Another Very Good Gardening Day

It was a very good gardening weekend.

I made a lot of progress in the "spare room window / utility area" ...




I built up the berm around the foundation to help keep the water away from that area - we tend to have water over-run at this spot, the gutters seem insufficient to handle the convergence of water in the corner, and I don't want it puddling up against the foundation. Got the rain barrel painted and set up - I thought I'd gotten beige paint, but turns out I got dark brown. That's okay too, though. I didn't think about painting the PVC pipe until it was all set up, and I'm unsure whether I'm going to do that or not. If I do, it won't be that dark brown. I considered an antique brass or something, make it look all steampunky. I'll have to think on that.

But one of the real surprises this weekend is, I actually got to begin branching out into the rest of the yard - out of the 'dining room garden,' which is the only place I've been working for the past two years. The way things were going, I thought it might be another year or two before I got this far.

This is the next area of interest ... "the lamp post area," and around behind the tree.


Here's the area before ...




... and after. The grass was growing in this area only in sporadic clumps, not a solid lawn - so I had no compunction about getting in there with the trowel and just digging up the clumps, to clear out that space. And I cleaned up my little rose - in the picture above you can barely see it, it's to the left of the lamp post and clematis.


I'm pretty sure this rose is close to 15 years old. My dad got it for me not long after I'd bought the old house, which was in 1994 - so I probably got the rose in 1996 or so. It occasionally dies back almost completely, then rallies. That's what it did this winter - the whole top of it was dead, with just this little bit of new growth at the bottom. So when I was working in this area this weekend, I was able to clean it up, pruning off the dead bits, clearing away the grass that was growing up through the middle of it. Now it should do much better.

Since I can't do the whole yard, or even a very large chunk of it, all at once, I have to work in small sections. I'd decided to focus next on that area behind the tree and in front of the line of shrubs, and around the lamp post. Now that I've got a good start, the next steps are (a) make sure I have soaker hose throughout the area; (b) get the additional rain barrels (one won't be enough to keep this area well-watered later in the season when it doesn't rain much); and (c) choose the plants I want to put here. There's not much more grass growing in that area, anyway, so that's not much of an issue.

The soaker hose that runs along the fence line for the impatiens is long enough to wrap around into this area a bit, and I already have the second soaker hose ready to install. I'm just waiting for Star Supply to get those rain barrels in, or else find an alternate source for them. The area they're going (next to the existing one) is all set up and ready for them.

Finding a good variety of shade plants, and figuring out how to plant under that tree, had been primarily what held me back from doing more out here last year. But today, I found something that's going to help enormously:


I ran onto this book that seemed to be written just for me ... all about creating wonderful landscapes in shady areas, even under established trees, like what I have to deal with in the front yard. The author goes into good detail about what you have to do to plant gardens in and around tree roots without harming the tree, so finally - some good information on how this is done. This has finally encouraged me that I can actually do this, the way I envision it.

There are two problems planting underneath an established tree. One, the new plants tend to not do well, as they have to compete with the tree roots for moisture and nutrients, and a large established tree usually wins. And two, you have to be careful not to damage the tree itself. For example, digging even the smallest plant hole around a tree with shallow roots (like my maples) can be a real challenge, but you can't just haul in a foot of topsoil and dump all over the place, as tree roots - odd as this seems, being underground - have to breathe. If you dump too much on top of the ground, they will 'suffocate' and weaken the tree, if not kill it eventually.

So planting under a tree takes some planning and finesse. But this book explains several ways to solve those problems (which I'll post about when I do the actual work), so ... I'm encouraged. I think it will also help that I'll be doing this in stages, so that any changes I make that the tree has to adjust to will only be around part of its root system, not the whole thing at once.

The book also has hundreds of plants that will do well in this type of environment. That's a bonus, as other plants books I have or have looked at cover plants for all areas, which means that 75% of the plants in the book are for sunny areas, and no use to me, yet anyway. Having a book dedicated to nothing but shade plants is really helpful, and I shouldn't have any problem finding a nice variety to fill out my garden.

So, lots of progress for so early in the year. I think this will be a good year for the garden.

Ahhh ... The Magic Of Dirt

Today was good. I've been having a rather rough time lately, but today helped. The weather was decent, and I spent almost the entire day playing in the dirt. Though I'm now exhausted and in a lot of pain, it's a better pain than I'm used to ... and I realized I didn't think about anything disturbing all day. There's much to be said for the magic of dirt.

While I still haven't managed to branch out from my initial limited area of focus - the 'dining room garden' as I call it, as it's the area right outside the dining room door - at least I did make major progress in that area.

This section, known as the "spare room window garden" - because it's underneath the spare room window - is undergoing transformation.


I planned, last year, to plant it up and even have a little fountain of some type. But I've since scrapped that idea. First, I plan to add two more rain barrels over here (if Star Supply ever gets any more of these white barrels in, which they claim they will, some day ...) and that's going to take up a lot of room, and also detract from the gardeny prettiness of the area anyway (though I do plan to paint them beige and try to make it look somewhat decent). Also, with the addition of the garden hose thingy and a wish to expand the area available for the table and chairs by adding some patio blocks alongside the sidewalk, I just decided to turn this into more of a utility area.

Oh, yeah - the garden hose thingy - been wanting one of these forever.


Love it. The connector hose (the yellow one) is a little long, but it happened to be laying around with the proper ends already on it, so I didn't want to re-do it to change the length. I'm not 100% sure where this hose holder will ultimately be, after that shrub is relocated, so for now I'm just letting it hang out here till I sort it all out. Then I'll adjust the feeder hose.

Last year I had planted two hostas, a bleeding heart, and a fern over there. I moved the two hostas today, but haven't moved the bleeding heart yet as I'm not sure where it's going. I think I killed the fern ... it's under the awning and so got no natural rainwater at all, which means I'd have had to have been watering it this spring, but the rain barrel was disconnected for winter and not hooked back up, and I basically just forgot to water it with the hose. So ... no fern. :(

But, I'll give it a few more weeks, as I remember a fern I had once before, at the old house, never began to come up until like June. So just in case, I'll keep an eye on it.

