Hoosierhillsinc - Landscape Designer

Light at the end of the tunnel is shining VERY bright right now.  Our first delivery of plant arrived today.  We got the Silver Sheen, Horsetail, Golden Bamboo, Dymondia, Fruitless Olive, Japanese Maples, Dodonea and Kangaroo Paws.  Sod and a couple of others are on there way over the next day or two.  Everything is still in containers but we are close…

Okay, a little dramatic, but it was ridiculously hard work shoveling 7 tons of gravel around in our backyard last weekend!  I’m just now getting the use of my forearms back.    It’s a start to our ugly, ugly backyard, but now all we need to do is 1) get the rest of the gravel out of here (they sent way, way, way too much…grr…) – we’re being creative with what to do with it.  2) plant grass in the dirt areas.  3) build a new fence all around. 4) paint the ugly metal shop/shed and the trim on the house.  5) build a flat deck off the back door.  It will all probably happen in that order.  If we ever get it done this summer!  Now before I cramp up again, here is the backyard transformation…in progress…

This is back in March when Glenn cut the tree down…

And this is recently when a jungle of weeds sprouted out of nowhere!

See – no tree!  But the backyard was very scary for awhile…

Our new best friend, the roto-tiller.  It took 2 entire days to till up the backyard and get all of the rocks/weeds/old grass out of the soil.

Almost done with that step!

Final pile of rocks we pulled out of the yard – not counting the ones we threw over the fence.    That was my job…picking up rocks.  I kept them, because you never know where you could use them!  They’re nice rocks…right?

The 7 tons of “clean rock” the trucking company delivered.  Oh. My. Gosh.  Glancing at this photo I cringe at how ugly the shop is.  But it’s sturdy and a nice workspace inside.  We’re going to paint it black.  Yes, black.  I love black buildings, and since our house is brick I need to get my black building fix in somehow!

The easy part is done…putting down the weed blocker and paver path throughout the backyard.  This breaks it up into 3 sections of grass.  Well, future grass.

This would have been a catastrophe!  The wheelbarrow broke on the 3rd or 4th gravel load of the day – !!!  But Glenn was able to fix it…phew!  That’s what we get for using rusty old tools that came with the house!

The gravel is almost completely spread, and did we even make a dent??  I can’t tell.  And notice that they piled it in front of the shop door.  I had to climb through the window on the left to get the roll of weed blocker out!  It would have been alright if they had sent THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF GRAVEL!  I trusted them.  I gave them the square footage I wanted to cover and he converted it into tons…sweet.  I’d say they sent AT LEAST 2 TONS too much!

What the heck are we supposed to do with it all?!?!?  And where are we supposed to put it!?!?!?  And how will it get there???  I really don’t want to think about it anymore…and I have a lovely pile of rock to sift out of the dirt before we plant.  I need “Curb Appeal” or some other landscaping HGTV show to come to my house with a team.  ASAP!

You might notice in this picture that the path is wider than the original “weed-blocker and paver” shot above…yeah, we widened it to use more gravel.  Nice.  Any tips on where to use it all??  Want to come to my house and take a scoop??  Or a truckload?? Please…??

Summer has been hard, but fortunately, I’ve had some free time to make shit. Scratch that…lots of free time. My parents’ backyard used to be flat with some pretty flowers and lots of dirty. Now it has a beautiful fish pond (landscaping still unfinished). It’s 18 inches deep in the middle. I used to have no canvasses and no money to buy them. Now I have a couple that I built out of boards and stuff. I used to have no Harry Potter costumes. Now I have two robes, some black glasses, and two wands with which to see the 6th movie premier at midnight. The wands are hand-whittled, leather bound, and stained. I didn’t make the robes, but I made everything else. Check it out.

An area of Salisbury, NC where improvements have already taken place www.ci.salisbury.nc.us

Streetscapes are seldom recognized as one of the most important parts of streetlife. But when red brick textured sidewalks are shaded by trees on a hot summer day, streetscapes can be appreciated. Good streetscapes also contribute to a walkable culture, and attract window shoppers to stop and check out what local businesses have to offer.

