Spring 2015 - Life Returns to the Backyard.

I'm going to act all nonchalant like no one noticed that I haven't blogged since, what? February? And I'm going to pretend that everyone is deeply distressed about the space being quiet for so long. But its all pretend.

I'm posting today because the backyard is looking incredibly green and Alive after a very long, very cold winter.

In case you haven't been following along, here is what our yard looked like a couple years back, when we moved in (Taken from the real estate listing - April 2012):

And then a year later, in full construction glory, it looked like this (May 2013):

And after much effort to build retaining walls, put in a new deck, liner and plumbing for the pool, things started taking shape and it looked like this (Oct 2013):

And then last summer things finally started to feel 'right' (June 2014):

So as our gardens emerge this spring, I am happy to see the gaps beginning to fill in, and to have a good sense of what things are going to shape up to be. Its starting to feel like what the back yard was intended to look like. Sure we still have holes where the hardy hydrangeas haven't emerged yet (they are so pokey!) and we need to get more under-story going in a few spots - and I just relocated a lungwort, that's still pouting about it. But overall, the shape is emerging...

I present the spring expectancy for the gardens, 2015 edition.

<Begin Drum Roll Now>

In keeping with tradition, I have not tidied the yard before taking pictures. I mean, why stop when the mess of toys has come to be expected.

First off the Great Weeping Hadrian Wall of Dreams. Its still standing, not showing any hint of movement.  And it looks good too! The orange rope keeps dogs and kids on the lawn and out of the plants.

The railing still (STILL!) isn't in place. This is because I'm suffering through design anxiety. I know the look I want, I just don't know how to get there. And now that the shed is done, I feel like I have to tie the designs together, and they really, really don't jive. Drama. I need to just do it.

See the Jam Jar lights on those poles? They still work after 2 years, so I think I got the wiring all waterproof! Also, 3 X 100 watt bulbs right at the pool does a better job than 1 X 1200 watt bulb mounted to the house 30 feet away.

The day-lilies and iris are putting out massive greenery, and buds are just forming. I think we'll have a flood of colour shortly, but I am getting some root rot in the Iris. I should thin them and look at soil drainage.

Behind the pool, the espalier has jumped up to the top of the frame. Soon we'll reach the top of the fence, and then I'm not sure what we do with it...

The only thing actually in bloom right now are our Iris Siberica "Shaker's Prayer" (Siberian Iris) - I used it in the top pic, and it is a very good plant. Slow spreader, beautiful blooms, impossible to kill. They put out 5 blooms per stalk, and have pretty good staying power for an early plant. The other Iris are coming on soon though, and the peonies are full of buds. I'll have to update with another garden tour in a week or so. We also have a few tulips hanging on but their days are numbered.

Early in the spring I was excited when some chickadees checked out the birdhouses, but I guess they didn't like them so much. We have no tenants. Its too bad, the boys had a good time making the houses with me. All of our neighbours have commented on a decline in the number of birds at feeders this winter though, so I guess maybe its not just our houses that are the problem. I know the siting of the houses is less than perfect, but I was still hoping.

In the shady corners of the yard, the espalier is a lot shorter - no surprise there. I expect it will catch up eventually. Patience. There were a lot of blooms on the trees this spring, which is a good sign. Now we'll have to see how many were pollinated, and if the fruit sets, and finally, how much damage the squirrels and raccoons do before the fall.

Fingers crossed that they leave us a couple apples.

So all this brings us to the Seuss Tree.

I know its supposed to be a Blue Spruce, and I know they can be a little... quirky? But this? Its got a reverse curve in its trunk. I'm not sure what to make of it. If it grows to maturity it will block the path between the gate and the yard. I think its got to go. I think we're going to end up replacing it with a laundry tree. Maybe I'll write up that project next. Or sometime. I mean, its going on 4 months since my last post, so I wouldn't get too excited waiting for the next one.

