Suck it, Mother Nature!

I am aware of the power of Mother Nature. We've had termites, carpenter bees, vampire bats. We've had water in the basement and watched our neighbors get flooded.

So I knew I was tempting fate when I put my tomato seedlings out before Memorial Day. Friends at work said it was a gamble. To that, I now reply: I"m not gambling! I'm winning!

I am cheerfully harvesting warm red tomatoes well before many of my friends. Score 1 point for me!

Summer o' Fun!

We bought the Beechnuts a swingset for their upcoming birthdays, and to prepare for its delivery, we had to make a level spot in our tiny, sloping yard.

Jeff dug the trenches and used the laser-level to create a platform out of 4x4's.

I ordered the mulch and then did the research in true "Ready, Fire, Aim" fashion, and discovered some people bed their playground areas with pea gravel. Yes. Rocks. Doesn't that seem mean? Our kids are accident prone so even though we are surrounded by termites, I felt that the mulch might reduce the number of hours spent pinning down a crying child to apply neosporin and band-aids. (Sorry Dad, I went with the wood mulch.)


Swingset installed! Begin Summer o' Fun!

Exactly how shady is that Beech tree?

I've been trying to take a photo of the tree for which this blog is named, but its really impossible to get far enough away to capture the entire thing. These are the shots I recently took so you can see how large the trunk is. The previous owners built the deck around the tree, the photos posted 5 years ago with the real estate listing caused Jeff to fall in love with the house.
This photo was taken with my back to the far corner of the house, looking over the back yard.


This photos shows the beginning of the canopy, it extends well above our 3 story house.

This Copper Beech is one of several in our town. We have struggled to grow a lawn under it for a few years now. When I walk around town and see that other owners have given up the fight and just mulched their entire yards rather than complete with the tree, I wonder how many more years until we admit defeat also.

It won't be this year, though. I'm still hoping there is a true "shade grass" out there...

Everything's coming up roses

After all the French drain excitement, I'm happy to report I planted some grasses and flowers that are still alive after a few weeks.


From the far end of the bed, I have:
1. Lavender. This plant has been very happy in this spot and smells lovely when it blooms. When I was in the hospital last year, the big Beechnut brought me a little bouquet of the flowers and it made my hospital room smell heavenly for the 4 days I was there recovering from the birth of the little Beechnut.
2. A tea rose, with dark pink blooms. This is new, and I pinched off the 3 blooms that blossomed to encourage root growth.
3. Miscanthus or zebra grass. This is new and I hope it will add some height and interest to the other flowers planted.
4. Climbing rose. I wanted to show that I have managed to keep this rose bush alive for 3 years going. Its rewarding me by flowering this year. It smells rosy too.
5. Lots of mint and lily of the valley. These were planted by the previous owners and I'm trying to beat back the mint. Its really only useful around the Kentucky Derby when we make mint juleps.
6. Forever Summer Hydrangea. I have hopes this will be large with big blue blossoms, but I think the flowers are a few years out.

Closeup of my climbing rose bush. I think we'll build a bigger trellis next year.


Some of the big rhodies in bloom, with my little peony plant. I think it needs more sunlight than the current location offers, maybe it'll get moved in the fall.

Lately, I've been feeling like this:

Busy like a bee!

In the ditches

While we waited for spring to be sprung, Jeff picked up the axe, long-arm lever, and shovel and dug out the side garden with the hopes of improving drainage and keeping our basement dry.

The previous owners built a flower/herb bed along the driveway. I've used this as a place to grow tomatoes since its the only part of our tiny lot that gets full sun. This year we joined a CSA, so its being turned back to a flower bed.

There are 2 problems with this garden:
1) It has no drainage so water runs right back through the fieldstones into the basement.
2) The dirt and mulch was piled up above the sill effectively creating a termite super-highway. If I put on bug-o-vision glasses, I'm certain I'd see signs proclaiming our basement to be a termites' vactionland.

So, Jeff dug a ditch 18 inches deep

and added a lot of drainage rock

and a PVC pipe wrapped in landscape netting.

He added some rocks back on top of the pipe

Pulled off the lower rows of siding.


Added some Boracare to the termite areas. There were several of these spots. Not surprising to find these spots since we already replaced the wood on the interior of this wall.


We added a rain/snow barrier that would divert the water directly into the drainage pipe.

Then went some more gravel, and a piece of trim. The trim still needs to be painted, but I'm ready to add flowers, so this is the "final" photo.

Now, its off to plan a flower garden!

Spring has sprung

Above the house on the right is the Beech tree for which the blog was named.

These are my favorite few days of the year, when everything is in bloom and has yet to become irritatingly overgrown. Have a great weekend!

Finally the yard is useful

I pretended to be Martha today and went into my "garden" to pick flowers for a bouquet. The blooming bee balm, combined with the Alium that refused to grow upright, several hosta leaves and ferns has made a nice display, if I do say so myself!
Finally, watching home-shows non-stop on maternity leave is paying off!

Experiments with Moss

Here is the first of the "Growing moss in the yard under the Shade of a Beech Tree" experiments.

My mother generously spent time pouring over plants at the local nursery to discover they sold Gold Scotch Moss. She purchased 3 plants for us and Beech-nut 1 and I planted these today.



Find a good spot to plant.



We scientifically chose this location considering several key factors:
1. It is not in the path of foot traffic,
2. It is near a rock wall and there was a picture of a rock wall on the plant label,
3. It is in the shade,
4. My mom said it would be a good spot for the moss.



We dug a hole, weeded around the hole, planted the moss, and added water.

Now we play the waiting game.

The waiting game sucks. Let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

What's the story, Morning Glory?

The morning glory was starting to climb up the rhododendron. It's the purple flowering thing shown in the middle of the photo. Although it is technically a weed, it was flowering. And, since most things I plant thank me by curling up and dying, I decided to encourage this little guy with a trellis.



I found this wood in the garage and it only took a little encouragement for Jeff to bust out the nail gun, and roughly 10 minutes later we had a trellis!


Now look! I can grow a plant that actually will flower! Who cares that it's a weed? I am claiming victory!

Garden in the shade

A consequence of living in the shade of a huge Copper Beech tree is the lack of lawn. Or more correctly, the lack of available nutrients/water/sunlight to grow any sort of lawn. The tree sucks up all the water and the dirt we have is just plain dusty. We did make an "effort" to add organic material back to the soil this year by not raking up our leaves last fall, so that might help this season.

After several years of trying to grow grass in the back yard, we have decided to give up, and start a new plan. I noticed this article on Apartment Therapy about growing moss and I think the new plans for the backyard are going to include a flagstone patio surrounded by moss and a play area for the kid(s) covered in playground mulch.

I wouldn't mind the backyard to look like this:



Moss seems pretty simple to plant. You just need to get some, grind it up in the blender, and add either beer or buttermilk to make a slurry, then spread it around wherever you want the moss to grow. I love the idea of gardening by blender. If it turns out that I can't grow glorified mold in my back yard, perhaps we should just mulch the entire backyard and call it a day.