Back in Order

I started today by dressing in work clothes and heading into the back yard after breakfast.  We have been so busy doing other projects that we have not had much time to once again tackle the ever-present leaves that fill the back yard.  Our lawn service people tell us to just let them mulch all of the leaves, but seriously, how many layers of mulch can any yard handle?  After a while, we have so much mulch that there is not room for the grass to grow!

I started in the back corner, under the large live oak, since that is where the majority of leaves have fallen.  Florida is strange in that our "fall" is in early spring.  The older leaves on the trees fall to make room for the new leaves that are just starting to bud from the warm spring temperatures.  We have had leaves raining down for several weeks now, but I believe that the majority of those that are going to fall this year have already done so.  Now I needed to rake.

I worked for a couple of hours, cleaning out the leaves behind the sheds and under the base of the oak tree.  Raking here in Florida is not the same as raking in Wisconsin.  Raking in Florida is hard work. In Wisconsin, one can take the rake and with a few swipes pretty much clear an area of grass.  Not so with our yard here which has Florida bahai grass in the back.  Bahai grass is technically a weed that somewhat simulates the look of grass.  It grows on long runners that do an excellent job of snagging fallen leaves, sticks, and the tines of a rake.  To extricate the leaves from the tangle of grass takes several digging motions with the rake.  Even then, probably 15 - 20 percent of the leaves and debris remain.

After two hours of hard work, I had completed raking about one-sixth of our back yard.  However, I filled two huge black yard bags with leaves, sticks, seeds, and other debris.  I probably have another 10 - 15 bags to fill.

After I cleaned up the rakes, I took time before lunch to water the flowers in the back yard.  That is a task that I will continue to do until we leave Florida for the summer.  If I can give the flowers a good chance to establish themselves, they have a chance of surviving the hot weather ahead.

After lunch, Rick and I drove to Home Depot to get a fence panel kit so we could repair the damaged top rail we discovered yesterday while washing the fence.  We took the fence kit out to the car and then disassembled it so that we could fit the 8-foot long top panel pieces -- one of which we needed to repair the fence -- into our car.   These are the times that we really miss having the truck here.  We brought the pieces home safely and took the piece we needed into the back yard.

To repair the fence, Rick moved the panels apart in the middle and used a saw to cut the top rail in two.  Since the panels snap into the holes on the poles, both sides gave us a bit of a struggle to get them out.  When they finally let Rick win the tug-of-war battle, he threw the two parts into the yard.  Then he positioned the new piece in place.  One end slipped into the hole on the pole fairly easily, but the other one again gave us trouble.  Rick was trying to force the new top piece into the pole while I was trying (not to well) to hold that pole into place.  Jobs like this really let me know just how weak I truly am!  In the end, though, the second end of the top piece clipped into place.  We now have a repaired fence with a little more stability than the old, broken piece offered.  I am sure that the neighbors behind us will appreciate not having to look at a broken fence also.

We wedged the remaining fence pieces into the upper rafters in the garage.  God help us if we ever really need to get that second long rail piece down again.  Then I came into the house to finally shower for the day.

My work clothes are now in the washing machine.  I baked some biscuits for tonight, and after I finish this, I will put together a pan of meatballs for dinner also.

Today has been a productive day as far as getting the back yard into some semblance of order.  While everything I did today was not what I wanted to do, in the end I am happy that the jobs are completed.  I wanted to warp the loom today; perhaps that I something that I actually can complete tomorrow.

Spic and Span

For the last few days, we have been entertaining my friend Bonnie who came to visit us from Wisconsin.  We went to Bok Gardens, relaxed in the back yard, made an ice cream run for dessert, and generally had a relaxing time.

Bonnie poses next to a downtown sculpture
after finishing her cup of ice cream.

After Bonnie returned to Wisconsin, we took a quick trip Wednesday to Lutz, Florida, to see the Outlet Mall that they have there.  Stephanie said that she wants to visit a Tumi store when she comes to Florida, so we checked out the store there instead of driving all the way to the Tumi Outlet Store in Orlando. Lutz is approximately half the distance that driving to Orlando would be.  We found a great route to drive there, avoiding Tampa traffic for the most part.  We discovered the Mall had everything that we need, including a very nice Tumi store.  We definitely will take a trip back there when Stephanie visits in a couple of weeks.

This morning was cold, so we waited until this afternoon to get into the chore we had planned for today.  We both knew that we needed to scrub our vinyl fence, and today was our chosen day to do so.  We started at approximately 1:00 p.m.

