Monday, June 3, 2013

Putting Off Can Be Off Putting


   

We have been so busy working on the basement remodel that I have let the outside go wild.  Sure I planted a garden and I put some fresh mulch on the blueberries.  Blueberries that will not get big enough to fulfill all our blueberry needs this year, but are looking great, anyway.  But we haven't kept up with the weeding.  Check these out.

   

So we took a day off from the basement and did some yard work.  We put in some 2X2 stakes to keep the pear tree from falling over.  The regular tree stakes were not cutting it.  Then I started digging out weeds.  These are not the wimpy, pull them out kind of weeds. They needed a shovel and gloves.    Imagine my surprise when I found this in the middle of the bushes where I was reaching in to pull weeds. 

   

I did NOT scream, no matter what anyone says.  Yelling Aaah! while jerking your hand back is not screaming.  And I was a bit more careful with my reaching after finding this blacksnake skin.  But he is long gone, right?  Right?

The most important thing we had to do was to fix where the rain rushing out the downspouts had dug some channels.  One went under the house, which is not where you want to direct water.  And one went alongside the brick border and undercut it.

I bought one of those plastic, roll out thingies to direct the water out onto the lawn.  After the rain stops it is supposed to roll back up.  I only bought one, because I want to see if it works.  But it is blindingly white and ugly.  They need to make green ones.

   

Then I made a rock trench to direct the flow of water from the downspouts over the bricks and onto the lawn, 

   

At the half way point there is a curve and I put some rocks to stop and redirect any flow that comes there.  I know they sell concrete channels, but they are kind of ugly.  We have a farm full of rocks and I used some to build what I think is a more esthetic way of dealing with the rain.

Then it started to pour, so we will have to wait to spread the mulch Lee bought. But not enough to see if the white downspout extension is working!

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