Category: Out of Doors

Mighty Mulch

Hold on to your hats, this is going to be one outrageously exciting post about mulch.

Okay, okay, that’s overstating it. A lot. The truth of the matter is, mulch makes things a lot more attractive, and I was a skeptic until recently. I thought it was just to look pretty, but after reading a surprising number of blog posts on mulch this time of year, I decided we better get on the mulch train! (The ticket for the Mulch Train was only $2.88 a bag, by the way, so I’m on board!)

Supposedly, mulching around your plants is supposed to lock in moisture and keep weeds at bay. Well, the weather is getting hotter so locking in moisture sounds A-OK to me. Weeds? Goodness gracious. I think we have more irritating creeping grass in our flower bed than the flowers that we want in there. As a side note: anyone studying Political Science and wants to know what is really meant by the term “Grass Roots” is welcome to come assist me with yard work. (Cliff’s Notes version: They aren’t deep, but they are made up of a thick, fibrous network, and very, very irritating to pull out.)

Anyway, after a couple of hours of pulling grass out of the flower bed (once ya get started it’s hard to stop attacking the ugly and annoying weed) we decided to run to Wal-Mart to get a couple bags of mulch. They had two types, cedar (which is what we got) and um, something else (that was much redder in color). Like I said, we got two bags of cedar since we’d only pulled about half of the bed.

We watered the now more-or-less de-grassed soil and the plants before putting the mulch down. There wasn’t a ton of rationale behind it, but since it claimed to lock in moisture we wanted to pre-moisten the area I guess? Then, While I continued to pull out grass around our California Poppies at the front section of the flower bed, Doug started spreading out the mulch. Then we watered again.

It smells fantastic! The red hue makes the plants seem greener than they were before, and my lawn smells like a Home Depot now. I really like it! As soon as we get the whole thing finished (I think we’ll do it on Friday) I’ll share a wide shot of the house and lawn for you. Maybe this infusion of a reddish hue will balance out the terra cotta roof? Mostly, I’ll be interested to see if it really does deter some of the weeds coming up.

Working in a yard is not as intimidating as I originally thought, and I might even miss it if we move into an apartment for our next place. However, I do only get the inspiration in “spurts” and am much more inclined to do it as a “fun” activity and not as an obligation. Maybe I’ll miss it, maybe I won’t. For now, it sure is fun playing in the dirt.

Bonus info: The plants we have growing in the “after” picture are, from left to right, rose of sharon, cosmos and zinnias, (grown from seeds!), pampas grass, an empty pot, elephant leaf (I think that’s what it is and it’s hiding behind the thick clump), another empty pot, and another rose of sharon. The clumps in front are all California poppies. 

Outside (May)

The last time I shared with you, dear readers, any glance of my home’s exterior was here, where I talked about grandiose backyard plans. We have made no progress on that front. Maybe on Memorial Day I will get a chance to go to Lowe’s and get prices for different kinds of decking and fencing. Then, with dollar estimates in hand, we can move forward.

The last time I touched on the front exterior was clear back in November, a few weeks after we’d painted the house an “oops” color. The color has grown on me since then. The fact that the yard is perking up and new plants in the flowerbed are doing well helps, too. Yesterday, after Doug had mowed the yard I stepped outside and got a good photo. The sunlight was pretty nice, too.

Mowing the lawn is something he loves doing, by the way, and does weekly. If it was my responsibility I would let it get scraggly and mow only every 2 weeks. Glad I’m not in charge of lawn care!

In March we planted seeds for poppies, zinnias, and cosmos. Two of our flowers have bloomed! I hope we get to see lots more flowers before we head off for our vacation in a few weeks. What I don’t want is for the flowers to all pop out while we’re gone and wilt before we get back!

Speaking of plants, the above photo does not do it justice. The plant we have in the little front door alcove is just about the most beautiful plant ever. And, according to my MIL, near impossible to kill, too! Anyone know what it’s called?

What I’d like to do ideally is to tie in the terra cotta roof tiles somehow. The house color, shutter color, and roof color do seem to play nicely together, but I want to work in more of that orangey red. Seeing how nicely the flowerbed is coming in (the poppies are kind of going overboard, in fact) doesn’t leave a lot of room for terra cotta potted plants, which would be the easiest thing to do. So any suggestions are welcome!

PS: It’s clear that I should stop editing photos on my laptop. I thought the pictures looked fantastic until I came back to write the post on a different computer (one without a broken “shift” key,) and they look terribly green! Yuck! Live and learn, right? It’s always something…….

PPS: Ashley at Any Lovely Thing has given me a Liebster award! More on that in a couple of days.

Backyard Boogie

Spring is absolutely, without a doubt, HERE! We had a heat wave a few weeks ago, and a week of rain, and believe it or not I think we’ve FINALLY seen the last of the fall leaves.

About the leaves: there are a ton of trees in our neighborhood, and with a warm winter and no heavy snows that sat on the ground for weeks at a time, the leaves just never seemed to go away. We must have taken at least five trips to the transfer station, with five bags of leaves each. (The nice thing is that they have a huge pile for leaves, sticks, and other green waste).

After the heat wave, we had a rainy week and have had rainy days since then. The problem with the backyard is the amount of sun it gets. The “back 40” as we call it, or the area behind the existing fence, gets plenty of sunlight:

The fenced-in space behind the house (near) stays pretty shady, which means that none of the grass we planted last year took off at all. Not even weeds really like it. Not compared to the more sunny spot (far), once you get past the kitchen’s wall:

Additionally, there is a slope from the base of the house down to the “back 40” which I estimate to be about a foot. I haven’t busted out Pythagorean’s Theorem or anything to figure out the real difference in elevation, but I do plan to so.

The solution we’ve come up with is a deck behind the house, covering the “mud pit.” It truly is a mud pit for several days after a good rain, and to let Mosey outside (while it’s in its “mud pit” state) we have to take him out on the leash in the front yard. In the middle of the night. When it’s chilly. Sad face. Back to the deck though. I’d like to see one built out of trex, the plastic “wood” that will not rot, crack, etc. It’s more expensive but the deck will last longer. Wood is fine, if kept up with regular maintenance. Seeing how the house is a rental owned by the in-laws, unfortunately it’s hard to tell how much effort and upkeep the future tenants will put into keeping a wooden deck nice. Flagstone would be OK if the ground was level, but I like the slope since it keeps water away from the base of the house and building a retaining wall would–you guessed it–retain water in all the wrong places. I think. (Not an expert over here. Just using logic).

Here’s what I dreamed up for the backyard on floorplanner.com. Note that there are lots of “extras” I’d like to see if we in fact owned the house or were planning on living here for, say, 5+ years. For instance, the additional flagstone patio set farther back (ideally with a meandering flagstone path from one patio to the other) and large shrubs and a garden area.  Since we don’t plan on ringing in 2017 in this house, they are just that: dreams. Sorry for the tiny text.

And just for fun, here’s a little 3D action.

And from the back:

Of course, I’ve posted before about how fun it would be to build a small structure or move in airstream trailer in the back half (where the imaginary flagstone patio) for additional indoor-outdoor living space. I mean, there is PLENTY of room. A backyard this big is kind of a trip for a California girl like me, used to teeny tiny strips of grass out back!