Monday, October 27th, 2008
I think that’s a myth. There’s no such thing. I’m sure people go out to do a big cleanup every Autumn…you know the kind, when the kids jump in the huge piles of leaves, but it’s unrealistic to think that you don’t have to keep cleaning all season long.
I have already done two big cleanups. Each time, I blew out all the gardens, I mowed the lawn and sucked up all the leaves. I also got up all the twigs off the grass. I am betting that I have to do this at least one more time, if I want to get things really clean.
You know, I guess I can just forget about the whole thing and wait until Spring. That would be a problem because, besides having the place look bad, trying to get wet leaves up the Spring time is a much more difficult task.
All I have to say is I love you Stihl and John Deere. If I didn’t have this blower and ride-on mower with the bagger, I would be up…well, in a very annoying position. I couldn’t imagine trying to rake this entire yard and then mow it with the push mower. I suppose I could do it, but I really wouldn’t be doing too much else in life because of the time it would take.
Can a guy get grass obsessed?
I believe so.
Hey, I’m not the only one out there who cares about the grass so much. Do you know how much money people spend on lawn care every year? A whole lot, that’s how much. Those nice even green lawns don’t come cheap. The trick is to get them even and green in the first place. Keeping them that way is the easy part. When you’re just a novice like I am, the learning curve can be kind of steep. My main problem was identifying the problem. Now that I know what’s going on, I can correct it. The bad part is that it’s probably going to take until next Autumn to get things looking good. That makes for a very long Spring and Summer for a guy who sits on the front steps looking at the grass.
You really should see it though. When I am done driving around like a crazy man sucking up those leaves, the whole place looks like I just vacuumed it. It’s so cool. I get such a kick out of these toys.
Even my brother got a nice back-pack blower. He couldn’t deal with his 10 year old Craftsman hand-held, so he went out and got a big one. He told me just last night that he got done in 5 minutes what would have taken an hour with the other one, if it did the job at all. Hey, when you have a lot of leaves…
Sky at dusk
I know why people say that Autumn is their favorite time of year. It is simply spectacular. Even when many of the leaves are already off the trees, nothing beats a nice warm Autumn day.
We have been doing a lot of hiking and walking. Sometimes, I just stop in the middle of the trail and smell the air. There are only certain times of the year we can do this and I like to enjoy it. There is nothing like it.
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Posted in Autumn, Hiking, Home Improvement, Landscaping, Spring, Summer, Trees & Shrubs | No Comments »
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
We had a pretty large Red Oak tree in the front yard. Just large enough to take out the front porch if a good wind came though. Pretty gusty winds hit during the winter and head straight for the house. This would not be a major concern, but there were dead roots on the backside of the trunk. You could see them going right into the dirt. I felt that the dead roots, the height of the tree, the wind direction and the strength of the wind warranted that the tree come down.
We hired a local tree service and they were more than happy to take the tree down, cut up the wood (and leave it here) and chip the brush for $400. We went on a 3 day vacation and when we came back…gone. I rolled the firewood to the side of the road and within an hour, someone was taking it. People love firewood around here, especially since it is around $200 a cord now and I was giving it away for free.
Above is the only photo I could find of the existing tree. It was taken through a screen (obviously).
So, after we had the tree removed, it was just killing me to look at this ugly stump in the front yard. I got a great idea from the neighbors and cut out a kidney shaped mulch bed.
Ok, now that I made this beautifully shaped mulch bed, how the heck was I going to get the stump lower, so I could cover it up with the mulch I was going to get. Well, just as luck would have it, I purchased a brand new Stihl MS 250 with a 16″ bar a week earlier. This is a pretty good homeowner’s saw. I am used to the professional ones, so I know how to really work them. This one likes to bog down when it gets hot, but if you keep it nice and steady, it is a good strong saw. I began cutting the stump lower…
…and then the saw started getting hot, and so did I. I got half way through and started smacking the stump with a sledge hammer to break the half that was already cut off. This made cutting the second half easier. This size stump really calls for a larger saw, but I had confidence that I would get this thing cut…and I did. Man oh man…wood near the stump of a tree is very dense and hard to cut.
Then, the next Saturday morning Paul came over and we ran down to the local mulch dealer and picked up a yard of mulch to cover the entire area with. It was just enough mulch for now, but I will be getting another yard in the spring to make it nice and thick.
So for about a month or so, we kept it like this and the neighbors started to wonder. The area is pretty close to the road so people see it when they walk by. We went to Lowe’s and picked up a few Rhododendrons and some Midget Arborvitae, or Thuja to place as a back layer. The Rhododendrons will grow pretty large, but the Arborvitae will only grow to approximately 3′x3′.
We also placed a few random plants on either side, as we got them. We like to mix them up to keep things random…it’s a great look to have. Also, we are getting these plants at towards the end of summer, so we really have no idea what the will look like when they bloom in the spring.
Some of them are difficult to identify, but I know a few. We are getting most of them from a friend. In the photo above there are Easter Lilys, Sage and Hydrangea. There are a few more, but I have no idea what they are. As you can see, I used the shallow, smaller potted plants for directly on top of the stump. I will be sure to keep them watered until I get that second load of mulch.
In the photo above, we have a Butterfly Bush, some sort of a purple bush with little prickers on it, Sedum Autumn Joy and another bush that I will try to identify later. We left the center of the garden empty because we ordered a variety of 150 bulbs from Brecks. 100 of them are going to be planted in the center spot.
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Posted in Gardening, Home Improvement, Landscaping, Trees & Shrubs | 1 Comment »