The Backyard - An Update

Now that we have been in the Frosthaus for a couple summers, our changes are starting to take root. Its a slow process getting gardens to mature, especially when you remove everything and start from scratch. Even moreso when your spring has been chock-a-block with activities that prevent you from getting out and maintaining the gardens.

In any case, lets look back before we look ahead.

This picture was taken shortly before we moved into the house in 2012:

The backyard is struggling to grow grass, the wooden retaining wall is rotten and failing, and, well, its a sad place. 

Last year we spent a pile of time on landscaping and put in new retaining walls, pool deck, pool liner, coping, gardens, a playground for kids, and fence posts. We never got around to the fence. Its still on my to-do list.

So far this spring we haven't done much at all back there. We did spread some grass seed, and we may make the odd tour to weed gardens, but as things take hold, the gardens are starting to perform as intended. That makes me happy. In a couple more years we should see the gaps fill in. In the pics below, I just pointed and shooted. It was lunch and I had no time to tidy up back there. Also our pool steps have caused me much greif this spring, so they are still lyin gon the deck beside the pool. They have moved since the last photo though. 

Backyard Then and Now

This weekend it was time to close the pool, which is a shame since I never got around to an 'After' pic of the yard after all our work on it. We can't really call these 'after' pics since we still haven't figured out how we are connecting paths from the house to the pool and we don't have a lawn, but here it is today. It has changed a bunch back there, and overall I think we are all pleased with things.

So here is what the yard looked like 14 months ago when we bought the house:

Come to think of it... we may have more lawn now than there was back then. Note the use of rotted timbers as a retaining wall, the beauty of the cedar trees overhanging the pool, and the cracked and heaved concrete deck. Pic below is late last summer with the pool opened and goldenrod in bloom.

Here it is today...

Since these pictures were taken during pool closing, the stairs are up on end etc. but you can at least get a feel for the scale of the work that has taken place this summer.

So far we have removed and replaced all plantings along the fence, including building and planting an espaliered apple orchard (14 trees from Siloam Orchards) as detailed here. For foundation plantings we have a mix of Hardy hydrangea, daylily, hostas (suffering due to too much sun), iris - at least 3 varieties - and a bunch of other stuff mostly rescued from our last house, or from the beds when we dug them out. 

Fenceline Garden and deck:

We removed the deck ourselves and had it replaced with Brooklin Brick products. The border is Barnboard Pavers and the field is something that was on the discount pile. Not sure what the intended colour or pattern was, but the price was right. Hardscaping was done by Ryan at Dreamscape Landscaping, with materials sourced by us.

The pool coping and liner was replaced by Ewing Pools, using stock coping (not sure what the pattern is) and a Gulf Coast Gold Pebble liner from Premier. Although the water isn't perfect you can see the pattern pretty well in the pic below. This liner does an outstanding job of hiding algae, which comes as a mixed blessing. It's nice that the algae doesn't show, but it's embarrassing when you jump in and the bottom is slimy. We need to vac the pool more regularly.

The new retaining wall was installed by us using Colonial Buff block from Brooklin Brick. It is nice having a locally produced product with a retail outlet on premises. We used the barnboard as our capstone for the wall.

An ongoing challenge for us will be the chipmunk colony that had undermined the previous pool deck. They are still there, despite the disturbances of the reno. Talking to neighbours, we can expect them to stay for some time. It seems as though chipmunks have always been part of this neighbourhood.

A final shot showing the view from the shallow end - including the pipe draining the pool, cloudy water due to closing schemicals, and the floaties from the trees losing their leaves.

In the spring we will be completing the fence, building a pool shed, and hopefully have a new lawn. We may also expand the patio where the BBQ is for better function, and put up a pergola across the back of the house. Thats all in the 'maybe' file for now though.

Ding-Dong the wall is done...

On Saturday, the last brick went up, and the Great Wailing Hadrian-like Wall was declared complete! Now we can bring in sand and topsoil to fill the play area and gardens, and start work on the pool rehab.

PlayStation reno.

