SOD Party!

Well, we finally have grass! Of course, it hasn't rooted yet and requires a LOT of water at the moment, but it's grass no less. The sod arrived at 10am on Monday. Cody, Alicia and Gord got here about 12:30, we had lunch, and got started at about 1:30. More help (Rocket & Judester) arrived at about 3; then a couple more at about 5:15 (Kenda, Annette & Rowan).....but by that time all the sod was down and all there was to do was roll and water.....and drink beer, of course. We had a little BBQ and lamented that Murray wasn't here to join us. WE HAVE GRASS!!!!! How exciting.

The Dreaded Ditch

A ditch full of weeds and water doesn't do much for the curb appeal of one's house, not to mention the amount of work involved in constantly trying to get rid of those weeds......so, I came up with a plan for the dreaded ditch.

I found free rainbow rock on kijiji (my new addiction, which is an online classified ad service). The people who were giving it away had used a LOT in their landscaping and needed to get rid of it to make changes to their yard. Dad, Cody and Alicia met me at that house with dad's truck, trailer, and shovels, and we dug out the rainbow rock. We left it on a pile on a tarp on the driveway until we had time to do something with it.
Each time I've made a trip to mom & dad's in the last couple of months, I've brought back an 'Xterra load' of field stone as well. Dad is pleased that the mound of rocks in their back garden is disappearing slowly, and I have some free materials to work with in the yard - win-win situation!

Finally, on Wednesday, we had some time! Cody & Alicia were free and came over to help me beautify the dreaded ditch. I cut down then sprayed all the weeds that were in the ditch, and we lined it with landscaping fabric, We overlapped the landscaping fabric quite a bit - EXTRA weed prevention. It didn't take us all that long - probably one quarter of the time it would've taken me to do it by myself......plus, it was a lot more fun and a lot more filled with laughs to do it together! Thanks Cody & Alicia - Mur & I owe you one!!!

Here's a slideshow of the ditch transformation.

APHIDS! Poor gardenia

This post doesn't have much to do with the yard, but Gardenia had some unpleasant adventures over the weekend. On Saturday I started taking photos of her to send to Murray because she had a profusion of blooms (you can see 6-7 in the photo).

As I started to take photos, I noticed that the beautiful blooms had little spots on them. As I got closer - APHIDS!!! You can just see them on the close-up photo of one of her blooms below.
Earlier in the spring I had some tulips in the house that became infested with aphids. Apparently they managed to work their way over to Gardenia, who was on the other side of the dining room.

After freaking out a little bit, I carried her outside and spent an hour spraying her and getting rid of the aphids on the blooms with Q-tips. I've checked her often since Saturday, and an aphid will appear here and there, but nothing like the infestation I happened upon on Saturday. Thank goodness I noticed.

As those who've visited our house know, Gardenia is our prized houseplant. Most people find it hard to believe she's real! When she blooms the house smells phenomenal, and when she isn't blooming, her deep green, shiny leaves are still a treat to behold.

I guess I just have to keep checking her and hope for the best.

Flowerbed beside the garage

Well, it's not quite complete, but this is the basic transformation. I built the ground up nearly six inches because the sub-soil at spade depth was quite full of clay. I'll take a photo of the completed bed once I've got all the plants in the ground.

Tomatoes!

Here's a photo of the tomato plants that I grew from seed. They're sitting on our bedroom windowsill until my veggie planters are built and filled with soil. This photo was taken earlier this week, and they're even bigger now - so hopefully they'll be fruitful this summer! IF I can ever get them planted outside!!

Pile of dirt

So, this is the pile of organic soil that's sitting in our front yard. The wheelbarrow is the 'not so ergonomically friendly' one that resulted in my achy back. I'm about to get out there and move some more soil.......thank goodness I still have the neighbours 'superbarrow'!!

Shrubbler

Irrigation Systems

Thanks to Bill & Shirley (my in-laws), I visited the Lee Valley Tools website on Wednesday evening. I was just in time to notice that they were offering a seminar on low-flow and drip irrigation systems at the Edmonton location. So, I enrolled!

Last night, I went to the seminar and discovered that designing one of these systems isn't all that difficult - perhaps a little time consuming, but worth the initial time investment because of all the time we'll save not having to stand there with a watering hose or set up and move sprinklers! I consider getting a sprinkler in the right position to be a true art.

It's even possible to use this type of system for containers and hanging baskets, but I'm sticking to using it for our perennial beds and vegetable planters since I actually enjoy watering the containers from our rain barrel.

The best part - this type of irrigation system isn't even all that expensive. It's a D-I-Y project that requires a little thought and planning, then we can sit back, drink vino or pivo on the porch, and watch the plants smile.

Part of the seminar was a little practice session, which is what you see in the photo above - my first little length of low-flow irrigation hose! The little end with a spike is called a 'shrubbler' and it emits between 0-10 gallons of water per hour in a two foot diameter.

Next decision: Simple or Sophisticated? A sophisticated system would include a digital timer (or timers), but I've decided to stick with the K.I.S.S. principle - get the basic system working, see how much water is actually necessary, then get the timers on a little later.

I'll keep track of time and costs for this, and expect to be pleasantly surprised by the outcome just as I was by the relative simplicity of system design and setup. Wish me luck!

Welcome!

Welcome to my yard blog. Perhaps it's a little late to get started on this now, since a lot of the work is already done, but I figured I'd give it a shot after numerous attempts to attach photos and slideshows to webmail......shaw webmail isn't forgiving when you try to add large attachmens - nor does it tell you AHEAD of time that your attachment attempt will fail, so you sit and wait, only to be disappointed.

Anyway, hopefully the blogging thing is a little more user-friendly. Enjoy!

Achiness abounds

Today, I feel like one of those little old Croatian ladies, bent from the waist as if searching for lucky pennies. Yesterday morning was boot camp, then six cubic yards of organic soil were delivered and dumped in our front yard. Where I needed the soil was inaccessible by dump truck because of the three willow trees at the front of the house - one smack in the middle of the driveway. Those trees are turning out to be the bane of my existence (some serious pruning yesterday is another reason for my achiness).

The shoveling, wheelbarrow carting, dumping and spreading have taken their toll on my body. Thankfully, one of my neighbours was appalled at the effort required for this and lent me their four-wheeled wheelbarrow with an easy-dump mechanism. Whewsh, can barely imagine what I'd feel like if I'd used our one-wheeled version for the entire day!

Things are coming along nicely. Murray, never again will we buy a brand new house - fully landscaped or bust!!!! Actually, it's kind of nice to be able to have a blank slate, but it would be nice if a lot of the preparation work was done.