12.13.08 and 12.14.08

It’s time to get rid of the blasted crepe myrtles. My neighborhood helpers “Bob” and “Dodger” helped me dispatch the big one in the yard once I figured out it was just too big to dig up. They did a pretty good job, all things considered. No fingers were lost, and no one got hit by a falling branch, so I consider it a success. That's a story for another day!

But this little one by the garage – I’m loathe to just cut it down. It just might be small enough to dig up and transplant to Ed’s house, so we’re going to give it a shot. Ed and I attacked that one this weekend. We fought and dug and cussed at the tree and at the chainsaw. We abused the loppers (god bless Fiskars), dulled the hatchet, and gave the pick axes a good workout. And we finally got the blasted thing dug up. We toppled it into the driveway and Ed went off to go rent a truck to haul it with. I hosed off as much soil from the root ball as I could, and trimmed it up just a bit. Once the soil was removed, it was super light. It took nothing to throw it into the truck. I think we did all of this on Saturday.

"stock photo"...hehehe

When he had the truck, Ed picked up some soil and such from the hardware store and got his site prepped for the tree. In the meantime, I took the chainsaw to the stump of the other crepe myrtle and tried to whittle it away. I only got so far before I needed a new chain. By then, I had had enough for the day so I cleaned things up and packed it in.

The next day, I headed off to Ed’s place to help plant the tree. He had already done the hardest work. The whole was dug and he had a bunch of soil and substrates laid out on a tarp. We just cut the bags open, mixed the stuff up, and poured a good little pile into the hole. I convinced Ed to trim the top of the tree within an inch of its life, hopefully encouraging it to focus more energy on establishing roots than on growing more leaves just yet. It also helped with drag from the breeze, which threatened to pull the tree out of the ground before we gave it a hair cut. Once we had the tree sitting nicely on the mound of good soil we had mixed, we worked on filling in around the tree, being very careful to work soil back into the pockets around the roots as much as we possibly could. We would pack in some soil, then flood the hole and let it drain. Later, rinse, repeat until it was solidly planted. I think we did a really nice job. I’m pretty sure it’ll even wake up and grow this spring. Yay!!

...mixin' soil...plantin' the tree...waterin' it in...

...happy tree!! yay!!

11.27.08 - 11.30.08

Thanksgiving holiday weekend….

As the holidays approach, I anticipate a slowing of progress. It’s understandable and totally expected, but still a little hard to deal with. But if I were to try to still go full-bore with all of my plans AND enjoy all of my family and friends and travel and holiday-gluttony, I would make myself crazy. So I’m prepared. Sort of.

The ThanksGiving weekend was wonderful. It was a long one, spent in the cozy warmth of my in-laws’ home in Abilene. We brought all 3 of our pups with us, and Jan and Dan have a little moppet of a Maltese named Kinsey. None of the dogs knew quite what to think of each other. Kinsey is still mostly a puppy, and I think is a little taller than Margo, but not as thick. Nola was still warming up to her new family, and this little spark plug just pretty much blew her mind. Violet figured out fast that she couldn’t eat the little white fuzzball and completely lost interest afterward.

Between watching football and visiting and eating and napping, I finally drew up the first actual plans for the yard. I had all of the measurements and some graph paper and some map pencils and all that good stuff. The drawing got tweaked a bit as things progressed, but provided a very strong foundation for my future efforts. I kept meaning to do another version of it, colored in and looking like something straight out of a professional landscaping company’s bid process, but have yet to get around to it. I can either be inside drawing and coloring, or outside making things happen. I’m pretty sure you know by now which I prefer…

Here it be…

The yard is pretty rectangular, so there are no odd angles to deal with. Once it’s bisected by the door-to-sidewalk walkway, the driveway-side is a few feet shorter than the other side. I decided to really make the most of the rectangular shape, and plotted three 4’ x 8’ areas on each side of the walkway. On the driveway-side of the yard, the two 4’ x 8’ areas closest to the street will be for planting. The one closest to the house will be for composting. I will also be planting blueberries along the fence line on the driveway-side of the lawn. Cross the walkway and you’ll find the same arrangement of 4’ x 8’ areas, but all 3 will be for planting. Because this side of the yard is the wider side, I will also fit in 3 fruiting trees. I’m thinking I’ll try a meyer lemon, a lime, and a Satsuma. To mirror the blueberries, I will be planting Brazos and Kiowa blackberries against the fenceline on this side.

I’ve left 3’ paths between each of the beds. I’ll eventually lay 2’ of pavers in the middle of each of these paths, leaving 6” on each side for ground cover plantings to soften the edges of the boxes. The weed cloth under the boxes should help keep the ground cover from creeping up into the boxes. I’ll make quick work of any interlopers.

The walkway is going to be one of my very favorite parts. I’m not sure I’m going to tell about it just yet. I think I’ll wait. It’s too cool, and frankly, I want to get it installed before I share the idea!

11.15.08 - 11.16.08 Picking Up Steam...

