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conulySo, okay, we resigned ourselves to just one load of compost even after multiple people (some Jenn's, one mine) had agreed to help out. My mother was sick so we took an Uber (who didn't speak English, and so we ended up in NJ on the way back, but it all worked out and Jenn gave him an enormous tip) and once we got there do you know what they said? "Oh, we always have a bunch of no-shows, so if you just give us another name and email you can take another load, take as many as you want!"
...
Of course, while we were loading up the car one of the workers pointed out that it's a small car and so we only ended up with one load anyway. Next year's we're going to be on top of this, though! (That's what we say every year, and every year we get a little closer to our goal.)
Tomorrow I'll pull up all the ragweed and as much of the root system as I can, then measure out the beds - the same ones I'll use next year, best to begin as I mean to go on - and buy mulch for the not-beds. Tuesday I'll dig out the beds, get more of those damn roots and rocks out, and add the compost, including from our own bin. And Wednesday I'll sow!
I'm going to basically use the SFG system - and no comments from the peanut gallery! I don't want any "That worked for me but" or "That's stupid I used this" chatter to confuse me! Starting in 2020, and continuing until 2022 I'll fill up the beds another 1/3 of the way each year, so 4 inches at a time, an even mixture of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite (or the equivalent of those last two).
Bare minimum I need a large bed for tomatoes, a large bed for herbs, and a medium sized bed for bell peppers. We always want to grow more types of vegetables than that, and the enthusiasm is there when we plant, but there's never any follow-through. We can do tomatoes and peppers and herbs (the herbs, in my experience, grow themselves) but we've never managed to pick the lettuce or tend the string beans. We should just fill the rest of the beds with flowers. (Jenn points out that my mother's not a fan of organized gardens with beds, but this is probably because you can see in that sort of thing that she hasn't done the upkeep. I suspect it'll be easier to do the upkeep for this very reason, so screw it.)
Next year I want to shove some potatoes in the side yard, which is very shady. I don't know what I'm going to do about that otherwise, though I'm sure Jenn has some vague idea that doesn't involve potatoes. We have an ENORMOUS back yard, and a large side yard, and then we have a sort of side path to the front yard, which is small, and a small front strip. Can't do much with those areas. I'll rip out the bramble briars this year, all three of them, and trim that forsythia down to the ground. It'll grow back healthier once it's been thinned. Rip out all the vines as well. I better move on that this very week before I lose this momentum.
What I want to do when we replace the porch - which must be within a month or two, probably when we do the fence again - is I want to shrink the footage of the steps. Right now the front yard is about 4 feet above street level, and then the porch goes 4 feet above that. The stoop from the sidewalk is a normal width and the porch steps are pretty wide, and they're inconvenient when walking from the back and having to turn, so we mostly go down the neighbor's steps. This is potentially super awkward! But if we narrow the porch steps so they're only slightly wider than the stoop rather than much wider, it'll work better.
My mother will object to this plan because it is change, and my sister will object because it'll upset my mother, but I think if we just go ahead and do it they'll both get over it fast.
Now, our tree lawn hosts one tree and has just enough room for another. And our neighbor on this side, the ones who cut down the pine that shaded the house, they have no street tree. The trees the city mostly puts in aren't tall enough to shade more than the second floor, but I could get a permit to plant a tree just at the edge of their sidewalk that would grow tall enough to shade the whole house. I don't think the city cares, when they hand out the street tree planting permits, if you own the property in question. I think my neighbor might, though. If I went that route I'd have to plant under cover of darkness. (I could just plant without a permit, but then it might be the neighbor who got in trouble if the city noticed and cared. Better to do it the right way.)
...
Of course, while we were loading up the car one of the workers pointed out that it's a small car and so we only ended up with one load anyway. Next year's we're going to be on top of this, though! (That's what we say every year, and every year we get a little closer to our goal.)
Tomorrow I'll pull up all the ragweed and as much of the root system as I can, then measure out the beds - the same ones I'll use next year, best to begin as I mean to go on - and buy mulch for the not-beds. Tuesday I'll dig out the beds, get more of those damn roots and rocks out, and add the compost, including from our own bin. And Wednesday I'll sow!
I'm going to basically use the SFG system - and no comments from the peanut gallery! I don't want any "That worked for me but" or "That's stupid I used this" chatter to confuse me! Starting in 2020, and continuing until 2022 I'll fill up the beds another 1/3 of the way each year, so 4 inches at a time, an even mixture of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite (or the equivalent of those last two).
Bare minimum I need a large bed for tomatoes, a large bed for herbs, and a medium sized bed for bell peppers. We always want to grow more types of vegetables than that, and the enthusiasm is there when we plant, but there's never any follow-through. We can do tomatoes and peppers and herbs (the herbs, in my experience, grow themselves) but we've never managed to pick the lettuce or tend the string beans. We should just fill the rest of the beds with flowers. (Jenn points out that my mother's not a fan of organized gardens with beds, but this is probably because you can see in that sort of thing that she hasn't done the upkeep. I suspect it'll be easier to do the upkeep for this very reason, so screw it.)
