A Wolf's Garden

Bloomin' Update: Catch-up

Sun, 05 May 2013 23:50:50 -0400

Crocus vernis

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Trillium

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Heuchera

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Narcissus tazetta (Paperwhites)

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Hosta (I love this chartreuse cultivar)

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Dwarf Iris (Aren’t these adorable!?)

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Green Globe Artichoke

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Columbine

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Tulip

Whooo-weee... it's been a while!

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:44:00 -0400

So, I just finished the Spring semester this Thursday and haven’t quite gotten back on top of all my incomplete chores/projects/routines… but I’m getting there.

It was a really awesome semester in which I learned a ton about landscape design (basically, because I took a class which swallowed all my time and forced me to live in the studio), started dating a wonderful woman, acquired a slew of new plants, and discovered that I really love to make sculptures out of bamboo!

Let’s start with the bamboo….

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So, one of the design studios I had this past semester required us to build a bamboo sculpture which would be the centerpiece at the JC Raulston Arboretum’s annual Gala event. It was an Asian themed gala and our class voted for a design in the form of giant Asian dragon! Awesome.

I volunteered to be on the crew of three guys building the head (because it was to be the most complicated and, therefore, most fun!). The following is a progression of our construction.

It took about two weeks of late nights (and all-nighters) along with help from many friends, but we got it finished on time and it turned out to be wildly popular at the Gala. :D

Flows of water and foot traffic.

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:05:25 -0500

I wish I could take credit for getting a hand in all parts of this work, but I’ve left dad by himself working on the cabin these past few weeks. Together we finished a metal roof and got some siding up. Since I’ve been gone he has installed both a water collection system and another door, this time onto the new porch.

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Tarp still covering part of the roof.

Metal roof shining to brightly for my cheapo camera.

From top to bottom.

Some logs my father will eventually use for construction.

A water catchment system my dad put together sitting atop the platform he built to garner some gravitational assistance.

Notice the boxing and soffet have been finished down to the end of the shed roof for the porch.

Another door!

And a porch for it to walk out onto… this faces the fir pit and the outdoor tables set up to cook on.

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This really makes me want to get out there and spend some time… especially when it warms up a bit.

Fall Interest

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:25:13 -0500

Spring is my favorite time of year because everything burst to life and tons of plants break ground… but those plants which can endure the cold give Fall it’s own unique feeling. Here is some stuff that makes it at least up until frost, some stuff all through the Winter.

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Yucca filamentosa

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Sarracenia

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Edgeworthia chrysantha - this fuzzy thing is the bud(s) of the inflorescence that will open up in early Spring of next year. These buds just hang off the plant until then.

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Lilium forsanum - late bloomer

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Euphorbia martinii

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Fuschia

My Life As A Cabin: Update

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 16:23:00 -0500

When I last mentioned the cabin building project (here) I was still calling it “The Shed”… because it started as a shed my father wanted to build on some property he owns. A shed to be used as a storage facility for tools, supplies, fuel, etc. It would also function as a last resort dwelling should we need somewhere to escape the elements during the construction of the actual cabin my father wants to build. Well… I can no longer support the ruse! It is 14’x17’, it has a 14’x8’ loft, a covered porch, a deck, and the interior has windows and doors framed out to accommodate a kitchen area along with a spot for a wood burning stove and lounging area. This is now a small cabin.

Anyway, without further ado… here is photographic evidence of recent work we’ve done.

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Let me first begin where I last left off.

January 8, 2012: Let’s turn the hands of time back to January of this year. Here is dad supervising some stump removal by one of his flying buddies… in hind sight, we should have probably had his excavate a bit more to make way for the porch. Oh well, I needed the exercise. ;)

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October 27, 2012: Ok, now fast forward to October. Here we are ready to get back to work. (Notice all the green wood down around the drive. When we pulled up there was a 40’ loblolly laying down in front of the cabin. Luckily we brought a chainsaw with us…)

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October 27, 2012: At least the concrete is ready to go…

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October 27, 2012: Footer holes dug.

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October 27, 2012: Dad smoothing out the concrete footers.

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October 27, 2012: The band begins to go it.

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October 27, 2012: Band and most of the joists installed.

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October 28, 2012: Starting our next day of work.

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October 28, 2012:

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October 28, 2012: 55 gal drums + board = working platform

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October 28, 2012: Skeleton of the porch.

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November 23, 2012: My dad and brother got a lot of work done while I was away one weekend. They got the roof put on over the porch, the posts reinforced, and the floor joists put in the for upstairs deck.

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November 23, 2012: Another angle…

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November 23, 2012: To keep the porch dry during a rain event we crafted this unique sub-deck gutter system out of 20” wide flashing. It slopes away from the structure and will eventually be collected in a gutter that runs to a water collection barrel.

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November 23, 2012: The deck starts to go on.

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November 23, 2012: Viola!

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November 23, 2012:

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November 23, 2012: This is the first in a series of photos documenting our risky tree removal process. As a bit of history, we didn’t clear all the trees we should have when we first cleared the site. This 40’ pine had a serious lean over the cabin, and was dangerously close to the porch roof as well. So we got up on a ladder on the roof and tied some rope in the tree. Then we cranked on that rope by using a come-along that was chained to another tree.

