by angela@diggingbliss | Nov 14, 2013 | houzz, landscaping
I’ve been collecting ideas on Houzz and saving them to my Idea Book. I’ve also been using Houzz to research local landscape designers/contractors/architects. It’s interesting to me to see who has an online local presence in this realm. I’m sure there are some fabulous landscape creatives out there who do not have websites and profiles on sites like Houzz, but this is how I prefer to search. And since landscape design is such a visual medium, it seems strange to me why someone wouldn’t be online by now. Most of these sites, including Houzz and Yelp, are free. Let’s not forget Pinterest and Facebook.
Here are a few photos that I saved to my Landscaping Idea Book on Houzz. I’m still in the loosey-goosey brainstorming phase and this is one of my “digital scrapbooks”. Anything that catches my eye goes in the Idea Book. I’m noticing certain trends emerging– shade sail patio covers, cafe lighting, comfy patio furniture, decking and funky/arty/bohemian touches.
by angela@diggingbliss | Oct 1, 2013 | bulbs, landscaping
Being around the house more these days, I now have the time and energy to work a little bulb magic! Living in a tiny house with a small yard on the fringes of East Sacramento’s “Fabulous Forties” can be a little deflating at times. The “Fab Forties” is a neighborhood of mature tree-lined streets and well-kept mansions and bungalows. They do it up big time for Christmas, 4th of July and many homes in the area are professionally landscaped.
My Christmas light display will never come close to the wonder and grandeur of The Forties. My flowerbeds will never contain the hundreds (thousands?) of tulips and other bulbs that stop traffic every spring. Why? Because it’s an expensive proposition, even scaled down. And tulips need replanting every year. And if I were to buy my bulbs individually at nearly a dollar each… well, forget it. But you know what? I like living a scaled down life right now. It can be described with all kinds of good words like “affordable” and “manageable” and “simple”.
Come to think of it, I don’t want to be the “crazy tulip lady” or “crazy Christmas lights lady”, spending thousands of dollars each year and exhausting myself with the pressure to outdo my neighbors or myself from the previous year. I’m OCD enough without having to add Spring and Christmas into the mix.
Still, I thought about the tulips… “Why not me?” After doing a little online research, I found Colorblends, a bulk supplier of bulbs with great prices and a good reputation. After perusing their online catalog, I ended up ordering 100 tulip bulbs ($35) and 25 daffodils. The tulips will line my walkway like a mini version of the Fab 40’s displays. It won’t be as dense or expansive, but a hundred tulip bulbs is still pretty cool considering right now I put on a sweeping display of zero.
And, OMG, Colorblends offers… well, color blends of different tulip varieties that develop and bloom much like a fireworks display. Varying heights, colors and maturation times ensure a nice long display that comes on quietly and steadily, then explodes into bloom like the State Fair fireworks display. The blend I ended up going with for Spring, 2014 is the Jacques and Jill™ blend. It’s breathtaking and lively.
I wanted colors that will mesh well with what I’ve already planted, like my pinky-peach Abutilon, my magenta Phygelius, and yellow-pink-orange Cuphea. I think of my new tulips as a Fab Forties display in micro. Micro-fab.
Jacques and Jill Tulip blend from Colorblends (Photo courtesy of Colorblends)
by angela@diggingbliss | Sep 13, 2013 | landscaping
In the movies, they call it foreshadowing… a visual warning of a future event. In this photo, it’s the bike, resting innocently against a post at middle left. Feeling motivated by the recent removal of a massive, poorly placed sycamore, Kim was cleaning up the backyard in preparation for our landscape remodel.
Our goal was to have the new landscape installed… sans plants, of course, because that’s my job… before the Fall/Winter rains kick in. Fate laughed at that lofty goal, because on August 7, Kim was hit by an at-fault Escalade driver while we rode our bikes home from work. He was lucky to escape the accident with his life, his brain (Go, Bell helmets!) and a broken leg.
Shoveling up old bark on August 3rd
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 29, 2013 | landscaping, trees
We finally did the dirty deed. The huge sycamore tree dominating our small backyard is gone. Granted, the tree was not diseased, nor a danger. But it snuffed out precious morning light, dropped anthracnose-ey leaves everywhere, and it was simply too big and oddly placed.
The work was done while I was at work, but my fiance Kim was able to photograph and videotape everything. He texted me photos throughout the day, so I could see the progress.
When I first moved in, my friend Cheryl said,
“It would be a sin”
to cut down the ginormous tree in the back. And my mom recently declared,
“You can’t cut down that tree.”
I did appreciate their concern for the tree and all it provides (loveliness, greenery, shade), but every once in a while ya gotta do something selfish. The tree was casting a shadow, literally and figuratively, on my happiness.
The first few cuts on the backyard sycamore
In my mind, I was left with two options– either move to another house or kill the tree. After much mulling and several bids from arborists, I finally went with my gut. After all, we live here and want to be happy here. And my folks just built a house behind ours, so if we move now, we’ll lose out on the closeness that proximity affords. (more…)
