Then there is my historical preservation project, albeit of civil engineering, the 60 year old concrete road culvert. Pops worked on the road crew that did that, which lets face it, given gov't contract work, is the only reason it's still there. He must have spiked that concrete with enough cement to hold up the pyramids.
You'll see in the pics what Hurricane Irene did, rolled a wall of water that ripped trenches out of the mountain up to four feet deep. Not the first time this has happened, there was a sudden snow melt once, we traced that a thousand feet and 20 stories up the mountain to were it literally had burst out of the soil, leaving a pit of tree roots devoid of soil and rock.
You might note my neighbor filled in his ditch and tried to get the flow into a 12 inch pipe. He's been flooded out 3 times, and has now banked two feet of dirt against his house to stop the flooding (he put on ice and water shield first, it'll help keep rot down for a while). Which is another way of saying research your local eco - system and don't neglect asking around for local lore.
In progress
A new Lilac Hedge along one property line
Forsythia thicket to help persuade bears to not use our property for a short cut
Resetting and mulitplying the Peonies in new beds
Expanding the varities of Peonies
Building up a stock of various Minature, Everblooming and Fragrant Daylilies to spread around the property.
Resetting and multiplying the half dozen kinds of Irises
Cultivating specimen Creeping and other specialty Forsythia
An eco - war between a patch of Japaneses Knot Weed and myself, which I'm winning armed as I am with giant 12 foot Forsythia. I guess the forsythia are invasive too, but, pick you poision I guess. I'm pretty sure forsythia use less water than Japanese Knot Weed. I know forsythia are the ONLY plant that can out compete Japanese Knot Weed. I don't know why NYC DEP dosen't have their hundreds of workers out planting forsythia shoots to fight back against the massive incursion of Jap Knot Week along all the streams in the NYC watershed.
Reclaiming the edges of the property from the rampant advance of mother nature - a decade or more of neglect on some of the fringes led to some day long battles. Luckily, I've worked out the right, and CHEAP combination of plastic and fabric mulches, along with salvaged materials, that let me lay down a barrier that will last a decade. A long cry from the yearly clearings we did for decades.
Edit below
Amongst my efforts at fixing up the house, I devote days in the spring and fall to equally upgrading the grounds. Theres a time to plant, and you do it then, or you don't do it!
More and more - Lilacs - Fosythia - Iris - Daylily - Peonies all the time.
Planting and Planning for smarter, easier, self maintaining landscaping using self probogating naturalized plantings.
The Garden
Tradition, and it's fun to grow what's easy, pick it, eat it. Just need to keep that in perspective.
Worked out by accident a great weed barrier system, no weeds, soil not too warm, not too cold. With drip irragation, a MUST, gardening is easy.
2012 Grounds Improvements
and just some nice pictues
Make it more beautiful, deliightful, and easier to care for.
Work on the N and S boundries, installing weed barriers, black plastic under wovern white weed barrier. Extends life of each. Plastic will kill grass and invasives always trying to get in from the edges. Garden, also dealt with above. The big back yard, which needs something done to it. I've started with plantings around sheds. bu5t it needs more.
