Our Urban Low Maintenance Landscaping Plans

One of the reasons we decided to move from our rural location back into an urban setting was the 2010 purchase of our vacation home in Florida.  The first year we spent 8 weeks divided between two trips there so we quickly realized the logistics of owning two properties and spending extended periods of time away from both.  Things like yard maintenance, snow removal, and home security still need to be attended.  Houseplants need to be watered and the house kept an eyes on for pests especially rodents getting in.  While rodents were a given in our rural setting we had hoped it would not be in our urban setting but quickly found out otherwise.  At any rate, our goal when we moved here in September of 2011 was to make our property as low maintenance as possible,  not an easy feat considering we have a pool, fruit trees and small garden area.  We also wanted to make it less attractive to certain pests known to be in the area (eg. rabbits, mice, snakes).

The entire back yard with the exception of about 200 square feet is scheduled to be fully decked, two levels.  A good portion of it is already decked.  We are working on removing the remaining side gardens as well as replacing the fence and building all new decking.  The 200 square feet space will be home to two 4' x 10' raised beds (edibles, herbs) and separating paths that will be either patio stones or cement which will dramatically cut down any possibility of weed issues on the paths.  We are planning on adding a couple of built in planters on the decks and I have a lot of creative container gardening ideas to extend garden possibilities on the decks.  Essentially, the entire backyard will have no grass and no in ground gardens so will be about a low maintenance as we can get.

The front and side yards have gardens along the house and an interweaving brick driveway and sidewalks.  We removed all vegetation from the front and side gardens then put down hard 'no did' edging, landscaping cloth and stone (walnut nugget).  We just finished the stone yesterday!  It really looks nice with no plantings at all.  I'll post pictures of our progress shortly.  We are planning on taking our time deciding whether or not to add any vegetation.  One alternative is a grouping of planted containers as a focal point.  A deciding factor will be how the house looks after the porch and front entry looks when we are finished.  I'm working on that now.  At the moment the only maintenance work in the front and side yards is grass cutting and trimming.  We use an Epic battery powered mower and a Yardworks cordless trimmer/edger for these chores.  Both are eco-friendly alternatives that lower our carbon footprint while eliminating our need for gasoline to fuel either.  An added plus is the mower is very quiet compared to other mowers.  So basically, the front and side yards are now very low maintenance.

That does not mean our yard is without personality or colour.  I have relied heavily on containers this year for adding splashes of colour.  I found this takes a bit more planning but offers a higher degree of flexibility.  This fall I am finally going to start my plan to naturalize crocuses in the front and side yards.  I've seen this done and it is gorgeous giving a blast of late winter, early spring colour with maintenance.  I'll post more on that method in the fall when I do it.  For now though, we are right on track with creating very low maintenance landscaping that is still very much a work in progress but will definitely meet our needs while giving us the edible growing space we want.

Lawn Care

We have always lived in small urban settings but in the past ten years spent four years living first semi-rural followed by four years living rural before moving back into a small urban setting.  Even though our property is not in an urban subdivision it backs on to a very small tract of farm land.  It is surprising what a difference there is in lawn care in subdivisions!  Don't get me wrong as lawn care is part of rural living as well.  The amount of lawn to maintain is considerably larger than subdivision lawns.  However, the lawn maintenance companies likely don't make much off of rural properties.  We never worried about a few dandelions in the lawn that was simply cut when needed with a mulching lawnmower.  

Subdivisions are characterized by their pristine green carpets of grass.  These lawns are chemically dependent and will actually go through withdrawl if you don't keep dousing the chemicals on it.  Not only that, folks in subdivisions have a few weird ideas about lawn care.  Quite often lawns are watered on a schedule whether or not they need it.  The same holds true for cutting the lawn which is usually cut too short.  We have had an abundance of torrential downpours meaning there has been no real need to water the lawn yet some of our neighbours have their sprinklers going like clock work even when it is raining!  I honestly forgot how silly folks can be.  Honestly, a few days ago we had an all day rain with a couple of bouts of heavy down pour.  The same was predicted for the following day.  We woke to rain then it stopped. Our neighbour was out cutting his grass about 15 minutes later.  When he finished cutting the grass his sprinklers came on and remained on for the first half hour after it started raining again.  Really!  Talk about a complete waste of resources...