Meanwhile, I still have work to do in this area, but didn't get to it today because I was busy with the rest of this.

This is the 'dining room window' area, which is coming along nicely. Though I can never get a decent picture of it, it looks much better in person ...


The azaleas always look scraggly, which may be because they kind of still are. They're only a year or two old, so still establishing themselves. After they bloom this year, I plan to prune them up a little bit, as I've read that doing so will make them fuller and bushier, instead of spindly and leggy like they are now.

I added the two hostas I moved from the 'spare room window garden' behind them, and also a new fern which I just got today (to replace the one I :( killed ... though if it does survive, I have other places to move it to). As I mentioned, in person, it looks really cool - even though it's all "just green," the different shades and textures make for a really awesome look.


Right now it looks a little odd because the hostas and fern, which are behind the azaleas, are smaller than the azaleas. But I'm going to wait and see how this plays out, because (a) I have no intention of moving those azaleas, and (b) hostas can get huge (I had a couple monstrous ones at the old house) and that fern - a Japanese Painted Fern - is supposed to also get quite large - though I find it hard to believe, the plant tag said, I think, something like 24" to 36". Wow. So if they do as I believe they will, and if I keep the azaleas pruned, then it should all work out okay, size-wise.

I also spent a lot of time fixing up the soaker hose today. I had it all laid out and staked down from the last (only) warm weekend we had this spring, but ended up completely taking it up and starting over. Then I went to put my splitter / valve in. As I mentioned before, the hostas and fern are totally under the awning and so will get no natural rain, and will need watered regularly using the rain barrel. However, everything from there forward will get rain. I couldn't just open up the rain barrel and water the whole bed when the rest of it had had plenty of rain, or I'd flood out the front. So I cut the soaker hose and intended to put in a connector valve, so I can close off the bottom half and, when I need to, only water the hostas and fern. But I had the wrong size connectors, so ... another trip to Home Despot tomorrow. Oh damn. ;o)

Then, the coup de grace.




I bought a flat of Impatiens today, and actually got them planted. Well, most of them. And yeah, this looks like nothing right now ... but I know that these will take off and fill this area entirely by mid-summer.

Tomorrow (or the next time I get to work out here) I'm going to be placing another soaker hose along here, which will eventually get connected to the other rain barrel (the white one). So these Impatiens will be getting supplemental water from the rain barrel, which means I know they'll do astoundingly well.

This has been the bane of my existence for many years, I'd buy flowers but be unprepared to plant them when I bought them, and often just leave them to end up dying in their flats (exactly what I did last year). I hate when I do that. This year, that's not happening, because I had all the planting beds ready (for a change) when I got them, and I didn't buy too many at once - just the ones I knew I could actually get to today (or soon).

Okay, I didn't actually get them all planted, only because I'm now crippled with pain from the day's work and had to stop. But if it doesn't rain all day tomorrow, I'll be back to it and finish up then. The ones that are left are going in front of the azaleas. I'd like to add a little more variety to the garden, instead of all impatiens for annuals, but I haven't consulted my gardening books yet this year, and am unsure what other annuals (or small-sized perennials) I can plant in front of the azaleas, where it is mostly shady all day long. Last year I tried some violas, but they did lousy ... in part because I think they need more sun, and in part because I didn't have the soaker hose hooked up and so didn't get them watered enough. So for now, at least I know Impatiens will work.

I'm learning, slowly - pay attention to the growing environment and work with it. You can't plant things that need 8 hours of sun in a spot that's deep shade all day. Duh. And while I have no issue with annuals - largely because they're wonderful in that they often bloom all season - eventually I'd like to have the garden be primarily perennials, and native perennials at that. Still working on that.

So that was my day ... and I'm very pleased, and looking forward to working out there more in the coming weeks.

Soon I hope to begin branching out to past the fence, behind the tree, and the area around the lamp post. I want to plant more native perennials out there, and add a bird bath. Baby steps ... but I'm on my way to that NWF Certified Wildlife Habitat which is half the goal of all this landscaping - the other half being just because I've always wanted to do this, have really nice gardens and landscaping - and finally have a place where it will actually look like something. (but inviting the local critters to hang out and be comfy in my yard is a huge, huge bonus!)

A Tease Of Spring

Yesterday it was 80 degrees here ... a welcome hint of spring. I spent several hours outside doing garden work.

Last year I felt like I hadn't gotten anything done, as the areas I worked on really didn't look like much throughout the summer. But yesterday, when I began cleaning those areas up and getting them ready to plant, I was able to see just how much I did get accomplished last year in prepping these areas for future use, because it's all starting to come together exactly as I hoped. This year I didn't have to do a ton of work to ready them - just rake out some dead leaves, and lay out some soaker hose. So when the plants are available, I'm ready to go get them and plant.

I did have to fix the one (store-bought) rain barrel but that was because it was bought late last year and never really fixed then. I bought the one decorative rain barrel because it was in a more visible location, and I wanted that one to look nice. But it's a bad design, where the hose running from the barrel to the downspout has to be exactly level to work. When I set it up last year I didn't get it exactly level, so what happened was that the water would run in to the barrel, but it wouldn't drain back into the downspout when it was full; so the first time it got full, it overflowed around the lid, flooding the flower bed. I unhooked it and never used it the rest of the year.

Yesterday I finally leveled it completely, so now it ought to work fine throughout the season. I also laid out the soaker hose in that bed, staking it down with little tent stake like things that actually came with our Christmas yard decorations to hold them in place.


The section in the back (behind the scraggly looking azaleas) is still not staked because I don't know exactly what I'm planting back there yet, so I needed to leave it until stuff's planted. Then I can loop the hose around the base of the plants and stake it down. I may mulch as well, which will help bury / cover up the soaker hose, though it doesn't really matter - once the plants get thick and lush they will mostly hide it.

