Recent Progress

Just realized that it has been more than a month since my last post.... In addition to some out of town travel, things have been pretty busy around the house. We're getting into some of the LARGER and more long-term outdoor projects at the moment, which means that the progress isn't as fast and quick to come as some of the early wins, but the pay-off's will be pretty good in the long term! Here's a quick look at a few of the more recent outdoor projects:

Astilbe near the back walk

The first "new planting bed" that I managed to complete was this tiny patch next to the sidewalk heading around to the back door. As you can see, it isn't a huge space, but had completely been taken over by weeds. It doesn't get much sun and stays fairly damp, so I figured it would be an excellent spot for some astilbe. I had originally thought about doing some hostas here, but the space was so narrow that I was concerned that they'd end up just flopping out all over the sidewalk. These three grand dames were snapped up on clearance at Lowes and are very happy in their new local!

"Temporary" veggie garden

This decision met with some raised eyebrows from Jason, who wasn't sure how he felt about having veggies planted right out in the front yard. I assured him that this arrangement was just to get us through the current season since right now we lack any other suitable location. I didn't exactly have time to lay out and dig beds for an entire garden, and I wanted to have at least a few peppers and tomatoes this year. Lacking the cash-flow to actually complete landscaping of the front bed I decided that the best plan would be to temporarily put the veggies out there so it wasn't just a bare mulch spot for the whole summer. I managed to fit in a few tomato plants, a few peppers, and a cucumber, zucchini, and some herbs. (The GIANT hosta was already there and I didn't really want to move him until I know exactly what is going to be happening out here long term!)

East side shade garden

The third project was a general clean-up of the shade garden just off the parking area on the east side of the house. Again, it was mostly overgrown and run down after years of neglect. We also have a very bad drainage problem where all of the water off of the parking area ran right into this bed. Consequently the mulch (if there ever was any) from the bed had been washed away a long time ago and things were looking a bit ratty! I solved that problem by using some pot hole repair cold patch to build a small berm around the perimeter of the bed so that the water now runs down into the lawn without flowing through the bed. You can probably see it better if you click through to the full size photo.

The only other update here was the planting of my formerly potted hydrangea n the front center of the photo above. She's been in a pot for the better part of three years, so I'm hoping she likes her new permanent home! All of the other plants were already here, so mostly all I did was get rid of the weeds and then put down a nice thick layer or mulch. I'm going to be adding to this area eventually, but for now at least it cleans up the appearance of the side of the house.

You'll notice in the two later photos the pots up on the concrete plinths. I placed one of these on each side of the side entrance to sort of form the entrance way. The bases were found on the property. They're concrete and at one time were actually outdoor light fixtures of some sort. (There are a few other discarded ones yet to be excavated from the woods.) I thought it was a pretty clever way to reuse them with a bit of flair.

I've got a couple of other projects to share, but unfortunitely I had a slight file transfer malfunction, so I'll have to re-shoot a few pictures and share those later!

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So Much Rain... So Many Critters

Well the past weekend was a wash out... I did actually manage to mow the grass between showers on Saturday, but ended up inside all day on Sunday due to weather. Not the most enjoyable spring on record, but LUCKILY there's plenty to do inside too! If you haven't been keeping tabs, be sure to check out my other blog tracking the progress of our 1840 house renovation here: Between These Walls.

ANYWAY enough complaints about rain... these guy's don't seem to mind....

Hatchlings in the gutter.

I got up on the ladder to try and fix one section of gutter on the back of the house and was surprised to find these little guys hanging out in the corner. I'm pretty sure they are baby turtle doves. We have a couple of pairs hanging out around the place. There are some robins and sparrows nesting in the vicinity as well, but from the looks of their beaks I'm thinking the are doves. Hopefully being at the end of the gutter they'll be staying pretty dry over the 5 days of rain this week... Fingers crossed.

In other news... just when we were thinking we were getting close to being done with nuisance rodents... this guy was spotted out back moseying around the yard...

Playing Possum  

Not the greatest photo. It was getting dark and raining (of course) but we managed to catch up with him in time to snap this photo while he headed off into the woods in the back. He seemed completely oblivious to us.  In other news... there was a confirmed sighting of ANOTHER full-size groundhog in the yard. This one has a den somewhere near the windmill... so there will be more trapping to do apparently. Ahhhhh City Living!

