It's chaos here.  I'll try to have something fun to post next week...

.

Another Privacy Screen

With all my posts about privacy screening projects, you may conclude that I try to hide from my neighbors!  Not true.  It's actually the opposite... I love to have my curtains open, and I am also outside on my porch a lot, and while I am not doing anything interesting (er, at least I don't think I am...) I worry that my neighbors are weary of seeing me. 

I've been struggling with the exposure from driveway end of my porch.  The order of things is this:  The short end of my porch, my narrow driveway, my neighbors' living room windows.  They are lovely people.  I could possibly call them friends and neighbors.  But day or night, they never close their blinds.  Now, I'll also say, I don't think they spend much time in their living room.  But I spend a lot of time on my porch.  And I've become a wee bit self conscious of all my porch sitting.

Most often I crawl out there post-shower (but appropriately dressed, I promise) with a beverage after a full day of working on a project, prop myself up and try not to pass out from happy exhaustion.  Wet hair, lounging clothes, my iPad or a book and an adult beverage.  Or, I am out there really late at night in the dark, just enjoying the solitude of my porch/street.  Or, it's Sunday morning, and I'm clutching my coffee and having my Sunday morning "cawfee tawk" (a la SNL) with my bestie in Minneapolis.  Point being ... I spend an enormous amount of time out there.  I.  Love. My. Porch.

For many months I have been crafting in my mind some type of privacy gizmo for the very narrow space between the porch and my driveway.  Here's the space I'm working with - I've angled my love seat in an attempt to shield the sitter... I used to have it backed up against the window...

I didn't really see planting plants directly into the ground here as an option for a couple of reasons.  One, there is a lot going on in the ground right there -- sprinkler water lines, electrical wiring -- that I really don't want to disturb.  Secondly, I already struggle with soil migrating from the bed into the driveway every time it rains, and I haven't been able to envision a type of edging that I like to hold it in place that could take occasional car tires...  As a result, I was envisioning either a raised planter or some type of wall.

I was going to do one of these:

The concept of a wooden screen was attractive to me because it would be uber easy to build and instantly full height.  Air would still pass through for circulation.  The hardest part would be digging the post holes for the support posts, and setting the posts in concrete.

I showed these two photos to one of the neighbors next door, and she liked the second, more open panel best. She said she actually likes seeing me sit out there and that that one doesn't provide total block out of vision.   But when I mentioned that I had although thought about a planter, she jumped on that idea.  I pressed her about it and she said she'd rather have a view of greenery versus wood.  I had to give her snaps for that.  A planter it would be.

I still had some wood left over from my neighbor's deck demolition - and quite frankly was weary of looking at it stacked in my carport.  I had used some of it to build a potting table (you can read about that here: http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/06/ta-da-potting-table.html) but still had some left, and I just couldn't bring myself to put it out in bulky trash.

I did some measuring - the porch opening with allowance for the outdoor electrical outlet would accept a 5 foot long planter.  For width, I estimated that 12-15" would fit nicely.  I wanted the top of the planter to be even with the floor of the porch.  The similar height would help it blend in, I hoped.

Sunday began by laying out all the remaining reclaimed lumber in my carport by type of wood and length to assess what I had to work with.  Then I inspected the longer pieces for splitting and hard to remove nails.  I was a little shy of how much I needed to build the design I had in mind, so I had to modify it a bit - I would have liked to have two planks for the bottom, making the planter wider - but it's okay.  And I would have liked to have pieces that were a little less deteriorated for the legs - I really wanted to rip the leg planks and have two narrower pieces to wrap the corners, but I don't think the wood would have been strong enough to use in that way.  Nonetheless - I'm pleased with the end product - although it looks a bit like a horse trough to me.  (Recall the indoor buffet table* that I likened to a hitching post?  Hmmm..  I sense a theme... lol)

The lighter colored side

The darker colored side

The lumber, by virtue of having been part of a deck, has one side that was exposed to the elements and therefore is weathered and darker, and has one side that was the protected underside of the deck, and it is a lighter color.  It's sort of hard to see in these photos.  I built the planter so that one side is the light side (that matches my brick quite well) and one side is the darker wood - thinking that nobody can ever see both sides at once, and that the two colors give me versatility for placement.  I used that same dichotomy of color with my hanging frames on my back steps.
(http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-i-had-my-back-steps-designed-and.html)

The finished planter is 5 feet long, only 11 inches front to back, 17 inches deep, and 24 inches tall; a funky size that I'd never find in a store, but it's the size needed for my space.  I challenged myself to use only the reclaimed lumber - no supplementing with new lumber.  Success!  I love the character that came from having to piece two shorter boards together for the front middle plank, and that there is some red lettering stamped on one of the boards from its previous life.

