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« April 2009 | Return to the Home Remodeling Help Blog | October 2009 »
Here is a view that won't last, the crabapple in the foreground next to our deck, with the humongous lilac just beyond:
The fragrance is glorious in our yard. But alas, these flowers' days are numbered. Heavy winds have already torn off many of them today, but they are certainly going out in a blaze of glory.
When we were planning our kitchen remodel, one of the controversial elements was the corner window, and the corner kitchen sink that we put there as well. There was one main reason I put the window there and you can probably see what it is from this picture:
Those bright purple blossoms you see outside the corner window are some particularly fragrant lilacs. The bush is huge, probably 15' x 15'. Maybe more. I would open the windows to let in the scent, but here's the thing. My mom had suggested doing crank-style windows, but I wanted mullions, so we went with the sash type window. It is ungodly hard to reach them to raise the window, given their positioning in the corner.
However, I still love having the windows there. I just have to get up on a step stool or use a piece of 2 x 4 or something to push up the sash. The sills make a nice place for starting tomatoes, as you can see. Its also a temporary home for a couple of succulant house plants the kids begged us to buy them last time we were at Lowes.
So if you are remodeling your kitchen and thinking about putting in a corner window, I would say go for it. As far as the corner sink, bear in mind that you may get wet when doing dishes, and you will have to reach forward more than you would at other sinks. On the other hand, you get that nice span of countertop behind the sink to set your dirty dishes on when you clear the table, a little extra space that I find comes in handy on many occasions.
And if you have a nice view out the corner of your kitchen, all the more reason to put in a corner window!
For my foray into container gardening, I started with the urn in the front yard that my mom gave me a couple of years ago. I had never planted anything in it before. It stood empty on its pedestal near our front entrance (except for the time we stuck an artificial Christmas tree in it).
At Lowes' garden center yesterday, the kids were going gaga over the flowers, and started bringing me pots (before I convinced them not to touch anything else). I just let them pick out a few, and then got a few filler plants.
Here's what we got:
(1) Angelonia "Angel Mist"
(1) Dianthus
(1) Snapdragon
(4) English Ivy
(1) Spike
Here is the first container garden offering:
Like everything we do, this project was not without its follies. First, the shape of the urn is not conducive to planting things around a central plant because the edges are too shallow. (Maybe this is why my mom wanted to get rid of this urn?) I stuck them in anyway and topped off the soil with leftover seed-starting mix. However, seed-starting mix is not very absorbant of water poured onto it (works best when you're misting with a spray bottle) so when I tried to water the newly planted annuals, the water rolled off the top and mud streaked the sides of the urn. So I had to slow down, a lot, with the watering.
I suspect plants can grow in even a shallow planter, but we'll see if these guys make it. I hope so, it would be discouraging to have my first container gardening attempt fall flat.
UPDATE: After consulting the bequeather of the urn, I now know I should have planted geraniums instead of those "fancy" flowers... will be repotting tonight and hopefully working the other flowers into the garden at the foot of the urn. If time allows and if we can dig them up, we're going to try to relocate the rhodies from the front of the porch where they seem to be dying from being too close to porch foundation, put them nearer the urn. We'll see... I will post a pic when it's done!
Grass seed planting was the order of the day yesterday. Now that the oak tree was out, the stump ground to nothing, and most of the landscape fabric pulled out, we finished leveling the yard and planted grass.
Leveling the yard is a relative thing. We didn't have a roller or anything, and we weren't meticulous about checking the level. In fact, we wanted to maintain a slight slope in the grade away from the house for better drainage of water coming off the roof. My husband laid a long piece of pvc pipe from the part of the grass closest to the house that is about the right level, across the area decimated by the tree removal, and that gave us an idea of what needed to be filled in or knocked down. There were also several areas that were just hard-packed sand, like where the playset was before and places that had been covered up by branches for a long time. We also didn't really water that part of the yard last summer at all, so it all needed at least some topdressing with topsoil.
Finally it was time to plant the grass seed using a spreader. It went so quickly and easily that I wonder why we don't plant grass all the time.
We used something called a Midwestern mix of grass seed. It's supposed to be for sun and light shade. I think there's enough sun there for most of the day to qualify as light shade under the trees. I guess we'll find out!
Then my husband spread a type of mulch/fertilizer mix. It looks like pellets of rabbit food, and supposedly the mulch part of it will expand when wet, though I don't really see it happening. Now that we've watered twice.
Watering is the key to growing grass, from what I remember. We are planning to go 2-3x a day with watering, for an hour at a time. It's such a large area that we have to use both the sprinkler system and a separate sprinkler on a hose to catch it all. (The back part of our yard has no sprinkler system because there once was a swimming pool back there.)
This was sort of a band-aid approach to planting grass. To do it "right" we ought to have ripped out all the old sod in the areas around the grass-less areas, laid down a nice mix of compost and topsoil, leveled it all (maybe compacted somewhat with a roller) and seeded. But we didn't need to be that fancy, we just want a nice grassy spot for the kids to throw the ball around, or set up a volleyball net.
First the mighty oak was felled. And then there was nothing but a stump. And the stump was right in the middle of the yard. Right where we want to plant grass.
So today started with a call to a hardware store in a nearby town where we already know from previous experience there is a stumpgrinder to rent. Sure enough it was available. They changed out the blades on it, and my husband borrowed a stepvan from my dad's water softening business, and went to get the big beast, the mighty stump grinder.
It's bigger than a lawnmower or a snowblower, but operates sort of like one. It's just a heck of a lot longer in the front. And it's a good thing it is so long, because that way the operator doesn't have to be so close to the wood chips and sawdust that go flying as the machine operates.
