What Ana Does

Let's overthink my lawn for a post, shall we? Leah Mowing Like a Pro While we were in Paris, my Mother moved into my house (temporarily, as it turns out), fired my lawn guy, bought a gas-powered mower and was planning to take care of the landscaping herself. She enjoys it. But circumstances took her to Florida and now I'm left with no lawn guys and long grass. No big deal, really. But it started me thinking about lawns. Then I read this article  that summed up the environmental issues of our lawn obsession. We, as a nation, over-water, over-fertilize and over-mow our lawns. And it's having a negative effect on our environment. While, yes, there are absolute positives for having a lawn and taking care of it, we're often doing way too much . Sure, grass is a plant and pulls a little carbon from the air, and is way better than paving or anything else, BUT it's doesn't need to look perfect all the time. I live in the midwest, so I only need to worry a...

Exhibit A: The Tomato Plants I am a very lazy gardener. I've said it before and I'll say it again. But here's the thing ... you don't have to be in your garden every day pulling out weeds and looking for slugs for it to work. It's so friggin' easy to grow food in your backyard, it's not even a joke. A friend came over the other day as I was pulling peppers to eat with our dinner and she made a big deal about it, "where do you find the time?!" What time? Sure, if you're a farmer and your livelihood depends on how much you grow, you're going to work your butt off to make sure each plant yields the most fruit/veg. This is not my full-time job. And barely a hobby. Here's my time commitment: I spend a Spring afternoon getting the beds ready. Another morning tossing whatever I find/have/want into those beds. Not even a full day. Then, when I notice it hasn't rained in a while, I walk outside and turn on the hose for 15 minutes...

The landscapers came and cleared out all the weeds around the raised beds ... all in under four hours. Hooray! I've got some plans to drop in a few hydrangea bushes under the windows and maybe something nice-smelling near the door. But didn't want to attempt in the middle of the summer. I learned that lesson the hard way. Until then, now that I can actually get to my raised beds without a machete to clear a path through the weeds, maybe I'll consider planting a late-summer crop. Squash? Pumpkins? Related links: More BACKYARD posts

What am I up to today? A Trunk Full of Flowers - And Top Soil The Veggie Beds Are a Total Disaster Already Behind on Seed Planting -- Now, Where to Begin? Related posts: Other random weekend stories

There are several issues with the backyard and now that it's warm enough to get outside I can't ignore them anymore. It's now about prioritizing the issues and finding someone to help me with them.  First, the area around the raised beds need to be tackled. Mostly, a weed guard needs to be laid down and wood chips need to be filled in on top. Currently it's a bit of a wreck. Also, we all need to keep our fingers crossed that the hydrangea will come back under the dining room windows. Then, there are the steps to the back door. The bricks fell apart over the winter starting with just a few. Now, it's just about the whole step. The adhesive only works at temps above 60 and dry. And we haven't had a warm enough weekend to even contemplate the project. As of this weekend, the weather is starting to feel spring-like. So, maybe soon we can start those repairs.  Alice Models the Broken Stairs - And First Day in Shorts! What a mess! Off to find...

Right outside my screen door to the backyard there is a long-neglected space I'm committed to cleaning up ... next year. It's got some unruly rose bushes and weeds galore. This year, something surprising popped up.  As I've mentioned, I'm in the habit of throwing produce out into my backyard, especially in Fall and Winter. Well, as a by-product of that weird habit, I now have a pumpkin or squash plant sprouting in that spot I dumped last year's Halloween gourds. How fun! The Plant Outside My Door

I just love my backyard in the Spring! Watching it go from grey and dreary to technicolor green is an annual miracle I don't take for granted.  This year, I'm still concentrating on the perennial bed around the right side of my lawn. I've added some pink peony (4 new plants) and pretty salvia. And I planted that sunflower bed I'm eagerly anticipating. I'm almost to the point where I'll need massive amounts of mulch to finish it off. I may need some help with that.  Asiatic Lilies Will Be Bursting With Color Soon! New Peony With Weed Guard. Next Step: LOTS of Mulch Pretty Little Bell Flower Perennial Will Be Layered in Front of Salvia With the cool weather and lots of rain, that backyard is just going to get greener! Related links: More BACKYARD posts

I was a busy bee on Sunday! I rolled out of bed and hit the front annual bed before it got too hot to be in the sun. While the girls rode bikes and chalked up the driveway, I dug and planted like a madwoman. I tried some new things this year, purple and red verbena and some taller white geraniums in the back. A few zinnias, too. Can't wait to see it all fill in. BEFORE: Front Garden is Plotted Out with Three Flats of Flowers AFTER: Front Garden Watered and Ready to Grow Then, I headed back to the veg and herb gardens. I tried to wait until dinnertime but by 2pm the girls begged for the slip n' slide. So while they played water games to keep cool, I planted everything we got at the garden center on Saturday morning.  And sweated. It was nearly 90 degrees! The dog even gave up on being outside, and found a cool place to sleep. Not only did the veg get planted and a few seeds (not all yet) sown, I also hit the sunflower bed I plotted out back by the pine trees....

