Cheap and earthy

I don't know which thrills me more, the inexpensive nature of this, or the earth friendly aspect. We have multiple stumps in our yard, like over twenty. I had good luck with removing one by building a compost heap over it. It was a very large stump, and after one year, I removed the compost to look at the stump. The stump was over half gone. I built a new compost heap around it, but the septic field builders had to move it, stump and all, with their bull dozer. I wanted to say, "No, drive around it. I'm doing an important experiment!"

So I built three more. I quickly filled them with grass and yard clippings because I was motivated. When I had enough yard waste to start another, I thought it might be fun to document the process, since I rarely see any mention of this on the internet as a quick, easy, and inexpensive way to remove stumps.

I picked this stump, which also had a maverick tree growing out of its side. Mark cut the tree down for me, and we encircled the stump with nine feet of chicken wire that's three feet high. We closed it with plastic ties. Then I filled it with yard waste which I was raking up from an area I reseeded with grass (an upcoming post!)


After twenty minutes of work, here's how it looked. The things it needs now are water and nitrogen. I put in coffee grounds, kitchen waste, and grass clippings mostly. I add water during dry spells, but it stays pretty moist if we get any rain, which we mostly do in New York. The cool part about it is that it just keeps on working except in the dead of winter. We have months of cold, rainy weather as well as summer, and by being insulated with wet, nitrogen-rich stuff, the stump is disappearing a bit every day. Even if I completely ignore it, my stump will quickly disappear.

One caveat, that's not really a negative thing, though. If you are looking to make nutrient rich compost for your garden, this is not the fast way to do it. The drain on the nitrogen that comes from the stump decomposition makes the rest of the compost decompose very slowly. When I unearthed my first stump, the stump was decimated, but the year old compost was not ready for the garden. I think of them as two different processes.

My prediction? In two years, the stumps will be gone completely!

Progress

I finished sorting out Rob's clothes, hence the empty chair. Still need to do Andy's clothes, so there's Latte doing her part. What is it about cats and laundry? That doesn't even look comfortable.

I still love her

I couldn't resist a gratuitous pet picture. This is Latte, the feral cat. She's sweet, if you don't pick her up. If you pick her up, she'll slash you.

We start every summer by cleaning the boys' rooms. They give me all the dirty laundry that has been tucked behind a dresser or stuffed in the back of the closet. While I take a few days to make sure everything they own is clean, they clean the rest of their rooms. Then, we go through all the clothes and get rid of things and put back what they decide to keep.

I've been piling the clean clothes on the dining room table and chairs. They are now "clean" in the sense of "as clean as clothes can be that have been slept on by a cat."

It's growing!

Those are cabbages right up front. The second row are cauliflower, then more cabbages, then, in the fourth row in, peppers to the left replaced the cucumbers that died. One cuke plants survived, then that's a zucchini to the right side. It's all peppers in the back and tomatoes along the shed wall.

Grow, baby, grow!

Finally, weeds!

The garden popped out millions of these little sprouts. They are not grass; they have two leaves that spread out. They all popped out after an overnight rain. I couldn't wait to get out there and hoe, but, of course, we can't find the hoe. The last time anyone can remember, Rob had it out in his dirt pile, which has since been covered with the new septic field. Could be anywhere.

So I used a long handled thing with tines on the end to "hoe" around the plants. Rob and I have both used the "garden weasel" to get between the rows, far enough from the plants that it won't hurt the plants' roots. We aren't done with between the rows, yet. But the parts that are done look nice and groomed.

And the most exciting part? I think my plants have grown bigger!

Let Go and Let God

I've been working diligently to save these bushes. We started yard work here eight years ago. I distinguish yard work from gardening. In my head, yard work is fixing or maintaining growing things. Gardening is picking and planting growing things. The yard work started long before the gardening.

Most of the yard work was done with a chain saw. We cut down dead trees, then dead bushes, then worked on grooming the stuff worth saving. These bushes along the shed seemed like they were worth saving. I read up on trimming bushes, and I learned that you can cut one third of the bush off every year before it blooms to get it back down to a smaller size. For two or three years, I learned that spring comes and passes faster than you expect.

But last year, I knew when I needed to take action. We got out in the yard and started cutting. To cut off one third, it required a cut that was above my head, so Mark cut and I dragged to the street. We filled the front of our yard along the road with branches. We eventually ran out of spring and energy, but through the summer, we went ahead and cut right to the ground the bushes we decided were so bad, they weren't worth saving. They looked like the best trimming in the world would never produce a well shaped bush.

This year we cut off another third. I spent a good deal of time watching them grow this spring. Up top, near the cuts, fills in first, making a weird, top-heavy bush. But slowly, the green fills in toward the ground. During one of my daily bush checkings, I notice this:


These beautiful bushes are popping out of the stumps left after hacking these bushes to the ground. I had wondered how I'd every get the dead, lifeless, useless stumps out of the ground. I guess they had other plans.

I love my new sprinkler. It's one piece, has no moving parts, and is made of cast iron. It was exactly what I wanted. I've had more sprinklers that I can count just appear out of the garage in the spring toes up. I wanted a simple sprinkler that wouldn't die after one year. The best part was that it was the cheapest sprinkler in the store. I considered that a lovely bonus.

I took this picture of my sprinkler, and was quite delighted to find a rainbow. It reminded me of Genesis 9:14-15: “When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings.” Me, too.

I am oddly obsessed with my grass circle. We had an indentation in the yard. Once when Rob was between fourth and fifth grade, he was mowing and the mower fell into it and got stuck. Our neighbor was driving by and helped Rob get it out of the hole. For the next four years, whenever someone mowed, they made a production of mowing around it. This year, I had an idea! We filled it with dirt. Duh. It's not like it's a big production or anything. We have plenty of dirt. But I have watered it faithfully and the little grass has sprouted. I enjoy checking on it. Weird, I know.