. I’ve learned that true love really does exist because it happened to me. I actually have a home that I can call my own. I don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck. I’ve learned that when you plan and put the work in, you really can improve your life.

I can let my quiet, vulnerable side out now.  In fact, I prefer to live a semi-hermit existence these days. I explore abilities I never thought I could pursue before. I try to be as caring and considerate to the few people I spend time with these days. My life is about quality, not quantity, which is why I am cutting down on my possessions.

I can say, with some certainty that while I may have some lessons to re-learn from the past me, I am definitely a way better person now. I’ve come full circle.

So now, I can finally let go. I can look at my records, thank them for saving me, and pass them on to someone else in need of rescuing.

by Jennifer Priest

All photos by Jennifer Priest and Justin Dane

The post Opening Pandora’s Jukebox: How to Downsize When It Hurts appeared first on Housecraft: DIY House, Garden and Interior Design.

I never dreamed that one day I’d be able to have something resembling a real dessert again, but thanks to my friend Lise, I can. One day when we were walking her dog, she introduced me to something she called “peanut butter balls”. They were delicious!

A Healthier Dessert – Emphasis on the “Er”

This recipe is very similar to the original hiker’s snack recipe my friend used, but with a couple of key modifications. Each ball has about 173 calories. Fellow sugar addicts may be concerned about the amount of sugar in the dates, but the huge amount of fibre will help even out the glycemic index spike a bit (the sugar in Medjool dates is considered low/medium on the GI scale). There is a bit of protein from the almond butter and the hemp hearts.

Don’t kid yourself though, this isn’t health food. Like cheesecake, these little treats have a crack-like combination of sugar and fat, so this is a grey area best navigated with open eyes. But one parent I know was excited about the idea of giving something like this to her kids instead of the usual candy they wanted. “At least it’s made of actual food,” she commented.

You can read the nutrition details below.

Nice and Simple – And No Cooking

This is a quick and easy recipe. If you don’t have a food processor (or want to get a good arm workout) you can simply combine the ingredients in a bowl and mash them with a sturdy ol’ fork – or your hands.

You need to press the dough together before you start rolling, so it will stay together.

Equipment

• Food processor and silicone spatula
• Large mixing bowl
• Spoon
• Small bowl
• Plate, container or cookie sheet

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond butter (plain – nothing added) – I prefer smooth as it is runnier and mixes well
• 12 pitted Medjool dates
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds – I used Hemp Hearts
• About 1/2 cup rolled oats – possibly less
• Extra dish with about another 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut

Method

Let’s make some goodies:

1. Add the almond butter to the food processor. Tear the pitted dates into small pieces and distribute them as evenly as possible on top of the almond butter. Add the cocoa powder and the ½ cup of unsweetened coconut. Blend on a low speed.
2. When you think everything is blended, unplug the processor and peek into the mixture. The dates tend to glom together secretly, so make sure there are no date clumps. If you don’t do this you’ll won’t get an even sweetness.
3. Scoop the mixture out into the big mixing bowl. Add the hemp seeds and mix them in. Then add the oats in small batches. If the mixture gets too crumbly and dry, don’t add them all. You can test the consistency by mashing with the back of your spoon – if remains a paste, you’re good. If you’ve gone too far you can add a bit more almond butter.
4. Spoon out about a rounded tablespoon’s worth of the dough and roll into a smooth ball in your hands.
5. Roll the almond butter ball in the extra bowl on coconut. At first the flakes will get sucked into the ball, but as you keep rolling you’ll get a nice even coating of flakes.
6. Set the ball on your plate, and proceed to the next one until you’re all done.
7. Refrigerate right away so they set nicely.

The extra step of rolling in the coconut makes the balls more pleasant to handle while eating, because you’re not getting the dough on your fingers. They also add visual appeal, which is part of the fun of dessert.

Here is the rolled and pressed ball. You can see that the surface is moist enough to retain the coconut.

If you want to get the full-on peanut butter cookie dough experience, you can use peanut butter instead of almond butter, as recommended in the original recipe. I find that almond butter makes for a slightly more subtle and grown-up version, however.

This energy-rich treat keeps well in the fridge for about a week, but will soften and lose its shape when warmed up.

Geek Corner: Nutrition Breakdown

The exact facts per ball will depend on what size you make the balls. But here’s the breakdown for the entire recipe:

• Calories: 3,495
• Protein: 82.7g
• Fat: 226.7g
  • Saturated: 47g
  • Trans: 0g
  • Omega 3: 6.7g
  • Omega 6: 21.3g
• Carbohydrate: 327g
  • Sugars: 177g
  • Fibre: 49g
• Sodium: 117.9g

If you want to get a more precise count per ball, divide the mixture into equal parts (say, 20) before you roll them. Then divide the total nutritional count for the whole recipe by that number. Here’s the breakdown per ball for 20 pieces:

• Calories: 173
• Protein: 4.1g
• Fat: 11.3g
  • Saturated: 2.4g
  • Omega 3: 0.3g
  • Omega 6: 1g
• Carbohydrate: 16.3g
  • Sugars: 8.8g
  • Fibre: 2.4g
• Sodium: 5.9 mg

The additional coconut flakes on the outside – (included in the tallies above) – only account for 8 calories or so per ball. Cholesterol is negligible in this recipe.

Micronutrients

Minerals

Both almond butter and dates are really good sources of calcium, potassium, phosphate, and magnesium. The hemp hearts get you some manganese and iron, as well as a dash of thiamine.

Those who are watching their sodium shouldn’t be too worried about the recipe unless you use salted almond butter, or eat the entire batch in one sitting. If you’re doing that, however, you probably have to worry more about the fat than the salt.

Vitamins

In terms of vitamins, you’ll get a respectable amount of folate from this treat. Other than that, the vitamin content is not really worth noting, but the dates contain some vitamin A and the almond butter gets you some niacin and a soupçon of riboflavin.

by Jennifer Priest

Image credits: All images by Jennifer Priest and Justin Dane

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