Salisbury, NC is currently working on sprucing up their streetscape in hopes of making the downtown area more of an attractive and unique place. The first step to this visioned plan is to bury the utility wires. Removing the wires from the air above and placing them below the sidewalk will allow for more shade trees to line the promenade and will remove the ugly overhanging wires from view. In addition to the utility lines being buried, “other streetscape improvements envisioned include a mast-arm traffic signal pole at Kerr Street, the elevation of granite curbing, brick sidewalks, street trees, pedestrian lighting and parking improvements.”

Sidewalk texturing can be a big aesthetic improvement. Since us human tend to look down at an angle of 15 degrees or so, we naturally are looking at the ground ahead of us. An interesting sidewalk pattern and color is subconsciously an attraction for our eyes.

Street trees allow for shade on the sidewalk during the warmer months. It is a small comfort feature that few might think would be a result of planning, but rather a result of landscaping. Street trees also shade off store fronts from sunlight that would otherwise heat up the insides of the buildings, resulting in a greater need for air conditioning. In the colder months, trees shed their shade and allow the sun to heat up the insides of the buildings. Street trees are a small example of how landscaping can help improve energy efficiency.

Max Stember-Young, Rutgers University Student Intern, Vertices, LLC

Material drawn from: http://www.salisburypost.com/Area/062609-north-lee-street-utility-work

Hey, friends!

Got up just after sunrise today – which is when I should have been taking photos. However, the thought did occur to me by about eight o’clock. I still got a few shots while the light was still good. June is Bustin’ Out all Over here in the North, but what we’re really waiting for is July. 50F this morning. Still, things are growing beautifully around The Pines. Enjoy the flora pics – in a week or two we’re moving on to house demo posts!

Apples

Tomatoes

Lettuce & Zukes

Annuals & Perennials

Wild Roses

No doubt there are many with the same deer problems that I’ve experienced, and probably much worse. Just a few years ago my philosophy was to let the deer have theirs, I still have plenty of garden even with them nibbling a bit. But that has changed.

When my wife starts talking about shotguns, I fear for my own safety, so it’s time for action. Last year I made a half-hearted effort to spray a deer repellent. The initial results were good, but I didn’t follow up, and after a couple months deer had eaten dozens of hostas to the ground. Over the Winter they ate a number of evergreens that hadn’t been touched previously.

This year will be different. I have a small pump sprayer, two large containers of different type deer repellents, and the wife has marked spraying dates on her calendar at the start of every month. Early May was the first spray, early June the second, and despite twenty inches of rain there’s been no damage. The third spray will be next week with the brand used in May so they don’t get accustomed to just one.

I’ve read several recent magazine articles about deer damage in gardens, and the authors seem to push ten foot fences (or worse, electric fences) and crazy looking motion detector sprinklers, and hardly mention spraying repellents. They say that they’re effective, but must be sprayed repeatedly and will be washed off with rain. I’m as lazy as anyone, but spraying once a month is not too much work. Put it on the calendar, and have the wife bother you until it’s done.

Now into early Summer, plants that had suffered injury from deer in the past have returned to good health, though some still lack full size leaves. Next year most will be fully recovered.

I’m nearly convinced, but I’ll continue to report my experience. I’m quite confident that the repellent sprays will not wash off within thirty days, despite a series of heavy rains.

I know that deer are still in the neighborhood, I see them scampering away at dawn as I leave for work. They nipped new shoots on a few hostas in April, before I started spraying. But since, nothing, no evidence of a problem. I still see fresh tracks in muddy areas in the garden, but not a trace of injury to the hostas, liriopes, and daylilies that they covet.

Talk of shotguns has ended.

So, you’ve narrowed your choice of homes to purchase down to two, and as it turns out one of the homes has a home owner’s association and one does not. If you’re ticking off pros and cons of each home to help you make your final decision, here are 7 reasons why you’ll want to choose the home without the HOA.

