What I've Been Reading About...

Last year as you (may) know, I ripped out the turf grass in my backyard. 

It went from looking like this:

To this today, with composite granite:

(Wow!  It's been a long time since I did a side-by-side photo comparison!  I love it!)  I've got platforms to do yoga outside.  I have a vegetable garden.  I have several fresh herbs for cooking.  I have a couple of different butterfly gardens.  And I have no mowing schedule.  (Except for Greta's little patch of lawn!)  My backyard makes me so happy!  It literally is My Happy Place.

Now I am thinking about my tiny front yard.  Here's the most recent photo of it that I could find in my files - blurry because it's snowing!

I haven't done a ton of stuff to the front yard since moving in -- I had over 20 shrubs removed from the flower beds -- it was simply overplanted - and I put in a butterfly garden to the left of the long sidewalk.  I have some vague ideas to expand the flower bed on the right side (as seen in this photo) but I haven't executed yet.  I hope that this is the year.

But the lawn.  Ohh the lawn.  I don't really mind mowing it, I guess.  It's small.  It's square.  It's really boring.  But really, it serves no purpose other than providing a visual apron to my house - which, okay, I won't say it isn't eye-pleasing. But as Americans we expend so much time, energy and money on turfs that aren't native to our agricultural zones.  And so we fertilize.  And the fertilizers run off into our storm drains, which drain to our natural water sources... where things live.  Things that don't exactly thrive on lawn fertilizers.  And the things that do live in our lawns?  We hit them with pesticides!  (I won't trot out any numbers here on the amount of resources used on lawns in a time when water resources are being challenged -- they are out there, and they are easy to find.) 

I'm not going to argue that all lawns everywhere should be banished; I don't believe that is true.  Some people do use their lawns - and that's awesome!  But for the mass expanses of lush lawns that I see while driving around town every day, I don't see very many people out there barefoot, lounging, playing croquet... Instead I see flatbed trailers of lawn crews swooping in with noisy and polluting equipment... I think that it is often the case that the lawn crew are the only people actually walking on those lawns.  I know -- I can argue both sides too.  But I have a stronger argument against lawns than I do for them.  (But seriously - why do we have lawns?  Because our neighbors have them?  Are we just keeping up?  They could be growing vegetables!)

And now - climbing down off of my very small soapbox...

What to do?  Personally, I'd love to just landscape it away.  I've been reading about turf alternatives.  I've been reading about edible landscaping.  I've been reading about water conservation, and landscaping that will benefit insects, and birds and bees (who are struggling to survive).  Interwoven through all of those ideas are the ideas of "natural," "organic," and "beneficial plants," "native plants," and "chemical free."  I believe there is a better way. 

I have a book on edible landscaping, Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway. (Find it on Amazon.)

I also recently purchased Beautiful, No-Mow Yards: 50 Amazing Lawn Alternatives by Evelyn J. Hadden. (Also available on Amazon.  I had my local Barnes & Noble order a copy...)

Soon I'll be lounging on my porch with books, a notepad, and a beverage... brainstorming and dreaming about what transformation is coming to my front lawn.

Here are some sites/blog posts with informative and thought provoking reading:

http://www.neighborhoodnotes.com/news/2010/04/kill_your_grass_6_smart_reasons_to_delawn/

http://www.lawnreform.org/  (This is a blog.  The initial entry happens to be a book review, and then the posts below it deal with lawns...)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Lawn/printall.php

http://degraafassoc.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/lawns-what-theyre-good-for-or-not/

http://degraafassoc.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/mixed-lawns-alternatives-to-turfgrass/

http://bigthink.com/ideas/1149

I hope you'll join me in thinking outside the lawn -- what do you think about it all?

Much better

I've been lamenting about the weeds in my backyard that have been reaching astronomic proportions.  I got the main walkway area and under the dining table cleared a few weeks ago before a party, and I've pulled a handful or two around the side gate, but in reality?  Out of control.  Add to that the 2-3 days of rain, and then some 80 degree days, and.... Something epic needed to happen.

