and all that we want is a shady lane...

Last year at around this time we were having the Dr. Seuss' garden conversation (http://www.sparrowhaunt.com/2013/04/the-color-purple.html).  With that pressing issue resolved we were left to find street trees that fulfilled MANY criteria, including maxing out at 20 feet, non-destructive roots, high crown, indestructibility, and some level of uniqueness/beauty.  We had thought about planting hawthorns to match those on the other side of the street - but those trees are doing terribly, so it was obviously a poor choice.  What we came up with instead was Amur maples (flame cultivar).  Incredible fall color in addition to all the other requirements, plus pretty leaves and persistent red seed pods.

 The problem was, I couldn't find them anywhere!  Once I make up my mind I'm fairly stubborn, and even online these were not only small, but very expensive as well.  So we had resolved to leave our sidewalk bare for the time being.  On a whim I looked them up again this spring, and lo and behold Lowes said they were stocking them at all their stores.  This ended up being a lie - but we tracked down one store about 45 minutes away that was the only Lowes to get them in the region.  The drive was well worth it, we found three highly branched, 10 foot tall trees for $34 each.  Sometimes the big box stores really come though...

This leaves our sidewalk with 3 Amur maples and 2 Grace smoke trees which flank the stairs.  There are two tree wells that are too close to the telephone poles for trees, so we'll probably plant more of the Wine and Roses weigela that flank the stairs if they do well this season.  The rest will just be planted with free daylilies and irises (hurray for craigslist and freecycle) as they seem to be made of steel and maintenance free.  On the house side of the sidewalk are the existing ancient mock oranges, roses and lilacs, blooming again after a few massive prunings since we bought the house.  At 11:00 last night we also picked up 5 beautiful boxwoods and about 20 huge variegated hostas (thank you mystery craigslister).  Three of those boxwoods are now planted on the new section of the berm that was created when we closed off the driveway, with the hostas serving as edging.  Although none of these plants are that exciting on their own, the fact that after all these years the house is beginning to have a cultivated garden again is more that exciting enough for me.  

Today - don't mind the chunks of concrete the trash truck wouldn't take

Before we closed on the house - ivy and "driveway"

right after closing

November 2012 after finishing the driveway and sidewalks

There's a lot more that needs to be done over the next couple of weeks (before it gets hot!), but I'll wait until things have leafed out a bit more so you can actually SEE the lovely new plants in question unless of course the cat eats them first.  

green man

I am that person at estate sales with the maniacal grin clutching things she spent an hour digging out of the corners of the basement no one else wanted to go.  I find impossibly cool things.  Sometimes, they look like useless, broken things - and in order to retain my buying privileges I have to prove they're not.

Enter this broken pressed oak chair back,  I think I paid 50 cents.  I convinced myself that if nothing else I could make a picture frame out of it, which would have worked fine, but I came up with a better idea.  In an effort to continue my reign of terror over my houseplants, and to make up for the devouring of the big staghorn we brought with us from Miami, this project was born....

The timing was perfect, as some good friends of ours were driving up from Miami and willing to bring staghorn pups from my MIL's 6 foot diameter ball of fern (they also brought up their adorable son who gave our kitchen sink the baby bath seal of approval).  The first step I expected to be the easiest, removing the fabric and tacks.

Not so much...

This took hours.  There were multiple types of tacks on each side, and far too many of them - about 20 per square inch, and many of them were hopelessly rusted.  So this quick project spanned a few days just in tack removal.  Once that was done I scrubbed the whole frame in the sink because it was filthy.  After it was cleaned I glued and clamped the broken bits.

I then traced a piece of aluminum flashing to fit on the back where the fabric had been, and glued this on with super glue (and let me tell you, if you don't have rolls of pennies to serve as weights you're missing out)
.

Turning it over, I started fastening hardware cloth to the edges with an upholstery stapler, cutting to fit as I went.  When two sides were done I used a spatula to stuff moss in between the wire and the flashing.  Then I wired on the staghorn pups and finished stapling.

Only then did it occur to me to restore the finish...

just good old Howard's and their wax

Better late than never right?  Some hanging hardware, and I'm done.

The only things I would have done differently would be to clean the finish before putting on the flashing and wire, putting on the hanging hardware before the plants, and maybe painting the hardware cloth green.  But it's done now, and I have a great spot to watch this well-traveled fern die a slow and horrible death....