I’m still here!
Yes, I’ve been away from blogging… but I have good excuses. One, I’m feeling uninspired. The only subject I can really think to write about is how unhappy I am at work, but who wants to read about that? Nobody, that’s who.
Second, I have a sick bunny. Hazel had surgery almost 3 years ago to open his floppy, loppy ear canals to combat recurring ear infections, but somehow he managed to develop one in the last month that caused some facial nerve damage, leaving him unable to chew properly. He got to the point where he would eat a soft mush on his own, but in the last few days he’s having a harder time with that so I’m syringe-feeding him again. He doesn’t mind it, but it’s just a lot of extra work. Life is much easier when he eats on his own, and fortunately he seems to be back to it as of yesterday.
Third, I’ve been landscaping! I started Thursday night by spreading 18 bags of topsoil on the flowerbed. Naturally it rained on Friday, so I spent the day driving around buying plants and more dirt. It doesn’t sound like I did much those two days, but when I think about the fact that I, personally, moved almost 2000 lbs. of dirt… it’s a wonder I’m still standing! Saturday I got up early and added cow manure and peat to the flowerbed, then turned it all under. The soil here is such heavy clay, it really needs a lot of work. I also bought mulch, and then spread some of it around some existing spots. Sunday was D-Day… I spent the entire day adding another 22 bags of topsoil to the flowerbed, raking it smooth, putting down landscape fabric, planting all but 5 plants, and mulching. I finished at 8:30… just 1/2 an hour before sunset. Phew! My goal was to get it done over the weekend, and it is mostly done. I have a few more plants coming from White Flower Farm, and I’ll be visiting Soules Garden in a couple of weeks to pick out some daylilies to fill in the big bare space. I’m planting all perennials, and most of them are not mature plants, so I’m excited to see how it looks in the next couple of years.
I may join NaBloPoMo for June… just waiting to hear what the theme is. I’m hoping it’s something I can be creative with, but I can say for certain that it’s a lot easier for me to post when I have to… it’s easier having a reminder of sorts.
Filed under blog, dream house, rabbits, work | Comments (3)So…. tired
I’m not a weekend person. I’m especially not a weekend warrior kind of person. But I have work to do, and so this weekend was an exception. RC came over around 7AM to start working on digging up the steel edging, and I joined him outside around 7:45, just in time to provide directions for digging up the shrubs. He couldn’t stay longer, but planned to come back and help me till while the girls napped. My goal was to get as much done this weekend as possible, since next weekend is a four-day holiday weekend for me — I’d like to have dirt and mulch delivered so I can get to planting while I have four days to do it!
Well… RC couldn’t make it. The tiller is in the shop, and… let’s just say he was strongly discouraged from spending more time over here today. It’s not personal; my sister-in-law is with the girls all day, every day, during the week and just needs a break on the weekends. Anyway, I had to press on without him. On my list of things to do:
- Pull the hostas out of the flowerbed and plant them in big pots;
- Dig and turn the entire 100 sq. ft. flowerbed, by hand;
- Overseed the part of the flowerbed that used to go down the sidewalk, the part I’m letting go back to lawn;
- Plant clematis (I bought 2 clematis plants while I was at Lowe’s this morning, and in order to plant them I had to remove the sod around the trellis so I don’t kill them by mowing over them or trimming around them with the weed whacker).
I actually got it all done. I took a break around 1:30 to go find something to eat, and stopped by a local nursery to see if I could find any of the plants I think I want, just to see if they’re available locally or if I’ll need to order them online.
Needless to say, I’m pooped. I’ve taken enough Tylenol to put me down for the night, and I’m already loafing on the couch in my jammies, watching the Indiana Jones trilogy on SciFi. And now, I am done. I might pop out for a Dairy Queen (I passed no less than three of them on my trip out this afternoon, and now I think I need a Blizzard or a Peanut Buster Parfait. Yep, I need it.)
Walls
I’ve lived in my house now for just over six years, and I have yet to really do any landscaping. It’s freakin’ expensive to hire someone to do it, and I’m not an outdoorswoman by any means. I’ve also had a hard time figuring out exactly what it is I want to do out there, too… there are just so many options.
Mine is the type of house that comes with six shrubs and two trees when it’s built… usually some kind of evergreens and a flowering plum or pear. I was lucky enough to get plum trees; every single house in the neighborhood besides mine has Bradford pears. I’m happy to be a nonconformist, even if I had no choice in the matter. Anyway, about a year or so after I moved in I had a landscape guy come and tear out one of the two flowering plums in my front yard. It was a nice little tree, but since the front of my house faces north AND I only have one window on that side of the house, I was afraid it would be a little too dark. I also had him tear out the six little evergreen shrubs, mostly because I wanted a bigger flower bed across the porch, and also because they were stunting my creativity. I just couldn’t figure out what else to plant around them, and they were pretty puny.
In addition to pulling out the tree and shrubs, I had the landscape guy create a giant 5′ deep flowerbed that stretches all the way across the front porch (20′), down the length of the sidewalk (15′), and over to the driveway (5′). That’s 200 square feet of flowerbed, give or take. Here we are, 4 years later, and all I’ve managed to plant is three puny hostas, a Virgina Sweetspire, and an Andromeda bush. The hostas have done great, but they look lonely. The Andromeda hasn’t done well; the soil where it’s planted is terribly wet, and it hasn’t grown at all. The Sweetspire looks great, and sends up new shoots every year.
This year, I’ve decided, is the year I’m going to DO SOMETHING with the outside of the house. I’m going to rip out the steel edging around the giant flowerbed and let the part that goes down the sidewalk and to the driveway go back to being lawn. Then, I’m going to dig up the plants, build a big raised bed/retaining wall thingy across the front porch, fill it with good dirt, and start over. I can’t wait to get started. I need help figuring out which type of retaining wall bricks to buy, though. I went to Lowe’s and Menard’s to price different styles, and I think my favorite is the one from Lowe’s, which is (of course) the most expensive.
This is the one from Lowe’s. I like the color; it’s a little pinkish and so matches the brick a little better.
This one is really a paver, to be used for patios and walkways, but I think it would work for a wall, too.
This one is similar to what I found at Lowe’s, but it only comes in a tan or gray and I’m just not sure about either of those colors. I suppose I could buy a sample and bring it home to see how it looks…
Any thoughts? Suggestions? I’m hoping to get this done by the end of May so I can enjoy it all summer.
Filed under dream house, i want that! | Comments (2)
