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Tag Archives: gardening

Got Mulch

10 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by IfByYes in Life and Love, The House Saga

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

back yard, gardening, mulch, weeds

Last long weekend, I found myself with two consecutive days in which I was neither working at the vet clinic, nor training dogs. And the weather was beautiful.

What should I do with all this time?

When a friend offered to take Owl for the morning to play with her kids, I realized what I finally had time to do – MULCH THE BACK YARD.

Last year, after yet another fruitless assault on the weeds in our lawn, PH and I decided to just mulch it all. We could cover the weeds and the bare patches alike and leave little green islands of decorative plants, which were currently being choked out by the monstrous dandelions.

Thus having made such a monumental decision, we proceeded to do absolutely nothing about it for a year.

In the meantime, our back yard was basically unusable, except as a back-up place to put the dog when he needed to pee.

20130710-101507.jpg

The weeds, fed by Vancouver rains, grew so high that we were afraid to walk out there, lest we step in a hidden dog turd. Weed whacking would tame things temporarily, but leave the yard looking rough and patchy.

Basically, given the combination of too-well drained soil and living in a rainforest, our choices were either a bald yard, or a yard that made me feel like a character from Day Of The Triffids.

So I hied myself to the gardening centre, and picked up bags and bags and bags of mulch. I brought them home and we laid down newspaper and cardboard (supposed to be a biodegradable way to block out light and prevent weeds from regrowing) and covered them with mulch.

It took two days of sweating in the sun and three trips to buy more mulch before we finished.

But it was totally worth it. Check it out:

Continue reading →

Revenge of the Black Thumb

15 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by IfByYes in I'm Sure This Happens To Everyone...

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

gardening, plants, weeds

Remember when I bought these new plants?

Well, it was actually the Fuschia that was first to go. Poor Wilma didn’t make it.

We thought that I had killed the mint good and dead, but then it sprang up from its own ashes. It turns out that mint is the perfect plant for someone like me, because it’s impossible to kill.

The sickly Basil is growing fine as long as I keep it watered, and it’s getting to be a bit of a problem because it just gets taller and taller. A friend of mine has a rabbit. I think I may present her with a mint-and-basil bouquet.

Outdoors, my yard is still struggling. A year ago my mother de-weeded that yard carefully, which resulted in the yard also being entirely stripped bare. Then we re-seeded it with grass and some clover.

The grass came in well, and in spring was high enough to be cut. But somehow, since then, it has… disappeared. Parts that were green and lush in spring are suddenly bare again, and being filled in with weeds. All the weeds my mother painstakingly pulled out are reappearing, and my grass has vanished.

I don’t even know what the weeds are.

seriously, what is this, and how do I get rid of it??

I thought they were dandelions, but on closer inspection I could see that they are not. The leaves aren’t jagged enough. So what is this that is taking over my yard? Where is the grass?

The clover is faring better so I re-seeded some more clover in the bare patches. It’s taking in places, but mostly, the yard is still filled with bald spots.

Is it possible to do a comb-over on a yard?

I Am Super Productive/Murderous!

19 Thursday May 2011

Posted by IfByYes in I'm Sure This Happens To Everyone..., Life and Love

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

black thumb, Canucks, flowers, gardening, hockey, plants, productivity, sun, weather

Dude.

I woke up yesterday morning, and the sun was shining. As someone with a tendency towards S.A.D., a good dose of sunshine is like a big happy kick in the butt.

It helped that Babby had actually had a decent sleep, only waking a couple of times and just briefly during the night, and he actually slept in. Perfect Husband woke me up (because I was going to drive him in and take the car for the day) and I sneaked out of bed and showered while the baby was still asleep.

When I dropped PH off at his work, I spotted a gardening centre and thought, “YES!”

Babby and I spent an hour browsing through plants, trying to get a good deal. We eventually picked up 12 plants and a pot for 50 bucks, all of which I really needed.

You see, my yard is still hideous, although it’s WAY better than it was last year.

the land where weeds go to die

My mother dug up the whole yard when she was here last summer, and re-sodded it and seeded it, and bought plants for it. Some of the plants didn’t make it through the winter, but others have.

The new grass sprung up tall and thick (as you saw), but many of the dandelions returned. PH weed whacked (our yard is too small to mow), and I’ve dosed them with vinegar and salt, because digging them up proved too time consuming when I had a Babby munching soil on a blanket next to me. I’ll re-sod and re-seed soon, and the yard should look better.

I came out of the gardening centre with three seedling geraniums, some pansies, a fuschia, lavender, chocolate mint (It smells like peppermint patty!), sweet basil, some “Jack Frost” to cover the backyard, and a deliciously aromatic curry plant.