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Simple Beginings

Where to start? That's the question that's facing me at just about EVERY turn around here... The answer is never easy... it depends so much on the weather, my mood, the budget, the inspiration, and so many other factors. When it comes to the garden though it's pretty clear that the focus this year has to be on working through a decade or more of deferred maintenance and overgrown untended landscaping.

Using that as a jumping off point I'm starting at the very front of the property and working back from there. My initial project (posted last week) the pond was suspended temporarily due to the fact that I ended up with a NASTY case of poison ivy. Since there's poison almost EVERYWHERE I decided that I wouldn't press my luck and I'll wait until this clears up before I attempt more work over there. I shifted focus to restoring some of the damage done by the trucks and equipment used to remove the big trees. Part of that means rehabbing the front lawn and bringing some definition to the front planting beds.

Left side of the porch from the front walk.

The most immediate need was to create some definition between the planting beds where the ferns are popping up with a vengeance, and the lawn on the left side of the walk. The ferns were growing out way into the yard so those were cut back, but the lawn itself was pretty torn up by all of the traffic. I decided to install a mowing strip of concrete pavers salvaged from elsewhere on the property to create a break between the yard and planting beds. While the house is very boxy and square, I decided to go with a curved bed which will extend from the front walk around to the side walk.

View from east side.

I started from the east side installing the pavers and loosening and leveling the soil which had been very compacted and rutted out. I finished about the first quarter or so and managed to get grass planted back in the adjoining section of the yard.  Once the pavers are in and the yard is totally back in shape I'll work on cleaning out the beds. For this year all I may get done is getting rid of the ivy and mulching, but we'll see!

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We have a baby!

Little Baby Pax the Groundhog

Working out in the yard this weekend and discovered this little guy hanging out around the shed (where I probably captured his mom earlier). He started off with quite a bit of chattering, but then warmed up to having us around and even let me pet him a bit. He made another appearance last night. He came right up to me and rubbed up against my boots and then followed me around while I knocked down some of the bamboo shoots (a nightly ritual). He's about the size of a newborn kitten, but definitely has his eyes open and gets around without too much difficulty. He's just a bit bigger than a pine cone as you can see in the photo.

For now we're just giving him a slice of melon every day or so, and we'll see where it goes. Groundhogs make terrible pets, and they are very destructive to have in the yard, but this guy is just too tiny and too cute to kick to the curb just yet. Not sure he'll make it since he's so tiny, but we'll see and hope for the best. If he make it we'll re-home him with the rest of his clan later this summer.

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Hardscape Archeology

Hardscape archeology is admittedly a term of my own derivation, but probably most accurately describes the challenge ahead as I try to literally unearth the hardscape features of the property after years of neglect and disrepair. First on my list is the pond out front. I decided to tackle this first because it sits pretty close to the road and is one of the larges focal features of the property. (Or it should be!) It was in such bad shape that it was actually not until my second visit to the property before we bought it that I even noticed it was there!

Before... The planter was visible, but ivy chokes out the rest. 

After mowing the yard this week for the first time since all of the rain, I had a bit of time left before sunset so I thought I'd get started on unearthing the pond. I wasn't really sure what to expect as it appeared to be a jumble of rocks and a LOT of ivy.

Cleaning out the planter

My first task was to clean out the planter in the center of the pond. There was a bit of greenery poking out, but mostly it looked pretty sorry! There's no way to reach out to the center of the pond from the sides, So I made good use of one of the ladders left by the roofers to stretch across the pond. Then I CAREFULLY balanced my way out so that I could work on clearing out and replanting. For now I just popped in a pre-planted basket in with an assortment of flowers. Eventually I want to swap that out with some cascading vine... Trouble is that there's not an easy way to water whatever is out there, so whatever it is it has to be pretty drought tolerant.  

Once the planter situation was under control I started trying to peel back the ivy surrounding the pond. It looked to me like there were steps of some sort in the side facing the house (right about where the ladder is in the picture above) but there really wasn't any way to tell.... I pulled on the gloves and started yanking and cutting away at the ivy.

View from the house after a couple of hours. Steps now visible.

AMAZINGLY... after a couple of hours I not only unearthed the steps in the front of the pond, but I also discovered that what I first thought was just a pond with some steps up to it was actually MUCH more elaborate at one time. There's actually a flagstone capped concrete walkway that stair-steps up and around the fountain. In the time that I had I got about 1/2 of the way around on the side that faces the street.

