Friday, August 15th, 2008
In my last post, I said that people need to start writing more. I said that our readers don’t care what we write about, just that we write. I even threatened to take my camera out with me this morning.
Well, guess what. I did just that. Since I had to go to the mailbox this morning to put some outgoing mail in it, I decided to enjoy a little walking tour with the good ol’ camera in hand. I know this feels like a Seinfeld episode (about nothing) but this is what I do.
After I put the mail in the mailbox, I headed back down the driveway. I looked at the ground and noticed all sorts of acorns laying there all spread out. Every day this happens. There is a big Red Oak at the end of the driveway that makes a huge mess. I think the squirrels are $%^& with me. I need to call a tree service to come prune a few trees, this being one of them. I hate having this messy tree for everyone to see. Maybe when it’s getting pruned, I’ll take some before and after shots.
Anyway, when I looked down at the driveway, I noticed some ants running around. I took a bunch of pictures of them, but they were too fast and the pictures came out blurry. They would’ve been really cool because they were close up. While I was down on the driveway, I decided to take a picture of an acorn so you know what I am talking about.
Red Oak acorn
There are hundreds of these things. Every time I mow the lawn, I take out the blower to blow off the driveway. Within a few days, they are back. After taking the picture, I had to get up and run because a car was coming. That’s all they need to see…G laying down on the driveway taking more pictures.
Last night, I also mentioned that I was taking down some small trees in the woods along the driveway. My goal is to make it a bit lighter in there with some breaks of sun. I have to be careful not to take down too much, because I really like the trees. The last thing I want is full sun. I have already made a dent. I would say I am taking down anything smaller than 6″. Here are some photos of that.
Woods along driveway
Woods along driveway
Woods along driveway
As you can see, there is some filtered sunlight coming through. I probably have about 10-15 more trees to remove.
A few days ago, I discovered a faster and quieter way of doing this. Well, one way is quieter, but not faster. I am using a hand saw for some of them. Basically, I take the tree down and then cut the top leafy part off of it. I drag the stalk up and place it in the pile you see in the last photo. I drag the top of the tree down into the brush pile in the woods. I always need a good brush pile. You would be amazed at how fast a big brush pile collapses over time.
The faster way is to do what I described above, but with a chainsaw. I used to cut the wood into firewood right there, but that was noisy. I will do that all in one shot when I am done taking down the trees.
Here is a beautiful picture of one of the stumps.
Birch tree stump
At the bottom of the driveway, I noticed a new flower growing in the spot I just mulched. It was mixed in with all the others. It just bloomed so I thought that deserved some recognition.
New white flower
After I took a picture of that flower, I walked across the front lawn to get some shots of a nice pink flower up there. I did that and then I took a shot of the Highbush Cranberry that we have growing. There are a few of these bushes and the berries are getting very red.
Pink flower
Highbush Cranberry
You see how nice that was? It was a big blog post about nothing and I think I got away with it. Well, we’ll see what people write about it to see if I really got away with it.
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Saturday, September 16th, 2006
Due to my apparent problem with sitting still, we decided to make a visit to Lowes on Wednesday night. The last time we went to Lowes, we got all excited to see the great garden section, only to be tossed out because the store was closing. Not this time…we got there at about 6PM.
I wanted to get some nice shrubs that vary in size to give the steps down to the basement some excitement. Right now, there is grass and a hill. Not too thrilling. I love the way some properties have so much green, you feel like you are hiking. There is always something new at every turn. I really want to have such a variety that there is always something to talk about and look at.
When we got to Lowes, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there were tons of Mums (Chrysanthemums) on sale for only $2.19 each. We bought 5 pots…we are suckers for a nice perennial.
Then, I ran to the back section where all the little shrubs are. I like to buy the really small ones, because they are always so cheap. I am not a landscaper planting for a customer, so I am happy to get the little ones and wait a year for them to grow. Most of them were on sale for $5.98. I wanted to make a row along the rock wall, with the higher growing shrubs at the rear and the smaller ones to the front and the ends.
I decided to purchase 2 Emerald n Gold Euonymus, 3 Blue Princess Holly, 2 French Hybrid Lilac, 3 Wintergreen Boxwood and 2 Dwarf Burning Bush. Now, this was a great looking combination of color and height for the side of the rock wall. The photos of the shrubs are below in the same order as I listed above.
Lastly, on the way out, we noticed some small trees for sale towards the parking lot. We took a look and were shocked to see them on sale for only $24.95. We grabbed a great looking White Dogwood for the partly shaded area of the front yard. This tree blooms in spring to show a nice looking white flower and is good because it only grows 20′-25′.
Here is a great example of how beautiful a blend of White and Pink Dogwood trees can look.
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