Spring has Sprung 2014

Spring is officially upon us. The thrift is blooming, the pollen is taking over, and the Grower's Outlet has regular hours again.

I am REALLY going to try to avoid spending a fortune on my yard this year. There is nothing I love more than a weekend with a project, but this year I am going to try to go back and redo some of the things that maybe I didn't do at 100% the first time around.

Mainly, fix the overflowing urn, figure out what's going on with my brick patio, and focus on overseeding my fescue. We will see how this pans out:) 

Playin in the Dirt... Again:)

Another Saturday... another day well spent in the yard. Today I sprayed a serious amount of Round-up, rearranged my raised beds (or the plants in them), made a trellis for my peas and cucumbers, and refreshed the soil in my raised beds with cow manure (Black Kow to be exact). I also switched out the pump in my overflowing urn  to an actual pond pump... hopefully this pump will last a while.

Here is a picture of my bean trellis (left side)

A new row of impatiens

the overflowing urn, once again, overflowing:)

My fescue is still coming in nicely, hopefully I will be able to mow the top half of the yard next weekend... it is looking a little unruly. I also bought 4 more pittosporums to replace those that died. I did have a reality check today. I realize I have planted way more seeds than I can possible grow in my raised beds... not to sure what to do with the extras. Maybe I will make a little "patio garden" for my mom and sister.

Part of my desire to fix my backyard stemmed from a sense of lack of control that I felt for my life last year. I didn't want to write a blog about how bad my day was, or how overwhelmed I felt in school, or how miserable I was at work... so I decided to write about something I love, and almost make myself accountable for maintaining my yard. Now my yard has turned into a sense of pride for me. On the weekends, there is no better feeling than to go outside with a cup of hot coffee and stand in the sunlight and admire the sweat and time I have put into creating a beautiful space. Although I still have a long way to go with my "peaceful place in the dirt" I certainly feel like working in the yard has been a sort of therapy for me.  

The Overflowing Urn

Here is a quick photo journey through the overflowing urn. I finally found my urn, basin and grate at Wakoola Water Gardens in Cumming, GA. I suggest anyone who wants a pond, overflowing urn, yard art, fun afternoon take a trip to this place. My mother and I went, and I am shocked we ever left!

I realized that I was never going to be able to dig a deep or wide enough hole where I wanted it due to the roots of this tree, so I had to get creative. I decided it would be neat to nestle the pot against the tree and roots.

I built two retaining walls with the Pavestone Windsor block you see in this picture. I had a few pieces left over, so I decided to put them to good use. That is the basin that will house the pump and water reservoir, with a heavy duty grate on top. The silver line is duct tape were a hole to access the pump has been cut in the grate.

Here is the urn I picked. it is by Le Beau, and is frost proof. This is crucial because in the winter, if the water freezes the pot could crack. I have buried part of the wall I created, and am packing dirt behind the blocks to ensure everything stays in place.

This is the inside of the pot. I ran a flexible vinyl 1/2 inch tube through one of the holes in the base, and used silicon outdoor waterproof caulk to seal around the tube and to plug the other hole. The hardest part about the process was waiting 8 hours for the silicon to dry before I could fill it with water!

Here I took landscape fabric and duct tape to cover any gaps where the square grate did not fit the round basin. (I could have purchased a basin and grate kit for $300, but I decided to create my own for $50... so I had to get a little creative). the pot is being supported by the grate, and by a cinder block I found in my yard.

It took 8 bags of top soil to fill in around the basin. Here you can see where I have planted (counter clockwise) an upside down fern, some moss, an impatiens, a succulent ground cover, another impatiens and a Japanese painted fern. I had to place large rocks in strategic places to help hold the dirt in place.

The next step is to place the rock down on the grate. Before I did that, I ensure that the pump worked. I decided to purchase 3 .5 cubic foot bags of egg rock from Lowes ($3.99 a bag) instead of buying 3 $39.99 bags of rock from the pond section.

Ta-da! I also used a big rock from my yard as a decorative accent on the left side of the fountain.

I used the leftover egg rock on the steps that are next to the fountain to tie the two areas in to each other. There is a drain pipe that dumps out on the rock next to the steps, so the rock helps reduce erosion.

Here it is with water in the pot. The waterflow sounds fantastic and is very pretty. I am going to work on where the tube is placed to hopefully achieve a more dramatic waterflow from the urn. All in all it was a fun project and really adds a lot to my yard. Here is the view from my swing, a drastic improvement from where it was before!

Water Features!

I come from a long line of "real" gardeners which have influenced my idea of what a garden and yard should look like. My mother's mother and father lived in Ellijay and had an acre vegetable garden as well as a beautiful yard with almost all native plants. My father's father grew up on a cattle farm and had an extensive home garden here in Atlanta. I have also watched my mother create an enormous pond with a waterfall in her yard. To give you an idea of the size pond she created, she is using a pool pump and filtration system to keep it up and running. Pretty big. SO, I decided I wanted a little water element in my yard as well. My first course of action was to fix the little elephant fountain I already owned, but had let go.

My dogs had decided to dig out from behind the fountain (which is solid cement) so my first task was to level the area out again. I used the weight from the elephant to rock the back of the basin up far enough to wedge bricks under it. Then I cleaned the pump, crossed my fingers and plugged it in. It worked! All that I was left was cleaning the area around the fountain up and planting some new azaleas. They are a bright reddish orange. The next task was a little more daunting. I needed to prepare the area I wanted to put my new water feature, an overflowing urn.

I chose the area to the right of these steps as the new home of my fountain. This is an area I have never tackled in my yard, and have really tried to ignore. There is an old cinderblock retaining wall, a huge tree, and lots of junk. But, I am trying to tame my yard, and this is the next spot on the way to the lower forty.