Daily Jots

The three of us bundled up last night and went for a walk. Britt and her dad were interested in burning calories after dinner, I was looking for a little bit of Christmas decorating inspiration. None of us are too keen on climbing up and stringing lights, and that seems to be all I saw last night. But I do have a small garden at the front of the house, so this candy cane fence might be one way of decorating our yard.

And from what I have been reading, the little fence looks as good during the day as it does at night, so that is a bonus. So, maybe a candy cane theme for the rest of the house might work as well?? I will have to see if I can find a wreath for the front door that features candy canes and maybe something for the garage doors as well.

I do like the idea of a theme though! Just have to decide what theme it’s going to be. So, I am one step closer to deciding! ;)

Well, I have to admit, it doesn’t look half bad. At least I don’t think so. My daughter the landscaper, just shook her head. “What were they thinking??” she muttered to herself. “Just look at the spacing!”

Actually I couldn’t wait for her to get home, so I could tell her the names of the plants. It’s not the real names, but the names that the guy planting told me. He obviously does not know his shrubs very well lol, but I didn’t know that at the time. So, I asked him what he was planting.

He pointed to a juniper… “that’s a pine over there.” And then he pointed to a bush with little yellow flowers on it. “That’s a bush with little yellow flowers, and those things over there, I don’t know what they are.”

Okay, I didn’t know what some of them were either, so I can’t fault him for that lol… even though he was planting them. I obviously didn’t bother to ask how to care for them. And oh yes, I think I mentioned that we are supposed to get a 12 foot pine tree for the front of the house. Actually, it’s a 12 foot cedar!

We haven’t received ours yet, but I’m looking at one across the street, and there is a big dead spot facing the street. Spring should be interesting around here!

Awww, I nearly have enough material for a book lol…

And I didn’t even see it arrive. My office faces the street and I don’t know how I missed the arrival of whoever built our “rockery”. To be honest, I knew that we were supposed to get one, but I had no idea what it was going to look like. I found out last night.

Britt asked casually over dinner what I thought of it and seeing that I didn’t know that it had arrived, I had no idea. That, of course, prompted me to leave the table and take a look…

It seems that someone had dumped two rocks… and not interesting rocks either… into our flower bed. I’m not sure if that is their idea of a rockery or not. But time will tell.

So how did I react? I started to laugh… which still surprises me. Those two lone rocks dumped onto the flower bed simply looked so pathetic, I could do nothing but laugh. It’s been that kind of week!

“Pleaching is not exactly garden variety as building strategies go, but it’s certainly among the most ornate, natural, and “green.” German landscape architect, Rudolf Doernach, used pleaching and other techniques in what he broadly called “biotecture” or “agritecture.” Like permaculture, these methods are set up to be largely self-sustaining, meaning that once the initial planting and early training of the branches is complete, the structures continue to grow on their own, requiring minimal external energy while providing maximum agricultural yield (as in the Fab Tree Hab, which is meant to provide food for the inhabitants). Permaculture is also about inclusion, accessibility, and mutual service between humans and the natural world. With proper knowledge, you should be able to grow your own house!”

Well, I never had a treehouse that looked anything like this, but I sure would have like to! This is more than cool!

Source

“Here’s a set of plans for a pair of bird feeders that can be made from the scraps left over from other jobs. Whether you’re feeding birds for the winter or attracting them to your yard in the spring, these feeders are a great way to recycle your shop scraps. This also makes a great project to share with a child. You can use the project to teach a child some basic woodworking skills with an emphasis on shop and tool safety.”

Well, chances are that maybe even I could put this together. It looks easy enough!

Directions

“If you live in an apartment, you probably don’t give much thought to grass. It’s just the green backdrop to your on-the-go life.

But as soon as you plop down a deposit on your own piece of suburbia, strange thoughts start running through your mind. In the suburban world, grass seems very important, and you’re consumed by its mysteries. Why does your neighbor’s lawn glow deep green, like a rolling golf course, while yours withers to a brown mess, overrun by weeds? What makes perfect grass perfect? What do you need to do to maintain a beautiful lawn, short of shelling out hundreds of dollars to a professional lawn care service? ”

Well worth a read and here is a heads up for those of you who might have just had sod put down in your yard. Don’t cut it for as long as possible. The neighbor across the street was anxious I guess and cut his before it was fully established. It now looks as if it has all burned off. According to Britt (our landscaper daughter) he shouldn’t have cut it until fall. It might look a little ragged near the end, but your grass will be healthy.

Grass Trivia
So when is the best time to feed your grass?

What mower is best for your lawn??

Well, we have half a yard with sod, but the front of the house is still… dirt and with the rain we have had at night, a lot of it has simply run into the drains. Not sure just how much we are going to have left by the time we finally get grass in the front. But that’s not the topic of this post anyway. Just this morning, I found this container pond idea and I just might try my hand at it. Well as soon as we have more than four patio stones to make up a patio. So much to do with a new house, but we are slowly getting there.

It was the directions for a container pond that I thought was kind of impressive. I think that I might forgo the fish because I don’t know what to do with them when winter hits. Winter… isn’t that a horrible word!! Anyway, if you want to make a simple little water feature for your patio, this might be just what you have been looking for. Certainly beats digging out a larger version.

Here are the directions

**I never thought of this, but the article even mentioned the fact that this could also be an indoor water feature! That being the case, I might even be able to have fish!

This morning I was awakened at 7:20 by the sounds of dump trucks and bull dozers in my side yard. Yes, it is our turn to have our garden graded. Unfortunately, I was in a deep sleep and not quiet ready to face the day.

So, I could either be in a mood for the entire day, or simply look out the window in anticipation of what lay ahead. I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but it actually looks as if it is going to be a gorgeous day! It’s quiet (other than the dump trucks) and it’s kind of warm and misty. And by the end of the week, I will probably have a garden area I can use.

I guess life is all about how you look at something.

“Hummingbird feeders make an excellent backup when your flowers are not in bloom. They are also great to have if you don’t have a place to plant flowers. Even if you do have flowers they will feed from feeders. And you can draw them right in close so you can get a real good look at ‘em.”

How these gorgeous little guys can exist on sugar water is beyond me, but they seem to do quite well on the stuff. I wonder what else they eat?? Okay I just looked it up…

“Nectar also contains very small amounts of protein, and sodium and potassium salts. However, hummingbirds get most of their protein by eating small insects for a short time each day.”

And yes, stretched out on a lawn chair relaxing and watching these gorgeous little birds is good for the soul. But I also slathered on the sunblock. I don’t even want to think about the sunburn possibilities this past week.

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