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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: 2019-05-20 02:00 am (UTC)