Our New Old House

I know it’s still a little ways off, but I have a whole list of projects, some of which I’d like to complete before winter, some that MUST be completed.

• Install gutter apron (PRIORITY ONE, ASAP)
• Finish landscaping wall
• Transplant hostas and ferns
• Make kindling bundles out of the sticks in the backyard
• Borrow a chainsaw and cut the logs that are too big for the wood burning stove
• Finish the shed or at the very least gather all the pieces and move them inside

Let’s see how many of these I can finish before the first snow.

[tags]wood burning stove, gutters, yardwork, retaining wall, landscaping, future plans[/tags]

Here’s the back gate in my back yard.  It’s in the middle of an incomplete fence which is not going to keep anyone out of anything.  But it is heavily fortified against anyone who’d try to wrestle it open through the trees that have grown up through it.  I guess the previous owners thought a heavy chain and padlock were necessary for the protection of the weeds in the back yard.

We’re going to tear this gate and fence out at some point anyway, so I wasn’t worried that I couldn’t find the key to that lock. But one day I was going down the basement stairs and the light was just right and something caught my eye:

It’s a Master brand key. I haven’t taken it down to see if it fits the lock yet, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

[tags]yardwork, previous owners, photos[/tags]

I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream performed in the natural theater in Greenwood Park last week. It was wonderful! But my favorite performace of Pyramus and Thisby will always be The Beatles performing it.

Meanwhile, I’ve begun building a wall myself! I’m afraid I’ll be pretty embarassed when my uncle, the landscape architect comes over to take a look at it, but it’s my first try so there’s lots of room for improvement. I don’t really know what I’m doing.

[tags]photos, landscaping, yardwork, retaining wall[/tags]

The trees in my back yard are surrounded by a lot of really random brush. One of them sort of looked like it might be a lilac bush that had grown beyond being productive. Sure enough, this spring my suspicion was confirmed and way up high there are a few lilac blossoms. I’m going to trim this bush all the way down this fall and hopefully train it back into being a nice looking lilac for next year.

[tags]yardwork, photos, lilac, bushes[/tags]

How’s that for a family friendly title?

Spring is in full swing around here and I’ve got the photos to prove it!

I don’t have much time for gardening this summer, so in the places where there have been unsightly weeds growing, I just dug up the ground and sprinkled a bunch of random wildflower seeds. We moved into this house at the end of summer last year so we never got to see what kinds of things would come up in the springtime. Not really knowing what would come up, or if they even would, I’ve been gratified to find that there are actually some sprouts coming up! It’s nice to know that my touch does not automatically mean death to all plants, just indoor ones. (I can’t seem to keep houseplants alive!)

I’m trying to remember just what I planted where, so if you notice my identification of certain sprouts is off, please don’t mock me too harshly.

These two flower pots were left behind by the previous owner. They were growing some pretty serious weeds when we moved in last fall, so I just cleaned them out and planted marigolds and alyssum.

Some ferns came up in one of the front flower beds, and I like ferns, so I let them stay. They seem pretty happy there.

Anybody know what this tall, shooty thing growing in my back yard is? It’s probably a weed, but it just looked so different from all the other weeds that I thought it might be something important.

There’s a good chance that some of that undergrowth is poison ivy.  I haven’t been itching from walking through there yet, but lots of people in this neighborhood have mentioned having poison ivy sprouting up in their yards.  My mom got a horrible outbreak last year when she was clearing some dead grape vines and there was some poison ivy intertwined with them.

I’m blogging like a crazy person this week, so check back often for more photos!

[tags] yardwork, photos, weeds, ferns, marigold, flower pots, wild flowers, poison ivy[/tags]