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Garden of Merit 2008

With a new wave of snow falling outside, it was delightful to open the big manilla envelope from Metro Blooms in today’s mail and see that we had received a Garden of Merit certificate for the second year in a row.  

Metro  Blooms recognizes and encourages citizen gardening in boulevards, front yards and other publicly visible locations.  Considering the number of truly lovely landscape and boulevard gardens around town I’m sincerely honored we were recognized.  

Our improvements to the landscape in 2008 included:

• Adding plants from the Friends School Plant Sale
• Expanding and improving the raised vegetable bed
• Dividing mature plants and distributing them to other areas
• Building a new trellis next to the back steps

Now that I finally have a strategy for success with the windowbox, 2009 should see this place looking better than ever.  But not too soon– there are still a few more months of wintery weather to get through first.

Tags: garden, Local, props

Posted in Journal | 3 Comments »

Cool Tool: The Snow Plow Shovel

My parents and I agreed that we would cut back on Christmas gifts this year, but that didn’t stop “Santa” from delivering an awesome new Snowplow shovel to my front porch the week of Christmas.

Readers in warmer locations might not appreciate the value of a great snow shovel, but for my corner lot in Minneapolis it is essential equipment several months of the year.  

A good shovel must be sturdy, light in weight, and capable of cleaning down to the concrete.  The Snowplow meets these criteria better than anything I’ve used before.

What set the Snowplow apart are its beefy blade brace and ultra-high-molecular-weight (UHMW) polyethelene blade.  The blade is thick, and–bolted to the brace– it is incredibly stiff.  This stiffness helps the Snowplow break up compacted snow and clear down to the concrete.  The UHWE plastic is also inherently slippery and I haven’t seen a single flake stick to the blade.

The chief downside I can find to the Snowplow shovel is limited availability.  Right now the only retail locations carrying the shovel are in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  Local readers can find the Snowplow in many neighborhood hardware stores.  Otherwise, you can order it from the company website.

Check it out– this is one excellent tool.

Tags: shovel, Tools, yard

Posted in Ideas | 4 Comments »

Someday: Front Steps

My recent post about the trouble with the downspout and pavement at the front of the house reminded me of another topic I haven’t posted on yet: the front steps.

Although I don’t have a picture to prove it, I’m certain my house originally had street-facing front steps with brick wing walls on the sides.  This isn’t a big stretch to imagine– lots of bungalows have steps like that.  Currently, the steps point to the side and have a landing area outside the porch door.  The landing and steps are just  a big concrete block topped with an iron railing.  The hedge in front of the steps conceals their ugliness but also puts an unwelcoming  barrier between the street and the front door.

I’m convinced about how the front steps used to look because the original  rear steps (now covered by a deck and trellis) have brick wing walls.  Here are the old back steps when they were temporarily exposed during last summer’s trellis project:

At the front of the house, there is also some evidence of where the stone or concrete cap for one of the wing walls used to be:

On a walk through the neighborhood this summer, I noticed a very nice bungalow nearby that has had it’s front steps and wing walls replaced.  Although they did an excellent job matching the brick for the wing walls, you can see a slight difference in brick wear and mortar appearance at the intersection between the old and new work.

I suspect these replacement steps may also have included an unoriginal stoop outisde the front door– the wing walls look a little taller than usual where they meet the house.  

Compared to my sideways, hedge-hidden steps, these restored  front steps with their wing walls and planters are a dramatic improvement in friendliness and historicity.  That’s the look I’d like to restore to my house someday.

Tags: Add new tag, Exterior, Ideas, Neighborhood

Posted in Journal | 4 Comments »

Site Update

I just performed an upgrade of my blog software to WordPress 2.7 Coltrane. Although this is a major upgrade behind the scenes, nothing about the site should look or act differently as a result of this change. If a page or element looks funny or isn’t working the way it used to, please let me know in the comments. Thanks!

And if you’re thinking of starting a website or blog, give WordPress a look.  It’s open source software that is powerful, stable, extensible and free.

Tags: aside, blog

Posted in Journal | 1 Comment »

Mouse Mitigation

You would think the embarassment of a mouse at my dinner party would have prompted an immediate response, but for someone with my considerable powers of procrastination, a reminder was required. 

While sitting at the kitchen table with my older son tonight, I saw a mouse run between the dishwasher and the stove.  If the mice do this in a lit room with people in it, I can only imagine what is happening after dark.  

Once the kids were in bed, I broke out the steel wool and expanding foam, plugging the openings under the cabinet toe kick and beneath the sink.  I also set a snap trap behind the stove.  If those mice like peanut butter half as much as I do, this little rodent episode will be behind me in no time.

Tags: kitchen, Pests

Posted in Journal | No Comments »