Tag Archives: garden

Sewage, drainage, and rock walls Part II

Posted on by
5

Welcome to Part II of the sewage, drainage and rock walls.  Click here for Part I.

To get to the front downspout the raised flower bed had to be torn down.  Well, at least part of it.

003-Rocks

My daughter and I built this rock wall about 22 years ago,  It didn’t hold up as well as expected but I learned a lot about building a stacked stone/rock wall in those 22 years. And I got to use that knowledge to tear it all down and rebuild it.  During the hottest part of the summer.

As usual I didn’t get a picture of the before but the wall undulated ( fifty-cent word)  in and out three times from the steps of the front porch the side of the house.  The downspout is behind that bush and the pampas grass.

001-Pampas-grass-corner

Daffodils and lilies of the valley were strewn about that section so as I torn out the rocks, I rescued those plants/bulbs to replant later in the fall.  I put off that project for a few years but it’s funny how one thing leads to another.

002-Pampas-grass

 

Landscape fabric went between the rock wall and the soil.

Rock-wall-001 Rock-wall-002 Rock-wall-003

There are better other ways to keep the soil from leaking out and stabilize the wall but it’s the way I chose to do it.

Rock-wall-006

The raised bed/rock wall went doesn’t come out as far as the original and does circle around the side of the porch.  It kind of eases into the same height as the added soil around the foundation and heat pumps.

Rock-wall-006

Rock-wall-005

Rock-wall-007

Rock-wall-008

Rock-wall-009

All this work happened over the course of about three weeks…mostly because I couldn’t work on the raised bed/stacked rock wall for more than a few hours in the mornings and evenings at a time.  We’ve had some heavy rains and our basement is dry.

Grass is growing over the newly seeded areas though we will reseed some of those areas again this fall.

After the tomato plants are finished for the year, I’ll work on the other side.

Rock-wall-010Whew!

Sewage, drainage, and rock walls Part I

Posted on by
6

The ups and downs of owning a home…

As part of the new and improved water service, we had to abandon our septic system and hook up to a new sewage line.  The new line went through the back of our property which “they” cleared for us.  I don’t know how many trees were cut down but new ones were planted during the hottest and driest part of the summer so far.

Abandoning a septic doesn’t mean one just walks away from it.  Oh no, it involves having the tank drained (by a professional company that specializes in doing that), then crushed. 012-septicThe now crushed tank, rock fill, pipe connection to the tap, and under fill of said pipe have to be inspected by the water company.

013-tapOnly then can one abandon the septic system.  And all that work gets covered up with dirt, dirt, and more dirt.  Or in our case, shale. This was an all day project beginning around 7:00 am.

But wait.  There’s more.

Since heavy equipment was already involved, we decided to have some drainage issues resolved.  Our basement would flood during heavy rains.  Not often but more than once is one time too many.  The rain couldn’t get away from the house fast enough so it backed up through the basement floor drains.  One thousand square feet of floor space six inches deep of water.  500 cubic feet = 3740.25974026 gallons of water.  (I cheated and got that number from here.) That’s a lot of water!

So we had our downspouts diverted from the French drains that are deep down around our foundation away from the house.

015-drainage

 

 

 

One goes out towards the back yard and the other hides behind the lilac bush in the front.

021-lilac

020-lilac

That process also involved increasing the height of the window wells and additional soil around the foundation so the ground sloped away from the house.

005-ground

And raising the heat pumps about eight to ten inches.

007-heat-pumps

009-window-wells

008-window-wells

 

010-window-wells

014-heat-pumps

022-before-top-soil

023-after-top-soil

Nothing is easy.

But wait…there’s still more!!!

Part II tomorrow.

 

Ants?

Posted on by
6

I love hummingbirds.  A few years ago I was lucky enough to see a nest in one of the trees in our back yard.  The food is easy to make (one part sugar to four parts water) so why buy it?

HF001

Hummers aren’t the only creatures that like the sweet syrup.  So do ants. They serve a purpose in the big scheme of things but I’m not a fan of ants.  On my hummingbird feeders.

HF002

I’ve used this natural ant repellent for several years and it works great.  Plus it’s cheap.  And harmless.

HF003

These tiny, syrup, sucking insects don’t like ground cinnamon.  So I mix cinnamon (use the cheap stuff) with some petroleum jelly and slather it on the pole about 12-16 inches close to the ground.

HF004

Then I throw/shake extra cinnamon on the mixture on and around the base the pole just so they know it’s there.

I also sprinkle it on the top of my feeder.  The cinnamon/petroleum jelly mixture can also be applied to the top if your feeder is different.

HF005

No more ants on my feeder.

HF006

Of course I replenish the cinnamon as needed when I refill the feeder or if we’ve had a lot of rain or wind.

HF007

Remember to replace the hummingbird food and thoroughly wash the feeder at least once a week even if there is still food in it.  Heat will sour the mixture in a few days. I usually fill my feeder about half way so I don’t waste much food.  I’d rather refill it more often than have sour, cloudy food for those amazing little birds.

HF008

Clean, full feeders make happy hummers.

Any volunteers?

Posted on by
3

I bought a couple of asparagus ferns for our deck three years ago and planted them with a few petunias in the same flower pot.  I wanted to keep the ferns from one year to the next so I pulled out the spent petunias and brought the ferns inside during the cold months.

Last summer some petunias tried to emerge from the soil but the plants never got bigger than four small leaves.

A blooming petunia surprised me a few weeks ago.

Petunia-001 copy

At least one seed got enough sunlight and water to make it.  And yes, that is a solar light that I just left in the pot.  No, it doesn’t get enough light inside to glow at night.

Petunia-002 copy

Perhaps more will plants will grow and bloom once these pots get back outside.

Petunia-003 copy

If it ever warms up enough.

Petunia-004 copy