Reclaiming the Yard

Since we moved in last September, we have done the following to reclaim the yard:

1) had all the trees pruned. Although the trimmers destroyed the look of our evergreen, they did a good job on the others. This is great because this winter saw some incredible winds that even took down a section of older fencing! The tree branches were well-clear of the roof and our property was undamaged (except for the fence).

2) replaced 3/4 of the original dog-eared, 6 ft fence with a new one. We will finish the north perimeter fenceline in June when we split the project with our neighbors. After that, there will be a 40 ft. stretch that will be original on the south side. Those neighbors don't want to replace it yet, so that's okay.

3) had the ivy hauled out by the front steps and replaced with mulch

4) replaced the side stairs -- the previous concrete ones had fallen and created a precarious drop out the door

New Steps

5) removed south side borer mulch and weeds, replaced with soil, mixed in alpaca crap to create a heat-lover garden. Still need to put in garden fence to protect from dog and children.

South Heat-Lover Garden: Bringing in Alpaca Crap

6) had south perimeter fence area cleaned and hauled out.

7) hauled out corner of south and west fence lines to prepare for a garden shed

8) used last alpaca crap for a small pumpkin patch.

More pictures to follow

The Yard - What We Have

Our yard has been mostly unimproved over the past 20 years. The grass part itself is beautifully maintained and we are lucky to have an 11-zone sprinkler system installed. Everything looks lush and green with a basic program of watering every three days which, for the Denver area, is pretty good.

Since we bought the property last September, we have slowing been tackling the job of reining in the yard and reclaiming the edges for use.

BACK YARD:
At one point, the backyard had what must have been a pretty rock border that abated weeds. The border meanders about 10 feet from the fenceline in a slow, waving pattern. I'm sure it was at one point a beautiful landscape, but the rocks are totally ineffective at this point. The rock border is most evident along the west border.

The yard to the north side of the house (a side yard roughly 20 feet wide by 60 feet long on the NORTH EAST portion of the back yard) has a slope and is covered in rocks. This is likewise overgrown, and, in addition, so rarely inhabited that it is easy to get freaked out at the prospect of stepping on a snake. I had originally planned to put pumpkins on this slope, even with the rocks, but the fellow who we hire to mow the lawn sprayed it with a weed killer that literally kills everything in the ground.... for a year. Yes, I know. This is totally horrifying. I had no idea and have since learned my lesson. Whenever anyone offers to apply a "treatment" of any sort, I need to know exactly what they are using. Sure, there were a lot of weeds there and we weren't going to spring for a new rock placement or anything just now... all the same, I don't want things bombed on my property! So, short news is that the north side is completely dead for planting for a year. We will obviously not grow any food things on that side ever.

The north west side of the yard will eventually have a very nice garden. There is a great flat area for it where there had once been a level play yard. We decided that if we ever do put in a play structure, it won't go in this part of the yard as it gets sun most of the day. Sun = great for plants, bad for little kiddos' skin.

The south west sector of the yard has several lustrous and overgrown lilac bushes. There is also a very old, mostly decayed raised garden bed and some hardy looking blackberry or raspberry bushes. The bushes are so well established that they have several volunteer trees popping up. We plan to take out the volunteers and debris and put a garden shed in this corner. We will keep the mature bushes, but in the meantime I need to learn how to prune a lilac and trellis a berry bush such as the raspberry / blackberry so I can train it to stay along the fence again.

The south border fence is lined with a few clusters completely overgrown, sprawling and lanky red dog ear bushes. These bushes are taller than the six foot fence. They are really pretty and I hate to lose the privacy provided by the months they have leaves, but they are in desperate need of a good pollarding or coppicing. I plan to do one or the other at the end of next winter and see how it goes.

Finally, the south-east side yard (40 feet by 16) gets non-stop sun during the day and the bricks on the house cast heat at night. Because of this, I have hired people this spring to tear up the completely abandoned mulch border (home to tons of bindweed) and replace it with good soil and alpaca crap to create a heat-lover garden. I just planted out our ten tomato starts last night!

