spring springeth (like a sprung spring)
hello again. sorry it's been a while ... things have been on the busy side here. it's been amazing how quickly spring has arrived the past few weeks. trees have leaves, many have had flowers and lost them already, tulips and daffodils have come and mostly gone, grass is growing like mad ... unfortunately dandelions are too. Hazel is loving spring ... mainly sitting in the sunroom, especially when we open the windows. she'll sit out there gazing at ... something, for hours and hours. even after it gets dark.where do i start? first, the lawn. there has obviously been much mowing to be done. i'm learning that the reel mower gets a bit tough to use in thick, long grass. partially my fault that i'm not mowing frequently enough. it was especially tough tonight as the grass is starting to go into seed... and those little seedheads are tougher to mow through. i probably also need to sharpen the blade on the mower. we've also done a spring fertilizing, crabgrass pre-emergent, and sprayed for weeds. as much as last fall's herbicide did, quite a few weeds survived (dandelions, wild violets, etc.). hopefully they start to thin out as the grass improves. the big dead spots have begun to fill in decently. all-in-all, despite some weediness here and there, the yard isn't in too bad of shape (compared to what it looked like last year).
here is a picture that will warm the hearts of all you poison ivy sufferers out there
... some poison ivy in the throes of death!! mmmwahahahahahaha (evil laugh). finally, we have our vengence! i may have gone a little overboard when i was spraying it with weed killer, but hey ... it deserves it for all the pain and itching it has brought me in my life. this plant got to suffer for all of his nasty bretheren's work. this particular little joy has (hopefully, "had") a pretty well developed structure on the walnut trees by the old garage. i could see it's vine growing about 12 feet off the ground. i located small bits in other locations around the garage and in one small spot alongside the house. i'll have to keep an eye out and keep that stuff away. evil, vile, nasty plant.in nicer plant news, we also started a garden! from front to back
we will have lavender, dill & tomatoes, lettuce (2 rows), carrots, green beans (2 rows, yet to be planted), peas, and cucumbers (on right side, yet to be planted). what you probably can't see is that the lettuce, dill, and peas are peeking through. the peas especially are really hitting it hard. i'll need to build a little trellis for it to grow on soon. mmm, fresh garden veggies (except tomatoes ... yuck). we'll probably do some more planting soon so we get some staggered crops this summer.we also bought and installed a porch swing. found a really nice one on,
of all places, walmart.com. it's made of an indonesian hardwood which is very similar in composition to teak ... yet WAYYY cheaper. i'm sure it's because of some sort of poor farming practices and/or slave labor ... so i apologize for that factor. it should handle the weather very nicely with just yearly oiling with teak oil. and yes, it is a bit high still. we got some extra chain to drop it a little lower ... but it was too low, so need to have a couple links taken off the extensions to get to the sweet spot sitting height.we've continued planning for our landscaping project. we're getting pretty close to buying plants i think. we got a bit of a head start the other day actually. i was driving home from work and noticed a sign "free ornamental grasses" at a house about 1/2 block from my offic
e. so i stopped in. the very nice lady who lives there was thinning some of her grasses so was giving away the clumps of excess. she showed me around the rest of the things she and her husband had planted around their place and gave me some good hints and tips on our upcoming planting. she offered starts of just about any and every plant she had on the property! it's really nice to find good people like that these days ... too bad it seems to be the exception not the rule. i believe the grasses are "maiden grass" (miscanthus sinensis "gracillimus") based on what she knew about them (miscanthus family, grow to about 5-6 feet with plumes over that). she gave enough clumps for probably 6 good sized (about a foot or so in diameter) starts or more. i think we have a spot for them in our master plan, so hopefully we'll get those in the ground soon.the stumps are mostly still there at this point. Tony backed his truck over one night and we pulled at them for a while. two of the smaller ones came out, but the bigger two weren't coming. it had been somewhat dry the week or so prior, so they were pretty locked in the ground. one of these days i'll soak the ground around there and we'll finish the job. oh, and Tony decided to make a career change and re-start a lawn care service he had in school. so, if anyone in the Indy area needs someone to mow, just call Tony's Lawn Care (TLC)!
we almost had our own truck to pull out the stumps with ... almost. there was one for sale down the street that i think would have been perfect. but, the guy sold it over the weekend before i had a chance to test drive and make an offer. dang! back to the hunt. so if anyone knows of a 1998 or 2000 Ford F150, 2wd, ext. cab for sale ... let me know.
a few weeks back, we discovered Forest Park across the river. it's really a great park with a lot of neat things to do ... Ross and I especially enjoyed the funky modern teeter-totter. it's nice to see our little town come alive in our first spring here.
i'm sure i'm missing something since it's been so long, but i think that's probably it for now. over and out.
posted by Chris and Chrissy Miller @ 10:10 PM
2 Comments:
I like cheese!!!!
miscanthus sinensis is good stuff! you're lucky to get free starts as it can be $10+ per small start at the store!
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