In addition to finding the siding done when I got home from Boston, I also found my raspberry bushes delivered. I planted them and in the process of digging the holes it’s likely that I completely killed the chance of getting sunflowers there. It will be worth it if I get raspberries, though, and it will be nice to have something permanently filling that empty space along the fence, too. For now, it’s just a bunch of sticks.
I am thinking about planting the sunflowers along the driveway. It would look extremely odd, but it’s whimsical enough to appeal to me.
While we were outside soaking up the nice weather on Friday, K engaged in a battle with the Carpenter Bees. They are giant and loud which apparently indicates to K that they should be chomped on. She stands by the lilac bush and waits for them to come near her, then tries to bite them. So far, she hasn’t caught one, but it will be a very interesting surprise if she does.
This weekend, I finally dragged myself over to the nursery and bought bulbs. All together, it was a successful trip, though I was allergic to something in there and came out red and itchy on my neck and face.
I picked up some pink croci and several of each of these bulb sets. Despite the baby theme, I am NOT EVEN REMOTELY HAVING A BABY. Don’t any of you get ideas in your head. I just think the pink and blue will look nice. The purple and yellow are early bloomers so I’ll have some extra color in the late winter.
Let me begin with two tidbits of my family history.
First, we planted a lot of trees. Thousands and thousands of trees as my parents reforested a big plot of land. My darling brother Tom will protest that he planted many more trees than I did, and he is right. However, I have no fond memories of the countless weekends spent in the cold spring mud planting little sticks.
Second, my dad (who is a bit crazy to be sure) always had these odd projects outside. Aside from the tree planting, it seems that he was always moving dirt. I don’t know where it came from, where exactly he moved it to, and certainly I have no idea about its purpose. Regardless, it seems like he would spend half of the spring and summer weekends moving the stuff.
It is with this in mind that I feel a bit odd about my return to working on the house this weekend. I planted trees and moved dirt.
Here is what the side of my yard facing the church people looked like when I started.
A couple weeks ago Behnke’s, my local nursery, sent me an email that leyland cypress trees were on sale. I finally got over there today and there were some left and they were on extra sale. Usual price: $174.99 each. My price: $75 each. Awesome. I also got soaked in the process of buying them since it started pouring when I arrived, conveniently stopping as I left.
These trees are to fill in that one space by the gate between the big cypress trees and the arborvitae I planted in the spring. The rain was helpful when I planted them because it made the ground nice and soft. Here we have the trees in place:
I wonder how long it will take them to catch up to their big neighbors…
This planting produces lots of extra dirt, since the trees fill up the hole. I’m using this to raise the level of my garden so, like my father before me, I shuttled the dirt around the yard. These activities together were pretty messy, though. Here’s me after finishing.
I was also excited to see how much the arborvitae have grown since I planted them. Here’s how they looked the day they went in last spring:
That’s about it for my tree plans. The next project is to re-landscape the front of the house (it still looks just like this). I don’t know much about landscaping, but I’m looking for something low maintenance with room for flowers. More about that later. I still have time before I need to plant the bulbs…
Last Sunday and Monday, we got over 2 inches of rain. The planter that I had built twice which was happily holding my red flowers was looking a little droopy. By Tuesday afternoon, I could tell that the rain was a bit much for it.
And when I got home from work, it was like this
All the flowers were squished under the dirt. I managed to salvage the plants and I put them under the tree in the front yard with the purple pansies.
And the few blooms that broke off will live out the rest of their pretty life on the mantle.
I think that I may just concede defeat. This planter was poorly conceived and poorly executed. Stupid planter.
Yes, today I declared victory over the planter boxes.
After building both correctly and painting them, I got them screwed in pretty easily. When I filled them with soil, they didn’t even collapse!
Here we are before planters (BP if you will):
And here we are after, with planters on both sides.
There are chives and dill planted in this one above, along with the oregano plant in the middle. And on the other side, red gerber daisies. I guess that makes it a flower *bed* instead of Mom’s bed.
