Greenwood Heights Backyard: Spring 2009
June 5, 2009
Quickie Garden Update
While we are still working out the final planting plan with Diana at Fun City Design (mostly since Mrs. Tikihouse and I are still rethinking where certain "foundation" plantings should go). Diana has come up with some great ideas in her first draft of the planting plan (coming soon).
In the meantime, here's a down and dirty post of the growth of the garden as-is so far this spring.
Photo: Azaleas from late May. Still missing those pretty blooms!
May 5, 2009
Veggie Garden Time!
Next step on our phase 2 backyard reno was to bring our tropicals outside for the spring/summer/fall and then get ready to plant our big veggie garden.
Prior to that we had a good discussion with our designer Diana, at Fun City Design, about meeting up to discuss the final planting plan and the reality of what we'd be able to do under the current economic squeeze. Also, we wanted her to see the space and how it had evolved since last fall. Our meeting will be in a later post.
So all the tropicals made it out, either in the "seating area" or out by the shed (for now). Adding more greenery made a huge difference in softening the space.
Before we could move forward with planting the veggie garden, we turned the soil once more (fourth time now?) and began to layout markers to dig for our garden blue stone path.
Diana's plan had the garden broken up into four quadrants, with a bird bath in the center.
Proposed original plan, Fall 2008
In order to maximize our planting area, we opted to try out three long rows, with stepping stones in between the rows. This would align our plantings north/south and allow us to experiment as to how much we can cram in (or not) into the garden to max out our output, i.e. live off our garden this summer!
April 13, 2009
Paper, Dirt, Buckets...and Bamboo!
As a recap form the last post, after much clean up, we received a call from our "generous neighbors" that we would be able to have some young specimens from their grove (they were thinning it out) of the bamboo genus Phyllostachys. We were THRILLED.
The only catch is the delivery date was TBD and we needed a ton of topsoil to prep the bamboo planter box.
A quick call to J&L Landscaping (and then a "help" call to several friends) and we were scheduled for a delivery of their best top soil.
Larry at J&L had figured we would need approximately 3 1/2 yrds. of soil to fill the box, with a tad left over to spread around. At $65/yrd. (with delivery) we figured it was a good deal. In prep for the delivery, and bucket brigade through the house, we cleared away furniture and plants and laid down contractor paper (no need to scratch up the oak floors).
Photo: one HUGE pile of topsoil (tarped, of course)
Delivery was made bright and early and to our surprise, more like 4 1/2 to 5 yrds. were dumped! (though we only paid for the 3 1/2 yrds)
March 31, 2009
Spring Has Sprung, But Something Sunk
Spring greetings from Mr. and Mrs. Tikihouse. After a VERY LONG and cold winter, we were most happy to see the temps begin to rise and the ground soften.
Since our last post a short "knee wall" was installed and a less than ideal green hurricane fence was placed between the new brick condo building's yard and ours. Could have been worse...it could have been white vinyl! NOTE: we will be covering it up as one of the first tasks in phase II of our backyard reno project.
While it is a tad early to begin any planting, our plan was to begin moving plants again and turn over the right hand side of the garden, adding humous and peat moss as we went.
Photo: overview of the start of phase 2 of our back yard reno
That's when we had a sinking feeling, or rather saw the sinking.