Back Yard Trees:
We have two ask trees near the house. One has been pruned to resemble a gun tower, but is strong enough to handle a hearty swing. The other is smaller, has a nicer spread, but is weak. We have a small swing on it, but I fear the children will grown large enough to snap the branch before it becomes strong enough to support a larger weight!

FRONT YARD:
The front of the house, which faces east, is all mulch bordering a yard. There are no plantings to speak of. There had been an ivy patch near the front steps and garage, but we had that torn out STAT to get rid of one of the snakes' favorite hang outs. That area is now covered with mulch.

Front Yard Trees:
We have an evergreen tree on the north side of the yard. It used to have a gorgeous sweep onto the ground, but we had the tree trimmers bring it up. We thought it would come about a foot off the ground so, again, snakes couldn't den in there... Unfortunately, the trimmers chopped off about 4 feet, leaving a weird looking tree. It breaks my heart and I am considering getting rid of it altogether.

So, that's the summary description. I will post pictures later!

Snakes by the Dozen

As I posted back in September, we are in the Denver area now. We have been in the area since last July, but only in our house since September. I realize now more than when we first moved in that the yard (12,000 sq ft!!!) has been mostly ignored and not landscaped in over twenty years. The previous owner was a divorcee with two daughters who confessed to us that she couldn't stand gardening. She was eager to move into what they call a "patio home" in the area. Such homes are intentionally built with very little yard space. We, with now three children and a young dog, were eager for a yard. Plus, despite my plant-killing proclivities, I was happy to have the chance to grow more food.

Now that we have been on the property for a bit of time, I've come to believe that the previous owner basically never went out into the yard. The lawn was well maintained by a mowing fellow, but the shrubs are quite overgrown along the edges and... most telling... we have an inordinate population of garter and bull snakes on the property. I'm sure the population is so large because the previous owner was never in the yard. Had she seen the amount of snakes, she would have had it addressed. They have basically had 20 years to thrive perfectly undisturbed. Our neighbors are surprised to learn we have snakes -- they haven't seen them on a regular basis like we have. This tells me, again, that this is a problem that can be solved with reclaiming the yard.

The snakes were so populous last fall that my poor husband stepped on one and nearly stepped on another while mowing! Last fall, when it was still warm, we would literally see at least one a day. This is a little freaky with small children running in the yard. Sure, the garter snakes are totally harmless, but a bull snake will strike and bite when pushed. Again, these bites are ultimately not fatal, but hell. I'd rather not have them biting my kids, much less me!

Last autumn, I finally started killing the snakes off as I found them. I felt terrible about it, but after calling a few companies that specialize in snake removal and learning about their methods, I determined that a quick death was preferable. The snake traps are just baited glue traps. The snakes get stuck on them and end up either dying of exposure or waiting until the trap guy comes back to check on them and then kills them. It seemed torturous.

I have never intentionally killed anything greater than an insect, but I was 7 months pregnant at the time and just not about to put up with anything threatening my children. I got my technique down after the first time. Turns out that whole "shovel" thing is overrated. I won't go into gross detail, but if you ever need a sure fire way to kill a snake -- it's harder than you think! -- email me.

This spring we finally gave in and hired the company. They set out two traps that never caught a thing. A few weeks later, they sprayed the perimeter of the yard and house with Liquid Fence. The property stank of garlic (which is weird, because there isn't garlic in the mixture) for days. That was about 3 weeks ago. Today I laid eyes on another huge bull snake working his way through the grass. So much for that....

FORTUNATELY, our wonderful young dog has matured over the winter and has developed into an incredible snake catcher. The first one he caught this spring he killed swiftly. I think that was a fluke. He has since caught five or six more and after letting him play with the second one for a few minutes and realizing he had no idea what to do, I managed to call him off it and put the stunned thing in a box. Our pup, Bishop, and I now have a pretty great partnership. When we spot one, he pops on it. He's very fast and catches them easily. The snakes go into a stun mode where they don't move. I use two long handles from an old hoe and an old shovel to pick the snake up, chop-stick style, and drop it in a big box with a lid. After that, when my husband gets home and can watch the children, I ferry the snake down the road and release it near the creek that is part of an open space. It's win-win-win. The dog has a great job where he shines. The snake gets to live and we reduce our population! We are making great headway. This snake today was the first I'd seen in three weeks, which is much better than a daily occurrence!