Unseasonably Warm Weather with Record Breaking Temperatures

The past two weeks have been unseasonably warm with record breaking temperature in the 70's (F) highs and lows in the 50's (F).  Now that is just unheard of here in southwestern Ontario this time of the year.  Folks are walking around in shorts and sandals.  Our neighbours actually had their AC on yesterday!  Folks have been out doing spring yard clean-up but at the same time some are really pushing it by fertilizing and mowing their lawns.  The reason being this is still March.  In southwestern Ontario our average day of last frost (ADLF) this year is April 15.  That means before that date there is a good chance of a heavy frost and up to that date a 50% chance of a frost. 

Folks are funny in that they cut their grass too early and too late in the season then wonder why they are fighting the rest of the year to have healthy grass.  As tempting as it is, do not touch the mower until after the ADLF for your area.  DO NOT and I repeat DO NOT fertilize, treat for weeds or seed your lawn until after the ADFL.  Lawns cut too early or too late in the season are very susceptible to irreparable frost damage.  So resist that urge to mow too early even if the weather is gorgeous!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2012

Epic Cordless, Electric Self-Propelled Mower

Our New Mower

My husband has been looking for a mower solution for quite sometime.  An electric mower was not a practical option for our last two rural properties.  Gasoline fumes triggered respiratory problems so for a couple of years we hired a lawn cutting service.  That had a lot of benefits especially when we were away.  Two years ago we bought a very nice gas powered mower and while it did save us money it was not a good solution for reducing our carbon footprint or reducing respiratory problems.  The reality is using a gas lawnmowers for one hour puts out the same amount of smog-forming emissions as 40 new automible do in an hour!  My husband finally found the ideal solution - a cordless, electric self-propelled mower for the new house.

He bought the Epic cordless electric self-propelled mower on sale a few days after we accepted the offer for the sale of our home.  This is a 19" full sized steel deck mower that uses the 24V Terra Phase Power System.  There is no gas, no oil, and no emissions.  According to the label we will save as much as $327 over the next 6 years in fuel and maintenance costs compared to a regular gas mower.  The mower has a push button start and rear wheel drive.  It mulches and there is a bagger (not pictured).  I've used it twice now and the most impressive feature is the noise level.  This is a very quiet mower!  You can barely tell the mower is going so we have greatly reduced the noise pollution we create through lawn maintenance.  The two batteries stay in the actual charger when the mower is not in use.  They only go into the mower compartment during use.  While we are currently charging the batteries using hydro, they can be charges via a solar panel and inverter.  One charge is enought to cut 7,000 to 10,000 square feet.  Our last property was 17,500 square feet so it would have taken two charges to cut the lawn but this lot is 11,500 square feet but buildings, gardens and pool reduce the square footage to under 10,000 square feet so we can cut the full lawn on one charge.  We will store the batteries indoors for the winter. 

With the purchase of this battery powered mower along with our battery powered trimmer/edger we have effectively eliminated the use of gasoline for any gardening equipment.  We have greatly reduced our carbon footprint as well as lessened noise pollution we produce.  I am rather pleased with this reduction!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Yardworks Cordless Grass Trimmer/Edger

Yardworks Cordless Grass Trimmer/Edger

Yards need weeding, trimming and edging even if you replace the grass with another ground cover.  My husband bought a Yardworks cordless grass trimmer/edger just before we sold our previous house so I had the opportunity to test it on a larger rural lot.  The beauty of this edger is it is battery powered.  Using battery powered yard maintenance equipment makes a lot of sense when moving towards living off the grid.  These devices can be charged using solar power and and inverter.  Even if we never get entirely off the grid which is less of a possibility now that we are living in town, we can still set up solar panels to recharge our lawn maintenance equipment as well as my husband's battery powered tools.  The removable battery sits just below the handle for easy removal to the charger. 