I have to split that hose in two at one point and put an on/off valve in it. In this flower bed, the stuff from the azaleas forward will get rain when it does rain. But I plan to plant things behind the azaleas, and those things will be completely under the awning, and never get any rain. So they will need watered more often, even if we're getting good rain they will need watered. But I can't just turn on the soaker hose and water the whole bed if there's been plenty of rain or I'll wash out the front. So I'm going to divide the hose and put an on/off valve in at the awning line. Then I can shut off the bottom half of the hose and only water the back of the bed when necessary, or open the valve and water the whole bed if we haven't had enough rain.

My other project is a little more involved. I want two more rain barrels for the other area. I had one last year, and we used it, but it would get used up too fast - one good deep watering of that flower bed and it would be empty. Then if it didn't rain for awhile, it wasn't getting refilled. Of course, it was taking so much water because that planting bed is entirely under the awning, so got no rain at all, and needed more frequent deep watering. I'm thinking about doing away with that this year, but more on that in a minute.

But the rain barrel did work so well that during even one good rain it would fill up completely, long before it stopped raining, letting the rest of the precious rainwater go down the drain - so I knew that adding two more, they would also be easily filled during any good rains, giving me 3 times as much backup water before worrying about it raining again.

But I've been to the place where we got this one several times, and they are out of these barrels, and don't know when they'll get them in. I'd like two of these because they're only $15 a piece (whereas I paid about $100 for the 'fancy' one).

One big thing I accomplished yesterday was removing a shrub that was right in front of last year's rain barrel. It was really seriously in the way for adding any more rain barrels over there, but I had balked about taking it out last year because I thought I was going to have to kill it - that's how I had to get the others out that I removed, cutting off all their branches first to leave just the stump, then digging and dragging that out of the ground. I really hated to kill any more shrubs. In a brief burst of energy yesterday, I tackled that shrub, and managed to dig it out. So I moved it around to the side of the house. Greg had to help me replant it, as I couldn't get the hole dug out quite deep enough. But that's a huge relief, not having that shrub in the way. Later this spring I'll remove the other one, and that whole area will finally be ready to finish.


The plans for that corner are to add two more rain barrels, but there's some work that needs done there first. We get a lot of rain overrunning from the roof in that corner, and I want to grade that corner better, piling up dirt higher against the foundation and sloping it away from the house. Once I do that, I have to figure out a way to get three rain barrels into that corner, level ... some kind of little leveled platforms stuck into the grade mound, I'm thinking. Those 3 barrels are going to take up a huge portion of that corner, and with the difficulty keeping that area watered since it's under the awning, I'm thinking about not trying to turn this into such a flower bed after all, and use it as more of a utility area. I already have a few things planted there from last year (some of which are starting to come up) - a fern, a bleeding heart, and a couple hostas - which I may be moving them somewhere else.

Anyway - it was good to be out in the gardens yesterday. I'm extremely bummed that after today the temperature's supposed to drop again for some time. I'm really ready for it to get warm and stay warm.

A Tail Of Two Rain Barrels

Rain barrels are not cheap. When we decided to put them up around our house, we talked about different ways to do it. We knew where we could get those white plastic 55 gallon drums for $15, and decided to try it with one of those. The result was our first prototype.

It's not pretty. (smile)


But it is very functional. It is of course linked up with the downspout via PVC pipe and various connectors. One downside to the barrel that we hadn't anticipated is the lids of these are permanently sealed on, and the only openings are two 2" openings in the lids, which both have threaded caps to close them up. Although it turned out to be more of a bonus than a downside, as we were able to use those openings for our rain barrel use without having to hassle with cutting holes in the barrel (at least not at the top; the spigot at the bottom is another story, for another time). PVC pipe comes in a 2" diameter, which we were able to connect directly into those pre-made openings easily. The in-flow pipe from the downspout goes into one, and we used the other for an overflow.



Initially I questioned whether the overflow, having it's PVC pipe actually rising up out of the barrel, then making a turn and angling down the way it does, would work. I was concerned that instead of acting as an overflow, the water would not have the pressure to rise up through that pipe, and would instead just back up in the downspout. I was mistaken. The pressure of that much water (when the barrel is full - obviously, the only time the overflow matters) easily forces it right up out of that pipe. And it follows the overflow pipe instead of backing up into the downspout because the overflow pipe is the path of least resistance - it's easier for the water to make it up over that small obstacle and then flow down and out, than it is to back all the way up a 45 degree pipe to the downspout.

I guess it's a matter of physics (not my strong point) - water's only going to rise to the highest level at which it can be contained, which in this system is the top of the overflow pipe, not up the downspout.


Right now the overflow pipe just kind of hangs there, and is directed out into the front yard (away from the house foundation - important!) by way of the black flex pipe. We intend to fix that, using a U-shaped connector to run the overflow pipe down alongside the barrel, then along the ground out to the yard, so it looks a little nicer - just didn't get that far yet.

But more importantly, due to the volume of water that is collected here, we intend to install at least one, and hopefully two more rain barrels at this location, connected together, so the overflow only kicks in after all three barrels are full - thereby wasting far less of our rain water collection potential. That's a project for next spring, however. This was, like I said, the prototype to see if this would even work.

The support for the pipe coming from the downspout is going to be fixed too. It wasn't supposed to be a piece of chain,we had something else rigged up, but it failed, and since we needed something quick on the spur of the moment (this was getting installed in the middle of a storm, ironically enough), Greg just threw this piece of chain on it. We'll do something a little nicer with that when we re-set this up next spring, as well.

The advantage of the downspout draining directly into this PVC pipe is we catch every drop of water coming out of that downspout. ( We did save the cut-off piece of downspout, so we can re-connect it to the in-ground drain pipe when we take this down in the fall. Or, we could use the same PVC pipe in a different configuration, too.)

But, as I said, even when the barrel is leveled and the overflow pipe is fixed and the chain replaced, the whole system isn't going to be all that asthetically pleasing. That's fine with me for most locations around the house. And it's economical - the barrel cost $15, and the various pieces of pipe and connectors cost maybe $25 to $35.

But when it came to the rain barrel by the garage, I wanted something that looked nicer, because it's much more in plain view. So I decided to spring for a store-bought rain barrel for this location.

It cost $100, and I'm not nearly as impressed with it's functionality.