Flagstone walk going up around the fountain. 

They've obviously seen better days, but it's quite exciting to dream about what it must have looked like at one time back when it was originally installed. I ran out of time before getting it all completely cleaned up, but you can definitely appreciate more of the structure of the pond. I still need to clean up the "bank" area between the flagstone and the top of the pond. That will probably mean a lot of manual labor to remove the stones, dig out all of the ivy vines, and get thing back in shape. A lot to do, but the prospect of getting it back to looking good is exciting!

From the road side looking back towards the house. 

All in all, a pretty satisfying afternoon. From the looks of it (and the smell of it!) the pond hasn't been cleaned out in QUITE some time. That will probably mean pumping it out to really get the gunk out... so more to come on that front!

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Buh Bye....

Sadly the HUGE trees surrounding the house had to be taken out. They posed a number of problems. There was a lot of concern about the potential for damage to the house due to their close proximity to the foundation and the fact that they overhung the roof. Secondly the debris from the trees is the primary reason that we ended up with the need to make SERIOUS roof repairs. Not wanting to deal with that again, the decision was made that the trees had to go!

BEFORE... Three large pines TOWER over the house.

Thank goodness SOMEONE is crazy enough to grab a  chainsaw and climb up a 75ft tall tree using nothing but spiked shoes and a rope!!?!?!?!?!? The photo on the left is from the rear of the house and shows the three trees from the back. It give you a pretty good idea of just how MASSIVE they were. Chris (aka tree guy) is up in the tree on the right in the left picture. In the picture on the right he's leaning back waiting on the guys down below to clear out the branches before he cuts the top off the second tree. 

I didn't take very many more pictures because #1 I was working on operation Bamboozle (more on that later this week) and #2 the guy is up a tree with a rope and a chainsaw. Didn't seem like he'd be up for very much of a photo shoot!

AFTER :-)

Pretty amazing the difference that getting those trees down made. You can actually see the house and it is what dominates the street view, not the TOWERING giant trees. It also makes it easier to see all of the peeling paint, but that's a project for another day! You can see the scaffolding on porch roof to the right where the guys were working on repairing the damaged caused by the trees in the first place. Glad to have them gone for so many reasons!!

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Creature Comforts

I was planting roses out front on the trellis on Thursday night and went to clear off the ivy from the corner post of the arbor so that I could get it cleaned up and get some clematis planted and got QUITE a shock when I reached up to start hacking away at the ivy and a bird flew out right in my face! Seems a pair of turtle doves have decided that the ledge that the post sits on is a great place to set up home for their two little eggs. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the nest with the eggs. (I wanted to get out of the way so mom and dad could come back to the nest.) I checked again on Saturday and it looks like they're back on the job. Hopefully we'll have cute baby turtle doves before too long!

Turtle Dove sitting on her (his?) nest on the west arbor pillar.

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Up!

Dropteris (wood fern) emerging along the front foundation not sure what type yet!

I mentioned it before, but one of the most exciting parts of the spring in any new house is waiting to see what's lurking out there... just below the surface.... just waiting to emerge... Out front it looks like we're host to an over abundance of volunteer ferns coming up out front where the large pine tree used to be. 

They look like little violin necks as they come up.

Unfortunately they are a little toooooo willing to come up and are popping up WAY out in the yard as well. I'll try and transplant some and give some away if I can. Sadly after a few days of waiting the red spiky things that are also coming up in the top picture turned out to be nothing more than weeds. Oh well... win some... loose some!

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First Day of Spring

A day of firsts... First day of Spring and first planting at the new house. We spent most of the weekend doing spring cleanup at the current place so we can get it sold, but I did make some time this afternoon to get over and turn over a little bit of earth. Nothing major. Planted some primroses in pots near the door and transplanted some mums that used to be in the front window boxes. I was actually surprised that they made it through the winter, but they were greening up. Unfortunately they didn't look nice enough to stay, so I dug them up and moved them over to the little triangle by the back door. Not sure if they will make it, but mums are pretty hardy, so we'll see!

Transplanted mums and some primroses for color.

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Where's Waldo

Where's Waldo?

