Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Macro Monday #3
So....
Ow, she's a brick house... She's mighty, mighty.... Just lettin' it all hang out... Yeah, she's a brick house!
Ow, she's a brick house... She's mighty, mighty.... Just lettin' it all hang out... Yeah, she's a brick house!
Suddenly Seymour
So.... I've been so busy working in the front yard, I didn't notice what was growing in the back yard.
It's a "mean green mutha' from outer space." Fortunately, Travis won't go anywhere near it; otherwise, I'd be afraid he'd get eaten.
It's a "mean green mutha' from outer space." Fortunately, Travis won't go anywhere near it; otherwise, I'd be afraid he'd get eaten.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Make your Bed
So.... I've lately been in the mood to get some yard work done. I recently posted about the day I spent cleaning out the flower beds in front of the house. Here is a picture (I so should have taken a before) of the house yesterday morning.
Yesterday afternoon's project was building a planting bed around the mailbox. My dad made my mailbox post and installed it for me last August, and it's stately elegance demanded more than the rocks and weeds that until yesterday surrounded it. Yesterday morning I went to the local tack/ranch/farm store, but they were too busy helping the pushy, mean, old biddies with their plants (and I didn't like their selection), so I headed out on the interstate, to the closest Home Depot and Lowe's. I picked out my pavers and my mulch at Home Depot, but Lowe's selection of plants was much better. After loading 120 pounds of topsoil, 50 pounds of brick pavers, 6 cubic feet of cypress mulch, and sundry and numerous annuals into my sedan, I returned home (after stopping at the Chik-fil-A drive thru).
Do you know how hard it is to shovel off the top 5-6 inches of weedy soil? Well, it's not easy. Moving said layer of muddy, weedy soil is no picnic either. Unfortunately, I don't have a wheel-barrow (yet- it's on the list), so I used one of those little bitty seed-spreader things to tote bricks and bags and dirt from the carport to the front yard to the back yard. Anyway, got the dirt up, then I laid down brick pavers, amended the soil, planted, mulched, watered, and cleaned everything up! It was a chore! Here are some after shots.
I still have to work (adjust the brick border, mulch) on the beds at the front of the house, which I cleaned out earlier in the week. The next major front yard project is building a large planting bed around those three trees in the front yard (pictured below). I want it to be a shade garden with hostas and ferns.
Here's a tip. If you lay your bricks into the ground and have them even with the soil of the yard, you can run the mower right over them without having to weedeat around that planter bed.
Yesterday afternoon's project was building a planting bed around the mailbox. My dad made my mailbox post and installed it for me last August, and it's stately elegance demanded more than the rocks and weeds that until yesterday surrounded it. Yesterday morning I went to the local tack/ranch/farm store, but they were too busy helping the pushy, mean, old biddies with their plants (and I didn't like their selection), so I headed out on the interstate, to the closest Home Depot and Lowe's. I picked out my pavers and my mulch at Home Depot, but Lowe's selection of plants was much better. After loading 120 pounds of topsoil, 50 pounds of brick pavers, 6 cubic feet of cypress mulch, and sundry and numerous annuals into my sedan, I returned home (after stopping at the Chik-fil-A drive thru).
Do you know how hard it is to shovel off the top 5-6 inches of weedy soil? Well, it's not easy. Moving said layer of muddy, weedy soil is no picnic either. Unfortunately, I don't have a wheel-barrow (yet- it's on the list), so I used one of those little bitty seed-spreader things to tote bricks and bags and dirt from the carport to the front yard to the back yard. Anyway, got the dirt up, then I laid down brick pavers, amended the soil, planted, mulched, watered, and cleaned everything up! It was a chore! Here are some after shots.
I still have to work (adjust the brick border, mulch) on the beds at the front of the house, which I cleaned out earlier in the week. The next major front yard project is building a large planting bed around those three trees in the front yard (pictured below). I want it to be a shade garden with hostas and ferns.
Here's a tip. If you lay your bricks into the ground and have them even with the soil of the yard, you can run the mower right over them without having to weedeat around that planter bed.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Gardening Annually
So.... my yard was looking pretty shabby. Now the inside of my house is approaching "showplace," but the outside has been neglected. I had read that when you move into a new place, you really shouldn't do any landscaping until you've been there a year so that you'll know how your garden looks throughout the seasons. I took "no landscaping" to mean "no yard maintenance." I mean, yeah, I mowed it when I felt overwhelmingly embarrassed, but I haven't planted anything new.
Well, I've been wanting to put a planting bed around the mailbox. I thought it would add to the curb appeal (it would also make it easier to mow that area of the yard). I planned to work on that yesterday, but I got distracted by the planting beds in front of the house. I focused my attention to cleaning them up - they probably hadn't been touched for the four or five months before I bought the house. So now after about 18 months the time was right.
So, 7 hours, 13 bags of debris, 3 armfuls of branches, and 1600 mg of Motrin (in two doses, six hours apart) later, the planters in front of my house were cleaned out. A third of the shrubbery was dead - one side of the house has only three little plants left in front of it.