For starters, it uses a diverter system attached to the downspout, which is supposed to function as both the inflow and overflow. When the barrel gets full, the water's supposed to simply bypass the barrel and continue on down the downspout.


Problem is, the diverter system looks like this on the inside.




There is a large opening in the center, then a channel around the inside edge. The downspout edges fit down into that channel, leaving the whole center open to continue on down the downspout and not divert to the rain barrel. When we were installing this, at first we couldn't figure out how that was supposed to work.

Then, it dawned on me - or so I thought. In anything but the most torrential of downpours, rain probably wouldn't come down the downspout in a big solid "tube of water" in the center of the downspout. It would tend to cling to the inside surface of the downspout, and run down the sides that way (on the inside). So the channel in the diverter made sense - when the rain running down the inside surfaces of the downspout hit the diverter channel, it would be funneled into the hose which would carry it to the barrel. When the barrel was full, and the hose filled up, that water would have no where to go but to overflow the channel and continue on down the downspout.

So far so good. Except it's kind of flawed.

It rained Wednesday night, not a big storm or downpour, but a pretty good 10 or 15 minutes of steady rain. I went out to see how the barrel did. I was delighted to find it almost 1/3 full - just shy of the spigot (which is too high up, another design flaw) - so though there's water in it, it's not even useable yet. But it did work and it wasn't a very big rain, so that was good.

Problem was, while I was standing there, I could still see some water trickling out of the end of the downspout. The diverter system wasn't catching it all, and that was in a light rain. I can imagine that in a heavier rain a lot more rainwater would be escaping down the downspout.

Okay, it's probably not that big a deal - it looked like a small amount of water - except for two things.

First, when I initially considered rainwater collection barrels, I didn't take it all that seriously because I completely underestimated the amount of water a roof sheds during a rain. I really thought it would be such a minimal amount as to be barely worth the trouble, if you didn't live some place where it rained all the time. I based this in part on seeing the water coming out of the downspout after a rain, which looked like a small amount to me. I was incredibly wrong, as our first rainbarrel filled almost half-way the first time it rained after we installed it. I have practically drained the barrel watering my plants, then the very next time we had a decent rain, the barrel would be full or almost full again. It has really surprised me.

So I no longer underestimate just how much water what looks like 'a little trickle' can add up to be.

Second, if I'm going to have rainwater collection system, I'd like to collect as much as possible. Obviously the barrels only fill when it's raining, so when we get those weeks with no rain, I'd like as much backup water available as possible. I don't like 'wasting' any of it!

Also, one unique problem I have is that I have things planted underneath the awnings, which mean that they often get no natural watering from rain at all - unless it rains really hard and soaks the whole bed, or the rain is slanting in somewhat. In light but steady rains, those back areas under the awnings remain dry. Which means that some of those plants are going to rely on nothing but rainwater-barrel-water to get watered at all - which means I need all that I can get.

So it kind of bugs me that for $100 it's not collecting all the rain water. The homemade PVC pipe version does collect every drop of the water.

We may look into modifying the store-bought barrel next year. I can still use the barrel, as it's nicer to look at, but modify it's diverter system to something closer to what we set up on the other downspout, with a PVC 'funnel' and pipe to capture all the water.

Or, I could consider a way to capture the water coming out of the bottom of the downspout and divert it directly to the plants behind the awning drip line. That's a thought. But - why over-engineer it.

This is the only place I am concerned about using a commercial rain barrel. There are several other locations around the house that are destined to be future homes of rain barrels, but they are all out of sight enough that I am not planning on using store-bought barrels for those . We'll continue on with our $15 barrels and PVC pipe arrangement. So this is the only one I have to rig to work better.

But we probably will be adding one more (store-bought, 'pretty') rain barrel here as well. There's a very large expanse of roof right here that only has this one downspout, so the water collection potential here is too great to pass up. But the system to hook them together is far more effective than the original diverter system - just running a piece of hose between the two - so that shouldn't need any fixing.

So that's the story of two rain barrels. The store-bought version probably cost about twice as much (though you might be able to make a home-made one even cheaper depending on what you already had on hand). It does look considerably nicer, but I'm far more impressed with the functionality of our homemade system, and am astounded by the amount of water it collects.

Some time I'll do another post on the lower half of the rain barrels - how we rigged our hose system to make the best use of the collected rainwater, and probably how we're going to lower the height of the spigot on the store-bought barrel to be more efficient.

Big Progress! Huzzah!

I got two major projects done today, which makes me very happy.

First, I finally got the fence finished - as in, actually put up (attached to the posts) instead of just leaning there.


That was a whole lotta fun. Attaching the top cross-pieces wasn't that bad, but the bottom ones? With those shrubs in front of them? Well, to get to one of them, I had to crawl on my belly underneath the shrubs, and then the fence was too close to the shrub base for the drill (being used as a screwdriver) to fit, so I had to put the screws in more than half-way by hand. What a pain!

But it's done. Yay, yay, a thousand yays. I didn't paint the metal post-holders, I was debating on it, but didn't ... I'm figuring in future years, when I have plants growing in front of them, they won't really show anyway.

The second thing was the new rain water barrel.



I wanted the one in this part of the garden to be the commercial, 'prettier' one since it will show so much more. I don't really like the design of this (not the physical design, but the way it's designed to work) so it'll be interesting to see how well it does. I also know the spigot's WAY too high up the side - it's supposed to be 55 gallon capacity, but with the spigot that far up, you only have access to 2/3 of the water it holds. If it works well otherwise, we may lower that spigot next year.

That was it ... but after going to Gander Mountain for seam sealer, the grocery store, the bank, getting gas in the truck, then doing all that - it was a day.

I'm still hoping, after a bit of a rest, to get back to gathering up some Pennsic stuff. Even though I have plenty of time (!) I figure it can't hurt to start now. Since I won't be going out for two weeks, I have more time right now than those (like Greg) who are going out this coming Friday for the duration, and I seem to have little to do this year! A miracle!