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November 23, 2012: I then got in a ladder and cut this wide wedge and started the back-cut.

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November 23, 2012: After cranking on the come-along a few more times and then hanging from the rope the pine decide to give up. It fell about as close to the cabin as it could get without doing damage. Needless to say dad and I were relieved that we hadn’t destroyed a year’s worth of work and thousands of dollars worth of materials!

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November 23, 2012: This shot shows just how close the trunk was to the cabin. It also shows he we cut it at the roof height so it could fold “around” the cabin and not clip it’s corner.

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November 23, 2012: Enjoying the firepit after a good days work.

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November 24, 2012: Boxing but it for the porch roof.

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November 24, 2012: Finishing work. Here dad is checking how some of the molding will look.

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November 24, 2012: The firepit along with some pine stools and a pine bench we cut from trees on the property.

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More pictures to come soon…..

Predator On The Loose

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 01:09:00 -0500

So, I was walking through the garden one day this summer and thought I saw something on the underside of a fig leaf. Upon closer inspection I saw the winged beast!

A large predatory insect related to the common house fly. Asilidae. Or the robber fly, as they might be more commonly called. It was making a meal of a large bumble bee. When I say large, I mean it was one of the big rumbling bumble bees. This predatory fly is freaking huge.

When I would get close it would pick the bumble bee up and fly to another leaf.

Similar to house flies, these Asilidae regurgitate digestive juices onto (or in this case, into) the future meal. Look it up. These bugs are crazy. Just never look them straight in the eye…

Again, it’s been a while since I posted on here but...

Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:37:00 -0400

Again, it’s been a while since I posted on here but I’ve got a pretty good reason to do so right now. I just got back from a pretty awesome trip up to Joe Hollis’ place up near Burnsville, NC. I haven’t been up to the Mountain Gardens since the beginning of the year when I made a blog post about it (here), and it was pretty cool to see how much everything had grown in.

This visit was a field trip for my Permaculture class. We went up from Friday through Sunday and did some work, received some tutorials, got some hands on medicine-making experience, and all-around enjoyed ourselves greatly. Way too much fun!

One of the things we did was help Joe with an ongoing pond installation project. The attached video shows a two hour timelapse of the rock wall work we did. It involves some excavation, stone laying and cobb reinforcement. “Many hands make light work.”

It took a while (about four months) but here is the infamous...

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 22:39:01 -0400

It took a while (about four months) but here is the infamous PlantCam in action, creating a timelapse video of part of the front garden… hibiscus front and center. Super cool.

Month of June....

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 19:39:00 -0400

Been pretty busy with the internship and work around the house… and I’m even working on a couple of freelance designs! The yard is really filling in nicely, though there are signs of stress out there now that we’ve had a couple of 100+ degree days. More heat and dry to come so I’ll get to see which are the tough plants and which will be replaced next season.

As always, here are some random shots from my life.

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Portulaca

Calla Lily

Platycodon - “Balloon Flower” ….and note the little bee on the pistil. Lots of pollinators on the yard this year. Good sign. :)

Curcuma zedoaria - “Hidden Cone Ginger”

Don’t know what it’s called, but this is one of the most delicate mushrooms I’ve ever seen. I could almost see through the cap!

Dahlia at the JCRA

Gladiolus at the JCRA

Fuschia sanihanf

Astilbe

Helenium - “Helen’s Flower”

Scadoxus multiflorous - “Katherine’s Torch Lily”

Hibiscus

Canna

Oenothera - “Evening Primrose” …these flowers are awesome! They open up visibly at sunset every night and they smell amazing. Like a spicy honeysuckle.

Hosta

My neighbor’s Datura. Very pretty and very fragrant. Opens at dusk.

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Well, there you go. Now you’re all caught up on the flowers that have been popping out in my yard…. actually, I’ve missed quite a few, but I’ll update again at some point. Don’t hate me if it takes another month or two….

Playing catch up... Bloomin' Update for Spring

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:40:59 -0400

It’s been a couple of months since I posted on here, and they have been a pretty good couple of months. Firstly, I finished my first semester back in college and finished with almost all A+’s in my classes. I got one regular A in Soil Science… but was only one point away from an A+.So close!

I’ve also started work at the JC Raulston Arboretum as one of their paid summer interns! How awesome is that? Answer: Very awesome. I get to garden all day in the sun, surrounded by chirping birds, buzzing bees and a seemingly endless number of amazing plants!

The mild winter and wet spring so far have been very good to my plants here at home. The only negative so far this year has been an epic hail storm that came by around the first of April and dropped quarter sized balls of ice out of the night sky. The storm only lasted about 25 minutes but put down a thick layer of hail along with one inch of rain. Pretty intense. Many of my plants got smashed and tattered, but since then have recovered very nicely. Everything is happy and lush and spreading well. Plants I’ve put in the ground this year are establishing themselves solidly… even the ones I planted directly into the leaf mulch. I was curious how they would take to such an unorthodox planting method, but thus far I have been satisfied. Granted, I’m sure they would be a bit larger and more robust had they been planted in nicely amended soil, but the leaf mulch is way cheaper and easier.

Anyway, I doubt you came on here to read my ramblings… here are some pictures from the past two months.

