Posted by Administrator on June 5th, 2009 — Posted in gardening, Lawn maintenance
Well, I figured out a way to minimize my grass cutting time: I hired a guy to do it for me. I pump a little cash back into the local economy, and I have a lot more time to take care of all the other yard jobs. There’s so much to like about it, if you have a big yard and if you can afford it, I highly recommend having someone else cut the grass. They’re more efficient, with those high-dollar machines that they have, and the grass is cut into super-fine pieces by the high-speed blades. My grass looks much better this year and I didn’t even have to apply any feed, lime, or pre-emergent herbicide.
The other positive? My perennial beds get a lot more of my attention. Now if I could just find someone to pull my weeds.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on June 5th, 2009 — Posted in Uncategorized
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on February 23rd, 2009 — Posted in gardening
Well, it’s official. I was out in the yard on Saturday, turning compost and spreading it on the lilac bushes. Garden Season ‘09 is officially underway.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on February 16th, 2009 — Posted in gardening, Winter Gardening
Well, we had so much success with the live Christmas tree for Christmas 2007 that we did it again for Christmas 2008. The tree is now planted in the ground not far from its Christmas ‘07 cousin, both of which are doing fine. The cost for the live trees is really about the same as for a cut tree, and of course the bonus is that we have two nice evergreens in the yard that would otherwise be rotting away in some distant landfill.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on February 14th, 2009 — Posted in gardening
We are thinking about having a spring version of the Dig-and-Take this year. I have some extra coneflower clusters that I’m going to try to trade, hoping someone else has something cool to give in return, a large clump of shasta daisy, or maybe a little Joe Pye Weed.
Look around the yard and see what you have to trade, call your gardening friends and organize a swap. These days, trading vs. purchasing is an easy choice to have to make, not that I want to drive the nurserymen and women out of business. We will be visiting the local greenhouses as always, this spring, and we’ll do what we can to help keep them afloat, within the limits of our household budget.
So, start looking around in your flower beds. You can see the clumps from last year so see if any of them are ready for division and you’re ready to start trading perennials with your friends and neighbors! Make it an annual event. If there are plants that several of you want, each of you buy one of the varieties and, when it’s big enough to divide, use it for trade material in your Plant Swaping Event!
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on April 24th, 2008 — Posted in gardening, yard maintenance
If you have a pretty big lawn like I do, has it crossed your mind that it’s getting more and more expensive, both in terms of time and money, to maintain it?
Should I retire the Husqvarna, and just hire someone with one of those high-speed, zero-radius things and let them do it for me? I know they could probably cut it in half the time, presumably producing half the emissions and using less fuel.
I think of how much more time I’d have for all the other outside chores if I were to offload the mowing task. The thought has its appeal.
Another idea I have, is to plant vast areas of some sort of grain crop that I can just let grow to its natural height, and cut it once or twice throughout the entire growing season. The problem I foresee with this is, you would need a big ol’ honkin’ machine to mow those areas, maybe something like a farm tractor! We do have farmers in the area, though. I’ll have to ask around.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on February 3rd, 2008 — Posted in gardening
Well, it’s in the ground and doing well. We bought a live tree this year, for the first time. First of all, let me tell you, that baby was heavy! It took two of us to get it in the house, and we could have used a third. The tree itself was a short-needled fir tree, and it did quite well during its two-week stay indoors. On January 6th, we got smart and wheeled the yard cart into the house and hoisted the tree right into the cart, wheeled it down the front porch steps and out into the yard, stopping next to the hole that I had dug for it in early December. After some adjustments in width and depth, three of us tipped the garden cart at an extreme angle and slid the tree in the hole. A half hour later, after some backfilling and mulching, the job was done.
I just came in from inspecting the tree and it looks great. Next Christmas, another tree for the yard!
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on December 31st, 2007 — Posted in gardening
Also known as yard clean-up.
