Just a girl with a hammer

Category: Uncategorized

  • At least the financing was good

    At least the financing was good

    I am embarrassed to write this post. I did something very expensive for kind of silly reasons: allergies and my bad habit of reading too many police reports. I have a really hard time with allergies all year round but they get way worse in the summer, especially when we use fans to pull outside air in at night. Because I read too many police reports, I hate having windows open at night while we sleep. So I got air conditioning.

    Anybody who lives in Portland is snickering right now because our summers just aren’t that hot. We get temperatures over 100 degrees in the summer, but rarely for that long. It’s one of those things where I could have put that money toward better insulation and energy-efficiency but I went the energy hog route.  And now I have this big-ass monster to landscape around.

    At least it matches the house

    I can’t even claim that it will help with resale value because that doesn’t happen here. But I’m excited because I hate being hot. I melt in 85 degrees (now the Texas folk are snickering) and humidity makes me evil. But, oh, the things I could have done with that money. I could have refinished the wood floors (which does help with resale value) or built a deck out back (which would have made Greg really happy).

    I used Jacob’s, who gave me a nice discount for being a previous customer (they put in my furnace). They are great. I can’t recommend them enough if you’d like to do something equally silly in your home.

  • Join me in my pity party!

    Join me in my pity party!

    I feel like my life is in revolt. Two weekends ago we were working on a project and I ran out to get supplies and lunch. When I pulled up into the driveway my car door wouldn’t open. This is apparently a common problem with Hondas, one that typically happens when all of your neighbors and all of their friends, and all their friends’ friends are hanging out in their yards, so a thousand people can watch you climb inelegantly through the passenger side door.

    I bumped my head on our silverware drawer while touching up baseboard paint, got mad at the drawer and slammed it shut, which caused it to go in at a weird angle. When I bumped it in with my hip, the whole drawer front split.

    I went to Loree’s house the day after my car door busted to pick up retaining stones that she generously gifted me and I ran over her neighbor’s lawn trying to back into the driveway. Once we got the car loaded up I discovered I was in the car with a wasp. I thought, “Oh god, this is how it will end. Me, stuck in a car with a door that won’t open, discovering that I’m allergic to wasp stings.” I managed to get my gardening gloves on and the wasp moved out the window and finally Monday morning came so I could take my car to the mechanic. They fixed my door! And then my car got hit-and-runned while it was sitting in front of the shop!

    The damage is minor, but son of a bitch. So now it gets to go to body shop camp.

    The second sink that I installed in the bathroom, after I cracked the first one, is the tiniest bit taller then the first sink and twice the P trap popped off the sink’s drain stem because it wasn’t quite long enough. Installing the extension piece wasn’t that hard . . .

     
    . . . but that perfect hole we drilled in the shelf wasn’t roomy enough to accommodate everything.

    So I got frustrated and sawed out a clearance wedge. It looks terrific. No, wait, awful. It looks awful.

    I’m really just being a whiner. Greg fixed the drawer somehow, without my asking, which was awesome. My car will be fixed. My life is full of people who are very nice to me for no reason, like Sarah who gave me agaves, Loree who gave me landscaping materials and a lot of helpful advice, and Scott who drew up plans to help me landscape the front yard, just because he’s nice (!). It was a revelation to see how he plans out his garden. I’m incorporating a lot of what he drew up and I’m so grateful.

    And my Oregon irises really went bonkers this year. The blooms don’t last very long but there were so many this year! I think that’s the universe telling me to quit feeling sorry for myself, as these annoyances aren’t really big problems.

    Iris tenax

    Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that my car quits having problems. KNOCK ON WOOD.

  • More conundrums

    More conundrums

    I’m going to rename this blog Just a Girl With an Inability to Correctly Estimate How Much Soil/Compost/Chips She Needs. Ever since I ordered way too much soil for the raised beds I’ve erred on the side of less when ordering soil and amendments. I figured the pathway would call for 1/4 yard of cedar chips. Keep in mind, I didn’t measure anything, that just sounded like a nice number.