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April 6: (Bearded Iris)

April 7: (Bearded Iris)

April 17: Zephranthes (Rain Lily)

April 19: Hippeastrum (Amaryllis)

April 22: Dianthus ‘Devon Siskin’ (Pinks)

May 4: Diospyros kaki ‘Hanafuyu’ (Japanese Persimmon)

May 4: Antirrhinum majus (Snapdragon)

May 11: Lactrodectus (Black Widow). Came across this young lady and her egg sack when I moved some stacked concrete block. Wear gloves when you’re gardening!

May 11: Daucus carota (Wild Carrot, Queen Anne’s Lace)

May 17: Sedum of unknown species…

May 18: Hemerocallis (Daylily)

May 18: Rudbeckia (Black-Eyed Susan)

May 20: Achillea (Yarrow)

April 29: Delosperma cooperii (Purple Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma cooperii (Purple Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma dyeri (Red Ice Plant)

May 20: Delosperma basuticum (White Ice Plant)

May 20: Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) with a Bumble Bee and Honey Bee.

May 4: Cool bug on an Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Weed) leaf.

May 20: Linum perenne (Flax)

May 20: Tradescantia virginiana (Spider Wort)

Spring Is Officially Here

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 23:03:00 -0400

Since all the cold stayed in the north of the country this year we experienced an unusually warm and spring-like winter. Now that it’s officially spring it doesn’t feel quite so strange posting pictures of all the new growth coming out on so many plants!

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Rheum rhabarbaraum (Rhubarb):

I’m trying this for the first time… and my prediction is that it will be a very happy plant until we hit about 95 degrees and 98% humidity. But who knows, maybe this Rhubarb will like a North Carolina summer more than I think.

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Sedum makinoi ‘Ogon’

I’m happy to see so much growth on this sedum. I took the tiniest little snip from a plant my brother bought and have been able to get a couple of little patches this size started.

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Ficus carica (Common Fig)

It’s always a nice feeling to see a recent addition to the yard push out new growth in the Spring! There are even tiny little fig fruits on this tree already.

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Cotinus coggygria (Purple Smoke Tree)

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Yellow Onion (species?)

I started these from seed a couple of years ago and am pleased to see them pushing up some buds. Maybe they’ll produce viable seed and then naturalize in the yard. Free onions for life!

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Graptopetalum

I ran an experiment this year by leaving a little rosette of this Graptopetalum outside for the Winter (mild as it was). It seemed to do just fine even with a few nights of weather down in the low 20s. Surprised me.

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Hibiscus

It may not look like much in the picture… but this Hibiscus is going to be a monster this year. Definitely more pictures to come of this one.

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Hosta

Not too sure the variety name of this one… because it was a volunteer that first popped up a couple of years ago. One of the best things about Hosta is it’s longevity and toughness. Having to perform zero maintenance is pretty nice too!

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Tricyrtis formosana ‘Samurai’ (Toad Lily)

The Toad Lily is coming back… and in a larger patch than last year. That means I might split it up next year and start another patch or two!

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Ribes

I put these Currant plants in the ground about a month ago (they were essentially sticks with root systems) and they already have clusters of flowers! If I were going to baby them I would go ahead and pull all the flowers off this year to allow them to focus more energy on establishing… but I wont.

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Morus rubra (Red Mulberry)

I hacked this poor Mulberry back this year because it volunteered in a spot that wont allow it to reach full size… and I was too lazy to dig it out and replant it elsewhere. Luckily for me it’s resilient and decided to make berries nonetheless. It looks like these will be rather small berries, but it’s not bad for a 3 year old tree.

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Humulus lupulus ‘Centennial’ (Hops)

These will probably try and take over my entire yard in a couple of years.

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Disporum flavens

Really glad to see the Disporum is still in the yard. It’s going to take it a couple more years before this is a solid little patch… but after that point it will be a long lived fixture of the yard.

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Brugmansia (Angel Trumpets)

This was the first winter for my Brugmansia. This should get about 8’ tall this year and full of fragrant, dangling trumpet flowers!

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Astilbe

I know, I know. This doesn’t look like much right now… in fact, it looks like a dried up shriveled piece of compost. But it’s a happy Astilbe shoot!

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Amaryllis

I planted this bulb last fall… and at a depth of about 8”. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be happy in this spot, but it’s pushing up through the strawberries nicely.

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Stapelia gigantea (Carrion Plant)

This is an interesting little plant. They eventually make very large, alien looking flowers that use flies as pollinators… so their blooms aren’t exactly something you would want to stick your nose in. This one was living in really rocky, clayey soil crammed in with a few other plants. Not happy. I repotted it by itself in nice soil and about a week later it pushed out it’s first new growth in 2 years (the light green growth at the bottom right). Patient little guy.

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Ok, this obviously isn’t new growth on a plant. It’s a little snail that was snailing across my front walk. But I just got a new camera to replace the decade old digital clunker I have been using for so many years… and now I can actually take decent close-ups!

Hope everyone’s spring is starting off as well as mine has! More pictures to come…

MULCH!

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 09:44:00 -0400

So, this is the time of year I like to mulch beds… and this year I’ve taken it to an extreme. I’m no fan of turf. It’s a monoculture. It must be kept at a well-manicured height. It’s boring. It provides very little habitat or food for bugs, birds, and animals… including me!

