Fixing the linden and other spring maintenance

Quarantine revives the blog!

Five years ago, we hired a tree trimming service to do some basic pruning. They ended up topping my favorite tree.

Today we spent the day trying to fix the damage. 

As per usual, I always forget to take a before photo. This is after we'd already done some basic pruning along the bottom third. But you can see toward the top we have some competing laterals again that need to be taken off.

Here she is after! Look how gorgeous and defined that central leader is.

Here's the amount we ended up taking off in total. I felt we could be a bit more aggressive, but H is more conservative than I am.

In other news, we had 2 cu. yd. of soil delivered for the garden beds. And now G and C are big enough to help!

I also did some pretty significant pruning of the dogwood. Again, forgot a before photo, but you can kinda see how weedy it was last year.

I also cleaned out the old raspberry canes to get our patch in shape.

Finally, the boys spent part of the afternoon making some art.

Operation Game Storage

Being giant nerds, my family has a ton of board games. Back when H and I were first married, it was how we spent most nights - either tabletop games or computer games.

As we've added children, our game collection has grown even more.

It was to the point where we had no more storage upstairs, so we had half our games stored in the basement and half up here. Which just felt silly.

About a year ago, I suggested to H "What if we buy a tv console and repurpose our tv cabinet as game storage?" and he was on board (yes, it took a year to find the replacement console).

Once we'd purchased the replacement, it was time to figure this out. First was deciding on the backing to use, as the upper cabinet was not enclosed in the back. We ended up with 1/3" thick sheet from Home Depot, cut to size. Instead of staining, we covered the finished side with peel-and-stick wallpaper from Target.

The cabinet required some disassembling, removing the stabilizing corners on the upper cabinet.

Once all that was done and the finished side covered, we placed the panel on the back to make sure it was flush and to figure out placement so it would be level.

Once we were satisfied, we glued it down and weighted it overnight.

The next morning, we stapled the backing on.

Cabinet with the back and the finished gold wallpaper.

Next step was to re-install the upper doors and make sure they closed properly.

We positioned the cabinet in the corner and then set about sorting thru the games to store them.

Most of the games ended up in here now. Eventually we're planning to add a shelf to the upper cabinet, but need to figure that piece out a bit.

A handful of games still reside here, but I expect them to move over soon enough.

Start of June

Added some new perennials to fill in gaps in the landscaping. Also finished planting all the seeds and veggies for the garden.

Full plan includes all the usual things. We're trying broccoli again this year.

More full-shade native plants for under the linden

The shrubs are two varieties of St. John's Wort. Then two native types of plants.

This spring is being awful

It's been consistently cold and dreary on the weekends. But I finally got the garden beds all marked out today.

After the next round of rain, I'm probably going to try and get some seeds in the ground.

Bed expansion and more yard clean up

May is an exhausting month in the yard. The ground has finally thawed enough to start digging. Which means re-edging and my continual plot to further expand the ingress of the west fence bed into the yard

 I was able to get it out probably another 6" in some spots.

 It also means it's time to rototill the garden beds in preparation for planting seeds

We are also planning to create a new bed around our deck and utilities, largely because the dogs keep digging here. Little Miss Excavator has had to have her paws rinsed off at least 5 times so far this spring.

Finally, I snapped a photo of momma or poppa bird taking off from their nest in search of more material

It'll be May!

The snow seems to have finally, FINALLY stopped. To wit, this was late April:

But a few days later, we discovered this: Bird nest tucked on top of our pergola post! So Spring has truly sprung.

Spring perennial clean up

It's that time of year when I cut down and remove all of the winter garden perennials that we left up for ecological purposes.
Grasses and canes removed from the west fence bed

 Canes removed from the bean bed

 Year 2 raspberry canes removed and trimmed.

 Island bed all ready for its pollinators!

 Buds on the redbud

 Painted lady butterfly on the squill

Garage Organization - 2 years later

In past posts I had outlined my approach to installing organizational storage solutions and why it's a good idea to take things in phases, take an inventory of what you are trying to organize, and so forth.

So. How has this worked out two years in? Remarkably well. These photos were snapped just on an average day. I hadn't done anything to tidy up the garage or do my usual spring purging. As you can see, there is still a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

2018 Summary

Last year really got away from us in terms of updating here, in large measure because we were so busy in the yard! Beyond the yard, G started academy-level soccer and I trained for and competed in a half-marathon. Both of these ate up a good chunk of our summer and early fall.

We were also dealt a bit of a blow with Big Dog - he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, so most of April and May were dedicated to getting him to a stable point. Additionally, we had a very wet spring, which meant we didn't get to plant the vegetable garden until June. The late planting led to a late harvest, much of which was ruined by poor weather again.


April 15th - Snow fall! What the hell?

April 21st - Little Dog, Excavator

April 29th - New telescope!

May 6th - Re-landscaped the front Island Bed with native perennials and annuals

June 16th - I wasn't digging! Must have been some other dog

June 18th - I picked up a new pot, more herbs, 5 bags of top soil, 4 replacement pepper plants. Filled the deck planter box up, planted all the new plants, plus the remaining annuals.

July 22nd - Monarch caterpillars on the milkweed

July 29th - Zucchini bread day

August 4th - The start of burr season

November 3rd - Quote from G: I like harvesting carrots the most because they take grit.