Compost- Coming and Going

This is the kind of stuff I pick up and put into the compost pile.
I am surprised at the amount I pick up each time I mow. I also use this stuff in the beds I am developing. This material helps the plantings thrive by holding moisture. Putting it in the beds is like having compost piles spread around the yard. Plus, If these are kept moist, you will find a world of worms just by poking around the piles of leaf mold.

Compost- Turn Turn Turn - There is a season

This pile was three piles until I turned them and combined them. It gets watered every day, so I knew I had a good burn going inside the pile. I felt a big blast of heat on my face and a I saw a big puff of steam released when I turned it and opened up the middle. I used to think I wanted this kind of high energy action. But now, I'm thinking that I should be able to draw off that energy and somehow translate that into greening my garden.

It may sound silly, but the thought of compost reaction always reminds me of the physicists building the first atomic reaction pile. I believe that was done under the stadium of a university in Chicago. That was when atomic critical mass was achieved for the first time. They knew they had it right because the result was heat in the core. The aim was to harness atomic energy to produce power. A large amount of energy is generated in a pile of dead garden refuse and it is just laying there. It would be something to draw that power off and apply it to husbandry for results that seem as miraculous as the power of atomic energy.

Arkansas Lemons

This is our lemon tree. Becky received this as a gift Christmas before last. The first year it gave us about a dozen very nice lemons. It produced without much attention from us. Becky tried and tried to raise lemons in Florida, but it was not to be.


This year many of the lemon buds dropped off in the spring. I think it was because we jostled it around too much. I think we finally have it well situated and it seems strong. It has some lemons developing.

Lemons growing in Arkansas - who would have thought?

A Craftsman Never Quits

In order for the mower to cut smoothly and the sweeper to sweep easy, the yard must be free of sticks and stones and stringy weeds.
These machines were made to operate in cultured lawns. Working out front recently my mower would frequently stop short when it discovered sticks in the yard. The sweeper would flap as the brushes got clogged with weeds. I had to make frequent stops to clear the works. I had to stop and pick up the many sticks and stones littering the yard.

Like I wrote in an earlier post, these machines lead in the way of a beautiful and well manicured lawn because they just cannot function in poor conditions. I had this same difficulty earlier in the season out back, but now when I mow and sweep out back, it's just grass clippings and leaves. So this makes me all the more anxious to keep after it out front so's we will have an attractive lawn going there, too.

Basic Grounds keeping

Today I did some basic grounds keeping in the back yard.

After I mowed, I used the string trimmer to cut the grass out of the mower's reach. As I develop the lawn I am moving to eliminate the need for the string trimmer. I aim to be able to cut every square inch of turf with the lawn mower without edging.
Next I took the blower around and blew the leaves and stuff off the patio onto the lawn. I also went around and blew stuff laying where the lawn sweeper won't reach out onto the lawn to pick up with the sweeper. In nature the wind sculpts dramatic settings. The blower can be used similarly to sculpt landscapes in the yard.
The reel mower clips the grass like scissors, so the grass tips do not turn brown. Using the reel mower and the sweeper leaves the lawn looking like a carpet, even though it is mostly weeds where it is not bare.
To finish I set up the sprinkler and watered. The summer heat is on now. I use a little gauge that the water department hands out every spring at the garden show.
The grass I sowed is starting to come in and the bare spots are slowly vanishing.
I tell myself, "Patience, Bob, patience." I want, I want, I want.

Basic Lawn Tools

These are all the tools I took out of the basement to keep the back lawn today. I am surprised at home many Tools I have that came from Sears. The sweeper , the mower and the string trimmer all have the Craftsman logo on them. I guess I go looking for a certain tool and Sears has been doing a good job supplying the tool market for many decades. But it is funny that I am not aware at just how many implements I have been persuaded to purchase at Sears.
The blower is a Stihl BGE 60. I purchased it about five years ago from Reed's Outdoor Equipment in Little Rock. I forget how much I paid for it, but I remember that the price was very reasonable and it works very well.
Reed's carries a good stock of professional lawn equipment and the staff is very helpful.
Maybe that's it; I don't need the top of the line professional equipment you find at a place like Reed's, and Sears has a lot of the household grade tools in stock and at a reasonable price.
I searched high and low for a lawn sweeper and Sears was the only place that had one in stock. It also turned out that Sears had the very best price on it by far.
I don't remember where I got the 100' extension cord, probably at Home Depot around the same time I bought the blower.
I believe I purchased the Ames clippers at Kraftco Hardware several years ago.
In front of the lawn mower is a screw driver I use to adjust the mower and I do believe it is also a Craftsman. I used the piece of paper to test the cutting action of the blades.