Saturday Nov 15 – Sunday Nov 16, 2008: The weekend’s agenda:

· Trim Crepe Myrtles – Done!
· Prep Crepe Myrtles for removal in December – Got the smaller one prepped. Started on the bigger one but didn’t finish. Will try to knock it out this week.
· Remove remaining sod in front yard – Got more of it – the strips on the side of the driveway, and the strips on the other side of the sidewalk, near the street. I managed most of the grass clinging to the bigger of the two CM trees. I still need to do the areas on the sides of the house and by the street sign pole (with no street sign).
· Transplant ornamentals from front yard flower beds to backyard – I dug up the semi-circle bed around the smaller crepe myrtle and got everything in it either into the back yard somewhere or into pots for the time being.
· Finish patching sod in backyard with remnants from the front yard – Done and DONE!!
· Plant the flats of winter flowers in the backyard – Done!
· Do some work on the path – something – measure, plan, draw, dig, more? – Didn’t get started on this.
· Move some plants in the backyard around to give them a better chance of surviving the winter – Didn’t get this done either. This can be done in bits and pieces throughout the week to come, but need to do it SOON!

Saturday Nov 15, 2008: I started patching the back yard last weekend and got some nice big areas done, but I wasn’t finished. I marked the rest of the bare areas with blue spray paint during the week, and this was the first thing I jumped on when I woke up on Saturday. The remaining sod would die if I didn’t get it into the ground, and I wanted to get this part done! The grass needs as much sun and time to get established as possible right now, before the cold gets here. The fact that the leaves are falling off the trees is helpful, since more sunlight will be getting to areas that normally don’t get that much. Don’t know if the grass will take since it’s entering its dormant stage, but fingers crossed. Bare patches can’t get “more bare” so if any of the grass takes root, I’ll be pleased.

Each of those trenches filled the little wagon to the top with soil at least once. The bigger trenches filled it multiple times. And each load had to be rolled out to the front yard and the dirt dumped into the dirt pile. It was slooooow going. But the wheel barrow had a hippo in it… (You can tell this photo is a recreation of events, due to the fact that the trenches that that load of soil would have come from are already filled with sod!! Tsk, tsk, Photo Documenter! Tsk!)

Wheeling it out to the front…

Dumping the dirt into the pile. EXCITING!



I make funny faces when working! Trenches filled with sod! Yay!




Here I am trimming the bigger of the two blasted CMs. I hate these things! But I read up on how to trim them correctly, so I think I did a pretty good job. You’re supposed to remove the trunks and branches that intersect with others as well as the ones in the center of the rough circle of outer trunks. Intersecting limbs create wounds as they rub together and while they can in time grow together and fuse, it’s not a good idea. When the wounds are raw and green, bugs and parasites can get in and hurt the tree. The central limbs are too shaded by the outer ones to really produce flowers. Removing them also allows more airflow through the tree which helps minimize molds and pests.

Maggie surprised me and came over to help. In a STOLEN shirt! Shhh, don’t tell the Austin Lyric Opera! Macaroni was a HUGE help. We cleaned up most of the remaining sod together, leaving the front yard as clean as possible. It’s still an eyesore, but it’s as tidy as can be.



See, see, I WORK too! I don’t just delegate.



Tired, tired girl. I worked from sun up to sun down. I had about a 2 hour break for lunch and to run an errand, but even so, it was a very long day. I’m determined to make this project take as little time as possible. I want the garden to be ready to go for spring crops!! We’ll see.



Sunday Nov 16, 2008: Disembodied hands point out the petunias, pansies, and violas I planted in this bed. This is one of the newer beds and is still filling out. I thought some cool-weather color plants would be nice. Need to work with Trent on picture taking…






Another patch. So many patches. I so hope they take!! There really are pictures from when I first go the house where the whole yard has grass. I hereby pledge to not cut it as short anymore, if only the patches will take…

It’s sort of hard to see, but this is where the pinks and grasses from the crepe myrtle bed ended up. I think they’ll help edge the trashcan bed nicely!

I dug out the semicircle bed that had been under this crepe myrtle. I also trimmed it up and started cutting into the roots to get it ready for transplanting to Ed’s yard. I hope it works…

I finished cutting out the little swaths of sod that remained in various parts of the yard. I have a little more to do – on the sides of the house and in the little nook where the street sign should be, and around the mailbox. But the majority of it is done. Praise Jebus!!

11.8.08, 11.9.08, 11.10.08 - The beginning

On Saturday October 18, 2008, I took my sweetheart to Maker Faire for a good time. I got hooked at the first booth, one focused on “Permaculture” and gardening. There was a lot of information on replacing the front lawn with more productive plants, and a light went off in my head. I feverishly started perusing gardening books and other resources, and came up with a design for maximizing the square footage with vegetable beds, vining fruits and flowers, fruit trees, and a multitude of other delicious things. Three short weeks later, I dove in. The following pages chronicle the trip from resource-devouring, bland front lawn to a mini-eden…

BEFORE:

Saturday Nov 8, 2008: We used the Uhaul for hauling the sod cutter. That beast was HEAVY! I would like to personally thank the Home Depot at Braker and Mopac for confirming that they had a sod cutter, but not confirming that it was in working order. Because of this, we had to drive to Hutto to rent one that did work, causing my economical Uhaul to cease to be economical!

