Adventures in Homeownership Part N
Apr. 30th, 2006 03:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichelefMuch house-related fun this weekend. (And for once I'm actually not being sarcastic... yes, this will be a positive installment in the occasional "Adventures in Homeownership" series.)
I've been thinking that I want to get some herbs going in pots, because I like fresh herbs and I'd like to be able to have them year-round. On our way to Lowe's to buy potting soil, M suggested that instead we could put in some plants in either the backyard or along the front porch, where there are just some sort of sad-looking shrubs. I thought this sounded like a perfectly fine idea, so we wandered around the garden center discussing pros and cons of various perennials (not even CONSIDERING annuals). Ultimately we decided to put some stuff in the back and bought four plants that like shade and will end up growing pretty big (2-3' tall) and some garden mix soil.
We cut out a lot of dead shrubbery that's in the nebulous area between our house and our neighbor's (whose side of the property line is it on? who planted it? who knows!) and weeded the beds back there - I was able to get out a fair number of shrubbery sprouts that I'm going to pot and hopefully they'll do well enough that we can use them to fill in some of the gaps in the existing hedge. M pulled out an entire dead rhodedendron just by touching it. (I think it had zero root system left.) Once all that was cleaned up, we put our new plants in, thinking about how we're going to fill in that garden space. Next weekend we might actually try putting in some vegetables - we've established that there's actually an area that's going to get enough sun to do it. And get some lower-to-the-ground stuff to go in in the area that's not back against the property lines.
We also dug out this random pole that was in the backyard. We can't figure out what it was supposed to be. The end point of a clothesline? Who knows. M started wiggling it and discovered pretty quickly (when it broke off in his hands) that it was rusted through, but that left a sharp, rusty end about 2" above ground level. Leaving it there was obviously not an option. So we (mostly he) dug it out. The concrete it was set in went down about 18" and the grass had grown over it. Good thing we had lots of dirt that we'd dug up in the planting process - it turned out to be just enough to fill that hole. Hooray! No gaping hole in our backyard for TRex to fall into!
The soil here is lovely - a bit clay-ey, but very dark & rich & moist. TRex thought that gardening was glorious fun (she toddled around digging with a stick, helping me mix soil & garden mix, breaking up clumps of long-neglected mulch, etc. In so doing, she earned herself her first "you're really THAT dirty, kid" bath (not counting ones that were food-related - there have been lots of those).
I've been thinking that I want to get some herbs going in pots, because I like fresh herbs and I'd like to be able to have them year-round. On our way to Lowe's to buy potting soil, M suggested that instead we could put in some plants in either the backyard or along the front porch, where there are just some sort of sad-looking shrubs. I thought this sounded like a perfectly fine idea, so we wandered around the garden center discussing pros and cons of various perennials (not even CONSIDERING annuals). Ultimately we decided to put some stuff in the back and bought four plants that like shade and will end up growing pretty big (2-3' tall) and some garden mix soil.
We cut out a lot of dead shrubbery that's in the nebulous area between our house and our neighbor's (whose side of the property line is it on? who planted it? who knows!) and weeded the beds back there - I was able to get out a fair number of shrubbery sprouts that I'm going to pot and hopefully they'll do well enough that we can use them to fill in some of the gaps in the existing hedge. M pulled out an entire dead rhodedendron just by touching it. (I think it had zero root system left.) Once all that was cleaned up, we put our new plants in, thinking about how we're going to fill in that garden space. Next weekend we might actually try putting in some vegetables - we've established that there's actually an area that's going to get enough sun to do it. And get some lower-to-the-ground stuff to go in in the area that's not back against the property lines.
We also dug out this random pole that was in the backyard. We can't figure out what it was supposed to be. The end point of a clothesline? Who knows. M started wiggling it and discovered pretty quickly (when it broke off in his hands) that it was rusted through, but that left a sharp, rusty end about 2" above ground level. Leaving it there was obviously not an option. So we (mostly he) dug it out. The concrete it was set in went down about 18" and the grass had grown over it. Good thing we had lots of dirt that we'd dug up in the planting process - it turned out to be just enough to fill that hole. Hooray! No gaping hole in our backyard for TRex to fall into!
The soil here is lovely - a bit clay-ey, but very dark & rich & moist. TRex thought that gardening was glorious fun (she toddled around digging with a stick, helping me mix soil & garden mix, breaking up clumps of long-neglected mulch, etc. In so doing, she earned herself her first "you're really THAT dirty, kid" bath (not counting ones that were food-related - there have been lots of those).
