Growth Update

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Merridee

It is the last day of my May vacation and wanted to do a quick update on everything I got done: Ceiling fan, moved 6 yards of dirt, planted the garden and behind the retaining wall (wildflower seeds, asters and morning glory on my garden gate), rototilled herb garden bed and set a few stepping-stones. Not too shabby for 10 days off. And then nature has been doing her work too. Things in the front yard are coming in nicely:

Iris, snapdragon, geranium, etc. all looking great.

All kinds of fun happening here, including lupine, iris, brunerra, columbine, yarrow, corral bells, hydrangea, hostas, etc.

The beech tree took forever to leaf out compared to some other trees but totally worth it. So handsome!

Oats and Beans and Barley Grow

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Merridee

OK, so I’m not growing oats or barley, however, I am growing beans. But I always sing that Raffy song in my head whenever I plant a garden. We used to listen to Raffy as a family when we were on road trips and it reminds me of happy family times and of home with veggies from my mom’s garden and makes me believe that by singing that song, my garden will be as prosperous as my mom’s always was. Hopefully with this lovely new soil, I’ll have bumper crops this year!

I followed my original plan. Hoping for a great bounty.

The count: 5 tomatoes, 6 peppers, radishes, 2 eggplant, carrots, zucchini, yellow summer squash, patty pans, acorn squash, delicata squash, peas, green beans, arugula, 2 kinds of mix lettuces, 2 kinds of beets.

A Dirty, Dirty Job

Posted on May 18, 2013 by Merridee

I have already proven that math confounds me (see my retaining wall post). And measurements are just as bad. As a page designer for the last 17 years, I have picas and points, even on a scalable screen, mastered. Inches can be iffy but in print I am close. In the real world it gets ugly. Anything bigger than an inch — feet, yards, meters, miles, kilometers — I am useless. That said, I NEED dirt. And a lot of it. After attempting to top off behind the retaining wall with a few bags of soil from the hardware store proved I have no idea what a yard looks like, I knew that it was more than I wanted to buy in individual plastic bags. So to the Internet I went. First to a yard calculator and then to a dirt company who would deliver. They came Friday morning.

6 yards! The picture does not do it justice — it was literally above my waist and took up most of the driveway. Holy hell, that is A LOT of dirt.

So out came the wheel barrow and for the next 3 days nothing but sholving and dumping — first into the garden boxes and then behind the retaining wall. Because this was happening on a lovely Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I got to meet a lot of my new neighbors out for a walk and enjoying the beautiful day. Lily made a ton of new friends and got a lot of exercise following me back and forth from the front yard to the back and out again. Neighbor Charles (who I really like and who Lily LOVES to bark at) made it a point of coming out and making sassy comments ever few hours — Thanks for that Charles!

But I triumphed!

3 days later. And some seriously sore muscles, I had moved it all.

And now ready for the fun part … planting.

Full and ready for planting

Another blank canvass ready for some fun!

The Push and Pull

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Merridee

The waiting is over and the black death has been removed to see the swath of brown. I am ready to rototill my new herb garden bed.

The plastic did its work and now time to rototill. A little digging confirmed that this was not a job to do by hand.

I had the utilities come out and mark where the lines were. Nothing scarier than hitting the gas line with a rototiller — fortunately they are much deeper than I am planning on going.

Lily really likes sitting on the dead grass — maybe it is extra warm or something.

Lines marked, I headed to Home Depot and rented a rototiller. I have never done this before and it took some time to figure out how to not rip my arms off. But once I got the knack of it, it went pretty fast. Neighbor Charles redeemed himself for all of his snarky comments while I was moving dirt by helping me get the rototiller in and out of the back of the truck.

All done. I had to throw down some blocks to get across the muddy pit. Lily was particularly unhappy about tramping through the mud. I liked the stones so much, I decided to set them deeper and keep them.

