Category Archives: landscaping & hardscaping

Homesteading landscaping & hardscaping The Dooryard

Walking In The Weeds

September 3, 2012 – 9:00 pm

It has most definitely been a Labor Day around here in all senses of the word. Make that, a Labor weekend/week. We’ve completely re-roofed the original house but I’ll talk more about that in the weekly Wednesday renovation recap in a couple days.

With all of the work on the house some of the other little things have fallen behind, primarily up-keeping the weeding.  Our garden? Weeds except for around the food that’s still growing. Our walkway? Weeds weeds weeds. I finally got sick of the weeds on the walkway primarily because every time I walked down it, in anything but boots, my feet would get wet from the morning dew. It drove me nuts. The point of having a walkway was so we didn’t have to walk over the grass and get our feet/pants wet.

Plus, let’s be honest with each other—this looks terrible. Straight up terrible. So I took a little time to go ape on those weeds. We have weed blocker underneath, but over time the witch grass has grown in over the edges and pulled it’s way across the walk. As a con, witch grass is a menace to society. As a pro (in this context) it’s easy to pull up. Witch grass is normally a nightmare to get rid of because any broken roots grow back 10 times worst. Thankfully the roots this time grew over the rocks so they were easy to get up.

About 45 minutes of work, and the walk was looking not only wider, but a lot better.

A few days later I tackled all the nasty witch grass and weeds between the walk pavers.See that pile of clumps of grass to the right of the pavers in the photo below? Those were all throughout the pavers. Yep, weedy.

These pavers will most likely be moved to look nicer, or they may end up all together in a different part of the yard. Until then it’s just nice to have a cleaned up walkway.

With the inside of the house still needing some tlc and cleaning it’s nice to see one area taken care of. Raise your hands if you need to wash your shower curtain, do some laundry, vacuum the dog hair, and organize your shelves in your makeshift bedroom.

*raises hand*

You may just find me laying on the walkway staring at the clouds. The weeded, wide, nice, walkway.

xo,

Heather

P.S. You may notice all of my photos from this post out will be watermarked. Blog scrapers are becoming notoriously scary and they scrape content straight from a blog and put it on a highly advertised site as original content, when it’s not. One way to help combat this is through watermarked photos. I hate to do it, but at this point it’s just necessary as I found one of my most popular posts scraped. Boo.

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Agriculture Homesteading landscaping & hardscaping The Dooryard

Hold The Cherry Pie

May 22, 2012 – 11:00 am

Remember how a little while back I posted about our poor cherry tree? Well, I discussed the issue with MOFGA, the Maine Organic Farmers & Growers Association, and there wasn’t much hope for the tree. It looked like mechanical damage plus a mix of a potential canker disease.

We cut off all of the dead limbs like suggested and kept an eye on it but there was just no hope. The branches have been continuously dying and becoming brittle. As mentioned in the previous post on the tree, it looked slightly discolored. I realized if I licked my finger and wiped the bark I could wipe the discoloration off. I tried this on a few other trees and they all dried back to the same color. I knew something was on my tree, and it made me sad.

We also knew we had to get it out of there before whatever was going on spread to our other trees—if it hasn’t already. We’re keeping a close eye on them, especially our plum tree.

I’ve researched all around and it looks like you essentially only have to look at a sweet cherry tree wrong and they die. It could have started with the rootstock, been a mixture of mechanical and winter damage, been from pests, other diseased trees, planting it wrong, pruning it wrong or simply walked by it wrong. In other woods, they seem to be pretty susceptible to death.

So while I was gone fighting off Jaws in Martha’s Vineyard, Andy took to taking the cherry tree out. When I came home it looked a little more like this.

Just to be safe, we won’t be growing anything except grass in this same spot for at least a few years. We aren’t sure there is any damage to the soil, but given the condition of the tree we’re going to let it have a few years rest.

As of now the tree is in the burn pile, awaiting the next torching. We’ll need to do it soon so the tree can’t potentially transfer any airborn diseases to our other trees.

What surprised me most when I saw the tree in the burn pile was how small the root ball was. I would have expected after three years it would have been bigger than this. I may be entirely incorrect however.