The boys' backyard playhouse was looking a little tired...

So I did some renos...

 Ok, a coworker's kids had outgrown their clubhouse, so we strapped it on the roof of the thunder buggy and brought it home for reassembly. I dunno what to do about the slide encroaching on the space reserved for the walkway to the pool. I think I can let it go.

 Don't look at the wall - it's not reveal time yet.

Garden Designs

As the 'great wall' wraps up, my attention is turning to garden design. What to plant and where to plunk it. Although some of my successes have been accidents, I do try to make things work together to create textures and vignettes that are both surprising and interesting.

Before you read too far into this, you should know I have no formal training in this, its just something that's fun to do.

When most people lay out a garden, they will either start with, or only consider the plan view. To me, that is backwards. Plan view is your garden as you would see it if you were floating overhead. I don't plan on sprouting wings anytime soon, and I doubt there is even a halo waiting for me. I begin with an elevation view looking from the angle that matters most. For example, the view from the street or from a window.

When I start, I don't think about plants at all, I think about elements. At this stage there are only 4 elements to the design.

 1. Vertical - these are the spots where the garden will have a high point. High points work to draw a visitor's eye upwards, to block something unsightly, or to give the garden the appearance of being taller or narrower. They can also act as a break in a long horizontal planting or fence line.

 2. Horizontal - these are things that draw a visitor's eye along to a destination, add width or depth to the garden, or act as a border or frame to reveal something behind. For me, most designs begin as a horizontal element, then depth and height are added.

3. Frames, or Depth - once my horizontal and vertical elements are established, it becomes possible to consider foreground and background, and to create 'frames' around features or to capture views behind. An example of a frame could be a view through a cutout in a hedge or through an arbour. It could also be a single feature plant rising into low spot.

4. Surprises - my final feature are surprises or curiosities. These are the things that beg a visitor to come closer and be part of the landscape. Often I use hardscape for this, but a showy plant, or great piece of topiary has the same effect. Many visitors won't be able to relate to your plantings, but they will recall the things that made them laugh, wonder, or sit and enjoy.


 I draw my elevation view at the bottom of the page, and once its key features are in place, I will move to the top of the page to set out the plan view, which I use as my planting guide. As I work on the plan view, I revisit the elevation view to add depth, and work up the features of the plan.


So let's walk through the "Great Wall Garden Design" and maybe you will see some of these items come together.

In this portion of the great wall planting, some of the considerations I had to keep in mind were that the plants had to be relatively short, but that this would be one of the taller sections of this garden (there are three sections). I wanted a strong edge element on both ends of the garden, but I had to beware that one end will be a gazebo passageway to the pool.

Here is the first draft of the plan:

 The planting area here is 119" long, and I haven't really considered depth at all at this point. I drew in the fence rail in the background to give myself a sense of scale, but I didn't add any foreground vs background elements.

The plant choices here were based on two factors - what was on sale, and what basic shapes I needed. To be honest, I went to the nursery knowing the sizes and shapes that were going into this space, and looked for shapes, not plants.

 In case you can't read it, here is the planting list, and why these guys won out...
- Clematis 'Bees Jubilee' - an old favourite. Pink and white striped flowers. This should climb the trellis once I get it built. I may end up with a different variety, there are so many to choose from!
- Hosta 'Sum and Substance' - one of the giant hostas. Although it grows 3' - 5' tall, the branching leaves give a strong horizontal element, and its mound shape softens the straight edges of the wall.
- Iris Domestica 'Blackberry Lily' - this one is new to me, but I fell in love with its mottled flowers and unusual shape (and it was on sale as the last of its kind). It turns out this plant was recently renamed and moved from the lily family to the iris group. I am using its strong vertical lines to break the horizontal strength of the hosts and transition into lower growth geraniums.
-Geranium - pretense, halayanese, phaeum - I was fairly picky with these. I wanted three geraniums that could be planted as a mass, with different bloom periods and colours. I don't know if my selection will work or not. The geraniums at this point maintain the low, mounding shape started by the hostas, and bring some colour to the garden. If they grow to their advertised height (15" - 24") they will form a nice frame with the irises on either side.
- Iris Sibirica 'Shaker's Prayer' - these never-fail plants were shared by a great friend. They form a great whispy vertical component in the garden, and are totally carefree. I'll take a division from another bed.
- Rosa floribunda 'Sight Saver' - I needed a flowering shrub, and who doesn't love a rose? Especially a fragrant floribunda! This rose is linked to a charity which helps the blind in third world countries. It has the right shape and size for this spot, although I could have gotten something taller and bushier.

