Spring DIY

Spring DIY is all about yard work. We've been remodeling our landscaping since the summer of 2010 and we're taking a year off of massive earthmoving. No spring would be complete without shoveling a few rocks, though, and this year was no exception.

After taking out a massive spruce tree that was threatening to take over our house we had a naked spot on the corner of our house. It's a southwest corner, so the shade from the tree was nice in the summer but made it very dark in the winter. "Plant something deciduous!" said FFM, so we did.

Planting our new magnolia took a little rock and earth moving, less than an afternoon. It looks a little ragged in the final photo, we had some good precipitation last night and everything is soggy this morning.

One of our goals for this summer was to have room for more tomato plants. We had tomatoes in our garden plot last year, but everyone's favorites were the ones that we had in pots right of the edge of our deck. The kids and Travis would grab a handful and munch every time they walked past. Travis got busy and built a large planter specifically for tomatoes so we could have all our plants within easy reach of the deck this year.

We also started a lot of seeds this year. We have in years past, but have been hampered in our effort by various circumstances like travel, surgery, and not enough lights. This year we were home and healthy and all our seedlings thrived. So much that they started taking over our basement and had to be moved outside where they could get enough light (they got too tall for our grow lights). Being Colorado it's still chilly at night, which tomato and pepper plants really don't like. I had a quiet day at work one day and drew up some plans for a quick and easy greenhouse. On the way home I swung by Home Depot and by the time Travis came home mid afternoon I'd built the whole thing less the plastic covering.

The plants are very happy and I can lift up the trap doors on the top to let in full strength sunlight when it's warm enough. It's chilly this morning so I've covered up the vent gap in the middle with a towel until it warms up.

We started radishes, lettuce, and carrots in our garden plot, but recent reports are that there is a hole in the fence and rabbits have munched all our sprouts. If the weather cooperates we'll replant again this weekend, patch the holes, and hope for better luck.