All my stuff's up in the Imaginarium, jumbled about, needing organized, but all there. I don't have any more garb to make (at least, I'm not going to attempt to make any more at this point), I've already bought all my Pennsic food (been buying a few things each week for awhile now so I don't have to make some big last minute grocery store trip) ... the only really time-consuming thing I still have to do is cook Tyler's food in advance. I don't know, it's looking way too easy this year. Makes me wonder what I forgot.

Gardening Update

So I wanted a little water feature in the one side of the 'dining room gardens.' Last weekend I found a large planter I thought would work well for it, so got that. I already had a small submersible water pump.

The trick was, however, getting the two to work together. I tried sitting the pump on something inside the planter, but the force of the pumping water and the pull of the power cord flipped it on its side, and it wouldn't stay upright. So I decided I had to permanently attach it to something to hold it at the right height, and then weight that something so it would sit firmly in the planter.

For my first attempt, I scrounged in the garage and found this piece of black flexible pipe which was just the right height, then found two container lids (from the plastic containers sweet-and-sour sauce from the Chinese takeout place comes in) which just fit the ends of the tube. So far so good.

I also had some clear waterproof sealant/adhesive, like can be used for aquariums, etc. I figured that would glue a lid to the bottom of the pipe (so I could weight it with stones), then glue the pump to the top lid, which I would simply snap on.

Except when the pump was stuck to the lid, it warped it slightly so it wouldn't snap on ... so I tied it on with hemp twine.

This was a complete failure. The pump didn't stick to the lid, so when I put it in the planter full of water, the pump came lose and fell sideways. When I went to pick the whole thing up to move it and try to fix it, the bottom lid came loose, spilling my rocks all over the place.

This might have worked if I had let the adhesive cure. :o) I was too impatient.

Then I got the idea that it would be easier to use a plastic coffee container I knew I had; I could fill it with rocks, glue the pump to the lid, snap the lid on, and voila.

But even after letting the pump and lid sit for 24 hours, the adhesive wouldn't stick to the slick plastic lid.

Then we tried JB Weld, a heavy-duty epoxy, which we believed would stick anything together. I even heavily scored the lid to take away some of it's 'slickness.' But again, failure. The epoxy bonded great to the pump, and simply would not stick to the lid.

In desperation, I went old school, and tried what Greg first suggested - zip ties.



So the coffee can has a bunch of rocks in it, the pump is zip-tied to the lid, and the lid is snapped in place. Stupid-looking? Yep. Works? Yep.

In other news, I had ordered some plants from Spring Hill Nursery, but unfortunately, prematurely, as I wasn't ready to plant them when they came. The directions say if you absolutely can't plant them right away, to put them in the crisper drawer of your fridge, but under no circumstances can you expect success if you don't plant them within 10 days.

Well, I put them in the crisper drawer, but then still didn't get the area ready for planting till something like two weeks later, so I figured the plants were toast. But, having nothing to lose, I pulled the astilbe and planted it in its new home.


However, I think it's going to make it this is how it looks a mere week after planting.


Definitely doing well.

Here's what the whole area looks like so far.


I have plans to add more, and of course these current plants will eventually get much larger, filling the area pretty well. I need to camouflage that pump cord, and fill in around the plants with mulch. I also need to get my soaker hose installed - I've been using the rain barrel to water these plants, but it'll be much easier when the actual soaker hose is in place.

BTW, sorry all the pictures are a little dark and hard to see ... I've been using the Droid for all my pictures lately, instead of bothering with my regular digital camera. But while the Droid is a higher MP camera than my 'regular' digital, and has a flash, I haven't yet figured out how to actually take good pictures with it. And my photo editing software sucks - as in, I actually don't have any on the netbook, and am just using Windows 7's 'editing' window. Which sucks. I'll probably have to break down and go back to using the old computer just for photo editing at least, or get better at taking pictures.

Shopping Spree; and Gardening News

I went on a pretty big shopping spree today. It wasn't a spur of the moment frivolous thing, though - I'd planned it.

For starters, I desperately needed some new work clothes. I mean, desperately. I detest clothes shopping, so only do it under duress. The last time I'd bought anything for work wasn't even a 'shopping trip' - I'd just, in desperation, picked up a couple new tops, and I think that was about 6 years ago. Before that, I couldn't tell you when I last shopped for clothes.

For years beyond count my work clothes consisted of black jeans (worn until they were a mess, then thrown away and a new identical pair bought) and sweaters in the winter, whatever top I could scrounge up in the summer.

The one exception to hating clothes shopping is vacation, when I always buy a bunch of pirate t-shirts.

So when it got too warm for sweaters I would wear my couple of decent tops, then have to resort to the pirate t-shirts, which, since most of them had gaudy pictures of ships or skulls and crossbones on the back, I had to camouflage with a cardigan or a zip-front hoodie.

That was barely working till this year. Two of my three decent summer tops had finally got some irreparable stains on the front of them, reducing me to nothing but 1 good top, and pirate shirts. I was sick to death of sweating my ass off in layered clothes and black jeans when it was 85 degrees outside.

So, I went on a work-clothes shopping spree. I actually kind of enjoyed this one, since I was so desperate for something new to wear. I only went to K-mart ... where they have what some people aptly deem "K-mart clothes." Well, whatever. I'm no fashionista. I admit I'd like to have a wardrobe of things that were a little more unique, a little more exotic, a little more 'me.' But I didn't have time for that just now. I just needed some basic, serviceable stuff. And, I didn't want to pay a fortune for it.

K-mart's great for that. I got 4 pairs of pants, a pair of shorts (not for work, just for me), a skirt (!! my co-workers are liable to fall over, seeing me in a skirt), 5 shirts, a pair of shoes, and some new unmentionables, for about $180. Cannot complaint about that. And most of it's pretty nice ... only one or two things are mildly frumpy, but ... it will serve just fine for work until I can get around to making some stuff.

Because ultimately that's my goal - start making my own clothes, where I can alter patterns to make uniquely designed things that more reflect my personality. But that's a real challenge, and will probably be saved for winter when it's cooler upstairs, and I can't be outside.

Speaking of outside, I also got some gardening things today.

I got the rain barrel for the other part of the dining room garden.