Oh well. Long story short, we no longer have a cherry tree. Growing whether it be an orchard, a garden or personally is all about trying new things, figuring out what works and what doesn’t, and learning from your mistakes. For now I’ll keep researching and reading, and maybe down the line if we try another cherry tree we’ll end up with a sweet cherry pie at the end.

xo,

Heather

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House and Home landscaping & hardscaping The Dooryard

Little Bit O’ Landscaping

April 20, 2012 – 10:30 am

If last weekend wasn’t busy enough between arguing with Troy, planting our swiss chard and kale in the garden and my husband with ox blood finishing up the barn (other posts on the barn here, here, here and here), I also landscaped a little. Two things needed to be done, re-mulching the fruit trees and slowly starting our bed up front by the road. Because the bed up by the road is likely only going to happen when I have a little time here and there, I’m focusing on fruit trees for this post.

Now, before I get into this I want to make it clear that I am not even remotely close to knowledgeable of caring for fruit trees. I’m still learning how to figure it all out. I give you this warning because there is a lot of mumbojumbo on the web taken as truth. I’m simply doing what works for us, where we are in the country. Also, our trees are too young to bear fruit so we have at least another year or two before a couple of them are old enough and I’ll find out if I’ve screwed the whole shin-dig up. In the mean time, I’m doing what I can. With that said…

The grass was seriously growing in on the three fruit trees we planted a few years back, and starting to encroach on the trees we planted last year. I was concerned about the roots getting choked out. Instead of wood chip mulch, which would have cost money, we used sawdust to much which was a free byproduct of sawing our lumber for the barn and a little manure from the farm.

I focused on our plum tree first, which looked like this. The discolored part you’re seeing is actually hay, but I didn’t like that green grass all up in that trunk.

To start, I did a cut edge the entire way around. My mother-in-law who is a horticulturalist taught me a sharp cut edge is a good way to help discourage grass, so that’s exactly what I did. Then I cut off the top soil, and made two piles. Pile one was all of the soil I had to shake the dirt off of, and pile two was all of the grass disregarded after shaking the good soil back around the tree. When all was said and done I had about 2″ to fill in to get it back to grass level.

Then I filled up my wheelbarrow with a couple scoops of manure…

…and then a few more of sawdust.

First I spread the manure. Then I laid down the sawdust on top until it was flush with the grass and fairly graded.

It doesn’t look as nice as bark mulch but for us, it ticks all the marks. I was trying to figure out how to explain this, and I found this great explanation from Cornell about what a mulch should do, which is exactly why sawdust was our choice.

“The ideal mulch is:

  • Economical.
  • Readily available.
  • Easy to apply and remove.
  • Stays in place.
  • Supplies organic matter to the soil.
  • Is free of noxious weeds, insects, and diseases.

It also performs the three functions described earlier: suppresses weeds, conserves soil water, and moderates soil temperatures.”

As well, sawdust is an acidifying mulch which is part of the reason fruits love it (especially blueberries). Keep note acidifying mulch’s can rob nitrogen from the top layer of your soil, which is why despite the fact we have good soil I’ve accounted for this by putting a layer of manure underneath. Be careful about nitrogen though with fruit trees. Too much nitrogen can result in beautiful foliage and flowers but restrict fruiting. The con to sawdust soil is it compacts and breaks down easily, so you have to fluff / add to it every year. For us, it’s the perfect mulch.

See how much better it looks in comparison to the other two trees? You can barely even see the third tree—but I promise it’s there.

Now, only seven more trees to go. Fantastic.

xo,

Heather

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Gardening Homesteading landscaping & hardscaping The Dooryard

My Relationship With Troy

April 14, 2012 – 12:07 pm

As we drove around in the GMC last night, Andy mentioned that I never write about the equipment we have. Equipment that has a huge part in how we live around here. Though he was specifically referring to our tractors, I realized today while ninja kicking the tiller, that our equipment is more than just our tractors. Though I promise dear, I will write about our tractors. Of which I only have a love relationship with.