Here is the stump grinder in action, having nibbled away about 2/3 of the stump:
It only took about 15-20 minutes for that huge oak stump. With another 30 minutes or so, my husband also had three other smaller stumps ground down below lawn level.
As you might notice in the above photo, there used to be a ring of crocuses (or part of a ring anyway) around the old oak tree. As they were buried with sawdust, I realized they would have to be moved to a new home if they had a chance of survival. So even though you aren't really supposed to move bulbs like crocuses in the spring (or so I understand), sometimes you don't have a choice. Here they are in their new home, around the crabapple tree beside the deck:
We'll see if they make it!
That was only the beginning of our fun, as we went on to try to level the ground where the tree used to be, as it had been in something of a burm of a flower bed. And what was under that bed but... what else... landscape fabric. I could get on my stump and give a speech against the evils of landscape fabric again, but I no longer have a stump to stand on.
I read today that a good time to plant peas might be when the soil temperature is around 50 degrees. I also read that if the overnight temps are in the 40's and it gets up to 55 or so during the day it's a good time to plant. Well, it's high 30s overnight now, and today it's in the mid 50s, though we've had warmer days recently.
Before I even read all that though, we planted our peas yesterday. I guess the timing was okay.
I had been wandering around the yard for a few days observing what little sunshine there was to determine if I would be able to get anything to grow anywhere. We have lots of sun on the back corner of our lot, but we also have a pretty good spot in the middle of the yard. There are a few trees going in the center of this plot, but it gets pretty sunny on one side. So sunny, in fact, that the hostas didn't like growing there. So I picked that little spot to plant some peas.
I highly doubt we will actually see any of those peas grow, because:
1) It was starting to rain and we were in a big hurry (the kids and I)
2) I didn't space them according to the directions plus they were either buried too shallow or too deep, depending.
3) (Probably more to the point...) The birds discovered them right away.
Our bichon mix dog is doing her best to keep wayward wildlife out of our back yard, but she can't chase away all the birds. (Haven't seen a single rabbit this year though.) Squirrels are also brave enough to try their luck with her, so they're probably enjoying the peas too.
Nevertheless, because it didn't rain for very long yesterday I decided this morning that if any of them happened to have a chance at growing, I should water them. So I hauled out the sprinkler for the first time today. The kids were delighted and despite it being 56 degrees out, they couldn't resist getting a few sprinkles on them.
Note the flag my 4 year old is holding. I told the Diggers Hotline people they should not even bother with flags back there, the kids think they're toys for them no matter what I say. Good thing for the spray paint they also applied liberally.
Well, if the peas fail to come up, I have a plan B. I still have a lot of peas left from the seed packet. I read today that many people sprout them under a damp paper towel for a couple of days before planting them. This apparently helps avoid the risk of them rotting in cold, damp soil. I guess it might discourage the birds too, but I'm not sure about that. Anyway, it's worth a try. It would be nice if some of them would grow, if for no other reason than putting some nitrogen in the soil back there.
The only thing worse than pulling weeds is pulling up landscape fabric! My only consolation is that at least we were not the homeowners who had this fabric put in. We inherited it from the previous owners. It is a really bad idea to use landscape fabric, and here is why:
1) It may keep weeds down for the first year or two, but soon it will gather dirt and/or composted mulch (that many people put on top of it) and create a lovely little weed bed.
2) Plants that you want to have grow there don't because they cannot get their roots down deep enough. They starve or dry out, unable to reach nutrients and water.
3) The landscape fabric keeps excess water from draining away.
4) Tree roots sprawl over top and through landscape fabric, making it really hard to dig it up or to plant anything in it.
I cannot think of any situation where I would deliberately use landscape fabric. What is this baneful material? Here's a picture of a small portion of what I pulled out today:
Note it is a plastic mesh, and it is intertwined with roots from every species of growing thing that was ever within 20 feet of it.
If you are cursed with landscape fabric under the flower beds in your yard, all is not lost, it can and should be removed. Here is how to remove landscape fabric:
1) Take a steel pronged rake and scrape away at the top layer of dirt (since some very nice rich soil has probably developed - composted - on top of the fabric since it was put there) or cut away at the sod that has overgrown the edges of the garden, until you find some fabric.
2) Give it a tug. If the top layer is light, it may come out relatively easily. If not, move onto step three.
3) If the fabric tears in your hand and you can't get much out, use a rake or a shovel to remove the dirt/sod/weeds on top of the fabric so you can get at more of it without the weight on top making it tear.
4) You can also use the rake to roll back sections of cloth and tear it out as you go, allowing the compost to go back on the (newly freed) bare topsoil.
5) A quick way to find more corners of fabric to pull on is to yank at the roots of trees or shrubs running through the cloth. Most often, as you pull them up they will bring up part of the fabric with them, giving you something to grab on to and pull, or at least letting you know where to start raking or digging.
Sounds fun, doesn't it? But the rewards will come! Finally plants will be able to grow there. Drainage will be better, and you'll likely even have some nice soil to start with.
If you're worried about weeds, I've been reading up on this (we have had a lot of weeds to deal with here), and there are ways to prevent most of them from ever coming up without harming the plants you desire to have grow. I am currently placing cardboard on top of areas we aren't ready to plant, and will cover this with bark mulch soon (since cardboard is not very aestetically pleasing). If we decide to plant something later, we will be able to dig through the cardboard and plant just fine. Cardboard turns into compost eventually. It is a natural solution, inexpensive, and you don't have to pull it up later! I'd much rather use cardboard than landscape fabric under my mulch.
