Flower Bed Expansion Project Progress

After having a posting on Craig's List for nearly 2 weeks offering "free St. Augustine sod - you dig it up, it's yours" without good results* I set out with my shovel on Sunday to tackle it myself.

Saturday I had a brain spark that I should make a sign reading, "FREE SOD" to put in my parkway as I dug it up, but frankly I was too lazy to actually do it.  I got up Sunday, had my coffee talk on the porch with friends, and started digging.  I lined up the squares of the (beautiful, healthy) sod on the sidewalk, with really no plan of what I would do with it but somehow assured that it would all work out.

When I had dug up two squares and laid them out on the sidewalk, the voice in my head became too loud to ignore. With a heavy sigh I put down the shovel, peeled off my gloves, took off my hat, shucked off my work boots and padded into my house in stocking feet to make a sign.

Came back out, reassembled my work attire and unceremoniously stuck the sign into the ground in my parkeway. Picked up the shovel and resumed the fun.

Literally less than 15 minutes later my neighbor from up on the corner was strolling my way, asking what in the heck I was doing.  I explained that I am steadily chipping away at my front lawn, abolishing it bit by bit.  She looked at the yard, looked at the sign, and said, "I want it."  Sweet!  I offered my wheelbarrow for transport and kept digging.  She stopped me, and pointed.  "Pull up that sign.  I want ALL of it."  Seriously?  It turns out between our rain, her many dogs, and hosting a neighborhood Easter event, her sod was shot, and she didn't have the cash to replace it.  I'm so glad I made the sign!  Win/win, I say.

Also, I will cite my 2012 Manifesto, statement #6:  Listen to the voice in your head; it may not be your own.

Digging up sod in tidy squares is not necessarily difficult, or hard work, but it is sort of slow.  I worked for a couple of hours - not exactly sure how long - and got enough squares cut out to fill two wheelbarrows heaping full.   But really, it wasn't as much coverage (uncoverage?) as I would have anticipated.  Behold, the new corner, with the new placement of border stones:

And I also dug up along the inside of the "squiggle" portion:

I knew pulling the grass out from the behind the border, allowing the contrast of the soil vs grass would give a big change visually, and I was looking forward to seeing it - i.e. validating all the hard work of rearranging the border stones 2 weeks ago! 

For this left side of the yard, here is the portion that remains to be dug up:

I MIGHT be a third of the way done with just the left side.  What you can't see in the photo is that the grass extends a few feet to the left, underneath the shrubbery...  Who needs a gym membership? 

The good news is, (or is it good news?  Perhaps not...) I am not under any deadline to finish it, other than the peer pressure of an unfinished project in my front yard.  Oh, and this Saturday is the Butterfly House semi-annual butterfly plant sale... hmmmmm.   : )

* Five different individuals wanted it, asked for and received photos.  Some even got as far as asking for my address.  One actually showed up, but didn't bring a shovel, promised to come back with help... None of them ever followed through...

You'll Never Finish if You Never Start...

I took the plunge on Saturday and started re-working the configuration of the beds in the front of my house.  It was a daunting project for me to begin, and I stood in the front yard with the shovel for quite a long time, consulting my neighbor (okay, procrastinating) before I mustered enough courage to pull out the first border stone.  I knew that once I started I was in for a major project.

Most of my yard work up until this Spring has been concentrated in the backyard.  Last year in the front I had removed some over-crowded shrubs, and in their place started a butterfly garden.  But the butterfly garden is only the peninsula portion of one bed - a small piece.  And I'd tucked a few herbs in along the front of my porch, where they are sheltered -- but you really can't see them.  I'm the only one who even knows they are there.  So, the front yard is due for some attention.

I've been wanting to take on this project for a couple of reasons.  First, the beds were just chock full of 90 degree angles.  To my eye that isn't pleasing; the edges are sharp.  And hard angles are not good Feng Shui...how can the good chi flow smoothly with all those sharp edges?  :::grin:::  Logistically, too, the hard corners presented challenges for mowing, and coupled with that is my intense dislike for the weed eater.  And lastly, I harbor a dislike for turf.  For needless grass.  And so I'm hatching plans to abolish my lawn, little by little.

Here are two shots of the right hand side of my front yard.  The first one, I have the stones laid in the new border, but you can see where the old border was.  That misshapen "T" area of grass is the area newly included in the bed.

Here's a view from the front, with the mulch circle around the tree that I added a few weeks ago. I wrote about that project just a few posts back...  I was afraid I wouldn't have enough stones to enclose  the circle, but I did - with more to spare.  (Can you tell that I did not excel in Geometry class?  It's too close to math.  Again, put me in your spelling bee...)

My intent was to just do one side of the yard at a time.  However, a neighbor who was also working in his yard all day was kind enough to give me a consult (he designs for a living) said that "we" really needed to do both sides at once, to see how they play off of each other.  At that point I had already dug up all the stones on the right hand side, and was clearly committed (or, ahem, should BE committed, as in, to the Nut Hut) so I went along willingly to the other side, and yanked out those stones too.  I don't know how long the borders had been in place; certainly a very long time. Original? As in 1929 original? I don't know. But they pulled up fairly easily once you wedged the shovel tip underneath one.  But I'll tell you: they are heavy little buggers. I think they are gorgeous though, and I'm pleased to have so many to work with.