I know snakes serve a wonderful purpose in nature, especially with insect control in the garden, but I just can't risk my children getting hurt. So, off they go!

I plan to lay down some more applications of the Liquid Fence over the summer. I think it is effective when it is fresh. Next time, however, I will use the granule stuff, as it is supposed to last longer.

Planting Out Day!

The line up, looking East. Two Principe Borghese coplanted, Costoluto Fiorentino, Costoluto Genovese, Riesentraub, Sun Gold

Partial Line Up, East side, looking West, R to L: Uncle Mark Bagby, Hillbilly, Striped German, Ananis Noir

I've been working on creating a tomato garden all spring. Well, I haven't done much of the work... more like I've hired help and overseen its creation (have a brand new baby and still quite physically limited after some complications).

Hillbilly (L), Uncle Mark Bagby (middle), Brandywine - Landis Valley Strain (R)

Uncle Mark Bagby (L), Brandywine, Landis Valley Strain (R)

We bought our tomato starts on May 4th, the first day of Heirloom Farms' tomato sale. I'm glad we went on the first day. The traffic was terrible to get to it (nothing to do with the sale, just typical Denver weird traffic patterns), but we were able to buy 9 of the 10 varieties I had decided on. The sale is held in two locations, so I figured I'd get the last variety -- Principe Borghese - the next day at the other location (the locations don't have the same variety choices). Boy am I glad we suffered the traffic that Friday! I got to the second location the next day a few hours after it started, and they were totally sold out!!!

Hillbilly

Ananis Noir (L), Striped German (R)

I sort of lingered for a few minutes to talk to the farmer and I'm glad I did. It turns out she had two flaccid, mealy little Principe Borgese's left that she felt were too sickly to sell. I was so grateful that she let me have them that I insisted on buying them. Of the ten varieties this year, they are the only ones I've grown before. This is my third year with them and they have consistently produced well and deliciously.

After a few weeks of setting them out on days and preparing them for rough Front Range life, we finally planted out today!

The tomato garden still lacks a drip irrigation system, top mulch and a fence, but I couldn't wait longer to set the plants out.

Sungold

Costoluto Fiorentino (L), and Costoluto Genovese (R)

We trimmed the first few branches off each plant (except the borghese plants which were too tiny) and deeply planted them in a hole that had been prepared with some eggshell, Mater Magic, soil and compost. The starts were about 16" high out of their pots and after trimming and setting them in their holes, they were about 8" out of the ground a piece. I wanted them to have a deep root system start as the soil here is very clayish and dense. Really hard to grow through. I figure a deeper base will help them bare up against wind and develop a deep water source. Finally, they were well watered. I put them out at night as I'd read somewhere that they like that --- waking up fresh to being outside in a happy hole. It took a long time to get them out, but I'm happy! Let's hope they are too!

2 x Principe Borgese (L), Costoluto Fiortentino (middle), Costoluto Genovese (R)

Edible Landscaping

As I mentioned in my most recent post, we just moved to the Denver area and have settled into a comparatively palatial house on a 12,000+ square foot lot. I love the house. It has 2,800 square feet of living space and 3,600 square feet total (unfinished basement). While the house is awesome, I'm even more excited about having so much land to develop for food production! We are really going to need it up here. I've been to just a handful of farmer's markets, but have been generally unimpressed by the quality of produce and the prices are crazy. That's the one advantage California has over Denver - the cost of great food. I'm really not a great gardener, but I've met with some success over the past few years. My mealy tomatoes would have blended right in at the markets I've been to - and those were the ones I was embarassed of! Even more depressing is the fact that a LOT of vendors aren't offering organic food.

