Tag: Landscape

March 12, 2025 – Finally, A Compromise

March 12, 2025 / / 0 Comments

I know, I know. Every time I talk about my gardening I talk about my failures. It makes me feel like I present myself as incompetent. While I am far the best gardener, much of my failures are the result of taking chances, big ones or neglect. The lack of content in recent years is the result of me eliminating my garden beds and waffling about new ones.

I have taken to getting free seeds from the library. I have messed around with using the landscaping irrigation, I have been doing mass seed starting rather than buying starts that I know will thrive. All of this leads to gathering information but not necessarily success. All the while I tell myself that it is OK because I do not have a place to plant anyway.

Since I completely ignored any type of planting last year, I have these planting boxes that we purchased for our anniversary party sitting empty. We actually loaned them to friends for their wedding last summer but truthfully, there is a lot better use for them than an occasional ice holder. I asked my wife what her plans were with these things and she said that she wanted to plant in them this year

Of course, her idea is ornamental. She wants to put flowers and things in them. But she also wants to add two more. One of which will be a salsa garden. Ah ha, this is where I am going to plant this year. My salsa garden just might include tobacco this year (he he).

As I have said in the past, our indecision about where we will finally plant our roots has prevented me from starting the front yard garden. We don’t want to do it if we are putting our house on the market. But again, that has been three years now. I am pretty sure that I am planting some fruit trees in the front regardless. They are a low investment cost and I am applying for a matching city grant.

I am giving the old apple tree one more year. If it doesn’t produce again, it is a goner. That would be three consecutive years of no production at all. I already know that it is in pretty bad shape but as long as it was making apples, it would earn it’s keep. I don’t know if my results are bad luck or the tree finally has outlived its life. This is the year I will make the decision.

As for my seeds, most of them have not done much. I have two out of five tomatoes sprouting. There are collards and wouldn’t you know tobacco. That means no peppers or thyme or basil or purple coneflower. I will definitely buy peppers and thyme as starts, I don’t know what is going on with everything but I am going to keep messing with things.

My idea is don’t do things too drastic (plant trees in the front yard) and concentrate my work by planting in planters. Using Permaculture design principles, zone 1 is something you go by everyday. zone 2 is frequent visiting, zone 3 is occasional and zone 4 is wild. My front yard is zone 3+ for me. The side yard where I plan to put the planters are zone 2+ if you say a couple times of week is frequent. The idea is that you want things that need intensive management in the lowest zone possible. This is why the pots by my back door get watered every day because they are in zone 1. It is also why my recent gardens have failed by neglect.

End Your Programming Routine: No promises I have the best of intentions but I think that if I start with a small footprint and a limited number of things in a frequently visited area, I increase my chances. I almost feel like all these years of substandard production makes any work a waste of time. This year I plan on keeping it simple to increase my odds and give me a boost to keep trying different things in the future.

October 9, 2020 – And I said I was done with my remodeling project…

October 9, 2020 /

Every project has some tailing loose ends. This one is no different. When I said that I was done, I meant that the tenants could move in, the tools got put away, the remaining supplies were stowed for future projects and the garbage was removed. Like almost every other building the project the landscaping was still on the list.

Part of what I was waiting for was I had a lot of dirt to move, I would estimate around four yards. A wheelbarrow would not cut it, fortunately, I have a friend with at tractor.

I needed to remove one raised bed and the dirt from two others and regrade everything away from the house. Another reason why I was waiting was that I was hoping my beds would produce before I tore them down. It turns out I got five green tomatoes, which we fried for dinner and ate with liver and onions and grits. A very southern meal.

Alas, I could give my pathetic garden no more time. I needed to get this job done before the weather changes. That is happening tomorrow as the fall weather patterns are starting. This was pretty good soil for the most part. I was adding several inches of compost every couple of years. So you can see in the third picture a pile all the way on the right. This will get repurposed into the new front yard garden next year, hopefully.

I did this work a little over a week ago. I put out a couple of pounds of grass seed and I noticed that it is starting to sprout up today. I would call it success as long as the squirrels and birds don’t decimate my seed. They have been all over it today.

To be honest, I have a couple more to-do’s. I need to put in some drainage for the downspouts and I want to add a drywell. It can get pretty wet back there and it also doesn’t get a lot of sun in the winter. Another reason to move the garden. For that, I am waiting for some rain to soften the ground because that will be dug by hand.