This is the view from the front door to the sidewalk. You can see over by the crepe myrtle that I had just started cutting the trench to set the sod cutter blade down into.

Saturday Nov 8 – Saturday Nov 9, 2008: The Weekend’s Agenda:
· Pick up Uhaul from around the corner at 7:30 sharp! – A-OK. No problemo!
· Rent sod cutter from Home Depot on Braker – Gah! I called ahead during the week to make sure they had a sod cutter. They confirmed – yes, they had one. I asked if I could reserve it, but they don’t allow reservations. However, they said that it’s off-season for sod cutting, so if I get there early, I was pretty sure to get it. Well I did – get there early that is. But I didn’t get the sod cutter because no one bothered to check to make sure it worked, and it DIDN’T. Thank goodness I had done my homework and knew that of the two other locations in Austin area that still do tool rental, the Hutto location had several sod cutters. I had seen them with my very own eyes. But that meant that my economical Uhaul truck was likely to go over budget…
· Cut out all sod in front yard – Done. With the bruises to show for it. Whew.
· Roll into neat piles on driveway and sidewalk – Roll, yes. Neat, not so much. Did the best we could.
· Patch bald spots in back yard – Got a solid start. Put in 3 or 4 big patches, moved more sod into backyard, sliced it into manageable sheets.
· Drop off Uhaul – Ouch! Blasted Home Depot slackers! Way over budget on the truck rental. Silver lining is that I learned from Home Depot that they now have trucks you can rent for $29.99 for the day, with no mileage surcharge, which is what did me in with the Uhaul. Good to know for future reference.
· BONUS! Since we had to go to Hutto for the sod cutter, we added “Buy a Hippo” to the agenda! But this means we had to be back in Hutto by 3pm at the very latest to return the sod cutter, because we had to pay for the hippo at a little store that closes at 3, then load it at Home Depot. – Done! Just made it, literally. Cut sod, showered, got dressed, and got to “Everything Hippos” in the nick of time!
· Figure out how to get rid of unused sod… - Done! Aronsito, our new neighbor, took a bunch, as did Calendario. I gave them what was on the sidewalks. I kept the pile on the driveway for my patching. I told them both that once I was done patching, they could have the left over sod. Yay!
· Re-measure front yard so I can do scale drawings – Didn’t get this done.

This is the view from the driveway to the front door. Again, you can see a trench cut for starting the sod cutter.

That’s my handsome man, walking across the yard there. Lots of the sod has been cut out, and you can see our giant “jelly roles”. The red thing in the shade of the crepe myrtle is the sod cutter. This is the “headlong view”, making it look much smaller than it is. It was about the size of a small motorcycle.

Again, Mr. Man, working like a dog on the project I promised him I’d keep him out of. What a guy! There’s the sod cutter. You can see a little better how big it is from this angle.

More of my honey, workin’. I really did work, I swear! I ran the machine and have the bruises to prove it! We just didn’t get a bunch of pictures of me. But I worked. Hard.

See, see?! I’m goofin’ here, but that’s about how this thing worked. I would have to lean on it, almost parallel to the ground, pushing the darn thing with all of my might to get it to start propelling itself. Sometimes Trent would have to get on the opposite and of it and grab it by that piece of metal and pull as I pushed. There was a lot of yelling. At the machine.

Sunday Nov 9, 2008: We finished with the blasted machine Saturday, but still had some small strips to cut out. Look at all of that sod on the driveway!!

Another angle. Isn’t it all very exciting?

This one from the front door, looking out onto the sidewalk. You can see we did the little strip between the sidewalk and the street, too.

More pics of Mr. Man helpin’ out. He broke out those left over strips with the rock breaker. He was AWESOME! What a trooper. Too bad his wife is such a nutjob!

I decided to use the sod from the front yard to patch the backyard’s bare areas. This is one of the bigger patches I got in the day after cutting the sod out. It’s encouragingly green!

Look, our new walkway!! Wasn’t it all worth it? Maggie thinks so!

Yep, it’s cardboard alright! We TOTALLY “upcycled”…

Monday Nov 10, 2008: Half of the driveway was piled shoulder-high with sod rolls, and I couldn’t park in the garage. Juggling cars is no one’s favorite task and I didn’t want to spend an indefinite amount of time parking behind Trent. So Monday night when Trent was at Man Night, I got out there and moved the sod. Roll by roll, I moved it a few feet to the right, onto the dirt yard. There was a ton of fill-dirt to move as well. But I and my trusty little rusty red wagon moved all of it. It probably took about 2 hours. Calendario and some of his friends were taking the sod I told them they could have. They offered to help me move the sod into the back yard, but I didn’t want that. I had already moved what I needed back there. I should have asked them to help me just move it off the driveway, but I managed it by myself. I was pretty excited, actually. That was no small feat, in the dark and all. There were TONS of these little black beetles that I’m pretty glad I couldn’t see too well, or I may not have been able to do it. They weren’t roaches, but they were just as gross. ICK!