Home Improvement Store

For those who have houses, I highly recommend Busy Beaver. It's a local chain of home improvement stores. Unlike Lowes and HD, they actually have customer service. Shock! It's not possible to walk to the back of the store without three people asking you if you need any assistance. Not only that, but the employees look like they enjoy working there.

They're smaller than the big chains, but they're willing to special order for some items. They've also been cheaper on a couple items, though usually the prices are about the same. Keep an eye out for their sales.

There's a store in Edgewood Towne Center for anyone in the East Boroughs. Otherwise, I think there's one in West Mifflin.

Plants

Yeah, I know, I've not posted in a while. I had some awesome things in the works, but it's not working out as intended and I have to do some hacking...

So, I've been landscaping. We added a path to the backyard, we planted grass in front, the ugly trees are gone, and now we're building flowerbeds. We found a cool little nursery in the city. It's in Squirrel Hill on an alley off of Shady avenue. It's basically someone's backyard. But they've got entirely native plants, and it's a reasonable selection. If you're looking for something that survives in Pittsburgh, this is the place to go.

www.sylvanianatives.com

More planting this weekend!

Also, if anyone wants dill or cinnamon basil seeds for spring, let me know. Both were loving it here. I'm going to try to harvest the oregano seeds, too. All three did really well through the summer, and they start well from seed. They got bonus points for being both tasty and pretty. The rosemary and lavender survived, barely. No seeds. Chives and sweet basil are doing better now, so the jury's still out on them. Parsley and cilantro were not a good idea in Pittsburgh, they were a stinky, mucky mess after the rain.