    I went to the wood waste place and discovered that the smallest amount they’ll sell you is 1/2 yard. I asked the guy to go light when filling the truck (he did), so of course it fell short of how much I needed when I got home.

    A little low

    I had to go back the next day and get another 1/2 yard which got the pathway to the level I wanted.

    Better

    Next up: adding drainage to the berm in the form of gravel or chicken grit, based on Loree’s instructions (thank you Loree!), getting more plants in, and figuring out a way to mulch the agaves with gravel or stone while mulching everything else with fine bark mulch. Any bright ideas out there? I think I need some sort of border to divide the two mulches but I don’t think bender board is going to cut it in this case.

    I think I might have to build a rock wall/perimeter where the red line is. So much for avoiding the purchase of stone right now.

  • I’m officially sick of digging

    I’m officially sick of digging

    Digging holes, that is. I will never be sick of Digging. Pam’s up there with Margaret Roach for me.

    I spent this weekend digging out the path in the front yard. Someday I want decomposed granite and beautiful stone edging, but for now we’re going to do cedar chips. I needed some sort of line in the sand to say “chips go here, mulch there.” I went to Home Depot and decided that I couldn’t stomach putting plastic edging in the yard. It will break down over time and if I’m going to have pathways decomposing I want them to be made of natural materials.

    So cedar bender board it is.

    Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take before this starts to break down? I’m guessing this winter mostly because I know I’ll step on it before then. This stuff shatters if you look at it wrong.

    I’ve also built up a bit of a berm behind the rain garden for agaves. An incredibly generous woman named Sarah contacted me, offering up her agaves in trade for something that wouldn’t poke her toddler. How great is that? I’m hoping the raised area will provide enough drainage that I can put them in the ground and not have them decompose in the winter. I have pretty good drainage in the front yard but I want to give the agaves every chance to succeed during the wet months.

    I know, my MS Paint skills are incredible.

    I saw an image somewhere of a giant agave paired with a fountain grass that looked incredible and I’d love to recreate it. I’m running into the problem where all the pretty grasses I see have pale pink blooms, which I think will look yucky with all the orange stuff I have planted. Of course, I have a metric ton of Sedum Joy planted, which will be pale pink, so I don’t know why I’m worried. My color compositions are always a mess.

    Now ask me about the time when I was pulling the hose across the driveway, forgot about the pavers I had stacked there, backed into them, then fell backwards over them into the roses. I hope one of my neighbors at least got a good laugh from it. Related note: do you know how hard it is to get mulch slivers out of your backside? Send band-aids.

  • Well, shit

    Well, shit

    I tried to move one of my black lace elderberries. It didn’t like that.

    Sambucus nigra ‘Great sadness’

    Say a prayer. Wait until you see what I did under the bathroom sink. I am failing left and right this week.

  • Hello, gorgeous

    Hello, gorgeous

    I can’t not get excited when Oregon iris blooms.

    Iris tenax

    Uh huh.

  • I am super pooped, you guys.

    I am super pooped, you guys.

    So I dug the hole, I planted the plants. I met a LOT of my neighbors. Working in your front yard is totally different than working in the backyard. I’ve lived on this street for three years and just now met people who live four doors down for the first time. I talked to people from their cars, on their bikes, as they walked their dogs, on the way to the bus stop . . . Why doesn’t that happen when I mow my lawn?

    Greg and I went to Home Depot Saturday morning with about half as much caffeine as we needed and bought half the supplies we needed to run the roof water from the gutter to the rain garden. Then we struggled to get the caps off the PVC solvent and got in a fight about where the wrenches went. It’s probably better not to go into it. Another trip back to the store and a couple of hours later and I was testing my connections.

    I tested the connections by standing on a ladder, holding a garden hose to the gutter, right next to our power line. Home improvement isn’t any fun unless there’s the possibility of winning a Darwin award. But at least nothing leaked!

    I mulched the mulch, I applied the rocks. We used all the scavenged rocks in the backyard rain garden so I bought river rock from the store and ended up with a bit of a dry river bed.