While I climbed the large step stool to scrub the pole tops and the upper rail of the fence, Rick followed behind with a scrub brush, a pail of soapy water, and the hose to scrub the rest of the fence.  Please note: we have a LONG fence, and it seemed to grow by several feet today as we washed it.

Rick uses the soft scrub brush to wash the panels
in a section of the fence.

The fence was really filthy in parts, so some sections really took effort.  As I worked my way down the back of the fence, I came upon a problem that we did not know we had.  Apparently, a large branch fell on the fence and broke one of the top rails.  The damage probably happened during Hurricane Irma this past summer, but since the break was on the back side of the top of the fence, we did not see it until now.

The sun peeks over my shoulder as I try to get a good
picture of the damage to our fence.

The damage looking down from the top of the fence.

We certainly will have to purchase a new fence package so we can get a top replacement rail.  The good news is that the problem happened in a middle panel in the fence rather than at a cemented-in corner post; the bad news is that replacing that section probably still will be a pain.

Our freshly washed fence gleams in the afternoon sun.

We pushed ourselves to finish the fence today, ending our task just before 5:00 p.m.  After we came into the house, Rick mentioned calling Steve to ask a question.  I said, "It's dinner time.  Can you wait until we are finished eating?"

He was shocked that the time was so late.  He actually was wearing his old, work watch, and he had forgotten to chance the time to Daylight Savings Time.  He said, "I thought it was only 4:00 o'clock.  I would have quit sooner if I had known it was so late!"  (Now he is REALLY tired...)

We both are happy to have the job finished, and I am sure that we both will sleep well tonight.

Update

The weather here in Florida has been unusually cold the last couple of days; thankfully, the plants do not seem to mind too much.  We continue to water them each day, and they continue to supply us with grace and beauty as they sway in the not-too-gentle wind.

Our old muscles continue to heal.  I personally had a bad day on Monday.  My body let me know that certain muscles were over-used, and that I needed to knock off trying to act and feel like a 30 year old.  That time was, sadly, more that 33 years ago!  Each day both Rick and I continue to heal and to feel better.

We are looking forward to a visit from my friend Bonnie.  We plan a laid-back time with a little sightseeing and a lot of just relaxing in any fashion that she desires.

So we have done nothing earth-shattering or exceptional in the last two days, and that is good./

Eight Thousand Pounds of Ache

We are finished with our landscaping project!  We started this whole journey two weeks ago tomorrow, and we have worked every day except one to finish Gladys' new look.

Our final task for this whole project was to add landscape stone on top of the fabric that we put down yesterday.  The fabric is a special weed-control product that we found a few years ago, and we have been pleased with the results in the gardens that we planted at that time.

Generally, I change the linens on the bed and scrub down each bathroom on Friday morning.  I actually was able to complete my Friday chores this morning before Eden Nursery delivered our stone for the gardens.

At approximately 8:30 this morning, Eden's truck arrived with four tons -- yes, eight thousand pounds -- of red cedar bark rock.  This is not the typical light lava rock that some people use.  These are genuine, solid rocks that will not blow away under a leaf blower or during a hurricane.  They are heavy, and they are here to stay.

The rock pile rests across the driveway.

By 11:00 a.m., the piles have dwindled to half the original size.

At 12:10 p.m., Rick washes away the red dust
that was all that remained of the rock pile.

We manned wheel barrows, five-gallon buckets, wagons, and shovels to move the rock from our driveway into the eight new gardens that we have spent the last few days outlining throughout our yard.

The front garden yesterday...

and today.

This task darn-near killed us both.  Rick did most of the heavy lifting again, loading the buckets of stone into the wagon, wheeling the loaded wheel barrow and dumping it in the correct places.  I started by trying to spread the dumped rock around, but I honestly was not strong enough to do that.  So I took over loading the buckets and wheel barrow with stone while Rick transported, dumped, and spread the stones in the gardens.

The south garden,

back garden,

palm trees,

and hibiscus all are complete.

I asked him how his hand was holding out.  He said that the rest of his body -- specifically his legs, arms, and back -- hurt so much that the pain in his hand was secondary.  I have suffered with terrible leg pains this last week, but I must admit that right now my hands and forearms ache from all of the shoveling.  Working out should keep one young, right?

The last garden to receive stone was the
newly-defined corner garden in the back yard.

