Introducing my new addition:

I got this off of craigslist yesterday:

An 18" Great States reel lawn mower. My mom got one when I was a teen and it was my chore to mow the lawn after my brother mowed the lawn (to make sure it was really done and to do the hard parts). It brings back memories. I was too tired last night to really give it a go, but I did a few swipes and it's pretty darn sharp. The sound it makes also makes me happy. The guy who had it lived out in Waltham and had intentions of mowing his lawn with it, but after a few go-rounds decided that he just had too much space to really use it. $40! A steal!

I'd also like to introduce his arch enemy:

50 gallons of smelly gasoline that has been sitting on the patio area for long enough that it's started seeping through the plastic and making rings on the concrete. I'm calling the city tomorrow and having it removed. It smells bad and it's DANGEROUS...also apparently after two weeks in direct sunlight (let alone years) it becomes useless.

Thirdly--

Anyone know what this is?

Where is my machete?

I made some big progress around the yard today:

Before:


After:


It gives me great joy to flip between those pictures. I weeded out the whole corner, dug bricks out of random parts of the peony bed by the driveway (that's another post entirely), shoveled the top layer of dirt (more like dust really) out of it...and then...I took one of those huge Ikea carry-alls and made about 10 trips between our old house (where the composter still was) and new house to fill compost in on top. When I put the plants in, the compost got mixed with the dirt and now I have some pretty healthy looking soil.

While at costco earlier today, I picked up a flat of Astilbe for only $12-- so that's the first row of plants. Then there's a sprinkling of marigold seeds. Above that are two geranium corms and two peruvian daffodil bulbs (one of each of which has just begun sprouting). The big thing in the middle is last year's tiger lilies. I'd been hoping to spread them out, but they overwintered in their pot and I just let them come back up, so they're pretty tangled. On each side of the tiger lilies is a pair of bedding dahlias that were in pots on the deck before. Above that are nasturtium, poppy, and chinese lantern seeds.

I know I got a late start on a lot of this, but moving 6/1 is definitely not ideal.

I also wanted to put my tigridia bulbs in there, but even though they'd been treated just the same as the tiger lilies (which sprang up just wonderfully in April), they were rotten in their pot...

When AVR got home from work, she finished clearing a spot for the composter (I'd started but it was a tangent, I hadn't finished with the corner garden yet).



Then she installed the rain barrel:

It's the same one we had over at 134-- I was worried about how it would last the winter, but couldn't get to it because of the rubble from the house fire. When I went over this morning, it was totally full and the area around it was bone dry. No leaks! I'd like to eventually make a second one and couple them together as it overflowed a lot last summer...and it only cost us under $30 to make, so it wouldn't be a big hardship to do it.

While I was wrapping up work on the corner garden, she was doing some grape vine demoltion.

Before:


A little while later:

There's still work to be done, though.

She also continued to clear branches from over where I'm planning to put the veggie garden.




And then I pruned the peonies and made an arrangement in the house:


I just love love love them.

New House Introduction

Well we've moved back to Davis Square and are somewhat happy to have an absentee landlady who will let us do whatever we want inside and out. The down side is that she doesn't do anything, hasn't done anything in a while, and previous tenants haven't done much either.

Right now, we're watching Life After People and I feel like our back yard is definitely a taste of it.

Here's a bit of a tour of the exterior:

Front of the house-- a bunch of those bushes have been cut haphazardly-- have thick stumps in the middle that the branches are stemming from.

(like so:)


Beside the driveway:

Peonies, among other things, being choked out by Evil Evil Japanese Knotwood and somewhat evil Concord Grape.


Other side of the driveway...two scrawny pansies.


Top of the drive- knotwood jungle. That stand is at least 10 feet tall.


Random back yard stuff.


Back fence.


Gertie among the pots.


This is a section we're working on clearing right now.


I pulled this down this morning.

We clearly have our work cut out for us. I got some loppers, gloves, and some grass seed and some new plants in addition to the seedlings and seeds I already have.