make a garden and landscape my yard better

three White Pines planted….Lombardy Poplar moved…hope it hangs in there.

Hubby will dig 5 holes up near the top of the fence for the trees so I can just plant them as soon as they come.

so fast!

Holes are in need of digging! Anyone wanna come over and help!!!

I’ll take pics when they are in!

this afternoon. I’m having them delivered and will have the holes dug this weekend. Then in the next two weeks, I will buy 5 more….then wait til the fall to plant the other four and the three blue spruce.

I need 14 white pines and 5 blue spruce. Treeland down the street wants like $69-89/pine and $190/blue spruce. Sooooo… I think I’ll only buy a few really big mature ones from there, and then I wonder where I can buy just 4’ or below for cheaper. I see a lot of bare root nursery tree places out on the net, but I don’t really know which one I should go with.

Then I can plant some of the shrubs in the fall, and the little stuff can come next Spring. I do have to enlarge the patio and pull all that stuff out to make the waterfall – but I think that’ll be next Spring.

And my mother wants my house to look more finished, more presentable, and even offered me money to help me complete the task.

Just this week I hired a retired biology teacher as a consultant on how to relandscape my yard. I’m on a corner so there’s a lot of area, and my goal is not to spend all my time gardening or watering. Plus I have a problem Monterey pine – it seems to be lifting up the foundation near the chimney, and that’s NOT a good thing.

We have a plan, more or less, and I just need to revise my request to the city to remove not one but all 3 trees in front, and replace them with at least 3 different ones. I’m trying to imagine the alternative of 3 birches vs. 1 persimmon or pomegranate on the corner. Either of these would work to provide summer shade and winter light, as the front of the house faces more or less NW, and gets lots of light in the summer.

And, I think I’m getting over my irrational thoughts that a more attractive front yard will attract too much unwanted attention to my house: this is about vulnerability to “bad guys”.

We’re also working toward painting the house. It’s currently dark red. I’m going for a cocoa with off-white combination, using deep purple (almost black) for an accent color (front door, porch supports, other?).

I did start a garden with much encouragement and help from my beau this past summer (2005). He designed and a colleague built raised redwood boxes with chicken wire on the bottom – I’ve since learned that a longer-lasting and better choice is welded wire 14 gauge (1”x1”) that will keep more critters out.

The tricky part is that my backyard abuts a creek and the night critters (raccoons mostly we suspect) had a feast on baby corn, beet greens (which meant that the beets didn’t grow bigger than a radish), and other treats.

We harvested a couple of squashes, quite a few Japanese eggplants, some tomatillos, not as many tomatoes as I expected, and some basil. The ornamental gourds blossomed nicely but never got fertilized. I learned from people more experienced than me that I can help the pollination process along using a feather to mix the pollen! Next year we’ll have completed the fence and hopefully will reap a bigger harvest.

Visit Treeland in the spring to check out prices…..

2nd NA:

Enlarge patio.

3rd NA:

Take out shrubs in front and replant in holding place.

4th NA:

Get out all the junk around patio.

for some big arse trees I can put right in the corner of my yard in front of my nosey neighbor’s kitchen window. That oughta solve her problem!

And this will the start of me being able to landscape better – in peace, in time, and on my budget – not hers!

Until…..the dreaded neighbor thing. I took such pleasure in working the land. I’ve got the horticulturist’s plans, now I just need to get out there and IGNORE HER! I so wish I lived back in the country where my neighbors didn’t watch me go to the bathroom and we didn’t rub elbows when we turned over in bed. Arggggghhhh!