Archive for the ‘Landscaping’ Category
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Just a little update to the “Rose Bushes and Crabapple Trees” post. The types of crabapple trees I got (and just planted yesterday) are Hopa Crabapple and Robinson Flowering Crabapple. I think they are both pretty good. I am happy to see that they are fast growing.
Also, the rose bushes I picked up are “Knock Out Roses.” I am happy to read that they are drought tolerant and disease resistant. This is a good thing. The nice part of purchasing bushes, trees and shrubs these days is that the growers have developed them is such a way, that they resist a lot of bad things out there in nature. Here, read what people are saying about them.
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Thursday, September 6th, 2007
A few weeks ago, I told Laura that I was finished buying trees and shrubs. Well, I told her I only needed a few more.
Yesterday, I reminded Paul that Home Depot gave me a great deal on rose bushes last Autumn. I got them for $1 a piece. So, with that in mind, we went to the Home Depot yesterday to see if there were any more great deals.
Upon arriving, I haggled with the woman there and she told me that if I get ten or more rose bushes, she can give them to me for $1 each. Well, I decided to get ten and Paul picked up two yellow rose bushes. I also grabbed three crabapple trees.
Here they are. All I need to do is plant them, maybe this weekend.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
This is just a little update post to my previous “Spreading the Mulch” post.
I was a little worried that a good hard rain was going to cause all of my newly spread mulch to slide down the backyard. Well, I have some good news. There was a heavy rain storm the other night and I woke up to see my mulch in exactly the same spot as I put it. That is good news indeed. I even found an article online that backs up my plan to stop topsoil erosion by using mulch. Pretty cool, huh?
I think I am going to order five more yards to finish up the back yard.
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Saturday, August 4th, 2007
If you know me, if you know who I really am at the core, you would know that I love mulch. I think I may have described my love for mulch in a few past posts, but let’s say it again…I love mulch.
Ok, now that the tender intro is out of the way, I will tell you a little story. When we moved in, I noticed a little problem with the back yard. It seems as though there has been a bit of erosion over the years. Every time there is a hard rain, more and more of the dirt, or topsoil, if that’s what you want to call it, finds its way down to the bottom of the hill that makes up the yard. I think the poor schlub who lived here before us tried to spread a bunch of topsoil out over the area and plant grass seed, but before he knew it, that rolled down the hill as well. It’s not really that big of a slope, it’s just that the soil around here doesn’t have much organic content in it. If there isn’t grass growing on it, it turns in to dust and is gone with the wind. What’s left is a nice layer of crappy dirt and rocks. This isn’t much to look at and really causes problems when I try to mow the lawn. If there is grass growing, it tends to be thick and green. Strange, I know. The trick is to get the grass to grow.
Since I didn’t want to end up like the last guy, I decided to travel a tried and true route. I had ten yards of mulch delivered just this morning. Two things – First, I think I got a small ten yards. Either that, or I got a big five yards last time. Second, I thought it would be a real blast to get out there and shovel the mulch in to the wheelbarrow and wheel it to the back of the house for spreading. Well, it is 2:52PM and I am inside feeling a little heat on my neck. Sunburn. Not bad, but enough to make being outside annoying. I think I’ll wait until about 6PM before I pick up where I left off. I am just glad I have a project. I am not fun to be around when I am bored, just ask Laura.
Here are some photos of what I am talking about…
This is the pile of mulch before I tackled it with the shovel.
I put some mulch around the arborvitae and holly that I planted. I didn’t go crazy under the porch, because that will hopefully be covered up by the bushes soon.
You can see how I am spreading the mulch over the bad areas. I would say the layer is a few inches thick. I did this same technique on another area of the lawn last summer and the grass is nice and thick there now. All I ask for is a few nice rains to get the mulch packed down to stay. If we get a torrential downpour, I think I may have ten yards of mulch at the bottom of the hill. After one season, the mulch should be broken down enough to plant some grass seed. It is also good at holding the dirt and rocks bad from eroding even more. An additional bonus is that this mulch was recycled from a bunch of old stumps right down the road from me. I watched the guy do it last year, it’s really cool.
Unfortunately, I though ten yards would be enough, but I think I may need twenty to get where I want to be. Mmmmmm, that’s going to be fun.