This trimmer can easily be turned into an edger by adjusting the handle knob.  I have to say that I am quite impressed with the performance!  There are no extension cords to worry about damaging and no gasoline fumes to have to deal with.  Unlike the gas powered trimmer, the battery powered one starts up with only a press of the button.  There is no fussing with the spool of cutter line either as all you do is pop it into place then it is automatic from there.   The battery lasts about 20 minutes which was more than sufficient to trim our larger rural property. 

I've used it twice in our new urban location without a problem.  As you can see we have a bricked drive so I even used it on edging mode to rid the cracks of weeds.  The first time, the trimmer was used here it lasted over the twenty minutes and that's with a bit more trimming than normal given I was cleaning up the driveway.  The nice thing about this battery powered trimmer/edger is I know it reduces our carbon footprint.  It is an environmentally conscious product that doesn't contribute to air pollution and it is quieter than electric and gas powered trimmers so reduces noise pollution.  That's always a good thing!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Bit of Leaf Mulching

Mulching Leaves

November 13, 2010

Our lawn mower has mulching capabilities so it makes sense to take advantage of that to get rid of a few leaves.  We have way more than we can compost in the gardens and I don't like putting leaves out for municipal collection unless necessary.  One solution we came up with was running over the leaves during the last couple of lawn cuttings with the lawn mower set to mulch.  The mulch setting cuts the leaves finely leaving them behind in the grass where they can breakdown and add nutrients over the winter.  It saves bagging the leaves as well as helps to get rid of all those extra leaves you can't compost.  It is an eco-friendly approach too as the leaves feed the lawn reducing the need for any additional fertilizer.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

New Lawn Mower

YardMachines by MTD

May 3, 2010

Five years ago we moved away from cutting our own lawn to a yard service.  This resulted in our lawn being neat and tidy looking even when we were away.  Now if you have been following this blog you will know a lovely green carpet is not my idea of being eco-friendly.  The problem is while gradually reducing the grass it still has to be maintained until it can be eliminated.  So the lawn service fit the bill nicely.  This spring as I was going through my normal 'where can we be a bit more frugal' spring cleaning, the lawn service became one of my targets.

The lawn service was costing us $650 per year but they did all the cutting, trimming and bagging.  Several times they cut the lawn when we were away even though it didn't need it and shorter than it should have been especially in the summer.  The real problem was the bottom line was the lawn service was adding to our carbon footprint not decreasing it.  Most times there were 3 people during a cutting session with 2 mowing and one trimming.  They drove to get to our house then drove to the dump's compost pile to unload clippings then drove home.  That's a lot of carbon going into the atmosphere!  At the same time one of our kids volunteered to cut the lawn while we were away so our house will be watched on a regular basis with lawn cut all for a bit of food from the pantry and freezers plus the use of our outdoor grill.

We bought a YardMachines by MTD from Home Hardware at a total cost of $316.37 that will give us a net savings this year of $339.68 followed by $650 each year after that.  The mower has a 139cc MTD PowerMore OHV engine designed to run more efficiently and produce fewer emissions than the standard L-head engines.  It has a 21" deck with 8" wheels and 9 position individual height adjustment.  It is also a mulcher or we can bag the clippings and is front wheel drive self propelled.

My husband is looking at the new mower as his new get into shape equipment so that was a rather pleasant turn of events! We really are looking forward to keeping our lawn the way we want it, not too short.  It's surprising how much both of us missed doing our own lawn care too but that could be due to a lot of the ripping out here finally being done.  Now we can start focusing on lawn reduction strategies!


Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

Laying Sod

Note: This is a modified entry from my homemaking blog. The pictures are the same but I have added or deleted parts of the descriptions. There may still be some overlap but there will also be more detailed information.

When we decided to by this house we had the main goal of buying waterfront property for family use. If you have read any of my other blogs you will know what a strong emphasis we put on family. We loved the look of the new backyard aka our outdoor living space that ends at the water's edge and has a park-like setting but we knew we would have to make some modifications. While during the week it is my husband and I at home the kids are home so there are usually nine of us but with the soon to be new additions that number will be thirteen. We do a lot of entertaining that includes extended family members and friends so we often have thirty or more for weekend outdoor events. Since the water plays a large role too, it was important to use to create a comfortable and useable outdoor living space.

