Just a girl with a hammer

Tag: garden

  • I made you a gravel wasteland

    I made you a gravel wasteland

    Sod removal happened this weekend, which is how our side yard went from this . . .
    . . . to this.
    We used YardRents again, who are great. The YardRents guys showed up promptly and showed us how to use the sod cutter. They knew it wasn’t going to take us very long, so they didn’t even bother to leave. One of the guys snapped photos of the garden (he was so fired up, which was wonderful) and chatted with me about the evils of Round Up while Greg zipped through removing the sod. It took 30 minutes to remove the area along the driveway and the side yard where we bumped out the fence.
    Sod cutters are the best. 

    The YardRents guys packed up and were on their way and we got work rolling up the sod and transferring it to a pile in the driveway.

    Then Greg leveled and regraded the soil so water will hopefully move away from the house, instead of toward it. We also removed the plastic that had been layed down years ago. A previous owner must have tried to keep water away from the house by laying down plastic sheeting and planting sod on top of it. I don’t know why this seemed like a good idea but I’m sure a future homeowner will wonder why I put all this gravel in. Ugh, gravel?! Why not some nice lawn?

    I headed down to Oregon Decorative Rock and picked up some gravel. I love gravel pathways. I love the sound they make and their persistence. I love the way your wheelbarrow sinks into the gravel, making it impossible to move, pissing off your boyfriend. (I didn’t believe Greg when he warned me that would happen.) I really wanted gravel in this part of the yard but I wasn’t sure how to handle the transition from the cedar chip pathway that will run through the front yard, and the transition to lawn in the backyard.

    Neither of us are happy with the state of the side yard right now because it’s a wasteland of gravel. Grey house, grey A/C unit, an eight feet wide expanse of grey gravel. Ultimately we’re going to set up the rain barrel and a stock tank for tomatoes against the house, so it should only feel like five feet of gravel instead of eight. I popped some colorful pots over here (and that stupid wheelbarrow) so we’ll have some color. I’m hoping to train a vine along this fence and Greg has plans for a trellis of some sort atop our fence. I’m hoping to find something vigorous enough to cover the fence but restrained enough not to pull it down. Any suggestions?

    Currently gravel gives way unceremoniously to lawn. My thought right now is to ease the transitions with rock. I was so tired and sunburned by the end of the day that I couldn’t handle a third trip to Oregon Decorative Rock. So I plopped it down and called it good.

    But I’m fuzzily thinking something like this. Behold, my amazing MS Paint skills!

    Eh, I don’t know. Next I need to dig down the soil here (it will go in the bottom of the new stock tank), edge the plants with rock, then put down cedar chips.

    And then we still have a fair amount of sod to remove by hand, underneath the dogwood’s drip line where I was too nervous to use the sod cutter. But I can see the finish line with sod removal!

  • Limping toward the weekend

    Limping toward the weekend

    I acquired a Mukdenia rossi ‘Crimson Fans’ from Peter (The Outlaw Gardener) and I thought the name was funny. It’s not very red! I thought.

    But then it started doing this.

    If every plant was this aptly named I might be able to remember some of them. Of course, I was trying to remember the word “styrofoam” this week (we were talking about insulation) and I kept saying “chloroform” and then when the person I was talking to looked at me like I was insane,  I said, “You know, the stuff they made coffee cups out of that was so bad for the environment?” They eventually figured out what I was talking about but there’s probably no hope for me.

    This felt like a very long hard week so I’m curious to see how much vocabulary I’ll retain by Saturday. One last friendly reminder that Scott, Loree, Jane, Ann, and I will be talking about garden blogging at Joy Creek tomorrow at 1pm. It should last less than an hour and it’s free with no registration required. Just stop by and join in the conversation!

  • A gate. Finally.

    A gate. Finally.

    Since we sunk the fence posts a few weeks back we haven’t progressed much. I hung the stringers and outer boards on two of the sections but couldn’t move further until we tore out the old corner post.

    That post was almost completely rotted through and hosting quite a community of insects. Two summers ago, when I replaced that fence, I reused the post, feeling that it would hold up until we were ready to extend the fence, and it did.

    This weekend we had to dig the old one out, re-sink a new post, then finish off the fence and gate. I took the boards off the front and watched in horror as gobs of insects emerged from their nest inside the post. The post lifted right out of its concrete footing and I asked Greg to get it as far from the house as possible, in case the insects I saw were termites. He dropped it right next to the house and I swear I’ve never wanted to marry him so badly, just so I could divorce him.

    I flipped out, he moved it, we were cranky as hell with each other for a few hours. Normal home improvement stuff.

    Next we had to dig out the old concrete, which wasn’t too bad. We dug all around, then wedged a board under the lip, like a lever. Greg stood/bounced on that while I cranked with the pickax from another direction. And now we have this sweet concrete phallus to use as garden art!

    This was an interesting project because I have built all the fences thus far, in some cases without any help. All of a sudden Greg had opinions on the building, and he was telling me to do things.