In order to remedy my plethora of turf I purchased about twenty cubic yards of mulch from the Raleigh Yard Waste Facility (the place where they collect and compost all the leaves people rake to the curb, and where they shred all the branches and trees the city must clean up after storms and around power lines, etc).

This adventure began by driving my poor little, 23 year old truck out there and having a bulldozer drop a bucket of wood mulch in the bed.

This load of mulch cost me $15. Not bad for about 2-2.5 yards of mulch! I was pleased with the value and the level of decomposition of the mulch, so I went back for another round (after I had spent about an hour or so spreading this mulch around).

Obviously, the bulldozer operator for the second load was a bit heavier handed… maybe there was a bet going to see if I would actually drive off with my truck fishtailing under the crushing load. If so, anyone betting against me lost.

After limping home, waiting for the impending blue lights to pop up any second, I decided I should investigate an alternate method for transporting cheap mulch from the city. (P.S. I had a tarp ratchet-strapped over both of these loads… I wasn’t just driving down the highway with mulch spraying off the back!)

I talked with a friend who owns a landscape design company and she suggested I hire a dump truck to go out to the Yard Waste Center and do my heavy lifting for me. I took her advice and this is what landed in my driveway a day later.

Beautiful, isn’t it? Not only did I take my friend’s advice about hiring the truck, but I also took her advice about what type of mulch to buy from they city. Her opinion is that the leaf mulch is better than the wood mulch because it will break down faster and looks better. And she was right. This mulch is great!

Not only that, but this pile of about 15-16 cubic yards of mulch, plus delivery, cost me only $135!

So, what does one do with 15 cubic yards of rotted leaf mulch? My answer is… kill grass! Since I love food, flowers, herbs, and wildlife I decided to establish a bunch of new garden beds while eradicating as much turf as possible. But first, let me explain the initial step in this turf/garden exchange.

This past fall, instead of raking my leaves to the curb to have them collected by the city or raking them back into my forested area, I left most of them where they lay (which was in the yard). I sculpted the edges where I was pretty sure I wanted the gardens to stop and then left the leaves sitting there for a couple of months. If you’re familiar with the Permaculture practice of sheet mulching you might find this step akin to laying down cardboard beneath the thick layer of mulch. Four inches of dead leaves does almost as good a job as 3/16” of cardboad.

Here you can see the basic arch of the garden edge. I’m not a huge fan of turf, but for the time being I will keep a bit of it.

And here is a shot of the same area as the previous picture, but taken from a different angle (standing on my front steps)… and taken after spreading a 6-8” layer of rotted leaf mulch over the 4” of dried leaves! I left walkways blank as I mulched, and went back later to fill in with fresh wood chips…

Here is the “final” product. Of course, a ton of plants will be living in these beds soon so it’s not really final yet, but as far as mulching goes, this is complete. The wood chips were delivered by a local stump grinding business which usually has to pay to dispose of their “debris” at the Yard Waste Facility (where I would later go to buy it). By saving them the trip out there and the fee for dumping, I got all the wood chips I could handle for FREE. Free delivery as well. Can’t beat that price, right?

And the front yard wasn’t the only spot that got mulched. Those big piles went pretty far.

There are a few more little spots here and there I mulched around established plants and added to established beds… but you get the picture!

And while I was giving my yard a facelift, I decided it was time to replace the old, clunky kiwi trellis I built a couple of years ago. My brother came into town one weekend and I put him to work helping to assemble a bamboo structure to be the new home for my vines. (There is a family in my neighborhood who is “plagued” by rampant growth of bamboo in their yard… so I obliged by cutting some of it down to use for building projects. Score!)

Before…

After!

Now that I have the infrastructure in place for these new garden beds, the enjoyable task of filling them with plants is next on the docket. I’ll update with those pictures soon….

Visit to Mountain Gardens

Sat, 17 Mar 2012 23:19:00 -0400

I’ve met a lot of very cool, knowledgeable people since re-starting my studies at NCSU, but never have I met someone quite like Joe Hollis. My growing affinity for Permaculture brought me to Joe and his paradise garden in the mountains of North Carolina. His gardens are formally named The Mountain Gardens, and if you are in the market for seed, seedlings, or medicine from rare plants then your search will invariably bring you to this small corner of the globe (http://www.mountaingardensherbs.com/).

My brother worked and lived at the Mountain Gardens for the summer a couple of years ago and suggested to me several times that I should check it out. Joe offers an internship to college students, but an open door policy to anyone and everyone that has an interest in learning and working in the gardens.

Since I’m now a jobless college student once again (rather surreal) I was able to take full advantage of a week off for Spring Break. In lieu of a trip down to Panama City, Florida or Cancun, Mexico I opted for a few days up in Burnsville, NC working for Joe. Unfortunately, though it was spring down in Raleigh, the mountains were experiencing an actual winter. Though many of the plants were still dormant and it was a bit too cold to comfortably do anything out of doors, I enjoyed my time by talking by reading from Joe’s library and chatting with him about plants and seeds. I even left with a few really cool seeds! (Hopefully I’ll get them to germinate and have some plants in the yard to enjoy as a reminder of my first trip up there.

I say “first trip up there” because I will be headed there again next weekend, and probably again at the end of next month. I’m really excited to see how the gardens will change with the thawing of the land… especially since there was a blanket of snow up there during most of my recent visit!