Some of our neighborhood wildlife seems to like to hang out at the pool.... In this photo... A black cat and a groundhog. I promise.

Here's a better shot of one of the critters:

Temporary Resident

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Mysteries of Spring

One of the most exciting things about moving to the new house is just the grand mystery of what may already be part of the landscape and is just currently tucked away, hidden, just waiting for the right time to pop up and make an appearance. Some things like these naturalized crocuses are a welcome sight:

Even more crocuses make an appearance.

It's hard to tell in the photo, but they have pretty much covered a huge area of the back yard with living blanket of white. There are other signs of life too. In the one and only raised bed where it appears that someone at sometime did some gardening, there are tell-tell signs of more bulbs on the way:

Bulbs of some sort starting to poke through.

I hope to use this bed for my tomatoes this year, but for now at least something beautiful seems to be emerging from the tangled mess of bamboo and weeds! I'll take it!

 For every pleasant surprise there are bound to be a few not so great surprises lurking out there:

Gutter Tree

 Trees growing in the gutters for instance. I spent an hour out in the rain up on a ladder trying to do my best to clear out two or more years of debris so that some of the torrential rain would have a way to get off the roof without creating more damage. On the west side of the front porch I found this little 4' tall sapling growing quite happily from the gutter. Needless to say it had to go!

This weekend brought heavy rains,  which in addition to being a good way to see how the land drains and where water pools for future planning purposes, also served as a reminder of why exactly we had to buy flood insurance.

This is a shot late this afternoon of the RAGING river that used to be our little trickle of a creek. It's about 7 feet to the bottom of the bridge. Normally there's about 6" of water running through. It's been raining all day, and I wouldn't be surprised if the water made it up to the bottom of the bridge before all is said and done. On a positive note, it seems to be handling things ok, and we'd still have to have another 3 feet or so before it would be out into the yard. 

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First Signs!

After a VERY warm couple of days last week it looks like there may be hope for the over-grown mess that is currently the new garden. In less that 24 hours the place seemed to suddenly spring to life with the arrival of HUNDREDS of tiny crocuses.

Tiny crocuses make an appearance in the back yard

They are literally everywhere you look. This is one of the patches just randomly appearing in the back yard.

More spring time harbingers

This little clump is coming up right out next to the parking area. Nice to know that as Spring starts to kick it into high gear in the next couple of weeks there may be even more pleasant surprises to come as we get a chance to see what (besides bamboo) is lurking just below the surface!

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On The Move!

The blog has OBVIOUSLY fallen into disrepair over the last 8 months! I could make excuses, but that's really not going to help! Let's just say MUCH has happened in that time period! The 2010 garden turned out to be one of the most productive to date and we still have a freezer packed with green beans and jars and jars of homemade sauce. That said, the 2010 season was a tremendous challenge as I really started feeling like I'd outgrown the tiny 16' x 16' back yard. Even though the 84 square feet produced plenty of fresh produce for the two of us, I had completely run out of room for any other endeavors! In October I decided that the time had come to look for a LARGER space to garden. 

My old 16' x 16' plot served me well!

The hunt was on. We had some pretty specific ideas about what we were looking for... at least 3 bedrooms, within 10 minutes of both Jason's and my work, and at least one acre. Not an easy feat. However we did manage to find an amazing property that had everything we wanted and then some. The process was started and, nearly 3 months later its official... the move is on!

The New Place!

The new place has almost 2.5 ACRES!!! which means that's about a 10,000% increase in the size of the garden! Its in the city, 3 minutes from Jason's work and 10 minutes from mine, and the house has 4 bedrooms and another full space for Jason's studio. It's a HUGE fix-up project. But I will FINALLY have room to dream and grow the garden of my dreams!!! This place has it all, really:

Gazebo

The Pool

Fountain/Pond

Windmill

That's right folks! WINDMILL or what's left of it anyway!! It's an extremely unique lot and one that I hope over time will be transformed into a truly amazing garden! Just to put it all in perspective The GREEN area shows the dimensions of the new lot. The YELLOW box shows the size in scale of the OLD garden!!!!

If that's not enough room for an AWESOME garden... then I should probably just throw in the trowel! Needless to say it won't be done all at one time, so there should be PLENTY of material to keep me posting for the foreseeable future! Keep checking back for updates on what springtime brings as we move in and start on the next exciting phase of our garden adventure!!

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