This is a manufactured one because it's much more out in plain sight. While the generic white barrel with PVC fittings worked great, I wanted something a little more pleasant to look at in this spot where it's going to be so much more on display. But it was a definite trade-off, as this one cost $99.00 (compared to $15 for the other barrel, plus maybe $25 or $30 in parts and fittings). This is the only one of these I plan to get.

I got a new bird feeder, a veritable buffet this time, as some days I had 8 or 10 birds vying for my little tiny bird feeder.


I don't fill it all the time in the summer, I let them forage some. But come winter this will give me quite a show.

I also bought some hummingbird nectar (yes, I know you can make your own, but I happened across this, it was $4, and I knew I'd be more likely to dredge the hummingbird feeder out of the garage and clean it up and fill it if I just picked this up today). Maybe later, if I start attracting any hummingbirds, I'll start making my own.


This was my dad's hummingbird feeder, and although he always put it up in the summer, he said he rarely attracted any hummingbirds. It's supposed to help if you have other flowers around that they like, and as of yet, I don't, but I'll see what happens. I like that it's in a very nice little decorative 'house' - which is cool, because otherwise hummingbird feeders can be so tacky looking. Hummingbirds are beautiful, but I swear by their choice of feeders, they could be the white trash of the avian world. I picture them setting up in an old beat up Airstream, pink flamingos and white plastic birdbaths in the yard, maybe a tattered nest up on blocks somewhere.

The gardening thing is frustrating me. Part of the reason I bought the birdfeeder vertical buffet is because I needed something with some heft to hang on that side of the double-sided hook, the other side of which you can't see, but is holding a hanging planter. There used to be two matching planters, one on each side, each holding calibrachoa (a beautiful flowering annual). But I've killed off several batches of calibrachoa this year. The one still there is only half-alive, but it's counterpart on the right had completely died, and I needed to take it down. And this was the second planting - the first time both baskets of it died. I don't know what I did wrong, unless this spot's just too shady for it.

In fact, I killed half the plants I bought at the garden center back at the beginning of the month - in part because despite it was June, I wasn't ready to plant them (meaning, didn't have places picked out that were dug up and ready), and that's the first cardinal rule of gardening not to break - don't buy plants you aren't ready to plant. The second problem was, I thought I could be ready sooner, but it kept raining, and raining, and raining every time I had the time to do anything, and the fence was consuming all my time, both of which put me way behind.

Oh well. Live and learn. I've realized I do far better focusing on small areas at a time, so I'm going to rein myself back in to just the dining room garden areas this year. They seem so small, it doesn't seem like it should have taken this long to get no further than I am. But, it is what it is, and I have to work with that.

I still need to decide what else I'm going to plant in the shady garden (where I planted the fern and hostas yesterday) and put in some type of water feature.

I have to move the azaleas in the other part of the dining room garden (got them planted too far forward) and decide what else I'm going to plant over there. This year's temporary planting of impatiens and violets has done so-so. The impatiens are just starting to take off and branch out, but the violets are dying. Next year I'd like to put some perennials in there instead (trying to limit my use of annuals somewhat), but I haven't figured out what will do well in that spot, and not dwarf my still-tiny azaleas. Eventually the azaleas will be much bigger, and then it won't matter as much, so maybe I should wait a few years. "Kim's Knee-High" coneflowers only get a couple feet tall, and supposedly do well in semi-shady areas, so that might be the ticket, with the bonus that they're Ohio native plants.

Still have to put up the fence (it's leaning in place, but not yet screwed to the support posts), then plant the impatiens along there. This late in the year I don't expect them to do any good, but I have them - a whole flat of them - and have managed not to kill them yet, so I'll try it.

The rest of it I'm going to mostly forget about till winter when I get in the mood to do garden planning again, and maybe, hopefully, next year I can make a little progress beyond the fence.

Baby, baby steps. But hey - with the bunnies and the birds, some chipmunks and a mole or two, at least I have the wildlife thing starting to get ramped up. That makes me happy ... and the moles don't bother me, they haven't given me any grief yet, anyways.

A Little Gardening

I got to work a little more on the 'dining room' gardens this evening.


I planted a Japanese Painted Fern and Halcyon hosta which I bought a few weeks ago at a local garden center (both on the left of the barrel), as well as an unidentified hosta - it was a Father's Day gift to Greg a few years ago, and has been growing in a pot. He told me to plant it here with my other shade garden perrenials.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I have some small hope for this space. The barrel that's sitting there is just a place marker for now, I hope to put in some kind of small fountain or water feature, but I haven't found what I want yet. And there will be other plants (hence the odd spacing of these first ones).

It seems an area this small is all I can cope with at any one time. Every time I start considering a wider swath of yard, I just get overwhelmed. Maybe I'll just have to do a bunch of little tiny gardens. Although with as much trouble hitting tree roots as I had even here, I despair of ever getting any significant gardening done in the front yard.

Rhys had suggested filling an area around the tree with mulch, and I would love to go that route, but I've read that you can't add anything to the top of the ground over tree roots more than a couple inches, or it can smother them. Arrgh. I love trees, especially maples, and love the way they shade and cool this house in the summer ... but they're really wreaking havoc with my gardening plans.

Well, gardeners have to be adaptable and work with what they have. I will just have to ponder some more on how to work with my landscape..

Oh well. Maybe I won't be here long enough to worry about it.

Finally! Plants!

I finally got to make my trip to the garden center yesterday. I'd been wanting to get my plants since early May, but it seemed like every time I had the time and opportunity, the weather turned foul - cold and rainy.

I got impatiens, violas, petunias, calibrachoa (one of my favorite annuals now, for hanging baskets - they just mass and spill over the side and look really cool), and a trailing vine I liked for the 'window boxes' I plan to put on the fence. I also picked up some perennials: a hosta, a Japanese painted fern, and a lily I really liked just because it was pretty.

The first cleared bed, the one with the azaleas, had filled itself up with grass and weeds, making for a pretty labor-intensive hour or so clearing that before I could plant anything.


I put the violas in that bed, with a few impatiens.


It certainly looks like nothing right now, especially in this picture, but I have hope for it. If I take good care of those plants, in about a month they should completely fill that space, just masses of blooming flowers. That's the plan anyway.