I took a stab at laying out the shape of a the new borders.  Lots of stooping and lifting.  (Red later told me he heard a tip about using a garden hose for that - it moves around easily and you can eyeball what the new border will look like.  Alas...)  Then I went and got my neighbor for the umpteenth time, to evaluate my efforts.  (He was far enough along in HIS project that he had a glass of wine. Undoubtedly making him even more creative....)  We scampered around the lawn, moving stones, stepping across the street to survey the changes and coming back to rearrange.  I'd rearrange, and he'd look. (His whippet, Butler Matthew, would lounge inside the new border...)  Then I'd step away for a better view, and he'd rearrange while I looked.  It went on and on.  But I was so grateful for the second eye.  I'm good at the execution, but creative design is not always my strong suit.  (It's Just That My People are Nordic.)

As you've no doubt noted in previous posts, I often forget to take enough "before" photos -- and this project is no different.  I didn't take one single "before" shot of the left side!  But it is easy enough to see in the photos where the old border was.  And I didn't take one single "in-progress" photo.  So just close your eyes and pretend, and here are some 8-hour time lapse photos... lol.

The right side:

There was much discussion about if the border should hug the mulch circle around the tree, or meander down diagonally to the front right corner of the yard.  For now, hugging the tree (Tree Hugger!) prevailed.

All of that grass to the right of new swoopy border will get removed... (Daunting Task #44)  I'm working on giving it away - it's healthy - and it's too much to go into my compost tumblers.

And the left:

To the left of (behind) the new border -- all that mess is just the turf I dug up to place the stones.  The previous border was tucked up under the shrubs,  against their trunks.  (No room there to use the shovel to get the stones pulled out - I literally crawled into the shrubs on my hands and knees with a trowel.  I told my neighbor to come and look for me if I didn't make it out... ) The old border made a hard right at the rosemary, by the gazing ball.)

And this is standing on the sidewalk, looking up towards the house.  That's the edge of my butterfly garden.  I love how the border makes lazy curves like water.

That part of the border used to look like this - photo from 2011.

Oy.  Rigid.

Here's a Painted Lady enjoying a calendula bloom:

My next step will be to pull out the lawn, and start working the beds for planting... I think that work will be much more taxing than pulling and laying the border stones.  But, as I said, I knew I was tackling a large project.  Onward and upward.

Sideyard Privacy Trellis Project - done!

Yippee!  The privacy trellis project is complete!  Red and I finished it several days ago, but I've just been too busy to pull a blog post together.  I am several posts behind... Spring is busy.  That's my only excuse...

We got the trellis wires strung, the plants planted, the weeds pulled, and the mulch spread.  I even planted a packet of seeds that were touted to be a "shady mix"  that I had on hand from last year.  I am so pleased with how it all turned out!   For your viewing pleasure...

Here is the path leading out of my pedestrian gate, towards the street:

In the far left of the photo you can see the Amaranth at the base of the tree -- planted by someone before me.  A bit further on you can see one of the 5 Yew shrubs that I planted last fall.  Bright green tips tell me that it's really happy - all 5 are growing really well.  Yay!  And on the right are the yellow and white iris from my friend over in Tarrant County.  They have done their blooming for the season.  And then those 2 little bumps of green sticking up along the curb are the passion flower vines, before they were spread out and twist tied to the wires.

And here is the view of the path a little further on, (taken a few days later) still walking towards the street:

Isn't it a pretty little walkway?  In the forefront of that photo you can see the backside of the trellis with the purple passion vine on it - here is a photo of the front side - standing in my neighbor's driveway:

In this photo you can see that I've spread the vines out, and twist tied the first tendrils to the wires.  It is already starting to reach up to the next wires!  By design, you can't see the wires, but they are every six inches, all the way to the tops of the poles.  The vines also have the added (immediate) benefit of shielding my air conditioner from view.  An unanticipated bonus for everyone...

And then as you are facing that trellis, to your left is the honeysuckle trellis:

That is all one big plant - it is over 5 feet tall.  It is a little sad looking in this photo, (and the lighting doesn't help any) but it is starting to perk up.  I called the nursery, and I think in my attempts to really pamper it, I over watered it.  They advised to back off on the watering, and if it doesn't come back, they said they will replace it.  (But I bought their last yellow honeysuckle, so I'm not sure exactly what would happen.  Hopefully we won't have to find out, because I really don't want to have to un-trellis it and dig it up!)

My neighbors whose driveway runs alongside this said they liked the new look, and among other things that it looks like a "secret garden."  That's exactly what I was going for - a path to a secret space.  Wasn't that kind of them?  I really am glad they like it, because they drive past it several times a day.

It feels good to have stepped up this side of my house.  Other than adding rain barrels and planting the yew last year, I really hadn't done much over here in the nearly 3 years that I have been in the house.  I still want to add these - in an amber color, back in the corner; they will address some feng shui deficiences by adding some light:

Photo/idea credit: http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/glowing-orbs/

So now I'll pamper these little vines -- hand water with rain water, and feed them, and help them reach for the next rungs of wire... and wait for the butterflies to arrive.