On the other hand, and today’s topic, my relationship with Troy has built into a love/hate relationship. I need him, he needs us. We’re codependent. Without him, my garden soil hates me. Without us, he sits unused in the barn. Equipment likes to be used. They don’t like to sit around. Equipment that sits around groans, and moans and needs encouragement to work properly again. Kind of like some people.

Troy, is our garden tiller. Troy Bilt that is.

Troy has been in our family since before I was born. It’s odd to think my Dad was using him at about the same age as me, except he already had two kids and I wasn’t even a blip on the radar ultrasound yet. We received him “to hold onto for a while” (in Dad speak – to have) from my Uncle who somehow acquired him for a number of years.  He wasn’t working right, but all he needed was some ALC. Andy Loving Care. With a little cleanup and a new part, Troy was once again part of our working family.

Sometimes I feel like Troy is saying “now you listen hear youngin’, I was around while you were still a separate egg and sperm”. And I’m like “shut your yap Troy and get tilling”. Correction. My mother informed me of a few mistakes in the story as I always knew it. Troy was my uncles, which explains why Mick had him. I was a year old, and the engine blew due to an oil mishap – and then dad to pay $200 to replace it. So as it turns out, if this is true, Troy has been a pain in the ass from day one. A pain in the ass who has helped out family out for two generations.

Truth be told, this year was the first year I used Troy all by myself. In the past, Andy has always done it. Andy is used to manhandling equipment. Equipment is used to manhandling me. So this year while Andy worked on the barn, and I had pent up energy I needed to get out, and our garden soil was dry—I took Troy for a ride. Or the other way around. I’m still debating the outcome.

I quickly realized how hard this was going to be. First off I could barely move Troy. This lady right here has biceps that could win a gun show. A full blown, water gun show. Second, Troy needed air in his tires and to be dusted off. So, in true fashion I grabbed the air hose, took the boys nailer off of it and grabbed the necessary attachment—the air blower thing, and the air tire pumping thing. Very technical.

After a quick rundown of the controls with Andy, I was off. To get the dogs in the field. Who were rolling in unsavory items.

Then after securing the trouble makers in house, and putting ear protectors on, it was time for Troy. It was a rough start. I was pushing down to much. Troy was bogging down. He was trying to tell me to give him more throttle. So was my husband actually. But all I did was stall him. Then, something happened which is never a good thing but somehow always works out.

I got stubborn. I dug my heels in the dirt, literally. I was going to win this thing whether Troy liked it or not. I was not going to give up. So I manhandled him around that garden and eventually we got in a groove. Oh, he certainly gave me a run for my money. When it came time to turn him (in which the tillers are still running so you have to have them lifted or they will ruin your grass) I had to rear his ass end up and push him around with my shoulder. At one point my foot must have snagged the garden rope we removed without realizing it, because when I set Troy down for the next pass, this happened.

Thankfully, after fully turning Troy off (and boy, was I turned off too at this point. Or more like pissed off, one of the two) it was rather easy to unwind. Whew.

I have not told Andy this happened yet. I’m going to give him a grand old blog surprise. The thing is, he won’t be surprised. I told you, equipment generally owns me in every aspect. Except backhoe’s. We’ll get into that when I discuss the tractor.

I finally got Troy going again and we were turning to make another pass.

At this point someone left the basement door open and the dogs ran out. I had ear protectors on. I didn’t hear them, but thankfully I saw them, and Rosie was running right at me and I had this tiller lifted in the air mid-turn. The blades were going and I could not get the friggen blades to stop and it to stop moving. Then, out a moment of sheer panic and anger, I screamed at the dogs to stop, which for once they did and I ninja kicked the lever while holding Troy’s ass end up in the air, with the other foot planted. Troy immediately stopped, Rosie came over happy, I put Troy down, and I walked the dogs back in the house.

And shut that door. Tight.

To say it was a “close call” would be awfully dramatic. I saw the dogs coming out and they stopped when I yelled. But I was pissed off that the lever wouldn’t work. I was pissed off when the “what if” went through my head. So I kicked him.

