garden update - plants!

I followed the plan and waited a full year before I started planting anything of permanence in my yard. I'm glad I waited.  I have wildflowers in unexpected places, and I now know that sunlight is a precious and rare commodity.  Most of my yard is what is considered not just shade, but deep shade. 

As soon as my year was up, I started on the Rock Garden, and Bird Garden.  I had already added edging here, broken up the soil (quite a chore), worked in compost, mulched, and tried a few annuals.(more)  In the process, I've learned a lot about this space. 

May 2012

December 2012

The impatiens did OK, (I think some were diseased) and the basil I planted in the tree stumps was no where near as successful as I'm used to.  Oh well, no more pesto for me this year.  Lesson learned, shade it is.

Deep shade or not, I'm really excited about this garden for next year...I just have to be choosy in my plant selections.  This area gets winter and some spring sun, but is mostly shade by summer.  Since we have already done some legwork here, I was able to start planting this fall. I added Christmas Roses (hellebore) and Hostas in between the hollow tree stumps, and planted Pansies in the stumps.

Look at the plants not the paint. I promise the house is going to be painted soon.

This spring I will replace the Pansies with impatiens.

But aren't they so pretty for now?

I also have some woodland poppies and money plants near my back door that I can't wait to see how they do next year.   This area will eventually become the kitchen garden, but all I have done in this area so far is weed and a little mulching.

Where the Rock Garden turns into the Bird Garden there is a singular spot that gets some morning  sun in the summer.  I planted a butterfly bush in this spot, and it seems to be doing well.  I'm excited to have some color here next summer.  Butterfly bushes can get huge, so I'm hoping that this one will get just enough sun to bloom, but still keep the size under control. 

The back side of my house is the area that I see everyday, as I come and go through the kitchen rather than my front door.  I've also started working on the sideyard, more on that soon :)

garden update - is it spring yet?

We've only had a few days of cold weather, and I'm already looking forward to spring...is that bad?  (I do love snow, but cold without snow is just not something I enjoy.)

Maybe it's because I'm really excited about spring at my house, specifically in the yard.  Last year was my first spring in my great grandmother's house.  It was pretty without me having to do anything, but it was very overgrown.  I loved it, but as my mom put it, 'it's a good thing you don't have neighbors who can see your yard.'  Ouch.  Over the past year we've done a lot of cleaning up, and I think spring is going to be fantastic this year. 

Since it's been a while since I've given you an update on my yard and my garden, I decided I would bombard you with garden posts for the next few days.  I hope you don't mind.  This is more for me than for most of you, but I know I'm pretending that you secretly want to know too.

Project # 1 Mulch
The biggest project of late was mulch.  It may not sound like a lot, but I think we unloaded 4 truckloads of mulch.  At some point I stopped counting and just kept shoveling.  The path to the pond was overgrown, and the beds around the house looked like they have been neglected for the past 20-30 years.  The dirt is hard and dry, and not suitable for much of anything without some serious TLC.

Luckily, utility crews were trimming near my parents house, and a neighbor who worked on the crew asked if they wanted mulch.  They said yes, and got over 10 dump truck loads of raw tree mulch...we're talking piles and piles of free mulch.  Accepting this kind of mulch is risky, since it can be a mix of anything and everything, but this looked good enough to use around my house.

The good thing and the bad thing about raw mulch is that it as it decomposes it kills everything underneath it.  This made it perfect for the path to the pond, and near the rock foundation of my house (the ivy is gone, and I want it to stay that way).   It took almost 2 truckloads to do the path to the pond, and the rest has gone around the house.  I protected the existing plants with older mulch, and used the raw mulch to fill in between.  I also put down cardboard in the areas that were weed or ivy prone before I added mulch, just to be safe.

You can see the darker mulch with a thin layer of raw mulch on top.

The plan here is to let the mulch decompose and have mother nature do her thing before I try and really work here. This gives me some time to focus on other areas and feel good knowing that when I'm ready to dig in here, it will be a lot easier. It already looks so much better having the beds defined and the weeds gone!

So much nicer seeing where the beds will be.

I'll be using rocks to define this edge more

While we were working on the mulch, we also took care of some drainage issues.  I'm not sure why the downspout drains were running uphill, (since my house is on top of a hill), but they were, and that was easily corrected.  My house can get a little damp, and this should go a long way towards correcting that problem.

It's always good for the water to flow away from the house.

The mulch has made a world of a difference, without violating my rule of observing for a year before I started planting anything.  

I have been busy, so look for more posts the next few days while I get caught up!

o christmas tree

I love Christmas.  I love the lights, the decorations, all of it. Since this is only my second Christmas in my new house, and last year I had just moved in, I don't have a lot in the way of decorations, and everything is either a hand me down or homemade.

What I do have are lights and a tree...and they're awesome.

My porch lights are so awesome that they stay up all year and are a feature of my Sunday night porch nights.

My tree is also fairly fantastic.  This year's tree is not quite as epic as last years 'go big or go home tree,'  but with a little help from my friends, I did cut it from the yard, and I love it.  It has a more traditional Christmas tree shape and still reaches the top of my ten foot ceilings.

The comedic value of last year's tree was enhanced by how sparsely it was decorated.  This year I've gone to the other extreme, and most branches have 3 or 4 colorful ornaments each.  Seriously.  It's wonderful.  Plus 75% of the ornaments on the tree are older than I am, which I think is pretty hysterical.  Apparently pink & blue & sparkle was what Christmas in the 70's was all about.
 