Yesterday I got out there about 3:30 in the afternoon, and I didn't go inside until after 7 p.m.  Even my dog gave up on me at dinner time and went and stood at the back door, staring inside at her empty food bowl.

Here's the first wheelbarrow full after I filled one lawn bag.  I'm normally opposed to bagging things - I prefer to either redistribute to the alley or add to my compost.   But this volume (trust me, you'll see) is far too great for my compost tumblers, and I fear that if my compost doesn't get hot enough to kill the seeds, I'll just scatter weed seeds later, when I use my compost.  So, bagging is going to have to happen...

I found these little guys, popping up from last year's butterfly garden -- and I really want to encourage their growth and blooming -- the monarch butterfly and hummingbird migrations are happening so early this year!  All I have blooming so far is one large borage plant...

They are a lot happier now, weed free and mulched...

Then there was this massive pull -- you can't tell from the photo, but this pile is 3 feet across and 2 feet high!

From which my lavender was liberated:

Happy lavender... some smaller weeds still remaining...

And two more piles - these I probably could literally bale...

This heap of weeds revealed two butterfly nectar plants that are straggly and pale from fighting the weeds for sun - poor little things!  I feel badly... But now!  Fresh mulch and sunshine are theirs!

I rescued my Natchez Mock Orange, and the American Beauty Berry, just beginning to sprout:

With another huge pile of weeds slipping out of the photo...

More nectar plants - volunteers from last year's other butterfly garden...

All in all -- about 5 wheelbarrow loads of weeds.  FIVE.  That's just insane.  If anyone had told me that I would have made it all the way around the yard, pulling weeds, even I would have bet against myself.  I knew yesterday after previous days' rain would be the easiest time to pull them out roots and all, but I didn't count on it going so fast, or it being quite so... addictive.  Once I got going, I just couldn't quite stop -- there was always just one more area to tackle, one more corner to turn...

So today - feeling very accomplished!  And yes, a little sore. 

I have this weedy area remaining:

They are very low weeds, and just too many to pull manually.  I did one vinegar treatment on them a few weeks ago, with very little reward.  I may tarp it and smother them... or I might till the area up and rake the weeds out... but then what?  I'm thinking I might buy a huge quantity of mixed butterfly garden seeds and toss them out - and have a meadow area.  I thought about planting a cover crop like Hairy Vetch or Clover as I have before, but ... I'm not sure I want to go that route again.  Yes, it prevents erosion and weeds, but it really doesn't serve much of a purpose.  The clover would make bees happy, but so would other things, that the butterflies and hummingbirds would also enjoy.  And let's not forget -- doggy is allergic to things that sting -- awesome, right?

Ultimately what will happen to this large area is a layer of sand, and another layer of composite granite.  But I don't see that happening immediately -- having the materials delivered, taking days off work, organizing some day labor... just not in the current cards.  Do you have suggestions?  I'd love to hear them.

Here's the yard overview this morning.  It looks and feels sooo much better!  (Despite needing to bag all the piles around the yard...) And however strange it is, I really did enjoy those hours of labor!

In my raised beds I have the first sprouts up -- marigolds, radish and kale.  And I'm getting asparagus sprouts which I am mostly dutifully cutting back to encourage more growth in the new bed.

Oh, Happy Spring!

Early Gardening

I think this is the earliest I have ever had my garden in - but my Spring veggie garden is planted!

After the scorcher summer last year, I've decided I'll have a Spring and a Fall garden this year and the Summer will just be herbs and then nectar plants for the butterflies and hummingbirds. 

Also this year I am one of about 15 participants across the southern United States who are doing a marigold seed trial for a seed company.  I was sent 5 new types of marigold seeds, and I'm tracking how/when I planted them, and giving progress reports on growth rates and success.  I have lots of space available for planting, so bring on the free seeds!  I don't mind tracking things; I pretty much do that anyway.  In addition to their nursery labs, they wanted "real home gardeners" to do a trial with the seeds.