I thought that marked the end of my day.  I showered, but did my aforementioned post-project collapse in the living room, in the air conditioning.  It was ... hot outside. 

But after a respite, I mustered the energy to go buy the plants.  I wanted bamboo, but the guy at the nursery said the roots will expand so much over time that they would literally blow a wooden planter apart. Um, not a goal. Then I wanted horsetail, but we determined that when it got tall enough to be a screen, it would flop over. Well that won't work. We discussed Nandina and this other shrubby thing (the name of which I don't know but I've never liked it anyway...) but decided they would both get too woody (i.e. transparent) at the base. And so... the plants are red tipped Photinias. Mind-numbingly boring, but they grow fast, can be pruned to shape, and will make an effective screen. And, I had two random Home Depot gift cards, which made my plants cost just half what they should have. Score.

My across-the-street neighbor was out watering when I got home, and I asked her to help me move the planter from the backyard to it's new home - it is ridiculously heavy.  I had already determined that I was saving the actual planting for Monday morning, when it would be cooler outdoors.

Before setting the plants in, I laid in two layers of window screen (leftover from another project) at the bottom and partially up the sides of the planter to keep the soil from falling out the spaces between the planks.  I added 3 inches of rock (a bag the previous home owners had left behind the shed) for drainage.  On top of that, I added organic compost and  organic fertilizer.  I dropped the plants in, and filled in the spaces between the root balls with with organic potting soil.  I watered it all in with water from my rain barrels (newly full from our rain last week - yay!) 

Ta-da! 

Grow!  Grow!  Grow!

* Sideboard/hitching post:  http://my1929tudor.blogspot.com/2011/12/rustic-sideboard.html

.

M I N T Y

I have one of those old timey driveways where there is a strip of grass down the middle.  Well, I'm sure the original intent was to have grass there -- I do not.  It's a challenging area to landscape; it gets a bit of hard use - occassional heat from parked car engines, and it's not connected to the sprinkler system.  It was just dirt when I moved in, and I personally had no intention of ever planting grass there.  I do love that it's not a solid concrete driveway though - when given a choice I will always opt for green surface areas versus concrete or asphalt.

Everyone (you know, "everyone") always talks about how invasive mint is.  Over the years I have planted it in areas where it's difficult to get anything else to grow and had success.  Once you get it to take, you are pretty much good to go.  I thought the center of my driveway would be the perfect space for mint - it's contained from spreading too crazily, and it's a hardy plant. 

Overall I've been very pleased with it there.  Originally I planted peppermint, spearmint, and pennyroyal mint.  I learned that pennyroyal won't make it in the summer heat.  The other two - pretty happy.  They (you know, "they") say that you shouldn't mix the types - that they will hybrid themselves - but do I care?  Not particularly.  It all smells quite heavenly wafting up through my car vents when I drive over it, and it's all the same when feet tromp through it and the minty smell floats in the air.  The plants on the front third of the driveway are really happy.  The back two thirds don't get enough sun and it's mostly died there.  I need to figure out something else for that portion.  I have one healthy thyme plant, but it's not exactly doing the job...  I'd love some riverstone and ground cover...

I have a make-your-own garden stone kit - the type where you can make garden stones with words stamped in them.  Last year I made one that says, "minty" and put it at the end of my driveway, near the sidewalk.  I hoped that it would let passersby know that it was mint there, and not weeds.  Should I care about that? Probably not.  Do I?  Well, a little.  And I do like plant labels.

But at some point "minty" cracked in half.  I keep scooting the pieces together, smushing dirt around them to hold them in place - mostly in vain. 

And then I saw this on Pinterest:

http://littlewhitedog-ie.blogspot.com/2011/05/blooming-marvelous-garden-letters.html

And as I turned the image over in my mind, I had an idea.  I know.  I was just as surprised as you are.