Here is a shot of the little “round-house” I stayed in during my visit. (Later, I found out that this was the same dwelling my brother occupied on his visit a couple of years ago)

This little fireplace proved indispensable when the night-time temperatures plummeted into the teens. (Yes, that’s cold for us southerners!)

And here is a shot looking out of round-house towards the library, deck, and uppermost part of the gardens (This was taken when I first got there… before the snow started falling).

Similar view after the snow fell. :)

And here is a view of the library with some of the dried herbs, seeds, and medicine in the background. I spent a lot of time in here, warming next to the wood stove while reading books.

My next visit will undoubtedly involve more horticulture, so expect to see pictures of the Mountain Gardens as they rise from a long winter slumber…

Bloomin’ Update: End of Winter 2012

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:03:59 -0500

Siberian Iris

Siberian Iris

Daffodil

Daffodil

Hyacinth

Hyacinth

Hyacinth

Muscari (Grape Hyacinth)

Muscari (Grape Hyacinth

Camellia

Bloomin’ Update: End of Winter 2012

JC Raulston Arboretum: Scree Garden

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 07:52:44 -0500

Even though we haven’t had a cold and snowy Winter this year, the landscape still adopts that naked, gray look with leafless trees and the crispy remains of last season’s herbaceous perennials mulching our garden beds. It’s a refreshing change of pace to come upon a landscape that seemingly perpetuates Summer. I was wandering through the JC Raulston Arboretum, here in Raleigh, and visited their Scree Garden. This is what I saw….

I can’t wait to see this agave bloom in full force in a couple of months! And of course, the whole Scree Garden will be even more chock full of lushness during the Spring and Summer months. Even with a few scrubby plants displaying their Winter brown I still felt like I had escaped into Summer for a few minutes…

Spring... I mean... Winter Photos

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:17:00 -0500

Easy to mistake Spring and Winter this year. Perhaps we’ll get a late strike of cold, but as of now we are getting April weather in January… and the plants are responding accordingly. Still, there are some pretty cool “Winter” colors showing on a few plants.

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Sedum Rupestre “Angelina”

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Euphorbia flanaganii “Green Coral”

I put this little guy outside on the upper slop of the bog depression. These are supposed to only be cold hardy to zone 9, but I guess our mild Winter (so far) has allowed it to survive even in our zone 7.

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Euphorbia characias

Buds are set. I took very small cuttings from a mature plant last Spring… and less than one year later these are ready to flower.

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Nandina domestica

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Hyacinth

Ok, so it’s a couple of weeks early… that’s close enough in my book.

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Daffodil

Another early riser this year.

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I’m not too worried about the warm Winter we’ve had. It really freaks some people out, and it might be sign that climate in the near future is going to become a lot different then we have been used to; but the plants, insects and animals will shift with the change… I can only hope humans will take heed and shift as well.

It’s easy (and healthy!) to live a life that partners with nature and doesn’t enslave it. Nature is much bigger and stronger than we are… and bad things happen to those who try to put it in shackles.

Home-made Granola!

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:07:00 -0500

Over the holidays this year I had the pleasure of eating a lot of my sister’s cooking. She has mastered recipes for a wide range of delicious food stuffs, but my favorite items tend to be her baked goods. After eating pounds of her homemade granola around Christmas time I decided it would be in my best interest to practice a bit myself… seeing as how she lives two hours away!

The recipe is actually quite simple and quick and can be found on her blog here… http://foodanddo.lindsaybeeson.com/2011/12/13/day-83-of-101-house-granola-cranberries-cinnamon-recipe/ Check it out… she provides WAY better photos and dialog than I do.

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This blurry picture shows the main body of the granola (oats, nuts, spices, honey, oil) on a baking sheet after coming out of the oven, and on the left are the dried cranberries. You might ask… Why do your pre-dried cranberries look like they are drying on paper towels? That’s because I didn’t follow the very well written directions my sister provided. I added the cranberries to the granola mix before the baking step. Luckily, I realized my grave error before actually putting it all in the oven, but I still had to go through and pick every cranberry out of the mix… and then rinse all the cinnamon off!

A slightly better shot of the granola… pre-cranberry introduction.

Cranberries finally rendezvous with the rest of the granola and find a home in this new airtight container I bought from Target.

And the final product. Not even close to as tasty as my sister’s end result, but even so it’s about two weeks worth of granola (maybe more if I can ration myself).

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I still need a good bit of practice, and not just because of the cranberry mistake. I didn’t stir the mix enough while it was baking and ended up overcooking the bottom of the granola layer. I’ll be a bit more attentive next time and see if I get a better result.

Back Yard Timeline Revisited

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:43:00 -0500

Back when I first opened this Tumblr account I posted a series of photos showing some work I had done to a portion of my back yard. The series ended just as Winter was beginning to loosen it’s grip in early 2011… well, now it’s nearly a year later and I figure it’s worth updating with what has developed since then. I’ll start with a little backtracking so a full progression can be displayed.

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August 16, 2007: picture taken when touring the house before purchase

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April 3, 2010: after commencing the French drain/walkway project (I still kick myself for not having taken some construction photos!)