Problem is, plants tend to die in my care.

Many plants have succumbed to my black thumb. There was my Phinneas, my ficus, which dropped its leaves and died as soon as I brought it home. There was Charlie, my little blue pine, which gave up on life when I replanted him in a bigger pot and stuck him on the balcony. There was the ivy I hung in the kitchen, which I forgot to water, and the rose bush, a birthday present, which was dead in two months. Then there was Bling, my poor money tree, which survived me hardily for a year until we moved to the new house and I placed him in the kitchen window, which gets Eastern sun (the rest of my house is North facing and largely dark).

Poor Bling, sitting in his Window of Death

Well, that sun burned poor Bling up dead, even though he struggled bravely for nearly another year while I ignorantly tried changing pots, water more, watering less, wiping his leaves and so on, completely unaware that he just needed more shade (since the kitchen is in shade for most of the day, and I don’t really do mornings, I just didn’t clue in until it was too late).

RIP, Bling. I'm sorry.

No wonder we’re having money problems.

I KILLED THE MONEY TREE.

Here’s hoping the new generation fare better. I chose the plants carefully for either sun tolerance (East facing) or shade tolerance (North facing), and then researched them further on the internet to decide whether to keep each one inside or outside, potted or planted.

curry plant, lavender, annuals

The lavender is in the sunny front, planted in a bed. The pansies, snap dragons, and two of the geraniums are planted there also, although they may get too much shade from the adjacent hedge. The curry plant is in a pot on the stoop.

Jack Frost and a fern

I put the Jack Frost in the shady yard, where hopefully he will cover the moss and weeds.

jade plant, chocolate mint, sweet basil

I put the sweet basil and the chocolate mint in pots in the kitchen window, next to the jade plant which has survived in my care for 9 months now.

fuschia

I hung the fuschia in the kitchen where the ivy used to be (must remember to water).

geranium

I hung the last geranium in a hanging basket in the yard, in a sunny patch. I did all of this while Babby napped (with screen doors and a baby monitor turned up high) because the sun was shining and I apparently operate on photosynthesis.

I am now placing bets on how long until the first one dies. I may turn this into some kind of giveaway. Price is Right rules apply. You should probably know that I got the sweet basil for free because it was so sad looking already.

Oh, I am also taking suggestions for names for my newest victims, so I can mourn them properly when they die horribly.

Then I went and got a hair cut, and then I drove to a friend’s house where I met PH and we watched the Canucks MURDER the Sharks.

Go Canucks!

All in all, a productive day.

…as long as the Canucks win the Stanley cup, and my plants don’t perish instantly.

In Which My Inexplicably Loved Cat Guards The House and Babby Eats Dirt

16 Monday May 2011

Posted by IfByYes in How is Babby Formed?, Life and Love, Perfect Husband

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

babies, dirt, gardening, outside, to-do lists, weeding, yard work

I’ll be headed out East a week from now, so I’m trying to get my ducks in a row (creepy stalkers, be reminded – I’m leaving behind my husband, and my murderous house-protecting robots! And also my cat. YEAH).

"I WILL CUT YOU!!"

The following things are on our to-do list:

  • Exchange Moby, our beloved but ancient 32″ HD TV for a friend’s discarded 36″ equally-massive television set.
  • Get a hair cut
  • Pack
  • Lose 15 pounds so I look fabulous for the relatives
  • Baby-proof (Babby is now able to balance precariously on all fours and make little bunny hops…)
  • Transform outdoor garden patch from frightening wilderness to pleasant patio
  • Make the dog more like a dog and less like a yeti

Oh, and did I mention that we have a houseguest (one of PH’s old friends who I have never met) coming for a visit on Thursday? So we also have to clean the house. Which is good, actually, because we deperately want a clean house but need a good kick in the pants to tackle such a massive undertaking.

So, today we have done a lot of tidying, but have A LOT left to do (everything remaining involves making a lot of noise, which is why I am blogging. We’re waiting for Babby to wake up from an inexplicably long nap). PH is putting up the baby gate.

I tried to weed the other day, when there was a break in the incessant drizzle of the last couple of months (we’ve had an unusually cold and wet spring) but the grass was so high that I had trouble finding the dandelions at all.

When the weeds are bigger than the baby, YOU'VE LEFT IT TOO LONG

Then Babby started eating dirt and I called it a day.

"I regret nothing!"

PH is going to weed whack, rain or no, later today.  Then I can weed and Babby can play outside… hopefully with less eating.

long grass...

"I EAT IT"

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