So now we are finished.  This is the last major task we want to do this year.  Truthfully, it is the last major task we can financially afford to do this year!  While we still will work on maintenance around the house, we are finished adding anything else.  We'll wash the fence yet, but that is about all I plan to do.

Gladys looks better with a bit of curb appeal.

Certainly, we will have to water the gardens each day for the next month to really get all of the plants established.  Since we are not leaving until the end of May, we should be able to have our gardens firmly take root by then.

Gladys is happy.  We bought her 35 new flowers, protected her sides from getting weed-whacked to pieces, and dolled her up to be a beautiful, grand old lady.  We think she looks great, and feedback from the neighbors tells us that they agree.

Fabric and Final Chores

We have spent the last two days getting all of the gardens ready for the landscape red cedar rock stones which will be delivered tomorrow morning.

Yesterday Rick put the edger stones around both of the palm trees in the front yard.  We debated on if we wanted to do that, but in the end, we chose the extra work.  It will make the front yard look more complete.

Edgers ring the two palms in the front yard.

Today was our fabric day.  Although lining gardens with landscape fabric does not sound like a difficult task, we DID encounter a few challenges.  The first problem was that we had to lay the fabric flat while cutting around all of the plants.  Since we just planted a total of 34 plants, that effort took a bit of time!  And, of course, once we rolled out the first little bit of fabric, the winds decided to pick up just to make the job even more of a challenge.

We did the back garden first.  It was somewhat protected from
the wind, and being smaller, it was a good place to get our
"technique" figured out.

We worked from 7:30 until 11:30 just getting the fabric down and pinned into place.  After lunch, we finished the back corner garden.

The hibiscus awaits stone to make it complete.

Then Rick tackled the edger stones around the hibiscus I purchased a few days ago.  Come to think of it, the hibiscus makes 35 plants that we purchased and planted...  At any rate, out came the transit again so we could get this final little outline in place.  We lined that area with fabric, and we were finished... or so I thought.

The next thing I saw was Rick hauling out the saw horses.  We needed to cut a little piece of fencing that we could put under an opening by our back gate so that we can hold the stone in the south garden.  Of course, a simple job was complicated because Rick had to chisel out some cement from around the post so that the fence piece slipped into place.

The front garden was the most challenging since it
has 14 plants that we had to cut the fabric around.

We finally were finished and everything was picked up by 3:00 p.m.  So much for trying to finish by noon.

Now we are watering.  We have both hoses going, one watering each plant in the front yard and another getting moved from plant to plant in the back of the house.  Now that the plants are in the ground, we have to keep them happy.

We both are exhausted.  Rick's back is killing him, and I have a pulled muscle in my right leg and a very sore left knee. We discussed the fact that when we started to remodel this house, we were seven years younger.  Although we have tried to keep active and in shape, our bodies are letting us know that we are not as young as we used to be.

Tomorrow we are having four tons of rock delivered.  If this is my final post on this blog, you will know that shaveling and hauling rock were the death of me in the end!

Glamorous Gladys

For the last two days, we have worked very hard to change our bland front facade into a view that is both colorful and beautiful.

A shadow from the palm tree adds the only interest to the
front facade of Gladys.

On Sunday, we removed the last of the weeds and grass that clogged the defined south and west gardens.  In some places we actually had to sift the dirt to get rid of the stones and the grass, but in the end we rid those gardens of rotting buried railroad ties, huge stones, and lots of unwanted vegetation. Rick even discovered and removed a baby black snake!

Monday allowed us a full day of shopping for plants.  We went to Eden Nursery three times, buying four Podocorpus to fill in the tall areas of the garden, five Ixoras to provide red blooms in the front garden, six Aztec Grass plants to provide white-and-green contrast in front of the Ixoras, one Firecracker plant to anchor the corner, and seven Crotons to add color to the south garden.  We also ordered four tons of red cedar bark rock to fill the gardens on top of the yet-to-be-laid landscape fabric.

Podocarpus rise on each end of the front garden.

Before we quit for the day, Rick planted the four Podocorpus bushes.  They were the most expensive, and we did not want someone to steal them from our front yard overnight.  I took the rest of the plants into the back yard for safe keeping.

We found an excellent fabric that seems to work very well in keeping the weeds out of our gardens.  While they are not 100% weed free, I am able to pull the few weeds that do appear occasionally. The rock will be delivered on Thursday or Friday of this week, so we have until tomorrow evening to get the fabric down.

The south garden contains two Podocarpus and seven
Crotons for interest and for color.