Today

Privacy Trellis Progress Update

Red and I got the trellis poles set in the ground last week.  I went out this morning and tried to wiggle the posts and they feel pretty sturdy despite the height and diameter of the pipe.  Yay!

How did we get here?  Read the two prior posts on this project:
http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2012/04/privacy-trellis-construction-begins.html

http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2012/04/trellis-post-caps.html

We* dug the holes 20-21 inches deep on Tuesday, and then mixed the concrete and set the poles on Wednesday.  We learned in an unfortunate way where the sprinkler line runs -- can you guess what that means?  (And then I got a short sprinkler line repair lesson.  That will come in handy since I had attended a workshop on that which was a "fail" and my system definitely needs some love.)  As a result of that encounter, we moved the poles a foot further away from the house - now they are up against the cement wall or "curb," which is sort of where I wanted them anyway...so I guess that worked out all right.

We mixed the concrete one bag at a time in my happy orange wheelbarrow.  Then we put a handful of stones in the bottom of each hole, put a glop of concrete on top, and stuck the poles in.  We used a level to get them straight in both directions, and topped off the holes with concrete.  We also strung one line of wire between each set of poles as a guide for sinking them the same depth.

When we finished we agreed that it all went a little too smoothly, and wondered what we did wrong... LOL

Livingroom window trellis poles

 It's difficult to tell from this photo angle, but the poles are set in a width that is one foot wider than the set of windows.  And then they go a foot taller than the middle of the window.  My house sits quite a bit higher than the neighbors' house, so I literally look down on them; that's why I gave the trellises such extreme height -- 11 feet!



Dining room trellis poles

In the photo above, if you look closely at the height of the foundation, you can see the orange string tied on the one guide wire.  I thought we'd better mark it so that nobody strangles themselves with it before the rest are added and they are more obvious!  (Also in this photo: Unfortunately you can see that I need to clean the brick in the outcropping corner - it got discolored from rain, pre-gutters.  Waaah.)

I am really pleased with the color of the poles - after trying two different paint colors my goal of matching my gutters was met...

First vine wire attached as guide wire

The lines for the vines to grow up will be attached by wrapping around these bolts, and then we will tighten the bolts to hold it in place.  Which way we'll wrap the wire (which is actually braided fish line that will support 65 lbs) is up for debate.  We talked about alternating it front and back, and not alternating it at all, and we talked about not going around the pole... I guess I won't know for sure until it's time to string them... I plan to get that done this weekend, along with prepping the new beds between the poles. 

I am going to try to remember to do the bed prep before I string the bottom lines - otherwise I'm sure I'll mess up the bottom lines with my shovel and pitchfork.  I could use my tiller, but I am afraid of the aforementioned sprinkler lines... even though now I do know exactly where they are and how deep they are.  Theoretically it would be safe to till.

And then the fun part - the planting!  I have emailed with Randy Johnson at The Butterfly House at Texas Discovery Gardens, inquiring about vines that are green all year round and that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  He suggests these two, with an aside about crossvine:

Passiflora caerulea (passion flower):  an evergreen vine that hosts the Gulf and Variegated fritillaries.

 Photo Credit:  http://www.treknature.com/gallery/photo206219.htm

Lonicera (honeysuckle) both the coral and yellow:  attract hummingbirds and are evergreen.

http://allthedirtongardening.blogspot.com/2012/01/honeysuckles-are-lonicera-love-them-or.html

http://elmostreport.blogspot.com/2008/05/yellow-honeysuckle-lonicera-flava.html


Crossvine (trumpet vine): it is evergreen and hummingbirds like it but it can get aggressive.

I am  definitely skipping the crossvine - I've dealth with it before and indeed -- aggressive is a good word for it...

I also thought about jasmine - because it is evergreen and the blossoms are so fragrant; but it doesn't attract butterflies or hummingbirds, and I have it in my backyard in two places already anyway...

Ironically, before I looked up the common names of the two suggested vines (which I did just now), I had asked a friend for some slips from her passion flower vine -- not knowing I'd be in the market for it this weekend.  She came over last night and brought me 5 cuttings... how's that for fortuitous timing?  And another neighbor/friend has an alley fence covered in yellow honeysuckle -- I'll ask her if I can take a few slips from that.  I may buy a few established plants as well -- I'll price them and weigh my impatience...  :::grin:::  I'm really excited to learn that I can continue my front yard theme of blue/purple and yellow/orange blooms and follow Randy's recommendations.  I think the passion flower is just gorgeous!

Once planted, these vines are going to be the most pampered vines in my yard - they have a daunting task ahead of them.  I'm extra happy that I have a rain barrel close to each of the trellises: bonus.  Realistically I don't expect them to even reach window height this summer, but who knows?  Maybe they are really fast growers - I don't know.  Time will tell.

*  Okay, so it was mostly Red.  He told me I was wimpy with the post hole digger.  But hey!  At least I own a post hole digger, right??