I planted impatiens along the driveway at my old house one year, and they were this size when I planted them, but by mid-summer they had grown to about 2' tall and were spilling out into the driveway, just massive waves of flowers all along the drive. I think that was the year I had installed a soaker hose in that bed, so they got watered thoroughly and frequently. Other years, when I tried just watering with the hose, they didn't do nearly as well.

This bed will have a soaker hose and part of my rainwater collection system eventually, but until it does, I'll just have to make sure I keep them well watered, and fed - I'm fertilizing this year, too, with a Miracle-Gro all purpose fertilizer. And I know this soil's excellent. When we moved here, there was what was basically a big well-aged compost heap in the back yard. I don't think the family had meant it to be one, but they had apparently been piling all the leaves from the yard in the back corner for several years, and they'd all decomposed into this rich, black soil that was amazing. Last year when I first cleared out this bed, I hauled several wheelbarrows of it's old depleted soil out to the compost heap and dumped it, and replaced it with good soil from the compost heap. (I couldn't just add the good stuff to the existing because the soil level was already higher than the surrounding concrete sidewalk, and I needed to lower the soil level a little bit).

So between the excellent soil, the good location, and lots of water and appropriate fertilizer, these should do really well.

The rest of the impatiens are for along the fence-line, but I can't plant those till I get the fence done and put up.

I bought some snapdragons just because I think they're pretty, but I haven't figured out where to plant them yet.

So that's what I got done Saturday. I'm still painting on the fence (dying to get that done, but it's time consuming), and I still have to clear the other area of garden out here, under the spare room window - then I can plant the fern, hosta, and anything else I pick up for that area this year. Oh - I ordered some plants, too, I almost forgot.

Spring Hill Nursery was having a big sale, so I got some yellow daylilies, an astilbe, and some blazing star - because they were all really cheap. Blazing star is an Ohio native, so that goes well with my 'wildlife habitat' plan - they recommend you plant native plants as much as possible. I haven't had terribly good luck ordering plants, though I don't blame the nursery, but myself. I think they require a little more effort in the beginning, as they usually arrive dormant. I remember I got a fern from them one year that looked basically like a dead stick. I planted it, and persisted in watering it, even though it felt stupid to be watering a dead stick ... but the following year I did, in fact, have a fern (albeit a small one).

I'm kind of impatient, at least until I already have some things established so I feel like I have some kind of garden in existence. That's why I bought a fern and hosta yesterday from the garden center instead of ordering from Spring Hill, though it was more expensive - wanted something already out and and growing to inspire me. Later I may not mind ordering some plants (especially ones I can't find locally), but I wanted to have something going on this year.

So, lots going on. And speaking of that, time to get back to work - it's a beautiful, beautiful day (sunny and high 80s today!). I have fence to paint, hanging baskets to plant, another flower bed to clear, and oh - some mundane chores as well (grocery shopping, blah).

Love The Garden!!

I don't have any pictures tonight, but I wanted to rave about the garden. It's coming along swimingly. My azaleas are blooming like mad. I'm putting up the PPF (Proverbial Picket Fence) - got the posts primered, next step is to primer the fence, then paint both. It's taking longer than I hoped because the weather hasn't been cooperating. We had a bunch of cold, damp days last week that precluded any real painting, and this weekend is supposed to be cold and rainy again. But it'll get there, eventually.

And I can tell already that it's going to be awesome!!

I'm planning to head out to the garden center this weekend to pick up some actual new plants. I'm also excited about this, because I'm way ahead of schedule compared to how I used to do things - wait till about June to go look for plants. Starting earlier is going to (a) help me find a better selection, and (b) give them more time to get established this year, meaning they'll be doing much better by mid-summer.

I've also located the rain barrels I want, locally, so I hope to pick up two of those this weekend. I'm going to need (or at least, be able to make use of) more than that, but they're not cheap, so I have to do this part in stages.

I'm psyched!! Just wish the weather would be a little more cooperative ... it's like we're having spring a month late. But it's moving along, and that's the important part.

This was a Very Good Day

I'm psyched. I had a good day. This was in part because I wasn't hungover for a change (shup), and had the energy to tackle some projects. I'm sick to death of having lived here over a year and not gotten nearly as much done as I'd like. So today, progress ensued.

You may recall that I have a vision for what I call the 'dining room garden' - the area right outside the dining room door, which we use as our main entrance. I had decided to turn it into a little private garden. That's only a small part of my ultimate "re-landscaping the entire front half of the property" project, but it's where I wanted to start.

Last year I dug up the evergreen shrubs under the dining room window, and planted my azaleas. One of them is blooming nicely; the other two not as much, but I'm not worried - they'll be okay.


Phase II was this.


Or rather, that's the start of it. I wanted to put a fence along this row of shrubs, not a total and complete privacy fence, but just a nice little delineating fence. So yesterday we bought that fencing, and the posts, and all the stuff we'd need for this project.

Today we tackled it. This is what it looked like before.


But we couldn't fit a fence up against those shrubs, so I decided they were going to get trimmed to accomodate the fence.


In some cases that involved just about cutting them in half.


But I'm not too worried about it. I don't really care for the evergreen shrubs and plan to take them out entirely at some point, anyway (just not today - too big a job). So I'm not really concerned how this effects them. The taller green leafy shrubs I'm hoping to keep, so I'm just going to hope this doesn't hurt them. I don't see why it should - we only pruned off some branches from the bottoms to make them - well, flatter on the back, so we could get the fence in. We did far more slaughter to the evergreens than the leafy shrubs, and as I said, the leafy ones are the ones I plan to keep.

I don't believe this is going to look nasty from the dining room garden side, once the fence is up to camouflage some of it. If it does, well, I'll deal with that then. And from the front, they still look perfectly normal - you can't even tell they've been pruned.

After the shrubs were trimmed we set the post anchors and dropped the posts in place, just to check the fit.


Perfect. I couldn't finish this today because it was going to rain. I'm going to paint the posts and fence, but I didn't want to leave them out to get wet in the rain, then have to wait for them to dry to paint them. So they're all stashed back in the garage until a sunny weekend when I have time to do all the painting.