    I totally overplanted the rain garden but think of how fun it will be to move all those rocks so I can divide and move grasses!

    Anyone have tips for making that look more natural and less like the bottom of a fish tank? I know I need some larger rocks, for starters. In the rain garden I’ve got a mix of slough sedge (Carex obnupta), soft rush (Juncus effusus), dagger rush (Juncus ensifolius), and slender rush (Juncus tenuis). Here’s the rest of the breakdown:
    Click to embiggen
    I’m going to run a 3′ pathway through here and install some more plants on either side. Under the big window I have three New Zealand wind grasses (Stipa arundinacea).
    I know I want a black daphne (Daphne houtteana) and possibly a larger grass or three (probably Karl Foerster) for the other side of the mahonia. Other plants on the shortlist include variegated red twig dogwood (Cornus Alba ‘Elegantissima’), a Kleim’s hardy gardenia (fragrance!), and an alpine mint bush (Prosthanthera cuneata). There’s also a plan in the works for adding some agaves and I’d really love to add a dasylirion. Anything awesome I’m missing? I’m leaning toward evergreen, structural plants or things with multi-season interest so the front isn’t so barren in winter.
    It’s supposed to rain all week so we’ll see how the rain garden fares. I feel like the whole neighborhood is invested in it now; I don’t want to let them down.
  • Say yes to mahonia!

    Say yes to mahonia!

    My sister-in-law and I chatted recently about how we’ve both been reluctant to put Oregon grape in our yards. I see it in landscaping underneath big trees and it looks leggy and sad (not to mention it’s pokey and I’m clumsy, a bad combination). But then I saw this guy at Portland Nursery and I wanted to buy five of them. So pretty! So colorful! Evergreen!

    Mahonia nervosa

    I’ve placed it in the dry zone of the new rain garden where hopefully it will spread and stay bushy. I’m also plotting the inclusion of a Mahonia x media ‘Arthur Menzies’ for structure behind the rain garden. Any other great varieties I’ve been missing out on?

  • I think they leaped

    I think they leaped

    This past weekend the boy and I missed the 80 degree weather in Portland to fly off to Minnesota for a really lovely wedding. The weather wasn’t quite as nice there but the company was so good I don’t think anyone cared. Greg’s family is warm, welcoming, and hilarious. I didn’t want to leave.

    The garden went nuts while we were gone.

    My trillium, after two and a half years, finally multiplied. At this rate I should have a nice clump in about 40 years.

    I think it’s finally time to admit that I can’t cram many more ferns into this area. I’ll still try but I really shouldn’t.

    Hooker’s fairybells! Thank goodness I didn’t weed these when I forgot I planted them.

    Disporum hookeri var. oreganum

    Shooting stars bloomed. I still wish they were broad leafed starflowers.

    Dodecatheon hendersonii

    The black tulips all finally bloomed . . .

    . . . and the ‘Flair’ tulips and hyacinths went to the big wooden shoe in the sky. Hyacinths don’t go gently; these keeled over dramatically, all of them at once, and then turned brown overnight.

    I am very excited about what the hesperaloe is about to do. That stalk doubled in size while we were gone.

    Hesperaloe parviflora ‘Brakelights’

    And the dogwood out front started to blossom! This is the time when I get to put my money where my mouth is. Orange door, pink dogwood, purple maples. Oof.

    We’ve had trips and meetings and so many fun things eating up our weekends lately that I feel completely scattered. The front yard is still a mess, I need to install baseboard in the kitchen, and I really meant to rebuild the kitchen’s screen door this winter. Pretty soon warm weather will be back and I won’t have a screen door in the kitchen to usher it in.

    But we will have that swimming pool we’ve always wanted.

    I think I dug the rain garden too deep.

  • Roto-tilling is the worst

    Roto-tilling is the worst

    This took all day. It doesn’t look any different and yet everything hurts because I spent the whole day fighting with a roto-tiller.

    I’m so tired.