Blog de Puree

I **used** to have a green thumb. I could start stuff from seed and expect bumper crops, but not this year. Every new planting I touch seems to suffer this year. In the long-run, I suppose it can be said I’ve saved all my “growing” powers for other, more important, endeavors this year. That said, [...]

Apparently, the previous homeowner planted some irises in the back yard, along the fence. They were in full form this summer. At the end of the season, we’re going to split the bulbs and replant them.

Our three forsythia bushes are the bane of my mowing existence. With their long tendrils that reach up over 12 feet, out and down onto the lawn, they’re damn near impossible to mow around without becoming a contortionist. They are also blocking precious early and mid-day sun to our small trees on the west side [...]

Saying that it was a busy weekend at our house would be an understatement. A more accurate statement would be that it was a tornado of gardening and home improvement. On Saturday, a friend and I removed six yew shrubs from the front yard. It took two men six-and-a-half hours in the rain on Saturday. [...]

Well, our ginkgo tree arrived yesterday and I wasted no time planting it when I came home from work early in the evening. I was even happily surprised when I unpacked it because it was a four-foot specimen that was much thicker than most saplings I’ve had mailed to me. Kudos to Nature Hills Nursery [...]

I heard from the nursery yesterday that our ginkgo tree shipped last week. Hopefully, it will arrive in a day or so and we can have our very own living fossil in the ground before the weekend. Woot, woot! For more information on Ginkgo trees, check out this recent post.

Paul writes most of the posts ’round here, especially the bird sighting ones. But since he wasn’t privy to the latest visitor, it’s incumbent on me to write this one up. We got our first GOLDFINCH! Despite the rain, he was happily chomping away at the finch feeder, which is hanging from the new bird [...]

Transplanting young trees can be a tricky business. There’s a relatively small window of nice weather in the spring when the trees haven’t quite come out of dormancy and when you’re not freezing your keester off while hacking away through inches upon inches of frozen ground. And a certain degree of finesse is needed so [...]

We’ve been rather busy over the winter, collecting rocks in our travels. At the rate we’re going, we might even be finished in a few years. Here’s a shot of what we have so far. Here’s a link to a previous post, when we first started the rock wall. (Dec. 4, 2006)

That time of the year has arrived. The warm weather is breaking through. And rain or shine, we’ll be dragging out rakes, shovels and other various tools to begin springtime yard work. (Hey, who doesn’t enjoy working to the staccato rhythm of rain pelting the plastic hood of your rain jacket? Occasionally?) Despite the mild [...]