All in [...]]]> The weather turned nice last week, prompting the grass to start growing.  Since we moved in in 2004, I have done nothing to encourage my grass to grow, yet every year it grows vigorously starting about the second week in April.  Sometimes, if it is a dry summer, by August things slow down.

All in all, the yard is in pretty good shape.  I took a day in February, after the double blizzard, and picked up all the branches.  The white pine lost three large branches.  Today, I got out the trusty Toro Lawn mower and cut the grass for the first time.  There was a lot of leaves stick and other debris that I mulched up too.  That is going to make excellent compost.

Before things get too far along, I need to repair all the damage done when installing the solar system last November/December.  Basically, I need to rack out all the stones and reseed a around the footings and where the trench for the conduit was dug.

As a part of our long term goals for the house, landscaping is somewhere in the middle of the [...]]]> We have spent some amount of time fixing up the yard.  I think the worst of it was removing all the asphalt around the back of the house.  What a terrible way to make a patio.

As a part of our long term goals for the house, landscaping is somewhere in the middle of the list.  The parts that we can work on now, such as removing over grown shrubs, trimming back trees, and general clean up items have been nearly completed.

One of my goals is to make things as low maintenance as possible.  The other is to make things producing.  Planting fruit trees is the easiest way to create an edible landscape.  Most fruit trees bloom in the spring and thus make attractive ornamental tree.  In the fall, those flowers turn to fruit which can be picked and eaten right off the tree.

Only problem I have run into is bees.  In the fall, many bees, hornets, yellow jackets, and wasps like to eat the fallen fruit.  The good thing is the deer and the bears (and an occasional coyote) clean up the fruit almost every night.

When we moved here we had two pear trees and a peach tree.  The first pear tree was growing up under an oak tree.  It also had heart rot, so we had to take it down.  The peach tree was also suffering from some sort of blight and was planted in the wrong spot, so I took that one down as well.  Finally, I have been trying to rehabilitate the second pear tree, with some success.  However, this tree may be getting old and it may also be in the way of our solar system.

two year old peach tree, about 8 feet tall

To replace the trees I cut down, I planted a new peach tree in the front yard.  This is a much better spot as it gets full sun almost all day long.  It has grown remarkably this year and I expect to get some fruit next year.

I also planted an apple tree, but the deer have nearly killed it.  It is still struggling but the issue is in doubt.  I will plant another apple tree in the front yard and fence it.

bunches of white table grapes on trellis

I also planted four grape vines.  I ordered these on line and they were relatively inexpensive.  This is their third year and three of the four vines are thriving.  The forth is not too happy and I don’t know why.  Two of the vines are Concorde grapes.  There is a variety of white table grapes too, but I cannot remember the name.

The other parts of the edible landscaping are the vegetable garden and herb garden, both are well documented elsewhere.

Some other local edibles include a whole forest of blueberries.  Last Sunday the family went blue berry picking and came back with several containers full (not to mention our stomachs).  These are the small to medium sized wild blue berries that are so good on cereal, ice cream and in yogurt.

We also have many many nut trees on our property.  Pin oak and white oak produce many acorns.  Shag bark hickory nuts litter the ground in the fall and across the street there is a large stand of black walnuts.  The black walnuts do not taste like their English Walnut cousins, they are a little more bitter but very good to eat.  Husking the nuts turns your hands black for several weeks, however.

Last spring, I [...]]]> I like fresh fruit, and I like efficiency. So, why not grow my own fruit in the back yard? I am not talking about planting an orchard or anything, we have enough of those around here. I thought I would plant a few fruit trees to compliment the ones we already have.

Last spring, I cut down one of our two pear trees because it was old and it had heart rot. Heart rot means the tree is rotting from the inside out, usually helped along by insects. These tress become weak and can be easily be toppled during a storm. It was a danger, so it had to go.

We also have an old peach tree, which, in spite of my best attempts to prune it, is in decline. The peach tree suffers from Peach Scab, a fungal infection that produces brown hard scabs on the fruit. Not very appealing to eat. It has had several major branches broken off. Like the old pear tree, this tree has to go.

I gave the other pear tree a severe pruning the last spring and again this spring. There were lots of water shoots that needed to be removed and the top portion of one of the trees was dead so I cut it out. That was no mean feet, being that I did not have any climbing gear. Last year the fruit was kind of small, but there was lots of it. We will see how it does this year.

In addition to the peach and the pear tree, we have grape vines growing up the patio trellis. They look good this year, buds are all swollen and about to break. These are concord table grapes, which means they are made for eating, not making wine. Wine grapes have a higher sugar content, but taste pretty bad as I understand.

Today, being a nice day outside, I stopped by the local nursery. While walking amongst the rows of six foot tall trees, I could not resist the temptation to buy a few. I purchased a new peach tree and a medium dwarf red delicious apple tree. Now comes the fun part, finding good locations for the trees.

My wife is a good soul. She indulges my eccentricity for the most part and goes along with my schemes. Occasionally, I think she is even mildly entertained by them.

Using the [...]]]> This handy little clothes dryer is not energy star rated, yet uses zero kWh of electricity to dry a load of clothes:

My wife is a good soul. She indulges my eccentricity for the most part and goes along with my schemes. Occasionally, I think she is even mildly entertained by them.

Using the clothes line requires a little extra effort. Instead of grabbing the load of wet clothes out of the washer, and pitching them into the dryer located a few feet away, they are put in a basket and schlepped out side to be hung individually on a line using clothes pins. That alone requires a lot of bending and straightening, not to mention subjecting oneself to the sun, wind and whatever insects happen to be in the area. Also, the wild animals, we can not forget the wild animals that lurk in the forest behind our house, ready… waiting…

Then they need to be taken down when they are dry.

But those are the sacrifices that have to be endured.

As for the clothes line itself, I made it out of two eight foot posts made of Black Locust about 45 feet apart and some UV resistant rope strung between them at eye level. It does stretch a little, but by and large keeps the clean clothes from touching the ground.

The area around the house was [...]]]> Even though our house is 40+ years old, little if any landscaping was done around it. The previous owners had used it as a summer home, their permanent home being in Brooklyn, NY. I suppose if you grow up in Brooklyn you are used to asphalt (AKA black top).

The area around the house was paved so that the asphalt was right up to the plywood sheathing. This likely caused many of the rot and infestation problems because the wood wicked up the moisture when it rained.

Before and after pictures. The total cost for us was $300 per ton of blue stone, $40 for the delivery and about $20 for four grape vines, so around $1,260. That and many many hours of digging, hauling, lifting, raking, more digging and did I mention digging?