Right after this Troy lightened up a little, and so did I. I realized if I just let him do the work, and I kept him in line, we would be okay. Our hate sort of went away, and we decided to stop fighting each other. A few passes when by with beautiful ease. Then on cue with two rows left Troy sputtered. Troy coughed. Troy choked. Troy, dammit, ran out of gas. So off I went to the garage to get the gas can and fill him back up.

At the end of a long 45 minutes or so we were done. My garden went from this.

To this.

Essentially it went from dry and cracked to a beautiful rich brown color and soft to the touch, which is hard to tell since I had to use my point and shoot today.

Troy and I made it through, and I think we’ll be okay from here on out. Especially if we don’t have to converse until next summer.

I should probably mention we have a small garden. Small to me at least. If we had a few acres of our own I’m almost positive the garden would be a full acre, but since we don’t, it’s little. It grows enough food for our family so we have a reduced grocery bill almost all summer, and it’s perfect. That said, ff we ever expand our garden we’re using the farmers tractor mounted tiller. Troy can go climb a mountain.

And I will not be behind him helping.

Now off to go pick up the soil to prep it for planting. Thankfully this required the two arms God gave me and no gasoline.

xo,

Heather

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Agriculture Homesteading landscaping & hardscaping The Dooryard

The {Untimely} Secret Orchard – Part II

January 17, 2012 – 8:07 pm

I woke up yesterday to 0.7 degree weather, which promptly dropped to 0.0. This morning I woke up to snow and a sore throat. I’m happy to say January is finally here. I was a little concerned whether it would show up, considering January 1st was almost 60 degrees. We don’t do 60 degrees in January here in Maine, it throws our entire internal clock off. While I was suppose to be hibernating and crocheting by the wood stove, I was outside raking the leaves surrounding the blueberry bushes and feeling like I should be planting my garden soon. It was entirely awkward and while my brain knew what time of year it was, my body had an innate reaction to the seasonal warmth. So while I sat here eating sorbet and feeling content that all was right with winter again, I started organizing a file of miscellaneous photos I took within the last month.

I was confused why I had photos of our planted orchard, since it was clearly from the fall. Then I remembered I took these photos on January 1st after Andy told me I needed to update you guys on how we planted our orchard I wrote about here and here. It’s amazing how different it looks. Maybe it doesn’t look too different to you guys, but in person it’s way different. It’s still not complete. I want to plant about 4-7 more trees for an even 9 to 12. We currently have 5 planted in this area (which we lovingly call The Orchard even though it’s the smallest orchard in history).

As a reminder, it actually looks like this layout wise. A really out of scale ghetto layout.

We also have these three we planted a few years back. From right to left it goes plum, cherry, pear. I think they are all dwarfs. The plum and cherry are supposedly self-pollinating but after reading up some more we’ll need to get two more of them for better fruit to grow. The pear will never grow without another pear, which is why our orchard now has a few more pear trees.

As far as the orchard area goes, each tree was about $20.00. I was admittedly hesitant at first thinking we were only going to find crap, since we paid close to $40.00 per tree for the three above. As it turned out they were very healthy looking trees. I was impressed. So, now we have the following in our yard which includes the orchard and the three trees above.

  • 3 pear trees : one bartlett dwarf, two keiffer semi-dwarfs
  • 1 cherry tree : black sweet cherry tree
  • 1 plum tree : santa rosa
  • 3 apple trees : one yellow delicious semi-dwarf, one red delicious semi-dwarf, one liberty semi-dwarf
  • 10 blueberry plants: two blueray, two earliblue, two brigatta, two bluecrop, two bluegold

That’s where we are now with the whole process, since most of it has a snow or ice cover right now. After writing this and looking at my other two orchard blog posts I just realized I never even showed you the actual planted blueberries. Son of a bee sting.

We’ll be getting some more trees and fruit plans in the spring. I promise to update you before 2018.

Much Love,

Heather

 Update: Andy has informed me that a good portion of the wood we sawed, in this recent post, actually came from the orchard when he first started it here. He thought I knew but nope, totally in the dark on it. I apparently missed him skidding them across our lawn and out to the hayfield. I was probably too engrossed in eating pie.

 

 

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