So, next year I'm eager to get started on our garden. With any luck I'll be able to produce at least the lettuce and tomatoes we enjoy so much, along with greens like chard and kale. Eventually we would like to get a greenhouse so we can produce for more months of the year. In the meantime, however, I'm looking for great ideas on gardening at altitude, growing food in an area with short summer bursts and general tips on food production. Fortunately, I just stumbled across Rosalind Creasy's blog and book "Edible Landscaping." Her blog has a GREAT intro to growing food post that I wanted to tag for myself here (that way I can find it later!). I can't wait to get a hold of this book! Too bad our local library doesn't have it, but it gives me a great excuse to buy it!

New State, New Altitude, New Garden

This last year of gardening was a bust. I was finishing graduate school just when I should have been getting my plants in. I was all set to go, but then my husband got a job offer through his company that required a transfer and... five months later, here we are in Colorado!

We actually arrived in July, but were in corporate housing for several months. It's ironic that when I staged the house in California for sale, I potted a bunch of herbs as entryway decor and they bloomed gorgeously. Ironic, of course, because I'm the plant killer and anything I plant with the true intention of helping blossom usually falters, withers and chokes off. Things I neglect tend to be bountiful.

In order to cut down on shipment / moving costs, I gave away our smaller square foot garden beds that my husband built a few years ago and gave our excellent soil from the deeper garden boxes I bought on Craig's List to a neighbor. The saddest part of our move, for me, was saying goodbye to our amazing lemon tree and giving away the house plants I'd picked up a few years ago at a yard sale. Fortunately, they went to a great home - again our neighbor with the green thumb who got our good dirt. I really struggled with the decision to give those plants away. I'd hoped they would survive our trip out here to Denver, but my gardening friend believed they wouldn't and thought it unfair to stress them further.

So, now we are here, just south of Denver in a home on a 12,000 square foot lot. I'm really excited to get gardening ASAP and am planning out our harvest for next year. I'm especially excited that the land is essentially a blank slate - it has a gorgeous lawn, but has been largely unlandscaped as the previous property owner loathed gardening or tending to the land. I don't have to worry about messing things up! I can just get started and see what happens!

The back yard is totally secure from deer and coyotes with over 6 foot wood fencing. The lawn is bordered by a wide swath of rocks that had been laid in for week control and xeriscaping over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the rocks have shifted and thinned over the years, so they no longer serve their purpose of weed control. The positive side of this is that I have no sense of guilt at the propet of dragging them all out and redistributing them as I want. It also means that there is a perfect border space set around the yard so set in all sorts of plants. One side of the house sits on a slight hill and I'm eager to get pumpkins in there next year. I grew up working on a pumpkin farm every fall for many years and I love the idea of getting my children to grow and sell some sugar pumpkins for a small profit to put into their college funds.

My husband has expressed an interest in getting a greenhouse (this is Denver, after all and it would be GREAT to grow year round!), and I like the idea of chickens... or at least fresh eggs. All that is super down the road, but it's lovely to be in a spot where there's enough land to really think about different projects!

Green Thumb, Black Thumb

I bought these two succulant plants about two years ago from a neighbor's yard sale. I intended them to be house plants, but they've somehow remained outside suffering from my usual drought / flooding routine. This past fall, I bumped into the neighbor, who I didn't really know that well. Without telling her I'd purchased some of her plants, she got around to telling me she was widowed and how her husband, a long time sufferer of Parkinson's, had found working with his plants to be therapeutic. So, essentially I have this fellow's legacy plants.

I noticed one was failing in the backyard and brought it into our bathroom where it gets warm moisture and soft natural light. It has thrived.

Because it's winter and we don't go in the backyard much, I wire forgot about the other poor thing. Today I spotted it, forlornly sitting half dead and drowned in its pot amongst sone other long-since dead, less hearty things. Remembering this dead man's legacy, I brought it in today and set it next to its cousin. I think I will get them some fertilizer and see how the tortured one returns. Fingers crossed.