I went to several hobby and craft stores, looking for big cardboard letters.  They never had all the letters that I needed at the same time.  I wasn't willing to buy one or two, and then hope that I would someday find the remaining ones I needed; I have enough projects going without buying half the materials needed and to have them lay around the house, waiting.  After several attempts to buy them in a brick and mortar store, I turned to ThirdShift on Etsy.  The owner said they would let me know when they had all the letters in stock, and they did.  In short order I had my letters.  These are 12" inches tall.



http://www.etsy.com/listing/93446926/paper-mache-letter-x-12-tall-ready-to



Next I took a box cutter and cut away one edge of the letters, leaving me with a mold:

(I found zig zagged cardboard inside them for reinforcement.  I pulled that out and threw it away.)  Next I sprayed the cardboard with an aerosol waterproofing spray from my tub of camping supplies.  And then I lined the inside of the letters with aluminum tape for additional protection against moisture, and to give them a little bit of stability.  That took considerably longer than I expected - but I did have a little bit of OCD about it...  : )

Planning to pour concrete into the letters, I cut up coat hangers and bent the pieces around into 3D shapes to use as rebar:

And finally, I mixed up a batch of concrete in my wheelbarrow, and filled the molds with concrete.

I left them dry for 6 days, and then carfully removed them from the molds:

And spray painted them a benign color:

Then I painted over them with some paint that goes on clear, but it supposed to soak up the sun during the day and glow at night, but.... best I could tell, it doesn't glow.  Maybe I didn't put enough on -- I'll try another coat.  But -- they still look great in my driveway bed of mint!

Now... as long as nobody drives on them..  : )


.

Planted!

I got my newly expanded front beds planted.  Finally.  Whew - I have to say I am relieved to be at this stage with this project.  It was a doozy.  I'm pleased with the end results though. 

Here is the right side:

The plants are small now, but they will fill in.  I've learned the hard way to let them look sparse at first to allow for growth.  Some of the plants I bought at the semi-annual butterfly plant sale, and some are transplants from the backyard. 

I know that you can't distinguish plants in this photo, but on this side I planted a Butterfly Bush, two Horsemint for a blooming groundcover, 2 types of milkweed, and pentas.  Pentas is an annual, and I am a perennial girl; but the butterflies love it so much that I relented.  It's also pink - which I do not do - but again, to draw butterflies... 

 Already in the bed were Lamb's Ear and Turk's Cap.  Lamb's Ear - I can take it or leave it.  It is a variation in texture, and that's always good to have - but it doesn't really offer anything else.  But it is well established so I left it there.  And then the Turk's Cap; that's the tall green on the far right.  It gets covered in little red blossoms that are loved by hummingbirds.  It was also well established before I moved in, and I'll allow it to thrive.

And here is the left side:

In this front peninsula, my yellow echinacia is finally blooming.  I added two milkweek in the right hand corner, and a type of daisy in the front left corner.  The daisy is dead - but I'm leaving it there for now in hopes that it drops seeds.  Along the front edge I have planted poppy seeds that a friend collected for me.  I have tried to grow poppies before with dismal results, so I am hoping this time I have better luck.  The bright green large plant that you see is a Flame Acanthus and it will have a ton of red blossoms for the hummingbirds.  You can see the frosty Artesmisia poking out on the right hand side.  Hidden from view entirely are fennel, Butterfly Weed, Cosmos, Calendula and a yellow daisy whose name escapes me...

Moving up the edge of the bed, just a red pentas there that is new.  It's alongside Russian Sage

And then turning the corner...

Left to right I have another Horsemint groundcover (it's cut off in the photo).  Then an agave plant.  This was in a pot but I knew the pot was too small.  There was no way to get it out of the pot and leave the pot intact, so I hit the pot with a hammer and split it in half.  The agave had started a few new plants in the pot and I separated those out.  I planted the larger 3 in this bed, and planted several tiny shoots in the backyard beds.

Next are some onion chives from a neighbor (planted those this morning!) 3 Goldenrod, one Pacific Daisy (fall blooming) another agave, two Rattlesnack Masters (a succulent that blooms) and a purple blooming Lemon Bee Balm (Monarda Citriodora) that  blooms purple.  It's blooming, but it's hard to see in this photo.

So what remains on this project?  I have some seeds to put out on the left side - marigolds, for the remaining portion of my marigold seed trial that I am participating in; Dill, and .... others, but I can't remember sitting here now what they are.

For the right hand side, I need to switch out the mulch around the tree to match the rest of the bed.  I need to re-do the fountain* reservoir  dig up and repair some sprinkler heads, and did up the spigot to repair the leak.  None of those sound like much fun, but all of them need to happen...

* Long post, coming soon...
.