1. HOA’s dictate landscaping: Although an HOA might mow your lawn and trim your hedges, and that seems appealing, an HOA can also dictate what types of flowers you can and can’t plant, what times of day you can water your lawn, and even tell you it’s time to update your landscaping—even if you don’t have funds for new landscaping, you’ll still be obligated to get the work done within a certain time frame. Sonni and James Bass took too long finishing their landscaping, according to a CNNMoney.com report, and were sued by their HOA. Read the report.
   

   An HOA can dictate how many and what types of flowers you plant. One owner planted too many roses and lost his home!

2. If you don’t comply, you will be fined. Just ask Jeffrey DeMarco. His HOA said he planted too many roses in his yard, and fined him for not removing them promptly. When Jeffrey took the matter to court, he lost, and was saddled with the HOAs $70,000 legal bill, as well as his own. (Read Jeffrey’s story.)
3. An HOA can evict you or foreclose on your home. Ultimately Jeffrey lost his home to the bank because he couldn’t make the back payments on the late fees and the legal fees, but there are other homeowners who have lost their homes, had liens put on their property or received foreclosure notices after falling behind on their HOA dues. This happened to Lacey Pilat. About four months after she lost her job, the management company for her homeowner association sent her a foreclosure notice after several attempts to collect her $450 annual dues, which paid for the mowing of front lawns. The amount she owed grew to $1,800 after penalties and fees, according to an MSNBC report you can read here.
4. The HOA dues can be raised at anytime. Maybe you think you can handle a $400 annual association fee, after all it amounts to less than $35 a month—less than a dinner out for two at the Olive Garden, but that fee isn’t static. HOAs can raise your dues for any number of reasons, such as assessments, lawsuits, cost of living, or simply because other homeowners aren’t paying, and those of you who are need to foot the bill. That is what happened to homeowner Robert Hanston. “The HOA told residents dues went up because more than 400 homeowners weren’t paying their dues,” Hantson said in a report for NBC.
5. HOA fees are not tax deductible. Enough said.
6. Want to rent out your home? Check with your HOA. They may not let you. Given the down economy, quite a few homeowners who can’t sell their properties have moved to renting them out. Some in HOA communities, however, need board approval before they can rent out their place. Some bylaws prohibit renting all together. This might not seem important to you now, after all you’re buying with the intent to make this purchase your primary home, but you just may never know what your needs will be in the future.
7. Homeowners’ Associations can regulate many things. According to one real estate authority, it could be: Exterior paint colors, fences and hedges, trees, lawns, and weeds. Or, solar energy installations, swing sets, basketball hoops, and other play equipment.
   

   HOAs can say no to certain play sets, fences, sheds or even dog breeds.

   HOAs also could regulate garages, sheds and backyard storage, parking, clotheslines and garbage cans. Outdoor lights and satellite dishes, they also can regulate, as well as window coverings and wreaths, home businesses, pets (size, types, total number), noises and obstructions of views.

By buying a home in a subdivision, or community with a home owner’s association, you are essentially giving up some of your rights that people come to expect with homeownership. Do you really want your neighbors telling you what to do with your property?

Just how much will you have to keep up with the Joneses? Well, you just may not know until after you purchased the home. If you bought into an HOA community, you typically would not receive a copy of the HOA rules and bylaws until after you have closed on the property….and then it’s too late.

At least you know what you’re getting if you buy a home that is not overseen by an HOA: the freedom to make your own decisions about your own property. That freedom is just what you’ll get, if you were to buy this featured property, which is not governed by any associations.

— by CurryMedia.com

I have passed this house before and it never registered what those slates were up against the wall. If you look closely they are Harry Potter characters.

There is virtually no landscaping on this side of the house that faces the main road in a beach town, other than the lone red impatien planted by the brick wall. 

Stopped at a red light it registered what this was and this image is the result of a split second decision to take the shot before we moved. For once, I was not driving.

I wonder what drove the homeowner to paint these slates and keep them as the sole adornment on their property. 

Odd at best.

I find myself singing the Mysterious Ticking Noice video song in my head when I see this. Go ahead, what the video, there is nothing that is both more annoying or more addictive.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone

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