We are so warm so early this year - and the weeds were the first to notice.  I hand pulled an entire wheelbarrow full of weeds out of half of my parkway and driveway on Saturday afternoon after volunteering at Habitat for Humanity Saturday morning.  (By Saturday night I really could barely move... so sore...)  Weeding is such great therapy...

And then most of the day Sunday I worked in the backyard - it was just glorious.

The weather was picture perfect, and it was great to have the prep come together so well:  I have my own rototiller now, (thank you Red!) I used my own compost from my compost tumbler (I supplemented a little with some organic bagged, too) and I watered in my work with water from my rain barrels. 

I also made a border for one of the beds from beer bottles... turned upside down and buried so just the ends stick up... courtesy of Pinterest... (I wish I had buried them a little bit deeper...)

A bed of marigolds - with 3 existing perennials in the back

Asparagus box, with marigold seeds planted down the middle

Overview - including the small patch of sugar snap peas with trellis -
and that's my Bay Laurel plant in the middle.

Here's what I planted - and aside from the marigold seeds, they are all seeds that I had left from last year:

In existing asparagus box
50 seeds of Narai Orange marigolds

Sugar snap peas by fence with trellis

Beer bottle bed:
100 seeds Inca 1 Yellow Marigolds

Long raised bed:
Scallions
Kale
Radish
Babuda Gold Tall marigolds (25)
Italian pole bean
Marigold Discovery yellow (25)
Jalapeno
Eggplant

Back right box
Common chives
Rutabaga
Cilantro (last year's seeds germinated this year...)
Dill or fennel (came up from last year, can't tell yet which it is!)

Back left box
Curly parsley
Cucumber
Lettuce
Spinach

Front right box
Peas - super snappy
50 American Marigold Bali Orange
Carrots (last year's seeds germinated this year...)

Front left box - these plants have been in almost all winter
Rue
Pansies
Thyme
Cilantro - (mutant plant, can you see it?  Huge.)

I have butterfly perennials popping up in several places in the yard, front and back.  In the back, one borage plant is about a foot tall and just covered in blooms!  It's beautiful.  My lavender is also in bloom - both beds.
 
Happy.

Love is in the Yard

Happy (almost) Valentine's Day!

I whipped together a little  project to show some Valentine love this weekend using an old fence panel and some paint that I already had on hand.  (Disclaimer:  This wasn't my original idea... I saw it on Pinterest.  Kudos to the crafty one who came up with this first; if I knew who you are, I would give you due credit.)

I started with this old fence panel that I pulled out of the trash:

I pulled off the dead vines growing in between the planks.  Then I reinforced the planks with some new support pieces in the back, and cut off the ends to give it a uniform shape and size that I wanted.

Next I hit it lightly with a sander, and brushed it off. 

Then I made a stencil out of a roll of painter's brown paper, and taped it into place to paint:

I let it dry for a few minutes in the sun under the ceiling fan in the guest room.  I removed the stencil, mixed up some black and white acrylic craft paint to make a gray shade that I liked, and painted "love" on it.  (That was the hardest part, but it wasn't as difficult as I expected it to be... I actually contemplated calling an old neighbor who does calligraphy, and then I got a hold of myself and gave it a try myself.  It's just a freebie craft project, right?)  And then I gave it a light dusting with an aerosol polyeurathane to protect it from the weather.

And -- voila!

I put a picture hanging D-ring on the back, and looped some lightweight wire through it and around the tree so that the wind wouldn't blow it over.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Project-y Weekend

I had a great weekend in the project department this weekend!  I dabbled around with a variety of projects, just enjoying that I didn't have anywhere that I needed to be. Even the cold didn't deter me this weekend!  Not sure what that is all about.