Before

Unfortunately the backyard was quite overgrown. The previous owner just kept planting and planting. She was in fact planting the day of the move! The problem was she planted shade loving plants in the sun and visa versa. I'm still finding rogue plantings and garden decorations. A true dilemna is trying to work in both herbal and vegetable gardens. We know the vegetable garden cannot go in the backyard but I'm sure working herbals into the perimeter will work.

The larger picture shows part of the backyard and deck after we removed a large forsythia bush that prevented entry onto the dock (1) and raised the tree bonnets so we could see the water. Removing the forsythia was bitter sweet. We needed access to the dock but the bush was blocking access yet it was a beautiful bush. Removing the bush made the dock useable but we needed to repair the area in front of the dock. We had thought of patio stones but then decided that sod would be best. Under all the trees there were small, overgrown gardens (2) with five cedar bushes surrounding one (3) silver maple. The cedar bushes were mosquito and spider magnets. Now this isn't good because of the West Niles threat and it would appear I'm allergic to at least some kind of spider bite so spider control (more on that later) is now a real concern. These are not really nice looking spiders either but more on that later once I get them identified. It also wouldn't sit well for outdoor entertaining. An old and neglected pathway of stepping stones (4) led to the dock but we decided they had to go as well. I don't think the pathway was all that unsightly but my husband didn't like it so it went anyway. In fairness it was in an awarkward location and we really need the green space so he is quite correct.

Prep work including removing all of the overgrown gardens, cedar bushes (3) and stepping stones. That was a lot of work! Not shown in the picture is a circle about 6' diameter at the start of the stepping stones that originally was paved with a fountain the original owner somehow forgot to leave behind. I was actually happy she didn't leave it since the fountain was right in the path between the kitchen and dock. Removal of the vegetation took a few days and a few trips to a relative's burn pile. It was a lot of work! The cement was recycled for errosion control by a friend. The cleaned areas were raked well and topped with top soil just before laying the sod. Once everything was cleared out and prepped we had a glimpse of what our new outdoor living space would look like.

The sod came in rolls on a flatbed trailer and yes it is heavy (5). This is a DIY project but it is hot, heavy and dirty work. Because of the time factor getting the house ready for the anniversary party, we hired it out. They were able to do everything the same day even though we were cutting the timing close. The weather was working against us, very hot, humid and unseasonably dry. Once part of the sod was laid where the cedar bushes had been (6) we knew we had made the right decision. New picnic tables (7) were constructed for the event. We wanted to keep that pleasing park-like setting. In all the installation took about 5 hours.

The sod was looking rather sad during the installation process (1). The temperatures were blistering hot and the summer had been unseasonably dry that I think the only thing that saved the existing grass was the copious amounts of shade. I took a picture from the upper sunporch of our newly gained yard space that hopefully would be ready in time for our anniversary party.

The sod went in on the Thursday before the anniversary party so we kept the water going until late Sunday afternoon. It would have been nice to set up a water system from the water's edge but our neighbour had been having a lot of problems due to the lower water levels so we decided to use municiple water. The sod was practically swimming! We let the ground firm from then until the party. While it did not look like a pristine, well manicured lawn it was considerably better than it had been and held up well with the extra traffic of almost seventy people. The following day we watered in the morning only then continued doing that for the following five days.

Now

This is not the best picture as it was taken from the upper level sunporch through the screen but we are really pleased with the results. The numbers show all the areas where we sodded. As you can see the space is now expanded to fit our needs. The sod is doing nicely and thanks to Mother Nature we haven't had to water as much. A water system for using the natural water is in the works so watch for that. Oh and just up from 5 we removed an entire small garden something I forgot about when preparing the picture.

It is always very important to us to create an appealing outdoor livingspace for our family and friends wherever we live. We are very pleased with the results so far. In the spring we will be working in more vegetation, mainly herbs around the perimeter but keeping the centre portion open and user friendly. An overgrown sloping garden with English Ivy ground cover will more than likely be replaced with an herbal garden since it is close to the kitchen. We've decided to keep what vegetables we are growing out of the backyard ares and while that is proving to be a bit more challenging it fits in our scheme of creating a warm, welcoming and functional area to entertain larger groups of of family and friends.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007