Remembering Autumn

On cold and especially snowy days like the ones that we've had recently, I've especially missed the warmer weather! Since I have been negligent in my efforts to update this blog, I thought that now might be a good time to look back to the last warm days of 2009 and cover what I was working on at that time.

As last reported, I ended up erecting a new fence around the backyard. The fence has unfortunately only fared but so well against the insistence of people passing between it and the tree that sits at the junction of mine and my neighbors' properties, and as such I've had to continually re-insert the bamboo panels into the frames. Once the snow melts one of my first tasks (after once again fixing the fence) will need to be creating some sort of barrier between the fence post and the tree, which will hopefully keep people from trespassing on my property and messing up the fence.

I decided to add some lighting to the fence posts, and, because I did not want to add hardwiring, decided to use solar-powered LED lights. For this, I actually ended up using exterior pathway lights, normally inserted into the ground, but in this application I drilled a hole into the posts and then shortened the length of the lamps' posts and inserted them into the posts. So far so good, though unfortunately with only morning light these usually only stay lit until around 10 or 11 PM.

I also added some new plants in the front and backyards. In the front I've tried to add more perennials, opting for more native and drought tolerant plants, as this is a western exposure that gets the late day heat. Also, the large tree in the front yard, with its dense foliage, prevents rain from really watering the ground (unless we really get a downpour).

In the backyard, keeping with a more Asian/semi-tropical inspired landscape, I've added a small leaf clumping bamboo (that I was assured is non-invasive), Japanese blood grass, Japanese forest grass, and a hardy palm. I added recycled rubber mulch (made from old tires) in the planting bed, which I edged with a product called Snap Edge, made from 100% recycled high density polyethylene.

Of course these plants are now under a coating of snow. I just hope that I got them in the ground soon enough that they will come back in the spring. Stay tuned!