Today we were in the south garden early, while it was still in the shade from the neighbor's house, so we could plant the seven Crotons.  That took a bit of time, but we were able to complete that part of our work today just as the sun filled that portion of the garden.

Podocarpus, Ixora in the back, and Aztec Grass in the
front complete the front garden.

Then we moved on to the west (front) garden.  Since we had eleven plants in total to plant there, that took a bit of measuring and digging; however, in the end we now have two beautiful gardens.  Yes, they still need fabric and stones, but the on-our-knees part is mostly complete.

While we were still grubby and dirty, we made a trip to Home Depot to buy more landscape edgers.  We have decided to add edgers and red cedar bark stones around the two palm trees in the front yard also.  That will complete the entire landscape visible from the street.  We were past tired when we brought them home, so for now we know that we have the necessary materials to start our day tomorrow.

In contrast to the first picture of this blog segment, the house
now has soft and colorful plants to give Gladys curb appeal.

We are pleased with the results so far.  We have different heights, textures, and colors in the gardens to finally make Gladys a fairly glamorous old doll.  She may be old, but flowers show everyone in the neighborhood how much she is loved.  And as an added bonus, our neighbors are starting to clean up their yards, too!

Garden Outlines

For whatever reason, the front (west) and south gardens have been fighting us all the way.

While gardens under the kitchen window add some color to the house,
we need to have a more prominent garden in the front under the bedroom windows.

The south garden held the remnants of the bush we removed.
It will be disposed of as of Monday morning.

We started our task by going to Eden Nursery and picking out plants that would work with the sunlight and shade for the western and southern exposures.  We did not purchase anything yet, but at least we have a plan.  Anna told me which, of the plants that I had chosen, would work and which ones would be a waste of money.  I think I'll go with Anna's suggestions.

As we did with the back gardens, our first step was to outline the gardens with edger pavers.  We started early yesterday with the front garden by digging out the edger trench, adding paver base, and laying down the edgers.  Rick decided to rely on our string line and the level to add the pavers.  We checked the edgers occasionally with the transit to make sure that we were at the correct elevation.  By noon, he had half of the front area completed.

After lunch, we checked the elevations and levels again, and Rick decided that we had the first edgers way too high for the terrain that we would encounter when we turned the corner to the south side.  So back to the drawing board he went, adjusting the first edgers down and then following that level across the front of the house.

At the end of the day, we stood back and looked at the day's work.  It was not right.

Although Rick used the line and the level, we could see that the edgers were still going uphill on one end.  While Rick had been working on the edgers, I was busy within the garden digging up the grass and the weeds that grew next to the house.  I filled one full lawn bag with debris, and I had taken less than half of the turf that I needed to remove.  By 4:00 p.m., we both were very tired.

We noticed, however, that we were not completely exhausted as we had been earlier in the week.  Yes, we are getting good exercise and are adjusting to the work, but the major factor that was different was the temperature.  While we completed the first part of the back gardens with temperatures in the 80s -- and high humidity -- we were relieved to feel the temperature drop yesterday all day long.  We started warm, but as a "cold front" came through, we felt almost chilled by the end of the day.  Today started in the low 60s and never reached higher than the low 70s, so working outside, even in the sun, was not intolerable.

We decided last night that we would have to redo the front edgers once again.  Gr-r-r-r! Due to the position of the sun, we started today's work at the southern corner, working down the southern side while it was still in the shade, toward the back of the house.  This time we used the transit to check our elevations every two edgers, making sure that they also were level as we worked along.

The blank south wall will look much better once we add some
colorful vegetation. 

The south garden curves inward to give access
to the back yard gate.

We actually ran out of paver base, so Rick went to the store just before lunch.  He discovered that Lowe's was totally out of paver base, so he had to travel further to Home Depot in order to get the supplies we needed.  I stayed behind to watch over the transit and other equipment as I continued to dig out the grass and weeds within the garden outlines.

After lunch, Rick tackled the front edgers once again.  We ended up brining the original edgers on northern end of the front garden up one and a half inches.  Sadly, that is the elevation which Rick originally had put the edgers on the first time he put them down.  He made adjustments down the line so that the front and side garden edgers now all match in elevation and level.  Our front yard is far from level, so finally getting this wall in the correct position was quite a task.

The front garden, once cleaned out, will be filled with
evergreens, shrubs with red flowers, and green-and-white
grasses.

Tomorrow we'll work on getting the rest of the garden area cleared of grass and weeds so we can start the planting on Monday morning ... if we can move by then!