If you take a walk through Longwood Gardens this time of year (which, fortunately for us is a half mile from our house), one thing you will notice is how neat and tidy their beds are. I know they have a huge staff or trained professionals tending the grounds, but I think it’s a worthy goal, nonetheless, to try to make my beds free of debris, with old perennial remnants gathered up and taken to the compost pile.
Winter is also a good time to envision your perennial beds for next season. Now that you have cleaned your beds for the season (right?), you can visualize next year’s layout. In my case, one of our beds is performing too well, and has produced many large clumps of various specimans, which are now starting to crowd each other out.
I usually leave the Rudbeckia and Ecinacea seed heads standing as long as they still have bird food on them. The Siberian Iris I like to cut low with a sharp blade, around this time of year. After one or two frosts, your hosta are a slimy mess. Gather those ugly boys up, using a blade to cut them close to the ground, though they usually just come up in your hand with little resistance.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on September 13th, 2007 — Posted in gardening
I know, its been a long time since I made a gardening entry. I’m still at it, though this year has been very busy with other things, and it has not been easy finding the time I once had. Well, first of all, my lawn is an acre and a half, and if you cut your own grass, you know mowing can take a big chunck out of your weekly yard time. So, I’ve been keeping up, if just barely.
One thing that this time crunch has done: it has prompted me to think of low-maintenance yard and garden solutions. One thing I tried is, replace parts of perennial beds with a nice, unique shrub. In one case, I removed all of the lillies in a 4′x6′ bed and put in a dwarf fothergila. It looks great, and is a lot easier to take care of. Maybe I save 5 or 10 minutes in weeding time every week. Maybe a little less, but the point is that changes like this can start to whittle away at your chore list. There’s not much material removal necessary in the fall, either.
I’m also real interested in finding a medium height grain of some kind, perhaps sea oats, to replace sections of what is now grass in my yard. I want something that will take over an area, and that can be cut back once or twice a year with my Husqvarna riding mower. Not only does mowing take a lot of time, its also a big-time polluter, and not much fun to breath in while riding behind a 24 HP Briggs and Stratton. So, there are a couple of good reasons to reduce the size of the lawn.
Speaking of lawns, why are we so compelled to surround our homes with vast swaths of green that we keep cut to a tidy height? I understand the merits of keeping the area that’s closest to your house neat and tidy. It promotes safety and security, makes it easier to keep critters away from the door, enables you to inspect your home for water and insect damage. My concern is with how much time it takes me every week during the gardening season to mow the lawn. There has to be a better approach. What I envision is this. The area near the house is traditional grass, cut to a traditional height. As you get farther out, I see taller grains, allowed to grow to their natural height and cut once or twice a season. Maybe something like oats but I don’t know, I’ve done very little investigation on the subject.
Well, I could go on about lawns but you have to stop sometime.
Mo later.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
Posted by Administrator on June 7th, 2006 — Posted in gardening, composting
OK, I know I claimed last year that I was finally building compost bins, and the year came and went and still, no bins. Well, I finally got around to it, and they’ve been a great help in keeping things organized, not to mention the great compost I’ve gotten out of them already. I spread the compost from one bin a couple weeks ago, and have a bin cooking now that should be ready in a month or so. Its really amazing how much a couple of inches of compost around the base of a plant will keep down the weeds, and the Lilacs produced lots of blooms this year, thanks, I’m sure, to the generous amount of compost I fed them.
There’s work still to do in this area. For one thing, I need another holding area for chopped up leaves and other brown matter, which I’ll be making out of wire fence and angle irons, and I really could use two more wooden compost bins, given the amount of weeds I’ve been pulling lately, but that’s a story for another time.
If you plan on building compost bins of your own, I recommend the open-front approach. I know some folks like to close them in, but I really don’t see the point. Its much easier to work with the compost if you build the bins without a front. You have to be able to toss in new stuff with your pitch fork, and a front panel just gets in the way. Another thing I like to do is this. After one bin is fully cooked and ready to spread, I empty it all out, spread it, and then transfer the contents of the other bin into the just-emptied one. I can’t emphasize enough how good it is to turn your compost. It will cook so much faster that way.
No Comments »
Popularity: unranked