Next year I want to shove some potatoes in the side yard, which is very shady. I don't know what I'm going to do about that otherwise, though I'm sure Jenn has some vague idea that doesn't involve potatoes. We have an ENORMOUS back yard, and a large side yard, and then we have a sort of side path to the front yard, which is small, and a small front strip. Can't do much with those areas. I'll rip out the bramble briars this year, all three of them, and trim that forsythia down to the ground. It'll grow back healthier once it's been thinned. Rip out all the vines as well. I better move on that this very week before I lose this momentum.
What I want to do when we replace the porch - which must be within a month or two, probably when we do the fence again - is I want to shrink the footage of the steps. Right now the front yard is about 4 feet above street level, and then the porch goes 4 feet above that. The stoop from the sidewalk is a normal width and the porch steps are pretty wide, and they're inconvenient when walking from the back and having to turn, so we mostly go down the neighbor's steps. This is potentially super awkward! But if we narrow the porch steps so they're only slightly wider than the stoop rather than much wider, it'll work better.
My mother will object to this plan because it is change, and my sister will object because it'll upset my mother, but I think if we just go ahead and do it they'll both get over it fast.
Now, our tree lawn hosts one tree and has just enough room for another. And our neighbor on this side, the ones who cut down the pine that shaded the house, they have no street tree. The trees the city mostly puts in aren't tall enough to shade more than the second floor, but I could get a permit to plant a tree just at the edge of their sidewalk that would grow tall enough to shade the whole house. I don't think the city cares, when they hand out the street tree planting permits, if you own the property in question. I think my neighbor might, though. If I went that route I'd have to plant under cover of darkness. (I could just plant without a permit, but then it might be the neighbor who got in trouble if the city noticed and cared. Better to do it the right way.)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-19 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 02:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 01:49 am (UTC)Sounds like a lot of work, but also that it'll be great when it's done!
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 04:00 am (UTC)(Boy, how my dad could've used someone to take it off his hands back then: every time I'd go the smell and piles alone - if I recall right certain outdoor pens were reserved just to shovel it into - were so off-putting I could *not* wait to leave, and I like horses. Back then people weren't as after manure as they are now, though, so I guess it just sat there and accumulated until it broke down.)
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 06:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:10 am (UTC)Though I could be wrong.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:19 am (UTC)Say you're a rich Manhattanite with no room in Manhattan for horses so you buy some and say, stable them out on LI or up in SI. The stable rents you space to put the horse up when you're not riding it. They provide food, care and shelter. The equestrian center is where the public would pay to come and ride the horses, which (I'd imagine) are owned by the equestrian center.
I was 10 or 11 when my dad got out of this business, though, so don't feel you need to trust my memory on this much more than I would.
/edit
They all poop, don't they?
Have you ever seen what that looks like? We're talking a mere handful of horses is like an instant ecological disaster (or absolute gold mine, depending upon your POV, of course).
If you're asking if I know for a fact if they'd give or sell you poop, I don't, you'd have to call/ask around.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 07:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:16 am (UTC)But you must! There's a breed that doesn't poop. And it has a horn!
The rest of them poop like manure's going out of style. Take the biggest pile of dog crap you ever did see* and multiply it by a factor of three, and now you've got the smallest horse poop that'll ever pop out of a full-grown horse. And how many times does a horse poop? 10-12 times a day, according to Google.
*I saw one so big today I wondered if it was a dog or horse's. I haven't seen a horse's in at least a few years, since I lived in the country, but this came close.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:45 am (UTC)You can order it off eBay? How am I gonna trust myself not to tell OP this, nor live with the fallout once I do? He's all about the fertilizer, like woah. I just stick things in soil and they grow, the end. He, on the other hand...
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:54 am (UTC)Not feeling eBay's prices on this, anyhow. I need a dairy cow anyway, but while my landlord's accommodating, probably not that much. Too bad.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 09:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 09:01 am (UTC)The sketchy part is when the mailman has to deliver a box that smells strongly of rabbit.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 09:28 am (UTC)Only on April 1st.
The sketchy part is when the mailman has to deliver a box that smells strongly of rabbit.
Or horse. Or cow. Or pig.
If they're anything like me (speaking as a seller) they might look upon their bubble wrap and go, "Supersize it!" One of my weaknesses is so firmly encasing items, any items, in bubble wrap you can actually throw them around like a football and they almost bounce - even in boxes. Most likely that level of wrapping wouldn't let out too much smell, but no saying how much they care to ensure it won't.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 02:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 11:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-20 04:04 am (UTC)