Stone Wall

Another Year, Another Pile Of Mulch

Friday, March 27th, 2009

Okay, today is no doubt the nicest day of the year so far. It’s mid 60s and sunny. I can’t complain about that.

Yesterday, I had 15 yards of mulch delivered from the place down in East Hampton. I got it for $22 per yard, plus $8 for delivery (per yard). That’s $30 per yard for the cheapest stuff they had. Considering I paid $120 to have yesterday’s mulch delivered, I am considering getting a sweet little trailer. After all, I did have a trailer hitch installed on the new vehicle for a reason. What a treat it would be to drive down there and pick up mulch for $22 per yard. Either way, I got the 15 yards and still need about 5 more. I’ll have to think about this a little before I order the rest. I have a severe allergy to throwing money out the window for delivery.

The task was to mulch the small garden in the front, the stone wall garden in the front and the side garden that I just expanded. I didn’t think I was going to have enough for anything else.

It took about a half day to get those three areas done. When I was finished with them, I had about 4 yards of mulch left over. I decided to spread some around at the end of the driveway. When it rains, the runoff from the driveway erodes the ground there. It isn’t the prettiest thing. I figured that mulch was the answer. Also, I decided that I could tackle some of the back garden as well. I would say that I got about a third of that finished.

Hey look, I even took some before and after photos for you.

: Pile of Witch Hazel mulch – 15 yards

: Small garden in front before mulch covering

: Small garden in front after mulch covering

: Stone wall garden in front before mulch covering

: Stone wall garden in front after mulch covering

: Side garden before mulch covering

: Side garden after mulch covering

: Garden in back of house about a third of the way covered with mulch

Talk about weed control.

What I am trying to accomplish here is a nice base. I think that light yearly applications of mulch will keep the soil nice and black and the weeds down. If that happens, I will be happy.

Now, I need to order 5 more yards of mulch to finish up the back and then it’s off to get flower bulbs, plants and shrubs…and a hammock.

A Huge Flower Garden In The Back Yard

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Remember when I told you I was transplanting the Daffodil bulbs from the area along the stone wall in the back yard to the area near the driveway? I told you I was doing this because the area was just too large for a garden and I would rather simply plant grass there instead.

Well, as it turns out, we are going to have a garden in the back after all.

Laura and I have been wrestling over the idea of a new flower/veggie garden for some time. I came up with a few ideas, but the look on Laura’s face told me to keep thinking. The problem with setting up a real fenced-in vegetable garden is spacing. We have a few good areas to do this, but trying to have a combination vegetable and flower garden is getting rather difficult.

Yesterday, we decided to limit the new garden to flowers and shrubs. For the veggies, we’ll think of something else. Laura has been talking about different varieties of bulbs and some sort of a garden trellis that we can grow vines all over. For these types of ideas, the only place available is the area along the rock wall in the back yard. I guess I am going to be ordering 30 yards of mulch, instead of 15. Gee, that’s going to make for some real fun after that delivery.

I spent some time yesterday edging the area for the mulch. I will probably make the order next week. Here are some pics of what I did yesterday…

: Edged area in back yard for mulch in flower garden along stone wall

: Edged area in back yard for mulch in flower garden along stone wall

Transplanting Daffodil Bulbs

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

Well, I think it’s almost here. Yeah, now that I said it, it’s probably going to snow next week.

What I’m talking about is Spring. If you’ve gone outside over the past few days, you might have gotten a tan. Sure, that may be exaggerating things a bit, but no one can deny sweating a little during a warm March day. I did and I don’t think I miss the sweat. I miss everything else, but definitely not the sweat.

When I woke up this morning, I looked out the window and thought it would be a great day to get a little yard work done. I know, I know, it’s a little early to start hitting the yard work, but you have to remember that I have been waiting about four months for this. If it’s over 50 degrees, I am going to be outside getting stuff done.

Today was the day that I dug up the sprouting Daffodil bulbs from the backyard and transplanted them to the new mulch bed. Well, the mulch hasn’t exactly arrived yet, so I guess I should just call it a dirt bed for now.

: Digging up the clusters of Daffodil bulbs

: Freshly dug up Daffodil bulbs – showing the roots

: Another view of Daffodil bulbs and their roots

: This is what a Daffodil bulb looks like when it’s sprouting in mid March in the northeast

: Digging a new (or larger) mulch bed

: A five gallon bucket of Daffodil bulbs

As you can see from the above photos, I decided to expand the mulch bed that I made last year. I got thinking about it and thought the old one was just too small. Also, I was sick and tired of mowing around that fruit tree. Now that the new mulch bed is dug, I could plant all sorts of stuff in there, starting with the Daffodil bulbs I dug up today. I am not a fan of small mulch beds. If you have a small mulch bed and don’t know what to do with it, give me a call and we’ll chat.

It took about a half hour to get all those Daffodil bulbs up and out of the dirt. When I first started, I dug up a big chunk of dirt and transplanted the whole thing, but as time went on, I thought it would be more efficient to grab a bucket and shake the dirt off the bulbs so they would fit inside. That way, I could just carry the bucket over when all the bulbs were dug up.

I got about five gallons worth of bulbs. I did manage to dig up a few Iris rhizomes while I was at it. Do you remember the last time I did this? If not, here, check it out. I like getting everything all dug up and put in their new spots.

You may be asking, “Jay, why are you doing this?” I would answer, “Friend, I am moving these bulbs over because I think grass would look nice up against the rear stone wall. Also, the whole area near the stone wall was full of weeds last year and I have learned that you can’t have a garden without mulch. The area in the back is way too large to cover with mulch.” How’s that? I guess I just like to consolidate.

I will tell you one thing that happened today. I got my hands all dirty. I have to say that I just love getting my hands filthy while gardening. It’s one of those things I suppose.

(Remember, if you click on a photo to view the larger version, you can click on it again to see an even larger version.)

A New Stone Wall For the Garden

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

I did a bunch of weeding yesterday and then pulled out the weed whacker. I cleaned up all along the front edge of the garden and really was quite proud of myself. Today, I was outside doing something when Laura decided to visit me. I asked her to look how nice the front of the garden came out and she relied, “Um, yeah…it still needs something. Some sort of an edge.” Then, she went back inside.

Well, listen to this. I could read the writing on the wall. I knew that if I didn’t get my butt in gear and make a brand new stone wall, I was in for some serious punishment when I walked through that door later on. What did I do? I made a new stone wall, that’s what I did. I am actually quite gifted the art of stone wall building.

The only thing that went wrong was I forgot to take a before picture. That kind of stinks. I always forget because I really never intend to do these things. It starts off with me grabbing a big rock and walking over to the garden with it. Then, I grab another. The rest is history and I really don’t think I am able to change.