Irrigation by Frankenstein

I'm working to keep the whole yard watered this summer. Up till now I did not have the resources to deliver water to the front and east side yards. I cobbled together something that works and was cheap.
I wanted a system that would not cause clutter or be too cumbersome. This is what I came up with.
Starting at the water hydrant there is a four spigot manifold. I attached a 100' water hose. This I snaked out under the fence and out by the front steps for a primary line to what I call the front zone. I will leave this hose in place until winter. When I want to water the zones this hose supplies, I take the sprinkler and a 50' hose and plug into the primary hose by way of a quick connect couple. I have a quick couple on the sprinklers, too, so I can just plug and go. To cover the wide areas of the front I use an oscillating type sprinkler. For the narrow side yards I have a spot sprinkler.
And when I'm done I can pull it apart and carry the hose and the sprinklers to the back and that's that.

The two Gilmore Flexogen hoses are of a pretty decent quality and together cost about $30. The Nelson Square spray sprinkler cost about $11. I think the oscillating sprinkler is also a Nelson, and it cost about $15. The quick connect couples are by Gilmore and I think they cost about $3 a set. The hose manifold cost about $6. Among the retail suppliers hereabouts Home Depot seemed to have the best sprinkler and hose supply going.
I like being able to wrap things up when I'm done.

Some Tools

These are some of my grounds keeping hand tools. In the foreground is a folding work bench. I think it was marketed as a Stanley work station decades ago. I carry it outside and put my old Craftsman bench grinder on it to sharpen my tools. The hand tools I use most are probably the three-point shovel and the steel rake.
Here are some of my rolling tools. I have already introduced the lawn sweeper and the mower. I have a Scotts drop spreader and a good, stout wheel barrow. I never did care for the weak wheelbarrows that flex side to side when they are loaded. This one doesn't flex. Of course now I have to carry loads in much smaller bites.
I also have a stout hand truck which is very helpful. None of these tools cost very much. A couple were inherited or found. I love to think of ways to creatively employ these basic tools for a dramatic effect.

Turf Battle

This photo shows the final accumulation of material. After I spread sand and clay I spread some lime.
I have a Scotts Accu Green 1000 drop spreader. I had my doubts about its ability to spread sand and clay. It worked fine set at the highest number. I was surprised. I'm glad I experimented with it. I'm thinking that in the future as the ground absorbs the sand and clay, I can continue to add sand and clay as I think fit in this manner.
A few years ago we got a county analysis of our soil and it recommended the addition of lime.
So I am feeling good about these additions to the turf; the sand, the kitty litter, or clay, and the lime. I think this is a step in the right direction to beefing up the lawn and making it more healthy.
I can say that since I applied these materials, the turf really soaks up the water like never before. Before it would puddle and be muddy. Now, it seems to just do right, or at least much better.
We'll see...

These are fly traps. They are called "Victor Fly Magnet". They really work. The one on the left is full. According to the directions I could add more water to it and it would continue to draw in the flies. But I did not want to touch it.
We have always had a problem with flies coming in the back door. We saw this in Fuller and Sons True Value Hardware and got one. It is just this cup with the lid. It comes with a little packet of powder that you put in it and add water to the fill line, then swirl.
Prior to putting the first one out we were getting flies. We put it out and no flies. When the thing got full and stopped working we got flies again. So I went back and got another one.
These also come in a 1 gallon size. They really work!

Turf Enhancement

Our soil composition is mostly river silt. The soil turns to a fine powder when it it dry. I have a feeling the soil is rich in nutrients,but the soil does not hold moisture well. I was on a golf course that had just been refurbished and I observed that the fairways and greens were more sand than anything. I also observed that the course had a large pile of sand and a large pile of clay which they must have mixed together as part of the soil.
That set me to thinking. I think our soil needs bolstering with sand and clay. This cat litter is clay. It is the very least expensive at Wal-Mart. I got this Quikrete all-purpose sand at Home Depot and mixed the and and Litter together in a ratio roughly 2 bags of sand to 1 bag of litter. I used my drop spreader to apply the mixture to the yard.
I hope that doing this at intervals will help build up the soil. I'm thinking the soil will have a better compaction and it will begin to retain moisture better. This is really just an experiment and doing it on a small scale, a few sacks at a time will help me control my experimentation.

Pruning

Thank God for city services. I finally unwrapped the new pruning saw Becky got on sale and cut back some branches that were too close to the house. In a matter of minutes I had a pile of limbs. I'm glad I stopped when I did because it took some effort to get the branches cut down to the size required for city curbside removal.