But I'm psyched. I think this is going to look awesome! After I get the fence up, I'm going to plant stuff along the edge on the dining room garden side (that's partly why the fence had to go in far enough that we had to trim the shrubs - I wanted a planting strip on the sidewalk side), and will probably affix some window-box type planters to the fence itself if I can find the right type (they'll need to hang) and if it feels sturdy enough to hold that weight. So I'll begin to have bunches of flowers adorning this area. I may even plant some climbing vines or something.

As soon as a better selection of annuals is out, I'm going to be planting some stuff in front of the azaleas too. I was at the garden center the other day, but despite the good weather, it's still a little early yet and the selection's still kind of limited. I'm ahead of the game this year, anyway, so I can be a little patient. (Most years I'm thinking about going to pick out some annuals around the end of May, not the end of April).

Greg did the majority of the work on that project, pruning the shrubs and setting the post anchors (a massive chore). I chose to use those rather than digging holes and concreting them in for a bunch of reasons. This isn't a good area of the yard to be trying to dig holes, with electrical wiring running around somewhere (there are several outdoor plugs installed out here), massive tree roots in the way, etc. And, I kind of liked the idea of them being a little less "permanent" - in case I ever change my mind about having the fence here.

But I didn't merely sit on my butt and direct traffic today. I did accomplish something myself. My first goal of the morning was to finally clean out the damned garage. It's been bugging me for almost a year, when we emptied out our rented storage unit last summer and dumped it all in the garage. Now that I'm getting all psyched about my gardening, I desperately wanted room to organize all my stuff.

So I tackled the garage. It started off looking something like this.




Except there was a big-ass pile of firewood running up the middle of it (where the empty spot is now, that was filled with firewood). I forgot to take a picture before I moved it, but this is the pile I moved ...


... so you can do the math. (That stuff in front of it is two concrete benches from my dad's house, that I haven't yet found a place for, but needed moved to accomodate the firewood).

Then I cleaned up and organized my stuff, and this is the semi-finished end product.




I have more to do, but this was a great start. At least I can get to all my stuff.

I've given up getting my truck in this garage until we can ever get a storage / gardening shed. There simply isn't room in the back of this garage for all the gardening and lawn stuff, and all Greg's outdoor workshop stuff, together. Not happening. So until we get that shed, the garage is it, and my truck's going to have to live in the driveway.

And that was a day's work, and I'm sore and exhausted, and headed off for a shower.

But it was a really good day.

Gardens Are Shaping Up

I got a bunch more work done today toward the first garden phase.

I cleaned up the first half of what I've dubbed the 'dining room garden,' removing a bunch of dead leaves and tiny twigs and stuff. It now looks like this.


Doesn't look like much yet, but I see both the improvement and the potential. There are 3 azalea plants there, the one in the middle pretty tiny, the two on the sides slightly bigger. The one on the far left (and the one in the middle, for that matter) are doing really well. The one on the far right is having a few issues this spring, as during the big snows this winter, a giant chunk of snow and ice fell off the awning and buried it, then re-froze solid. The poor azalea was encased in a giant ice ball for quite awhile, and I wasn't even sure it was going to live. So I'm happy it's doing as well as it is. After it blooms (if it blooms), I'll trim it up somewhat, and it should fill out more next year, and not be so thin and sparse. (Assuming I can protect it from any more avalanches next winter).

Then I dived into the other half of the dining room garden, which I hadn't even started on last year. At first it looked like this.


And after cleaning it up, like this.




So that's a start. There were two tiny creeping evergreen shrubs of some type in the middle, which I had intended to pull out anyway, but they cooperated by apparently dying over the winter, and just easily pulled out of the ground today while I was cleaning up.

I still have a lot to do in this area (as in all of them, for that matter), but this is a good start. I plan to remove that evergreen shrub in the lower right-hand corner. I'm undecided about the one down at the other end, I may leave that one - it's out of the way and unlikely to annoy me. (I don't really care for these types of shrubs). In the center, I plan to put some kind of small water feature, then plan my plants around that - probably primarily ferns and hostas.

Where I've got the table and chairs is pretty much where they'll probably stay.

And for now, that's it for the dining room gardens.

I was very happy to see the rose survived it's first year of transplant.


I wasn't sure, because in late winter it looked pretty horrible, stems all black or brown. There is still a large black spot on one of the stems, but about mid-way down, so it's not like I can just cut it off. I'll let it go for now and see how it does - it may get a heavier pruning this fall, which it looks like it needs anyway, as it's getting kind of leggy. I also think I'll cover it this winter. I've had this rose for something over 10 years at least - my dad got it for me at the old house, and though I don't remember exactly when, I know I hadn't lived there long when he did. And I lived there 14 years. In all those years I never covered it in winter, and it has survived this long. But this year worried me, so I don't want to take a chance on another harsh winter damaging it.

The next area I'll be working on is this ...



... around the lamp post and the first tree. ('first' as in first I'll be planting around). This is the area I cleaned up yesterday, it was all cluttered with twigs and branches and winter debris.

My worst concern is how to plant around that tree. The soil there is just so compacted, hard like rock, yet everything I've read said you can't really cultivate around trees like this, you risk causing all kinds of problems - that if you want to plant there, you just have to dig up small holes for each individual plant, and deal with that. I guess I can do that, but I'm unsure how that's going to work, since I can't really work any amendments into the soil deeply.

I think putting in and maintaining any kind of planting under that tree is going to be seriously labor intensive, as I'll have to dig each little area individually, work in some compost, and then every year probably just work in little bits around the plants gently.

But, it's what I want, so I'll see how it goes.

Even though there's not much there yet, just having the beginnings of my little private 'front garden' is cool. I sat out there all afternoon reading.

I'm pretty psyched that I'm starting to get to put my plans into place, even with such tiny steps. It'll take awhile, and a lot of it will be done in fits and starts - I mean, I couldn't do anything all winter. Now for a couple months there will probably be a flurry of activity and changes, then nothing again for most of another year. But envisioning it all this time, then finally seeing it begin to take shape is awesome.