With the basic plant choices, I can go ahead and think about moving towards plan view now. I know what the structure of the garden will be, and now I can start to introduce 'trimmings'

Once I laid things out in plan view, I could see that there was still space to be filled. Adding rockcress in front of the roses will break up the wall more, and add a splash of bright blue to the foreground of the garden. Where I put in philadelphus (mock orange) I am up in the air. Philadelphus is an old friend with early, fragrant blooms, and season-long blight-free foliage, but I want more of a see-through, vertical element here. Maybe some Lilium Candidum (Madonna lilies) or allium. I dunno. By going taller in the middle, I allow myself the opportunity to put in a super-tall element behind the rose - something like delphinium maybe. This would slope down from the perimeter of the yard to the hosts at pool-viewing height. Hmmmm.

Espalier and garden update...

Despite our best efforts to neglect it, the garden is coming along nicely. A mystery flower has sprouted in the weedy section. Maybe its a weed. Maybe its some exotic something that is on seven endangered species lists and is worth more than my car. Actually my car isn't worth much. Anyways, if you know what this is, clue me in:

 

 yeah, its brutally weedy back there, and maybe this is just crabgrass gone wild. I dunno. For now I'm calling it 'purple orchid extreme'

 In other news, the espalier is doing all kinds of stuff. Mostly its cool, but some is confusing. Coolness looks like this:

 I got that iris in there to make it look supercool. Anyway, see the apple tree growing up the bamboo, that's how the espalier is supposed to work. That makes me happy.

The funky-weird stuff looks like this:

 This guy has a leader coming out of the graft, and a second leader coming out of the stem. I want the  upper plant to grow, but the bottom one is stronger. I fear that cutting the lower will kill the tree. A dilemma. I need to just cut off the lower, but I'm chicken.

 Another dilemma... this tree only grew one leader. I thought that if I leaned it over, a second one would sprout at the bend. Alas, no such luck. I need to cut this back to the bottom cross in the bamboo framework and hope it sprouts 2 new leaders. I snuck in a hardy hydrangea in the foreground so it would look like we have some good stuff in the espalier garden too.

I'll close out with a success. in the photo below, you can see 2 new leaders coming out of the leafs where I have cut off the main leader on this branch. This good stuff, this what's supposed to happen!

In my next update, I talk about Aphids attacking the apple trees!
Learn more about this symbiotic relationship here!

The Brick Man Cometh

When I got home yesterday, I almost hit a skid of bricks sitting in the middle of the driveway. Then Cuppa came running to my truck and told me the brick man came in his big crane and put bricks in our driveway. Then Buddy ran over and told me there were bricks here when he got home from school. I guess that explains how the bricks got there.

Yup. Brooklin brick came through. You may remember back a while ago I went with a friend to Brooklin's yard in, well, Brooklin Ontario, and bought up a pile of seconds. Bricks that weren't perfect, and we placed them in the backyard. I haven't updated that project in about a week, but in the interim, we have finished our base course of brick, backfilled with gravel, and laid in drainage. One lunch hour last week, I returned to Brooklin and like a real customer, ordered full priced brick for the rest of the wall.

We have just gotten those bricks. When I went into the backyard, Chuck and Mama had already carted almost half the bricks back there, and laid them out ready to be set in place. In a couple hours I was able to lay almost all the bricks. Before leaving for work this morning I carted another 30 or so bricks back. We only have about 60 bricks left to move into the backyard, and I haven't gotten a picture of the delivery yet!