    Anybody who knows me in real life knows that shit don’t fly. Unless we’re in an emergency and you’re trying to talk me through landing the plane or delivering a baby in a taxi, don’t tell me what to do. Anyway, I am the worst but we got through it. Greg is the engineer so he designed and prepped the gate. We hung it and leveled it (definitely the hardest part) and got it about 95% done.

    Now we need to cut off the tops of the fence posts, rip down some narrower slats (we don’t own a table saw), and stain and seal the boards.

    I’m reusing some of the old boards to close the gaps on our back fence. As the boards have expanded and contracted in the sun and rain, the gaps have grown and we can see quite a lot of our neighbors’ yard (and they ours).

    I’m worried we’ll forget to close the bedroom drapes and give our neighbors’ kids an accidental anatomy lesson. So up the boards are going. They are wonderful neighbors but I’m happy not to see them through the fence.

    But the thing that’s making me happiest of all is the new gate, which means we have TWO entrances to our yard. We can complete one continuous loop through our front and back yards. Extending the gate also makes our backyard feel bigger and more spacious.

    Before

    Now

    Next up: sod removal and the acquisition of a hammock to better enjoy the fruits of our labor. And maybe some sort of screen to block the view of the AC unit.

  • A funny thing happened with my High Country Gardens order

    A funny thing happened with my High Country Gardens order

    Well, my High Country Gardens order finally came. FedEx left them in full sun despite the cautions all over the boxes to leave them in shade. Thanks for nothing, FedEx! There were three boxes, which seemed like a lot for 15 plants.

    (That’s the sound of foreshadowing you hear. It’s similar to the Law&Order bong!bong! noise.)

    The plants took a week to arrive so they were really sad and wilted. I opened up the first box and my 15 plants were there. I glanced over at the other two boxes, wondering what the hell was in them. Then I realized that the box I had just opened had a SECOND layer of plants beneath the 15 I’d already pulled out. American Meadows, who has been struggling under the weight of their new acquisition, had sent me someone else’s order. A big order. I panicked and texted Scott and he told me that the plants would never survive the trip back to HCG and to unwrap and baby them along with the others. They were mine now.

    The packing slip included only the plants I’d ordered. There was no note saying, “Sorry your order was so bungled and late, here’s a couple of plants on us.” And who sends 50(!) plants as an apology? I unwrapped and watered all the plants, which took over an hour. Then I started reading up on what they’d sent me.

    21 Salvia sylvestris ‘Blue Hill’. You read that right; 21 of the same salvia.

    5 Dalea pupureum

    4 Ratibida columnifera ‘Yellow’

    9 Gaillardia (two colors)

    12 Stachys coccineus ‘Mountain Red’

    I’ve called and called HCG, trying to get a rep so I can alert them that a customer probably got a shipment notification and never received their plants. I would be so upset if that happened to me. As before, no one answers the phone and their voicemail box is full. I spent an entire day putting plants in the ground, hoping they’ll survive. It’s a good thing I have so much empty space in my garden. Have you ever received an order that wasn’t yours?

  • Silvery buns of goodness

    Silvery buns of goodness

    Cotula hispida is described by Xera as “silvery buns of goodness.”

    Very aptly named.

  • Mo’ beds, mo’ problems.

    Mo’ beds, mo’ problems.

    Last summer Loree gifted me the retaining blocks she removed from her yard during the great Bishops Weed expurgation. They sat in a pile in various areas of the yard, collecting spiders and looking terrible. My ultimate goal is to replace all of the retaining stones in the backyard with the same stone I used on the new shade bed but I spent way too much on plants last month and it’s just not in the budget. I should use the free material I already have, right?

    I started out a few weeks ago by dry fitting the blocks into roughly the area I wanted. Seeing that this corner was actually incorporated with the rest of the garden made me so happy. All of a sudden I realized how much this corner has been bugging me. But then I realized that I wanted to bring the line out a ways, so I had to remove some sod. And then I accidentally removed too much sod. I think I’m getting too good at it.

    Side note: North Portland soil is much sandier than other parts of the city, where they have thick clay. Every time I get a plant from Scott I realize all over again how lucky I am, soil wise. His soil is sticky and unmovable and when it dries out it’s hard as a rock. I’ve been able to see my soil improve dramatically (and quickly) by adding mulch every spring and compost every fall. My soil was badly compacted but I have almost no clay. I’m very lucky. The downside of North and NE Portland is that it was built atop a giant anthill. I could tell you horror stories of friends discovering ant infestations in their water heaters, so huge that grad students were brought in to study it.

    Why am I telling you this? Because I discovered that every ant in Portland is living in this bed. I’ll poison them if they come inside the house but out here they can do what they want. But, ugh.

    Anyway, this area has been looking really good with all the ferns coming up, so good that I’m thinking about moving them.