The guys came this week to remove the huge juniper bushes that hugged up against my house and snaked behind my raised beds. WOW! They were so out of control and their needles were so prickly, they've been a literal thorn in my foot since we moved in. I'm sooo thrilled they are almost gone! Juniper Bush Is Gone! My plan is to plant huge hydrangea under the dining room windows -- something that blossoms and adds color to the backyard. I'm also considering adding another raised bed -- this one longer and thinner. But I'll have to check out the space. In the meantime, I have a lovely little greenhouse (a gift from Dave) to install. Does that mean it's Spring? Related links: More BACKYARD posts

Apples Happily Rotting Away I love throwing rotten produce in my veggie garden during the winter. I feel a thrill, a zing, when I do it. Which sounds completely insane. So, I've been contemplating today WHY I like doing this so much. First, it's like a good omen to me. Like, throwing this produce that actually was grown and made it's way to my fridge (though, not to my table) was a success. And maybe that will norish the garden and give all my seeds that I sow next year the right idea. (Rereading that makes me sound even more batty.) Second, I'm attracted to composting but I haven't had much luck with it. I had a black compost box in New Jersey that, and I'll be the first to admit, I probably didn't set up correctly. We had it for four years and I never got the good soil they say you should from it. After awhile, it felt like I was just feeding all the neighborhood vermin my kitchen scraps -- because walking near it would produce an ominous rustling ...

A few weeks ago we met some friends at the Chicago Botanic Garden and checked out the Wonderland Express exhibit. They recreated some famous Chicago buildings and set them in fairy-like settings -- with several trains running around them. It was kinda magical! (And by "magical" I mean seeing a GREEN landscape in winter fills me with warm feelings of spring. Sigh!) Here are a few pictures I snapped. Pretty!  Train Swooshing Past

It's late July and here's the news from my veggie garden. The good: We started harvesting cucumbers (yum!) and we've gotten a second harvest out of the lettuce, likely to be one or two more! I'm starting to pull the onions out of the ground and am fascinated by the "curing" process. The bad: The beans just withered up and died and I'm not sure why or what happened. I never even got a decent yield out of them. Also, not sure what to do about this broccoli. Where are the little trees? Updates: I added a pepper plant to each garden last weekend. I'm also noticing the few cilantro plants I left after harvesting is starting to come back. I was told to pull the entire plant after the first harvest. Next time, I'll leave them and see what happens. The Herb Garden : Basil is Nearly Ready to Harvest! There are a Few Tomatoes on The Left Side That Will Be Ready In a Week or Two. Veggie Bed : Onions are Nearly Done. Lettuce Is Still Going. And ...

I was out with the camera this weekend and got some nice shots of the Lilies in the perennial bed. They don't stick around for too long, so you got to grab them when you can. The Perennial Flower Bed: Year 1 -- Lots of New Flowers Added This Year, Including Coreopsis,  Salvia, Astible, Portulaca (Moss Roses), and a Daisy.  

It's July in my two raised beds, and they're looking great! Admittedly, I've been a little lax on thinning out the seedlings. This is something I'll need to remember next year when it comes time to sow the seeds. The carrots especially are right on top of each other -- meaning the seeds were more successful than we thought -- but I need to be more aggressive in thinning. I'm confused about the onions . The books say to wait until the stalk dies, then pull the bulbs -- but that sounds contrary to me. I'll do more research. The herbs also need to be harvested and dried. I'll attempt that this week -- how hard can that be?! Mostly Veggies in This Garden. Beans in the Back, Broccoli in the Middle, Onions Spiking Up and Lettuce in the Front. I Harvested the Second Round of Lettuce This Weekend, Too. Herbs Here: Parsley and Sage in the Back, Thyme and Cilantro in the Middle, Basil and a Lone Strawberry Up Front. The Cilantro Was Harvested This We...

Nothing prettier than spring irises. Glorious! These came up in the perennial bed and neither Mom nor I remembered planting them last fall. The daffodils are already done and dying back. The hostas are on their way and the asiatic lilies are making their comeback. I've got a lot of space to fill this year and have been thinking about creeping, crawling ground cover for around the perennial bed tree. Maybe a some russian sage for some height. Boxwood? Just down from the perennial bed is a spot at the edge of the yard that's mulch and weeds. I'll need to make a plan for that area, as well. So much to do this summer! Updates to follow.