The pictures really don't do justice to the excruciating amount of work I did, it just occurred to me to show a pic of the front of the house - too late tonight.
At one point I got a little excited because I found this black and metallic tube-like object. I thought it might be some sort of Ancient Klingon Time Capsule or The Cosmic Key (raise your hand if you saw He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - the live action movie, starring Dolph Lundgren and Courtney Cox - I'll let you borrow my DVD if you promise to bring it back). No, it wasn't a Cosmic Key, a Klingon Time Capsule, or even a toy lightsaber - it was a stupid ole' broken bird-feeder (which was promptly disposed of in bag #12).
Well, I've been wanting to put a planting bed around the mailbox. I thought it would add to the curb appeal (it would also make it easier to mow that area of the yard). I planned to work on that yesterday, but I got distracted by the planting beds in front of the house. I focused my attention to cleaning them up - they probably hadn't been touched for the four or five months before I bought the house. So now after about 18 months the time was right.
So, 7 hours, 13 bags of debris, 3 armfuls of branches, and 1600 mg of Motrin (in two doses, six hours apart) later, the planters in front of my house were cleaned out. A third of the shrubbery was dead - one side of the house has only three little plants left in front of it.
The pictures really don't do justice to the excruciating amount of work I did, it just occurred to me to show a pic of the front of the house - too late tonight.
At one point I got a little excited because I found this black and metallic tube-like object. I thought it might be some sort of Ancient Klingon Time Capsule or The Cosmic Key (raise your hand if you saw He-Man and the Masters of the Universe - the live action movie, starring Dolph Lundgren and Courtney Cox - I'll let you borrow my DVD if you promise to bring it back). No, it wasn't a Cosmic Key, a Klingon Time Capsule, or even a toy lightsaber - it was a stupid ole' broken bird-feeder (which was promptly disposed of in bag #12).
Monday, April 14, 2008
Macro Monday #3
So....
this is a picture of the top of a glazed ceramic pineapple. It sits on my mantle. The wavy pattern behind it is the edge of a picture frame.
Note: Picture posted horizontally for artistic value.
this is a picture of the top of a glazed ceramic pineapple. It sits on my mantle. The wavy pattern behind it is the edge of a picture frame.
Note: Picture posted horizontally for artistic value.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Under the Table
So.... has someone you loved ever looked at you with one of those faces that said, "Please, build me a table under which my crate will fit?"
That may not be exactly how it happened - actually, I recently got a few pieces of furniture for my bedroom and wanted something to disguise the crate (at least a little bit). So.... I cannibalized an old coffee table and an old end table to make a new one.
The bedroom may not be the best place to work on this new construction...
Outside obviously is a more appropriate place for power tools. Check out my awesome Ryobi cordless power drill and freaking awesome Ryobi Circular Saw (thanks, Dad). I'm glad you ladies weren't there, or you all would have mobbed me, possessed by my brute strength and sweaty t-shirt.
One of the more fun parts was distressing the table (hitting it and scratching it up with a hammer).
Not a fan of that lighter wood tone (which wouldn't blend with the "Exotic Fusion Look" I was going for), I decided to paint the new crate table. First Berry Red spray paint (the Valspar Spray paint has a much nicer and wider push button - I highly recommend it) and then a streak or two of gold. I then followed up with a light smattering of Satin Black; it really didn't turn out like I expected, but I started getting a wood tone/grain effect, so I went with it.
The distressing just looks like scratches in the pic. It gives a lot more character in person.
The table in place. It looks pretty good and serves it's purpose well enough. Of course, as soon as I finished the table, Travis found a better spot to hang out.
That may not be exactly how it happened - actually, I recently got a few pieces of furniture for my bedroom and wanted something to disguise the crate (at least a little bit). So.... I cannibalized an old coffee table and an old end table to make a new one.
The bedroom may not be the best place to work on this new construction...
Outside obviously is a more appropriate place for power tools. Check out my awesome Ryobi cordless power drill and freaking awesome Ryobi Circular Saw (thanks, Dad). I'm glad you ladies weren't there, or you all would have mobbed me, possessed by my brute strength and sweaty t-shirt.
One of the more fun parts was distressing the table (hitting it and scratching it up with a hammer).
Not a fan of that lighter wood tone (which wouldn't blend with the "Exotic Fusion Look" I was going for), I decided to paint the new crate table. First Berry Red spray paint (the Valspar Spray paint has a much nicer and wider push button - I highly recommend it) and then a streak or two of gold. I then followed up with a light smattering of Satin Black; it really didn't turn out like I expected, but I started getting a wood tone/grain effect, so I went with it.
The distressing just looks like scratches in the pic. It gives a lot more character in person.
The table in place. It looks pretty good and serves it's purpose well enough. Of course, as soon as I finished the table, Travis found a better spot to hang out.
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