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May 11, 2010:

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July 9, 2010:

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August 4, 2010:

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October 12, 2010:

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November 30, 2010:

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December 18, 2010:

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December 27, 2010: Snow!

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February 17, 2011:

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March 1, 2011: this is where the series ended last time….

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March 19, 2011: things begin to green back up again.

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April 8, 2011: the strawberries begin to push out huge numbers of blossoms.

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April 30, 2011: now it’s the blackberries turn.

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May 23, 2011: the height of Spring

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June 22, 2011: Summer hit.

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July 25, 2011: did some more walkway work and planted a few new plants

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November 16, 2011: Big jump here from Summer to Winter

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January 14, 2012: taken this morning… in the middle of an unusually mild winter.

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So there we go. A trip through a year and a half, showing how the plants cycle and how hardscaping slowly gets completed here at my house. I’m looking forward to comparing this year’s Spring and Summer to last years. Will I get as many berries from my plants? Will some of the groundcover fill in all the way as I had hoped? Will some of the shorter lived plants make it into a year three? I guess we’ll see…

My life as a cabin....

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:35:00 -0500

As Autumn rolled over into Winter and the first frosts convinced the plants in my yard it was time to go dormant, so too did my activity on Tumblr slumber. But I haven’t been completely inactive. For the past two and half months I’ve been traveling to Greensboro, helping my father out with some jobs during the week, and heading out with him and my brother to work on a cabin during the weekends. I learned a tremendous amount about construction, the pride that comes from creating with your own two hands (and a lot of sweat), and the value of spending time with family in a world that often has us too distracted with pushing the envelope in our careers and personal lives. I will forever look back on the last quarter of 2011 with fond memories… and in the future I hope to build upon (literally) what was accomplished during those months!

Bear with me through this post… I’ve been taking pictures for the past couple of months as we constructed our “Utility Shed” so this will be long and there will be a ton of photos!

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October 29, 2011: Our Plan Finds A Home

After brainstorming on the size and foundation style for the Shed we picked a spot on our 10 acres that is relatively flat and is located on the side of what we have deemed the “Common Area” (Eventually we hope to have a few cabins on the property with the Common Area serving as a hang out spot and outdoor kitchen, etc) The mystery mound under the tarp is actually ~1800lbs of concrete dad and I wheeled 100 yards from the truck in 80lb bags.

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October 29, 2011:

Here is dad wheeling up the scrap wood and tools we would use to do the foundation layout.

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October 30, 2011: And The Ground Was Broken

A little tough to see through the distracting screen of pine saplings… but the batter board layout is done and the footers for 9 piers have been dug to a depth of 12”. (Around these parts the frost zone is down to 8”… we went 12” for good measure)

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October 30, 2011:

Footers filled with concrete up to 8” from the bottom of our 12” holes.

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November 9, 2011: Block Heads

Ah, the joy of hauling concrete in it’s many incarnations. Here are the piers as they begin to take their proper shape and height. Note the black 50 gallon plastic barrel that made it into the frame. Since we have no water source running on our property right now we filled this barrel at home and rolled it from the truck to our build site to provide the water for our concrete and mortar mixes. An 8’ section of old garden hose and a couple of 5 gallon buckets completed our syphon system. Also note that we haven’t yet cleared out the pine saplings in the middle of our build site!

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November 13, 2011: A Good Chainsaw Makes A Big Difference

Yay! Piers are done and level (checked with a laser level), which shows the grade of the land. We decided to make our lives a bit easier and do something we might should have done as a first step… cut a truck access to the build site and clear the site of saplings. In the truck bed you can see the lumber for the first of the framing to go on the foundation!

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November 13, 2011:

The plates are fastened to the piers via anchor bolts we fixed in the concrete blocks with cement.

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November 20, 2011:

Here dad and brother are installing the bands that sit atop the plates.

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November 20, 2011: Starting To Look Like Something…

The bands are all on and now the floor joists start to get filled in every 16”.

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November 20, 2011: Viola!

The skeleton of the floor is done. Time to kick back and relax….

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November 20, 2011:

And, of course, by “kick back and relax” I really mean lay some subflooring. 3/4” tongue and groove both glued and nailed. That’s one solid little floor.

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November 20, 2011: Instant Gratification

The great thing about framing is that, if you know what you’re doing, it goes together really quickly.

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November 20, 2011: Yes, still November 20

Two walls up. The Sun was getting ready to hide behind the horizon so we called it a day here. We braced the walls and left with our fingers crossed that when we returned the next weekend there would still be two walls standing!

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November 27, 2011: Fancy Box

We returned with a dump truck load of lumber to find the two walls still standing… and were so happy that we decided to put up two more walls. And to help extend our work day we also brought along a shiny new work light… the yellow stand next to the generator.

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November 27, 2011: You Down With OSB? Yeah, You Know Me.

(Pardon my early 90’s hip hop allusion) With the framing completed for the walls it’s a no brainer hanging the OSB. Note that we are covering the entire wall area with OSB. We’ll come back at a later date to cut out the windows and doors as we get materials.

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November 27, 2011: Why Is There A Ladder In The Building?

To answer my leading question, this shot shows the floor joists for the loft. They are hard to see, but if you look at the upper right portion of the framing you can see the ends of them all sitting in a row.