EDIT: I got a (bad) pic!

Our wall will be colonial buff standard split face design wall with barnboard coping. I think I'll wait for the big reveal until we get all the bricks in place and the gardens planted. Then we still won't have a lawn, but at least the framework for the landscaping will be in place. I am really pleased with how it looks so far though.

When I went into the backyard, Chuck and Mama had already carted almost half the bricks back there, and laid them out ready to be set in place. In a couple hours I was able to lay almost all the bricks. Before leaving for work this morning I carted another 30 or so bricks back.

In other news, a big surprise is waiting for the boys once all the brick is in place... Stay tuned.

Video Post #2 - Setting Base Course Blocks

After our video debut, I figured we should put up another great movie. Here it is - how we set the base course blocks in our great wall.

Its 4 minutes of WOW! Ok, its a little technical and talks about compacting gravel a lot, but its an important part of wall building.

This particular block went in pretty easily. I didn't even need to use the sand I mention early on in the video. The sand works great for levelling an ornery block that won't sit straight. Before getting to this step we had set up a base of about 4" of compacted gravel. The shovelful of material I toss in in the video is just to level things off and bring the foundation up to grade for the adjacent block.

Enough talk here's the movie:

For our next one, I'll aim for cats doing silly things - people seem to like those movies a lot!

Digging Down, Building Up

SO by now you should have a feel for the scope of our retaining wall project.

After days of digging, we finally reached the shed, and it was time to start doing something new...

After all that digging, everyone was about worn out!

With the sod and topsoil removed from the site, we needed to address the pool plumbing issues. If we leave the pool pipes in their current location, they will be buried in a sandbox, and a pain to get at for future servicing. Besides, they're in the way for our retaining wall work!

Getting at the pipes meant breaking up the Concrete pool stairs and a part of the pool deck.

The stairs really didn't want to move, and it was a lot of work to get them out. The pool deck at this spot has been overlaid with a few lifts of concrete to try and level it in the past. I think this is the most invasive surgery its seen though.

With the stairs removed, we lifted the pipes from their spot in the future sandbox. The pile of concrete rubble was a pain in the but to work around, but we managed.

Here you can see the structure of the pool. The plastic coping is exposed with the concrete removed, and the Tee fitting that sends water from the pump to the pool jets is sticking out of the sand. We will be recycling the sand from this area and moving it to other parts of the yard as we go.

With the pipes removed, we levelled out the sandbox, and finished running conduit for future electric work. 

Electric all roughed in, and its time to start laying blocks.

The base course of the keystone blocks for the wall went in really slowly. As I went I got better and faster at it, but working on this was very tedious and time consuming. At first it was taking me about 10 - 15 minutes per block. By the time we were done the base course, I could lay a block in 3-5 minutes. Sometimes less.

Lotsa bricks in, and the Big-O drainage pipe in place. I don't think we needed the one with the filter on it, but it only cost us an extra $10, so what the heck.

One of our challenges with the electric was that where the conduit crosses the wall, I needed to cut a chase in the block. I used a concrete blade in a skil saw to cut a few grooves, then chiseled out the material. When I test fit it, the groove was too shallow and the box didn't fit in the groove.

To make everything fit, I went back and chiseled out a recess for the box to sit in. No one will ever see this, but I'm kindof proud of how nicely it worked out.

With the electric roughed in, I turned my attention to the plumbing. The pool lines need to go under the wall, and will eventually be run back into the pool shed. I used pieces of the Big-O pipe to make a 'subway' that allows the pool plumbing to go under the wall. The chases mean that if we ever have to replace the pipes, we won't have to take down the wall to do it. We have painted the top of the subway blocks with white paint in case we need to find the spot again someday.

The trickiest part of all this was getting that base layer flat and even all the way across. I'll post a video shortly that shows how we did that once we got a good technique down.