    I’m thinking about moving them forward and tucking another ninebark between the cedar and the pieris. ‘Diabolo‘ grows insanely well in the northwest, sometimes reaching twenty feet (or so says Dan Hinkley). I don’t think it would get that tall in a dry shady spot like this, but some height would be appreciated here. Or will the dark foliage just disappear in this area? I’m also considering a Mahonia ‘Soft Caress.’ Am I missing another shrub that would be good for this spot? Or should I leave it as is?

    I’m badly in need of more plants to fill out this bed but I need to stop for a bit and let my wallet recuperate from April’s shopping sprees and my trips to Rare Plant Research and Wind Dancer Garden. I thought creating this bed with donated stones would be thrifty but somehow I need to go shopping again.

    Get opinionated on me. You all have such good suggestions.

  • I finally achieved what most gardeners can do in their sleep

    I finally achieved what most gardeners can do in their sleep

    At last, my clematis bloomed. People in the northwest have clematis vines that are threatening to eat their houses. They are incredibly easy to grow, unless you are me.

    I have no idea what kind it is, as I planted it almost four years ago. I moved it a few times, then finally settled it next to my ‘Moonlight’ climbing hydrangea. Everyone tells me that ‘Moonlight’ needs no trellis and can climb anything but I seem to have acquired a specimen with a lazy mutation. It can’t climb without assistance, so I have jury-rigged a system. The Corokia cotoneaster in a pot next to them is doing wonderfully. I think maybe I’m just vine-ally challenged.

  • I’m done with High Country Gardens

    I’m done with High Country Gardens

    I placed an order with High Country Gardens back in March. The plants are intended to go in the entrance to my yard, which is currently a weedy, awful mess.

    They charged my card at the time of the order, which is fairly unusual for mail order nurseries (in my experience). I should have received my plants the week of April 15th. That week came and went and my plants never arrived. I called them and was told that I was “in shipping” and that my plants would go out the following Monday. But no plants arrived.

    I called again and they told me that Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’ had held up the order. It would ship as soon as that was ready.

    Still no plants arrived.

    I got a mass email saying that their winter had been cold and their stock wasn’t where it would normally be at that time of year. My plants would ship the week of May 13th!

    Then I randomly received an email last week stating that they would be unable to fulfill two of my plant requests (Lonicera reticulata ‘Kintzley’s Ghost’ and Gaillardia ‘Arizona Sun’) and they were refunding the money and crediting me $10 to use at the nursery.

    I still have no plants. At this point I want to cancel my order completely but when you call you get put through to a voicemail box that is full and no longer takes messages. When I tried to cheat and choose the phone option to place an order I still can’t get a live person. It’s like they just disappeared, taking my money with them.

    I’ve placed orders with HCG and had no problems in the past. Now that they’ve been sold to American Meadows the whole operation seems to have gone to shit. I don’t think I’ll be using that $10 credit. Buyer beware.

  • I want an oompa loompa NOW.

    I want an oompa loompa NOW.

    I have a number of projects that I want to take care of this summer. A lot of them hinge on other projects, like bumping out the fence on the west side of the house. This area, which I call “the lab,” has been taunting me.

    I’m planning on removing the sod here, possibly edging the plants in stone, then replacing the sod with cedar chips. A couple of times I’ve even signed into YardRents and ordered a sod cutter, only to cancel it five minutes later. I want to remove the sod from the west side of the house (where the expanded fence is going in) and it makes sense to do that at the same time that I remove it here.

    Then I can list the sod on craigslist once and deal with YardRents fees once. That’s the smart thing to do but I want to remove it NOW. It’s riddled with weeds and it serves no purpose. We don’t bag our lawn clippings, so we end up with dead grass scattered all over the driveway and sidewalk, which drives me crazy.

    But once we get this removed we’ll have almost no lawn in the front yard. Huzzah! I think I’m going to save Greg so much time mowing the lawn that he’ll have extra time to rub my back. Back me up on this.

  • Garden bloggers’ bloom day May 2013

    Garden bloggers’ bloom day May 2013

    My garden is awash in purples, blues, and pinks right now.
    Iris tenax

    Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’

    Sisyrinchium ‘Devon Skies’

    Rhazya orientalis

    Parahebe perfoliata

    Allium christophii
    Allium aflatunense ‘Purple Sensation’ and Syringa pubescens spp. patula ‘Miss Kim’

    Geranium ‘Rozanne’

    Senecio stellata ‘Giovanna’s Select’

    Echium candicans ‘Star of Madeira’

    Anchusa azurea ‘Alkanet’

    Verbascum bombyciferum ‘Arctic Summer’

    Acer palmatum varr. atropurpureum ‘Bloodgood’

    Effing dandelions

    NOID Rose

    Aquilegia caerulea ‘Krystal’

    Vancouveria hexandra

    Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Dart’s Gold’

    Sambucus nigra

    Heuchera ‘Hollywood’

    Lupinus regalis ‘Thomas Church’

    Lonicera sempervirens ‘Major Wheeler’

    Sisyrinchium bellum

    Nicotiana alata x sanderae ‘Crimson Bedder’

    Lewisia

    Lewisia

    That Verbascum is my favorite right now. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting. It’s finally the month of her dreams!