FHL (Farm House Live) Weekend Update

I had a reasonably productive weekend around the house.

There are two things I remember from my youth about the yard here that are no longer true.

1. The yard was full of trees and very shady.
2. There were few long lines of site without foliage to keep people from seeing the house from far away.

Somewhere around 1/3 of the trees are gone, so instead of the yard being a nice shady place to hang out in the summer time, there are large patches that are hot and sunny. The south used to have blackberry and raspberry bushes keeping people going by on the highway from seeing, but those bushes are gone and the house is visible from the road.

To the east, there used to be a line of trees, most of them were cedars, with branches all the way to the ground, but there were other trees and bushes as well. Sadly, they were all growing along a fence line under the power lines and the power company came through a few months back and cut them all down to the ground.

But there is good news on both counts! My brother-in-law, Mike brought me about a dozen small Crepe Myrtles that were growing wild around the house he shares with my sister Lisa.

I sectioned off a spot along the fence marking the southern border of our property and planted most of the crepe myrtles along there. Here’s something to consider when looking at the photos. There are two tires in the picture. Look at them compared to the elm tree and consider the scale and then realize the size of that elm tree. It’s a big tree. That branch that goes off to the left of the image is extremely long. It’s not the tallest tree on our property, but it may have the most spread.

Admittedly, the flower bed where I planted the Crepe Myrtles doesn’t look great yet. I didn’t have much to use to section off the area, so I had to use pieces of one of the trees that fell down during the stormy season of 2023.

Along the fenceline where the electric company went to down, most of the stumps are showing fresh growth. And the growth is coming along quickly. It makes sense, those stumps have extensive root systems to feed whatever foliage grows.

By the end of the summer, we should be well on our way to having yard privacy again.

I’ll figure out what trees to plant to rectify the other part, ASAP.

I’m also considering building a small deck under the trees in the middle of the circle drive to have a nice place to sit in the mornings and evenings. I’ll include a picture of the outdoor love seat on a mock-up of the beginnings of the deck.

So the restoration of the outside of the house is coming along.

Also while I was working in the yard, I came across not one, but two seedling Northern Red Oak trees. I immediately dug them up and put them in pots. I’ve never successfully cultivated an Oak Bonsai tree, but I’ve seen some beautiful ones.

I put them next to the cuttings from my lime tree that I made last fall. They’ve taken hold real well and I’ve moved them out of the Intensive Care Unit area of my garden. I think that wraps up my rapping about my plants and garden.

I hope you had a productive, or restful (depending on your preference) weekend as well. Here come the pictures.

P.S. I’m also including a photo related to the last post. I noticed that the window film I put on last weekend casts a really pretty circular rainbow at the backpacks by the door right around 5:PM every day. It’s really neat. Okay, here come photos for real.