Saturday Red and I went and bought plywood for our Habitat for Humanity sign that we build every year for the Dallas Bar Association's build.  I found a piece of 1/4" plywood at Home Depot that was damaged, and negotiated a half price deal on that.  Score!  We also picked up a fence post for support, and some rope for ... dreadlocks.  I know - sounds weird.  The house street name is "Jamaica" so I'll leave it at that for now.  More details as construction progresses.  We have to have it ready by Saturday, March 3rd so it won't dangle too long.

Then I puttered around with a Valentine project.... I'll write that post next...

And THEN I picked up on the infamous door frame project.  I worked on it briefly last week but didn't make enough progress to merit a post.  After this weekend I have the first three pieces of wood up that form the doorway itself (I always struggle with terminology -- is that the door frame?  The door jamb?) installed.  I was short one stained piece, so I stained that Saturday and installed it on Sunday.  Then yesterday I was holding up the pieces of door trim to see where they would fall width-wise. and realized that I needed to sand off the bead of old glue (?) where the edge of the fabric for the vapor barrier had been affixed.  The trim wouldn't cover it up, but it would be difficult to sand it off once the trim was in -- too close to have room to work.  Here is a work-in-progress photo on that:

(I'm sanding off the white vertical line.)  Once finished, the sanded area didn't look much different than the surrounding areas, so I think when I oil the wood it will disappear all together.  At least I hope...  The sanding didn't take as long as I expected it to, and I was doing it manually with a 100 grade sandpaper.  I have an electric rotary sander, but I knew that would kick up a ton of dust and I wasn't willing to drape everything for that small project.  When I was done sanding I wiped the area down with a damp rag. 

Also in that photo you can see the edge of the door frame installed.  I neglected to get a full-on photo of that.

I also had one remaining area of sheet rock to remove -- it was behind my shoe shelving, and I got that removed:

Here is a photo of the sheet rock pulled down, revealing a layer of paper, and then the vapor barrier fabric peeking out behind that.  I don't know if the paper is just some other layer of materials that served some obscure purpose (let me know in the comments if you have a guess) or if it is just the world's most boring wallpaper...

Then I was ready to install the trim on the bedroom side of the wall.  And that's where my day came to an end.  I didn't get install the 2x6" properly, and now my trim will not lay flush.  I was a little frustrated, but holding the trim up just to see what it will look like (fabulous!) was so exciting that the frustration took second place.  Getting the first planks installed, and getting that hideous line of glue sanded off made such a huge difference visually that I was pumped up once again about the project.

I haven't decided how I will resolve my problem -- will I have to rip out what I've done, rip the planks narrower and reinstall?  Can I use a planer and just shave off that 1/8 - 1/4" that is protruding?  I don't know.

Also, I still need to make the plinths to go at the base of the trim... and I need to figure out what I want the finished top of the door trim to look like.  I keep changing my mind about that.  I think I need to go to the library and flip through some books of 1929 Tudor styles.  I've read that the trim in that period is narrow and lighter, but I need more guidance than that!

Then since I had my compressor and nail gun in the house, I decided to throw some dividers into my silverware drawer.  I loathe those plastic silverware trays -- plastic is gross -- and every time I open and close the drawer the tray slides around in the drawer.  It just bugs me.  So, this goes into the category of a quick and dirty fix, knowing that it is temporary (because really, how long can I resist ripping out those cabinets?)  Here's how it turned out...

Not glamorous, but very functional -- but look at the drawer I started with -- even it has two or three different colors of paint on it!  So this is an improvement for me; it just gives me a little mental space... Ohhhh, it's the little things, isn't it?  : )  And the happiest part of all of that is that the plastic tray is in the "take to Goodwill" bag by the back door.

And, also in the kitchen -- I've discovered that a yoga mat* tucked under the fronts of my washer/dryer inside the laundry area doors is a stellar draft stopper.  I also rolled up a little rubber-backed rug and tucked it down in front of the dishwasher... and I'm just going to say:  My kitchen was a LOT warmer.   Score one for the home team. 

* http://life.gaiam.com/article/50-ways-reuse-your-yoga-or-fitness-mat