One Cool Cookie

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Merridee

We have had a lovely spring — keeping in mind that it is Oregon and rain happens — usually a lot. But is has been nice enough that yard is flourishing and the house has gotten rather warm a few times (thanks to new, non-drafty windows!). So my dad owned a heating and air conditioning business for more than 35 years and I am kind of a baby when it comes to temperature control. This house does have air conditioning but it feels too early to turn it on (and I am cheap.) But one of the virtues I learned about in the old house, where there was no A/C, was ceiling fans. Almost every room had one and I even installed one in the dinning room there. So I knew I could do it again. And bonus this time was that the ceilings here aren’t 12-feet high.

So I spent the first day of my vacation on a ladder doing this.

The before — I LOATH boob lights! How can anyone think that looks good.

Looks pretty snazzy. And it took a fraction of the time that it did at the other house. Experience is a blessed thing! Also note the new art arrangements. So much cleaner. Oh, and the TV is probably new in this photo too. I am sort of fancy sometimes.

Signing Bonues

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Merridee

When I moved into this house, as I have mentioned, there was basically no landscaping to speak of. That is, except 3 roses, some iris, the tropical lily thing, a yuca (why anyone would ever in Portland!) and some basic annuals along the front porch. Most of the annuals died in the frost last fall except for some snap dragons, which wintered-over and are doing great. Score! The yuca is doing its thing and hasn’t made me angry enough to rip out. But the real surprise has been the roses and the iris.

I know most people adore roses, but I find them too high-maintenance and fiddley to be worth it. And I don’t like plants that can stab me. However, after a good pruning these are all doing great and already have blooms. The one at the back of the house is particularly lovely.

A lovely surprise

Like roses, Iris don’t really do much for me. This is especially surprising considering I have a great aunt or second cousin or something that actually bred iris and named a variety after me — DeAnna’s Daughter. I assume it was named for me since I did meet her when I was 12 or something and I am the only one of my mother’s daughters that cares a fig about gardening. Long after she named the plant after me (:-?) and I was taking care of my parent’s house in Loveland, Colo., she called looking for my mom and we chatted for over an hour. She called back several times and I found her to be a delightful, if overly chatty woman. Sadly, I don’t think I know of anyone who has a DeAnna’s Daughter iris and I have no idea what it looks like. Second cousin/great aunt has since died and her business was liquidated. Google has failed me. Sad.

Not sad is the showy display of the iris in my new front yard.

Lovely iris in the front yard

My New Roommate

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Merridee

I wrote about how Lily dog came to visit over Christmas when friends Shirley and Tyler went back east for the holiday. Well Tyler’s sister was getting married in the middle of April and Lily came to visit again — this time with some VERY heavy hinting that she should become a permanent resident. Don’t miss understand — Tyler adopted her years ago and has liked her as much as his somewhat short attention span can. And Shirley has always considered Lily her ally and special girl. But they have a toddler and he is a rough and tumble boy. Lily is old and doesn’t enjoy the bother of having her hair pulled, etc . And they Tyler decided he wanted a “guard dog,” which Lily apparently is failing at in her elderly years. So they adopted Merlin — also a collie but kind of dumb and spastic. Lily was not impressed. In fact, she was increasingly becoming distressed, to the point of stress grooming big holes in her fur on her arms.

So she came to visit at my house while Tyler and Shirley went to Georgia. I said that I would consider keeping her and we would call it a test run. I confess I am nervous — I am responsible enough for her? Will taking her for walks be too much of a bother? Will she hate being left alone for 10 hours while I am at work? She is old and could get sick. Am I walking into a money pit shrouded in my love? Is this really best for her? Hem-haw.

Turns out she needs me and I need her and that is that. And she is here to stay. She makes me be responsible and helps me feel loved. She is the best thing in my life. I love my Lily-girl.

So many rugs to sit and shed on.

Her favorite trick is to rest her chin on the side of my bed and whine when she thinks I should get up. She HATES it when I read in bed before getting up in the morning.

She loves to be outside with me. Depending on the time of day, she will sit in the sun or the shade and watch me work. I always have to be in sight, unless she is getting into mischief such as pooping in the neighbor’s yard or meeting a dog friend on a walk in the front yard.

The Overall[s] Adventure

Monthly Archives: May 2013