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November 27, 2011:

Your’s truly putting in blocking between the floor joists for the loft.

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November 27, 2011: We Have A Second Floor!

The first shot taken from the loft. I had just finished nailing the subfloor down, which gave me a nice view of the job site and surrounding forest.

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November 27, 2011:

This shot is a bit dark, but what I’m showing here is one of three ridge beam supports we built. The ridge beam will act as the spine of our roof, and the three posts will end up transferring a lot of that weight down to the foundation.

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November 27, 2011:

Here you can see dad up in the loft after we put up a few of the rafters.

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December 3, 2011: Work Smarter, Not Harder

Now that we had a few of the rafters up, we decided to build some temporary walk boards to help us while we tried to navigate the rest of the 12’ long 2”x10” boards onto the roof. The next couple of shots are of the walkboards.

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December 3, 2011:

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December 3, 2011:

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December 3, 2011: Putting Them To Good Use

Here I am on the walkboard doing rafter layout for the rest of the roof.

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December 3, 2011: Filling In Nicely

The rafters went up pretty easily once the template was created. Note: the first and last set of rafters were not tied to the ridge yet, hence their misalignment.

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December 3, 2011:

And there you have it! All the rafters for the 12 pitch section of our building are up, the collar ties (horizontal pieces) are installed, and the walkboards have been removed.

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December 3, 2011: Dormer Starts To Take Shape

To give us more head room in the loft, a shed roofed dormer was decided upon. We finished off our day by putting up walls for our second floor.

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December 4, 2011: Three Pitch Roof

During the next day of work we started by sheathing the 12 pitch section of roof we put rafters on the day before. The next step was the rafters for the dormer roof. Left side, and….

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December 4, 2011: Right Side

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December 4, 2011: Fiddler On The Roof

Dad was down there dancing like Tevye and singing “If I Were A Rich Man” (actually, he was just breaking some kindling off of the tree next to him), so I figured I would snap a shot. Note the long 2”x4” we have nailed to the roof. This is so I can walk up here. If you’ve never tried to walk on a 12 pitch roof… don’t. It’s very steep.

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December 4, 2011:

Rafters are all up and most of the sheathing is up too. At this point the final look of the “Shed” is becoming easy to visualize. The rafter tails on the right side of the picture are longer than on the left side because we will eventually be building a porch on the right… we’ll come back and cut them out as needed.

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December 9, 2011: Starting To Resist The Elements

We will eventually install a metal roof on this building, but for the time being the felt paper will have to act as the rain shield.

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December 9, 2011:

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December 9, 2011:

A shot from inside the loft, showing how it’s beginning to close up.

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December 9, 2011:

Roof up and fully felt-papered.

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December 9, 2011: Closing Up Shop

Finished with the OSB on this side.

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December 10, 2011:

Now for the dormers.

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December 10, 2011:

And, finally, the back side. A person staying in The Shed during a rain storm would now be able to stay nice and dry. A huge milestone!

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December 10, 2011:

It’s getting downright cozy in the loft.

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December 10, 2011:

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December 10, 2011:

In order to properly fasten all the OSB, and later the siding, and eventually whatever interior wall we put up, we had to put in framing for the gable walls.

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December 11, 2011:

And to protect our lovely OSB from rain (and to close up any drafts which might come through seams) we started to staple up some house wrap.

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December 11, 2011:

This stuff goes up pretty easily. It can be a bit cumbersome, and a little tricky to keep taut, but for the most part the house wrap was done quickly.

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December 11, 2011:

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December 23, 2011: Boxing Time

It’s amazing how much boxing cleans up the look of a roof. Here you can see where we put up boxing underneath these two gables and then cut the roof sheathing to the proper overhang (3/4”) along the edge.

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December 23, 2011:

Another step that makes dramatic changes in the appearance of the structure is siding and frieze board. Also, note that the 12 pitch roof continues in a small strip beneath the dormer. This is accomplished by attaching rafter tails to the outside of the structure and then sheathing and felt papering like the rest of the roof.

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December 23, 2011: Finish Him! (A’la Mortal Kombat)

The cheesy titles just wont stop…. At this point, we have completed pretty much all of the structural steps for the building (well, not including the porch, but we’ll exclude that for the time being). That means it’s time to fully focus on the finishing work. Here you can see the first bits of facia and soffet going on.

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December 23, 2011:

This sheet of plywood was acting as our door for a while. We would screw it over the door opening when we left for the day and unscrew it when we came back. Time for something a bit more sophisticated.

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December 23, 2011:

It’s very important to properly protect doors and windows from water infiltration. Before we put a real door on here we made sure the opening was thoroughly flashed with plastic and aluminum.

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December 23, 2011: Safe And Sound

We worked into the night on this one, but it was worth it. We could now lock up some tools and food and not have to load up quite so much at home every time we wanted to come out here and do some work!

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December 28, 2011:

Now that we had a proper door, it was high time we fashioned some proper stairs to lead up to it. Since this area will eventually be incorporated into a wrap-around porch, we decided upon a temporary, loose brick foundation. First step was to dig out a level surface for the brick, second step was to lay ‘em down. Pretty easy.

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December 28, 2011:

There you go. Pretty easy. We used decking boards for the risers (verticals) and treads (horizontals). A laminate trimmer came in handy for rounding over some of the edges we had to cut.

