vegetables and a tree

Two wonderful things come of indefinite furlough. One: time in the garden. Two: fruits (and vegetables) of garden labor. A few years ago we tackled the front yard and created what I call the graduate school experiment, and now we are tackling the back yard. Our lack of attention to this part of the property has been a boon for creeping charlie, wild violet (which I like), dandelions, ostrich ferns, sticker weeds (not the technical term, but my term) and every possible aggressive species there is. It is a disaster, and our Disaster Remediation Project kicked off on May 1. Slowly but surely it will assume semblance of a designed space (Todd to Cindy, "I'm not touching or moving anything until we have a plan"). We're attempting to phase in the design..small chunks at a time, instead of razing it to a dirt dust bowl and then having 'zones' for planted areas but no specific plan like in the grad school experiment. (You see, I had only been through the site analysis part of the studio progression in grad school by the time we addressed the front yard. I was great at creating a big analysis blobby diagram that said 'sun / prairie type plants', 'buffer / shrub area', etc., but not so good at creating a cohesive plant palette - the plants in design class didn't come until my second year - dammit.) Anyway, we learned our lesson, and Todd and I have been working through an awesome Japanese garden-inspired design (read: minimal palette & areas of contemplation), but I did reserve the existing back corner raised beds for a veggie and cutting flower garden. Here's a glimpse (click on image to enlarge):



And, Todd's task today: slaughter the silver maple. Kidding of course, but he did have every sharp engine-powered tool we own out there. I imagine she is a little sad losing such a big limb. But, it was pretty sick so it needed to come down for long-term health reasons. Though she'll initially miss it, I think she'll thank us for helping her lose a little weight as she enters into the latter phases of life. While we'd not select this tree if we were starting from square one, she's got a cool twisting form, so we're glad to have her anchor the back yard. We promise to not give her a hosta ring, but to pay due respect to such an old beauty.

Here's Todd doing the duty.


And here's Todd going, "Holy $#%#!! what did I do?"