Sweeping Generalization

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a lawn sweeper. Growing up, I did most of the mowing. The kindly old Mr. Robinson across the street had a lawn sweeper and I always wanted to keep a yard as he did. I observed then that the sweeper made short work of keeping the lawn neat.

A Sharp Mind

I attacked this bed with my sharp shovel. I wanted to thin the Nandinas and move the border grass over to make the border go from the steps to the end. Nandinas have to be thinned from the bottom, not clipped and that takes a sharp shovel.

Reel Mower Maintenance

My reel mower cost about $125. After shopping around we found this one on sale at Sears. Since this type of mower is so inexpensive compared to the gas powered models, and since it is so doggone easy to use, the tendency is to think it is a toy. I assure you that it is a precision cutting machine. There are three adjustments on my mower which keep it working efficiently.

The first one is the drive wheel height. The wheel is unbolted and rotated to put one of the holes on the peg which sets the height. I have mine on the lowest. The mid and high holes are visible.

Second is the trailing wheel height, similar to a regular mower. It is the one with the red handle. You can see its range. In this picture it is at "high". That is where I put it when I'm not mowing for ease of moving.

The third adjustment is the cutting bar. On the inside of the frame, two screws beside one another are visible between the front and back wheel. These screws adjust the cutting bar to the reel. If you look closely between and below the two adjustment screws the pivot point for the cutting bar is visible. The reel spins forward and lightly contacts the cutting bar. It cuts just like scissors.
The cutting bar is adjusted with the two screws. Tightening the front screws pushes the cutting bar down, or away from the reel. Tightening the rear screws lifts the front of the cutting bar to contact the reel.
To effect adjustment you slightly loosen all four screws on both sides then, little by little, tighten the back screws to get the bar to lightly contact the reels evenly all the way across the bar. All the while you are tightening and loosening the front screws to find the best position of contact. When all four screws are tight the position is set.
To first learn how to do this takes a little patience and a couple of tries, but mastering adjustment is essential to keep the mower cutting properly. Soon this adjustment task becomes easy and automatic. Keeping the bar properly adjusted will keep the thing sharp. I usually give it a quick adjustment when I put it away after mowing.
This can give a good idea of why it is important to get rid of sticks and stones, because they will hurt this mower.

You know it is correctly adjusted when the wheels still turn and it will slice a piece of paper effortlessly.

A "Reel" Mower

I love my tools. In particular, I love my reel mower. I can't wait to mow. All I have to do to mow is put the mower on the lawn, adjust the cutting height and then push. No gas, no oil; the machine is light and very easy to handle, it is quiet, and it does a spectacular job producing a manicured finish. It will make the grass cuttings fly!

The cutting height of this mower can be set with great precision. It will cut higher and lower than a gas mower and it will not scalp.

Turf Maintenance

These two pieces of equipment are very helpful and greatly appreciated. I am surprised at all the comments the lawn mower draws. Both work very well. Both were relatively inexpensive and are easy to use. I searched and compared and the last place I ever thought I would buy them was Sears. In fact Sears was the place where I bought them.
We got the mower last summer. I just got the lawn sweeper. I had priced the same unit with the name Agri-Fab on- line at Sears and four or five other places. The price ranged from $175- 250. I drove over to Lowes, then Home Depot, Tractor Supply and finally Sears. Sears was the only place with it in stock. It was also on sale for $89.95. What a deal, huh?
These two tools have limitations. Those limitations are reliable guides to developing a well-manicured lawn.

Good Fences

Mending Wall

By Robert Frost - 1914


Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes it comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbors."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go beyond his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."


Taken from "The Poetry of Robert Frost"
The collected poems
Edited by Edward Connery Lathem
Henry Holt and Company
1979

Patio Improvement

I had anxiety over the patio area before. With the aid of a sound plan I changed that anxiety into great happiness. Doing the work was great exercise. The whole thing was an exercise in change for the better. We got a lot of patio for the low cost of the materials.

How Firm a Foundation

To the left of the tree in the adjacent lot, there is a low spot that forms a very large puddle during heavy rains. At the lowest point it is about 12" lower than the middle of our yard. Our yard was being drawn down into this hole.
The ground elevation at the back corner was good and equal with the elevation at the tree. In between the tree and the back corner the ground drops about 8".
Nature was making all this ground unified. It was a great habitat for mosquitoes. I have stepped in and imposed my wants. I felt a little nervous exercising a little will- power to accomplish these things. Maybe I had a little fear that I did not really know what I was doing. But I felt very sure that I needed strong buffering between us and the lot next door in order that we may control of our space independently.
I am satisfied with these improvements. I am still happily surprised at how this work has improved the quality of life for us.