soaphouse's Blog

Fall is here and I am tired of mowing!
Oct 6, 2010 | 11:09 AM PST
Tags: fall , weed eater

Fall has finally hit! We are wearing our sweaters and visiting the pumpkin patch. I just love this time of year! Every weekend with weed-eater in hand, I tidy up a bit more of the garden in the countdown for the winter slumber. Last weekend, I had a bit more fun with my weed-eater:

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p>No - not aliens....I am just tired of mowing! This is in my back yard and its kind of fun to see it from the sunroom, that looks down on the garden a bit. Perhaps some fun winter interest - HAH!

I was considering doing this in the front yard - but my hubby may just crawl in the hole of crazy wife embarrassment :)

HAPPY FALL!

Moving the Mulch and Such...
Jan 31, 2009 | 4:43 AM PST
Tags: mulch , grasses , prune , clematis , weed eater , weedeater , creek

Last week I had what seems to be the largest pile of mulch in the history of gardening delivered to my yard! We are so lucky that we can get this free from the city:

Of course, my girl had a great time climbing the "mountain" as I set out to spread it on the side yard.

I did get a good bit done. This is where my hubby parks his truck and every winter, I spread a fresh layer. I have also been working on the usual winter clean up in preparation for spring. I had a lovely clematis armandii and wisteria growing on the side of the house. Well, the clematis had turned all crispy, which its not supposed to do since it is an evergreen. Well, it looked terrible, so Hubby helped me cut it way back to the base. Will be interesting to see if it comes back...I have my doubts.

Here is what it looked like in its glory, before turning brown:

And now, after the BIG prune :

Bummer! At least the fig tree will leaf out in spring to cover the ugly gas line.

Also, a few weeks back my trusty weedeater died! UGH! So, while hubby and I were at Home Depot pricing a new one (quite expensive actually), A stranger walked by and said he had a used one that we could buy for $10. So, we took him up on it and after a bit of tinkering, hubby got it working and cut back the grasses for me!

>HOORAY! Its a big job. We do have a lot of those grasses. I will divide the larger clumps and put some back by the creek before spring.

He did say it is a bit finicky, but it should hold us over for the time being :)

My little one had fun using her new camera to take pictures of daddy too:

Today the goal is to clean up the grasses from their hair cut and move more mulch.

Happy gardening!

Spring Divisions
Mar 5, 2008 | 12:08 PM PST
Tags: autumn joy sedum , day lily , daylilie , feather grass , weed eater , wild onions

Yesterday brought us heavy downpours of rain and some thunderstorms. The rain was fabulous! I know it has to be helping the drought situation and I just loved seeing it all fall on my plants :)This afternoon when I got home from work, I set out to do a few garden chores...here is what I accomplished:p>

• Divided and transplanted my daylilies. There were 3 clumps by the mailbox that I divided into 9 clumps and spread out across the large front street bed. My hope is that they will bring some nice color to that area without having to fuss with annuals.
• I also found a home for the autumn joy sedum from my mom. The one large clump also got divided into 7 pieces. These all went behind the small feather grasses I have along the front street bed. I think the combination of foliage textures will be very nice.
• I then went over my new planting with a fine dusting of pine straw, weed-eated the wild onions, edged the front bed and pulled a few weeds.

The weather is so beautiful right now. Sunny, not a could in the sky, slight breeze, 58 degrees. I may go out and enjoy the garden from the front porch :)