Spring Cleaning

Even though the snow flies in Wisconsin, Rick and I have been busy with a little necessary spring cleaning.

Gladys' windows were filthy, to say the least.  Rick had to start with the eves since washing them later  would just drip dirty water on the clean windows.  While Rick scrubbed the eves, I followed behind with the hose to rinse them.  Then Rick scrubbed the eves troughs and downspouts to get the mold and pollen off them.   The whole process was quite a task, but once that all was done, we could move on to the windows.

The great thing about Gladys is that as it is a ranch-style house, we have no second-story windows to clean.  Rick took off the screens and gave them to me.  As he washed and squeegeed the windows, I scrubbed down the screens with the hose and dried them.  We also washed the window casings.  I took a bucket of water and washed the shutters around the front windows too. Thankfully, the sun was shining brightly, so the screens and shutters quickly dried.

Rick cleans the windows and sills at the front of the house.

What a difference washing the windows had on the light that now flows into the house! We knew they were dirty, but I did not realize they were THAT dirty!

Today we tackled washing the white vinyl fence that surrounds our back yard.  We love the fence, but it gets dirty and moldy without yearly scrubbing.  We were able to finish the inside of the fence today; however, washing it took us all morning to do.

We started with the side of the fence that faces south
so we could complete it before it was in full sun.

I spoke with our new neighbor Leslie to get permission to go into her back yard tomorrow so we can scrub that side of the fence.  She had no problem with that and promised to lock the dog door so their giant Mastiff, Bamma, would not come out to "help" us.  Mastiffs are wonderful, gentle dogs, but they are also large and muscular.  They are very loyal and protective of their human families, so Rick and I do not want to intrude on his territory when his owners are not present.

The back fence was the dirtiest thanks to the trees and the
critters that live in the trees.

We are happy with the results of our work today.  I did the ladder work, climbing up to wash the tops of the posts and the top rail of the fence.  While I did that, Rick took a soft scrub brush and a pail of soapy water to wash down the fence.  We found that car-washing soap works well on the fence.  Our thanks to Lindsay for giving us a bunch of round "scrubbies" for Christmas.  They worked well on the more stubborn stains on the fence, so it now gleams in the sun.

While he was in the scrubbing mode, Rick also washed
down the two sheds in the back yard. 

By noon tomorrow, we hope to have both sides of the fence clean and looking like a new fence again.  Then everything will look good and we can relax when Stephanie comes for a visit.

Busy Blooming Days

Now that the weather is sunny and the temperatures are mild, we have had a busy couple of days.  I wrote last time about searching for new plants to put next to the tree in the back yard, but a review of available plants quashed that idea.  Instead, Rick and I decided to take some left-over fence materials out of the rafters in the garage and to use them to fill in the spaces next to the tree.

The gap was a bit too much on either side of the tree,
so we came up with a plan to give us privacy
from the neighbors while keeping critters out of the yard.

We took out the lattice that we had used to support the bougainvillea.  Then Rick took some fence boards, attached them together in the back, and attached them to the fence.  We could not hug the fence to the tree any closer than we did because the tree continues to grow.  We think we have left it enough room, though, to expand for many years to come.

The filled areas look simple, but they took quite a bit of work
(and a few gymnastics on the ladder) to complete.

The tree looks "bare" now without the plants, so we will have to think of ways to bring color back into that portion of the yard.  We may plant more hibiscus or allamanda bushes next to the fence to add a splash of color.

While I was outside, I gave the Splattered Paint crotons in the corner garden a "haircut" to keep them from taking over the whole garden.  They seem to be doing the best of any plants in the yard. We did purchase two Aztec grass plants since two in our front garden are looking a little worse for wear.  I also bought an arboricola plant to put in the shady corner in the back yard. Our third purchase was a new podocarpus tree to replace the one that died over the summer.

The new podocarpus adds some height to the corner
of the front garden.

I planted the podocarpus tree while we still had some daylight left, but it was too late to plant anything else.  I was tired.  I knew if I left the remaining plants outside in their pots, they would be fine until the next day.

This morning, after my Friday cleaning chores in the house, I went back outside to tend to the potted plants.  I put the arboricola in its pot in the location that I intended to plant it, but I did not like how it looked.  Rick agreed that since we have three Splattered Paint crotons in that same general area, we were getting too many green and yellow plants all in one place.

Instead, I left the weary Firecracker plant in the corner, and I planted the arboricola in the big brown empty pot that used to hold something else.  Rick argued that if I put the pot in the yard, our lawn care people would chip the pot with weed wackers.  He is probably right, so I looked for a more suitable location.

The arboricola fills a vacant area next to the gate.

I decided that the area next to our north gate looked a little bare, so I put the pot with the arboricola there.  I don't know if it will survive the summer, but it looks good right now.

While Wisconsin continues to be bombarded with ice and snow, we are enjoying the moderate temperatures and warm sunshine that allows us to work outside.  We bought a house in Florida for the winter weather, and I have enjoyed working outside to make Gladys look beautiful once again.

Bougain Be Gone

Several years ago we planted two bougainvillea plants next to the gap in our fence that we had to create because of the large live oak tree planted on the property line.  We had hoped that the bougainvillea would fill in the space and prevent unwanted critters from coming through the gap because bougainvillea plants have long, sharp, nasty thorns.

The first couple of years, the plants were fine.  Then a combination of weather (lack of rain) and poor nutrients started to take its toll on the plants.  I tried special fertilizer, special plant food, and lots of watering, but nothing much seemed to help.

I trimmed the bushes a couple of times because they were getting "woody," but that also was a rather lost cause.  When we came back this year, the branches were tangled and scraggly, the leaves were sparse, and what leaves remaining were diseased and brown at the edges.  We determined that the location where I had planted the bougainvillea just did not have enough sunlight or nutrients for the plants to do what we wanted them to do.  So out they came today.

The bougainvillea just did not fill in the area
the way that we had hoped it would.

While I cut and bagged the thorny branches, Rick got out the shovel and started to dig up the roots.  We worked for a couple of hours.  In the end, the bougainvillea were gone and the leaves around the area were raked and bagged.

We are back to a clean slate to add some color
to the area.

Tomorrow we will go to Lowe's to pick up something else to try in that area.  I still want color against the brown tree and the white fence.  I might try some dwarf schefflera (arboricola) with the variegated green and yellow leaves.  The schefflera is one of those plants that we see growing everywhere.  I seems to thrive in either sun or shade, tolerates droughts in the summer, and fills in well.  It is easy to trim to the desired height and shape that we will want, so we are going to give it a try.

If the schefflera don't work, we'll just have to look for something else.