I’ve been thinking about putting some planter boxes outside my back door. They would fit perfectly on the little porch out there, and would let me grow some herbs to preserve space in my garden. Last night I started making one, using wood left over from an old Ikea bed that I’ve replaced. This wasn’t just any bed. It was my Mom’s bed that she used for her visits. When I showed her these pictures, she was devastated. I’m sorry, MOM!!! I promise the new bed is WAY better.
I measured carefully and cut everything last night.
Everything seemed to be going ok until this point. Then I started messing up. I put in the liner and then realized I had to paint it. So I abandoned it for the night. This morning, I decided to add some nice trim. I did that and and painted it. Before it had time to dry, I decided to install it. But how to install it? It hangs over my stairs to the basement, so I would somehow have to hold it with one hand and put in screws backward with the other. I figured I’d at least try to position it and as I did, I realized the trim made it too wide. So I removed the trim (with wet paint) and tried again and it was STILL too wide. How did this happen? Oh - because I’m a moron. I cut the side panels and installed them outside the edge of the front panels. That added just enough width to make it not fit. I took it out again and proceeded to hammer against the edge so it would be smushed enough to fit. Yep. Real Elegant Solution. The only fortunate side effect of this miscalculation is that the fit was so tight that the box actually held itself in place as I screwed it in. Then, one of the bottom slats fell out so I had to get some screws and a piece to insert on the inside to hold it. I also nailed the back bottom slat to one of the spindles just to help keep it up. Then, I went back to admire my work and saw that it was not level. I had to take out all the screws, smack it around with the hammer, and rescrew it in. Then the back bottom slat had started pulling out because of that nail into the spindle. Some more hammer work helped a bit, but basically, it was a crazy Frankenstein planter box hanging there.
See how the sides hang over the bottom? That was driving me crazy. So after all that frustration, I retired to the basement to watch the Cubs game and assemble the second box. It turned out so much better, that I went out and removed all the screws, took down the first box, brought it in, took it apart, and reassembled it properly.
I’m going to get a box of screws tomorrow and finish securing them together. I’m sure this taught me some sort of lesson besides How To Make (and Not Make) a Planter. I just don’t know what it is yet. Anyway, I’ll post pictures once the two planters are fully installed.
Today was a pretty good day, though. Despite forecasts of rain, it was about 80 degrees and mostly sunny. The girls and I spent all day out in the yard. It also is Transition Day - that day where everything seems to shift fully into spring. All the leaves come out on the trees, new flowers appear, etc. There is always one big day this happens, and it is a favorite day of mine. I think the last three days of 75-degree weather helped push it along.
One of the few things I liked about my rental townhouse that I lived in before here is that it had a lilac bush. I wanted to dig it up and bring it with me, but I didn’t. Today, I confirmed a suspicion that’s developed over the last week - the bush next to my porch is a lilac! I’m so excited. The first flowers opened today.
This bush has also attracted some giant bees. I managed to capture a few pictures of them, too.
K kept trying to attack the bee. My camera was inside when she was looking up and the bee lowered itself to about an inch over her nose. It was very cute. Overall, the girls had quite a good time out there all day.
We did a bunch of other outside projects, but I’ll save those for another post. One final word: Today, Mom and Dad dedicated their dinner toast to Chompy. Compy would like to extend his gratitude for the welcome.
I am pleased to introduce the newest member of our lawn care team: Chompy.
I have never mowed grass in my life (as Tom can attest - he always had to do it when we were kids). My backyard was becoming junglesque, so I finally made it to Home Depot and bought this mulching mower.
I’m not so good at starting it yet, but it did a good job. It’s self propelled, which helps a lot. Here is my freshly mowed lawn!
This is what I will yell out my front door for a while, because today I planted flowers.
Here is my pink dogwood this morning, just itching to bloom.
This afternoon, I dug out the grass around it (all it seems I do these days is dig out sod), planted purple pansies, and added some nice smelling cedar mulch. This should be a fun patch to play with flowers all spring and summer.
And here’s the whole tree. This picture didn’t come out too well because of the light.