September 18, 2020 – Mowing my lawn for the first time in eleven years

September 18, 2020 /

It’s no secret that we have been rescaling our lifestyle while I continue to look for work. One of the latest victims of our budget cuts was our landscaper Jose. I talked a little about him in an earlier post, so I will leave it at that.

We let him go at the end of August and it is now mid-September. It is a good thing that things are relatively dormant because I haven’t done anything in the meantime. The fire danger precluded the use of power tools. I have been watering the grass to get some seeds started and with the cooler weather, the lawn is really greening up again.

I actually found the grass (and ground) to be really wet, so I turned off the sprinklers for the year. That made mowing a chore as the bag was getting filled with one trip around the yard. Another bit of fun is the Hazardous air quality caused me to do this with an N95 mask. It was hard to breath with the mask on and not safe to work without it.

The mower is an OK unit, it was a cast-off John Deere that was given to my son to try and make some money but it is small (21″ deck) an is not self-propelled. It worked fine though once I finally got it started. I have no idea how old the oil is or how sharp the blade is. I traded my string trimmer for canning jars years ago so I will be on the lookout for an inexpensive or used replacement. For now, I will live without it. My blower is still not working even though I tore it apart.

I plugged into my podcasts and got to work. It wasn’t the glorious start to my new responsibilities as I quite expected with squishy feet and puffing through the mask. I really don’t mind doing yardwork but honestly I will need to make a mental shift from only doing the things that I want to do to keeping up with routine maintenance, especially the weeds in the flower bed. Those can get overwhelming quickly.

I have always enjoyed the leaf season. It is probably because I don’t have a lot of trees that drop leaves, but getting out after the cooler weather sets in and exerting some constructive energy is therapeutic. I am also looking forward to pruning the roses properly next year. If I don’t cut down the apple tree, saving the water shoots for more smoking fodder as well. I think it will be good to get the kids involved in the work for character building.

The calculus was always paying Jose for one to two hours a week was much more efficient use of money and time as this took me an hour and a half just to mow the grass. I can remember spending weeks weeding just the front flower bed. Now, my time is free and money is harder to come by. Now, looking forward to raking some leaves soon.

March 24, 2020 – Cabin fever… remodel your yard

March 24, 2020 /

This may not work for everyone, depending on your climate. I know that mine is pretty iffy on nice days in March. I suppose die hards could get-r-done in the wet and cold, but if you pick and choose your timing, a soft wet ground is to your benefit for digging and shrub removal. A caveat to these post is that this applies to my USDA zone.

I mentioned in January that it was time to think about pruning. Well now it is time to think about wrapping most of that up. I still have a week or so, but almost everything is budding or about to bud. Some flowering plants like the Camelias that set buds for next year would be better to wait until after they bloom or in some cases, the fall.

If you hate weeds and like chemicals, get your pre-emergents out because the weeds have yet to take hold. This is a good time to overseed grass and do you soil adjustments if you participate. Don’t forget that grass is starting to wake up from the winter slumber and mowing can almost be done twice a week.

I know several people that have built fire pits in the last week. I built mine about five years ago using landscape pavers from Home Depot. Forty-two pavers, three rows of 14 make a nice looking fire pit about three feet in diameter. That cost me about $75 compared o the $300 and up kits that are sold. Make sure it is level to start and use a bead of construction adhesive to hold the courses together.

The Fire Pit

Tool maintenance anyone? Clean and sharpen your clippers and cutting tools using a file, stones and grinder. Knock the rust off steel with a wire brush and oil with a lubricant like WD-40. Oil your wood handles with linseed oil or other suitable wood protective. Change the oil and tune up your gas powered equipment with spark plugs and filter changes. Mind you I would recommend doing this in the fall before your store everything, but hey we are fighting cabin fever here.

This is a great time to start working on the wood pile if you use firewood. Wet (green) wood takes one full summer to season (dry) properly. It is also a good thing to do when thinking about pruning and tree removal. I find splitting is easier when the wood is green as well. So, clean up and remove trees before they leaf out and create a much bigger mess with leaves and needles.

This last weekend, we removed a whole bunch shrubs that we were just tired of. They were flowering dogwoods that had been haphazardly shaped over the years and just out grew their space. They also did very little other than flower for a few weeks a year.

Brush removal carnage

There is still time to plant summer bulbs. Landscaping plants can still be put into the ground or moved. More permanent irrigation can be designed and installed even though it is not necessary at this time.

So many things in the yard – from junk removal to planting and this is the prime time to do a lot of this, in the next couple of weeks. It is a good family activity as well providing 1) something to do 2) physical activity 3) exposure to the outdoors 4) learning opportunities and skill building.