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Sunday, July 8th, 2007
I was outside strolling around, when I noticed that our Easter Lilys are almost in full bloom. Laura’s friend gave us a few of these flowers last summer. We planted them and they immediately died. I left them there and within a few weeks, new sprouts were coming up out of the ground. When I saw that, I transplanted them into the front garden where they could get some sun.
These flowers have been doing extraordinarily well. The flower is huge and the pollen almost drips, there is so much. Here, take a look…
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Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
As you may know, I like to plant things and admire the things I plant. I even like Planters Peanuts. I take it personally when things droop or die.
You may also know that the success of any new plant depends on many things, but one of them is the amount of water they receive. So many people sit there and watch the trees and shrubs that they just planted a few days ago die. I would think that many of them scratch their heads in wonder.
If you ask any of my neighbors what I do in the evening, they would probably tell you that I like to walk down the road and back as well as water the gardens. I do water a lot. I always knew that my hose and sprinkler method was not the most efficient way to do things, but that’s what I have to work with.
Laura came home the other night with a new shipment of plants she got from her friend. We planted them with some success. Some are taking off and some are half dead. Since such new plants require a lot of water and a lot of attention, I decided to get some of those soaker hoses I have heard about in the past. They are much more efficient than regular watering methods and are partially made with recycled tires. It’s all good.
If you are interested in water conservation via soaker hoses, you can check out these resources…
- Saving Water Partnership
- Fiskars Bulk Soaker Hose
- Garden and Soaker Hoses (EPA)
I have to say, these hoses are pretty cool. When you turn them on, you just watch them get wet. I did this last night and wondered if they were actually doing anything. Then, I dug my hand under the mulch to see that they were.
Save some water, give ‘em a shot.
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Saturday, June 16th, 2007
I wasn’t expecting much from this flower when it started to sprout out of the ground early this Spring. I really had no idea what it even was. It looked kind of like on of those Spider Plants I used to have inside when I was a kid.
The plant started blooming the other day and Laura mentioned that it was a Daylily. I think it looks pretty good.
Here is a little background on the Daylily from the Wikipedia…
“Daylilies can be grown in USDA plant hardiness zones 1 through 11, making them some of the most adaptable landscape plants. Most of the cultivars have been developed within the last 100 years. The large-flowered clear yellow ‘Hyperion’, introduced in the 1920s, heralded a return to gardens of the once-dismissed daylily, and is still widely available.
Daylily breeding has been a specialty in the United States, where their heat- and drought-resistance made them garden standbys during the later 20th century. New cultivars have sold for thousands of dollars; but sturdy and prolific introductions soon reach reasonable prices.”
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Saturday, June 16th, 2007
I took this photo this morning. It’s our pink rose bush with some pretty neat water droplets hanging off the edges of the leaves. I don’t know if the droplets are from the morning dew or are actually coming out of each leaf. Oh, well, but take a look, it’s a pretty cool picture…
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Friday, June 15th, 2007
Ok, ok…this is the last one of this little Agway/Sam’s Club series.
Yesterday, we also picked up a “Casa Blanca Oriental Hardy Lily” from our local Agway. This plant is huge at over 3 feet high. Laura fell in love with it as we were browsing through Agway’s garden center.
The thing I really like about this plant is the fact that the flower grows up to 12 inches wide…now that’s a huge flower!!! It seems like it is a tough plant too and spreads (I love that) by way of rhizomes. You know how I feel about rhizomes. Hopefully they will spread and I can split them after a few seasons. Our other lilies in the front garden are spreading, so we’ll see what happens.
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Friday, June 15th, 2007
I didn’t do too much writing in the last post, but I did mention our little blueberry bush that we picked up a few months ago from Sam’s Club. It is now about 4 inches tall.
Yesterday, Laura and I stopped by our local Agway and purchased a nice big blueberry bush. It stands about 3 1/2 feet tall. It was a good deal too at $15, if I remember correctly. I planted it in the backyard near the grape vine. I also put a wire fence around this, because a few years back, Laura and I went blueberry picking up in Binghamton and the bushes were all wired up.
It’s a very nice looking bush. I hope it lasts and roots in well because the dirt was like dust when I dug the hole. I watered it, so we’ll see.
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