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December 28, 2011:

Back to finishing work. The front of The Shed gets some more siding.

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December 30, 2011:

And I go up on the ladder to get some more of the facia/soffet work finished.

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December 30, 2011:

Finishing work can be time consuming, but if you are patient and careful with your measurements it makes a huge difference in the look of a structure. Here I am trying to finish up some of the facia before calling it a night and sleeping in the loft for the first time!

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December 31, 2011:

This, and the next two photos, are a good example of what I just said. Check out how much the little bit of siding and trim work changes the overall look of The Shed.

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December 31, 2011:

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December 31, 2011:

Big difference, right? Note that we also cut the rafter tails that were sticking out over where the porch will go. Still a good bit of finishing work to go, but most of it has to wait until we tie the porch roof into the present gable.

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December 31, 2011: Happy New Year!

Ok, so it was a bit early still for wishing a happy new year, but it’s the last shot I took that day. I ended up getting home and falling asleep around 11pm. No rabble-rousing… but I’m getting too old for most of that stuff anyways. ;)

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January 7, 2011: More Trim Work

Corner boards go a long way to making The Shed look finished.

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January 7, 2012:

This represents completion of all the siding and trim on the lower half of the building. Note, we finally worked on the central piers, which will provide a shelf upon which a girder will rest. The span of the building (and the robust floor joists we used) doesn’t require a central girder like this, but we over-engineered… just in case.

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January 7, 2012: Permanent Loft Access

Instead of the aluminum ladder we had to trudge inside every time we wanted to get up to the loft, we finally built a permanent fixture from 5/4”x4” Southern Yellow Pine.

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January 7, 2012: Safety First

And to discourage monkeys from swinging around in the rafters…

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January 7, 2012: …Guard Rails

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January 8, 2012: Bring In The Ringer

It’s nice to have a friend who owns heavy equipment. It’s even nicer when that friend offers to bring his earth-mover out to your construction site and do some work for free!

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January 8, 2011:

Now that we have a proper place to come out to and stay for the weekend, we need to get access to said place a bit more… accessible. This muddly little slope used to be a muddly steep slope. A little gravel will go a long way in making this something even my 23 year old, 4-cylinder pick-up truck can navigate. (You can see The Shed way off in the distance at the end of the truck access)

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January 8, 2012: To Be Continued….

And while he was here, our buddy helped us out by digging out three particularly large tree stumps that happened to be exactly where our porch footers would need to go. He saved us a few of hours of digging and wrestling with Mother Nature. Dad is supervising.

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And this is where the story ends. Or, more accurately, this is the end of the first chapter of the story. I won’t be able to help dad out nearly as much in the coming months because tomorrow, January 9, marks my first day back in college after about 6 years. At the ripe old age of 28 I’m going back to pursue my passion for horticulture by completing a Landscape Design degree from NC State.

I foresee vacations and Summer breaks beings spent working on The Shed, and as we make more headway I will update the blog. Thanks for taking the time to read through this and for letting me share with you a little peek into my life.

Backlogged Bloomin' Update!

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 08:31:00 -0500

Phew! It’s now been about 2 months since I last posted… and, even so, I don’t have much to bring to the table as far as blooms go. I’ve been spending a LOT of time out of town working with my father for his home repair/remodel company and working on the weekends building a small workshop/cabin.

Because I’ve been an absentee homeowner and gardener I haven’t been around to document my plants, but here are a few little pictures from October and November.

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Climbing Aster:

I planted a little sprig of this next to my front handrail in the Spring of this year… and this is the autumnal result! One of the nice features of this plant is the fact that it blooms so late (late October here) so just about the time everything else is defoliating and going dormant this beauty is full of flowers!

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Marigold:

Ok, who doesn’t like marigolds? This “new world” flower is, in fact, liked by so many that it has been spread from Central/South America all over the world!

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Snapdragon:

STILL blooming after about 7-8 months. I wonder if these will reappear next year like the folks at the Farmer’s Market claimed. I hope so!

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Gladiolus:

I didn’t know what this was at first, but it turned out to be Gladiolus! I’m used to seeing these in the Spring, but apparently this variety pushes up flowers in the Fall in NC. Bonus: they are super fragrant!

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Angel Trumpet: Brugmansia

Even though I sited this tender-leaved plant in an established bed of Strawberry and under a very large White Oak (read: root competition and an artillery barrage of acorns) it has managed to survived well enough to push out a couple of late-season blooms. These pictures are early November and the very fragrant yellow flowers would probably compliment the flush of climbing aster purple in my front yard… hmmm… Anyway, I bought and planted this little guy very late in the year, so maybe if it decides to come back next year (after going dormant in the Winter) it will grow large enough to survive the acorns a bit better.

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Paper Bush: Edgeworthia Chrysantha

Tough to see, but there is a the little pendant cluster of an inflorescence forming on this Paper Bush. It won’t open up until Spring but it’s cool to see that it’s happy where I planted it!

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Japanese Maple:

The flowers on Japanese Maples are very subtle and tiny, but that’s not why we like them, right? Great fall foliage on this 20 year old.

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Well, that’s it for now! I’ll be posting soon showing the house-building project my father, brother and I have been working on the past couple of months. Happy holidays to everyone!