Gardening

[mhara]

Well, it was good back last February when we got frog-spawn. And it's lovely to see tadpoles getting around in our front garden pond. Seemed like Mother nature was applauding our getting that pond put in.

But the last two nights, from 10 p.m. onwards, we've been watching a couple of hedgehogs come carefully out from under the box-tree hedge and help themselves to the bird-food that the wild birds have dropped from the feeders.

They must be combining our garden with one or more of the neighbours' gardens because there can't possibly be enough hedgehog food just in our small plot. But it felt amazingly special to see them.

[yellow]

Bumping this up as I have spent the better part of 3 days guerrilla (sp?) gardening in the heat.

After successfully killing the back lawn, it was time to actually Do Something. I've been talking about Doing Something for quite a while and hoping that DH would say something like "Yeah, let's Do Something with the yard such as..." or even "let's do X with the yard" but no. Silence. So it was up to me.

So I've taken out most of the grass, have laid most of a new path, figured out where the pond is going to go, and created a new (better) spot for the birdbath. The pond will be last, probably this fall.

Our neighbors have a giant, PITA mulberry tree that hangs over our yard. We love the shade but hate the berries. The tree is sitting on powerlines for 5 houses and will probably be coming out in the next couple of months. That's the only reason I'm saying that I'll put in a pond. Pond + berries = yucky. But without the berries (and leaves) it should be only a marginal PITA to maintain. Once the mulberry comes out I can plant a couple of small trees to provide shade (eventually). Something small-ish, like a Corylus (which I mentioned earlier). We'll plant a few other things that can survive Utah with minimal watering and maintenance also.

The worst news is that my tennis elbow was completely gone after vacation (I think because I didn't work for a week+! ) and now it's back with a vengeance. It's more annoying than anything. The elbow band works but is a pain in the rear.

[Tuckervill]

You know what they say about the best time to plant a tree? 10 years ago.

I'd plant the trees now, before the mulberry goes. And...you have every right to trim that tree all the way back to your fence line if you like.

Is it a white mulberry? Those are rare and better than the red ones I have. If it were white I'd hate to lose it.

Karen

[yellow]

You know what they say about the best time to plant a tree? 10 years ago.

I'd plant the trees now, before the mulberry goes. And...you have every right to trim that tree all the way back to your fence line if you like.

Is it a white mulberry? Those are rare and better than the red ones I have. If it were white I'd hate to lose it.

Karen

No, not a white mulberry. Just your run of the mill regular purple-berried one. My floors are purple spattered for 1.5 months, thanks to my pooches.

We may end up paying someone to trim it if the neighbors' landlord doesn't take care of it. Not cheap (they would have to use a crane), but I think I'd feel a lot better, which is worth a lot. There are several very large branches on the powerlines (for 5 different houses) over our yard, so if one of those branches comes down or gets to swinging too much in the next winter storm, we very well could have 5 sets of live wires in our backyard. We trimmed what we could last year but it's way too high and just too risky with all those lines. The power company won't touch it because the lines are from the pole to the houses, not between poles. No one wants to pay for it, of course. But the lines won't come down in their yard, either (though they would be without power...).

I may plant some of the larger shrubs this fall and maybe even a tree (can't plant now, too hot and humidity too low), but the whole light (and extreme sun exposure) issue may be such that I just need to wait. We're going to give it a couple of months to see what transpires with the tree. We do love the shade, but we currently can't grow anything under it because of the heat+berries+shade+extreme sun when the sun does hit+dogs. So for now it's just rocks and dirt. The dogs love it.