The only question I have left about my tree is whether to go all out and add vintage silver icicles to my tree...you know, the tacky, messy kind.  What do you think, too much or perfect?

Clemson Football, 9-1

I've hesitated about writing about Clemson football this year because in my 10 years as a Clemson fan there has always been a catch.

here

Clemson is sitting just outside the top 10 nationally, and while I think it's a little bit inflated, I think it's about right.  I love Clemson, but they're not a top ten team...yet.  They've made huge strides in the past few years, and they're closer, but they're not quite not there.
 
The attitude of the team is changing.  They're hungry and confident.  They haven't freaked out when they've gotten behind, or when individuals have had less than perfect games.  In those cases, the rest of the team has stepped up and made plays.  They've gotten the job done.

here

Clemson has also kept their focus when a win appeared to be in the bag.  This weekend vs Maryland I loved seeing the second string guys in the game and making plays.  To me that reflects the attitude, hunger, and the beginning of some depth to the team.

One thing I remember about the glory days of Tennessee football, the Peyton Manning era in the 90's, was that they were so deep, that most individuals only had one or two years as a starter.  The teams were so strong that you had to work hard to earn your playing time.  When you got the ball, you had to make the most of each possession to get noticed and hold your spot.  That competition made for some exciting years of football, and I think Clemson is getting there.

here

I was not Brent Venables biggest fan through the first part of the season, and I think it was mainly Chad Morris's fault.  When 'The Chad' came in as Offensive Coordinator, it was like someone waved a magic wand and put some fight in their eyes.  They made big changes, and with that came some big plays.  When Brent Venables' defense stepped on the field for the first time this year, there was no evidence of a magic wand.  There were a lot of mistakes, and the same missed tackles & blown coverage that Clemson fans see too often.  Yes Chad Morris is a badass, and he did amazing things in his first spring at Clemson, but he had a few things that Brent Venables didn't have...namely huge play makers like Sammy Watkins, Andre Ellington, Tajh Boyd and D'Andre Hopkins.

here

What I like about Brent Venables is that he didn't coddle the defense early in the season.  He called out the mistakes, and said these are the things we need to do better.  He coached the guys how to do better, and they have.  They're still not perfect, but they're better.

here

One thing I love about Dabo Sweeney is that he is hiring coaches.  His hires have great minds for developing schemes who seem to have a vested interest in teaching their players.  Even from the outside, you can tell that the coaches lay out a path to success for their players, and they coach them on how to get there.  They give the players the tools make success obtainable, and they hold the players accountable. They have changed the attitude of the players, the administration, and have won a lot of fans in the process.

here

So yeah, Clemson is not a top ten team today, but they're getting there, and might be by the end of the season.  South Carolina will be tough, but it's going to be a really good game that I'm excited to go to Clemson for.  After that emotional win or loss, maintaining focus through a bowl game will be a challenge.  That's the next step for Clemson.  To be a top 10 team, Clemson has to conquer focus, consistency, and intensity every play of the season.

In Support of Chattanooga Whiskey

Now that the presidential election is over and the dust has settled, there is still one more vote on my radar - the November 15th 21st* Hamilton County Commissioners vote on whether or not to support distillation of alcohol here in Chattanooga & the rest of Hamilton County.

Even though Tennessee is famous for it's whiskey, since prohibition, the State of Tennessee has only allowed liquor production in 3 adjoining counties, all right around the home of Jack Daniels.  In 2009 the state loosened it's regulations on what was was required for additional counties to allow liquor production, but Hamilton County was not included in the final version of the bill. [1]

So, as much as I love Chattanooga Whiskey, it's not actually made in Chattanooga, and the company wants to change that.  To try avoid the lengthy process of petitioning for a local referendum followed by a popular vote, and to speed the process of actually making Chattanooga Whiskey in Chattanooga, Chattanooga Whiskey Company is asking that Hamilton County to be added to the 2009 bill.  This requires the support of the Hamilton County Commissioners, and the issue is to be discussed at their meeting next Thursday at 9:30 at the courthouse.

It's no surprise that I'm in support of Chattanooga Whiskey making their product in Hamilton County.  I love the Chattanooga, and as I've said before, I love the product.  I've blogged about how Big River's Southern Brewer's Festival, and Wine Over Water are two of my favorite annual Chattanooga events.  Hamilton County is an alcohol friendly environment, and I personally don't see logic in allowing breweries but not distilleries.  (A keg is going to do more damage than in a bottle of whiskey.)

Chattanooga Whiskey has launched a #VoteWhiskey campaign and is asking for your support for in the form of a letter or e-mail to your county commissioner, and I encourage you to do the same.  You can find your district here, and then e-mail your county commissioner here.

I'm not asking anyone to do something that I have not done myself, and here is the letter I sent to my commissioner on October 15th:

Mr. Henry,

As a resident of your district, I would like to please ask you to support a resolution stating Hamilton County is in favor inclusion into the Tennessee bill of 2009, allowing the distillation of alcohol in Hamilton County.  It is my understanding that this issue will be brought to the Commissioner's attention at your November 15th meeting.

I'm sure many people will have words for an argument in support of this change that are more eloquent than mine, but I feel like we are a county that as a whole supports local business innovators, as well as a county that is already supportive of the alcohol industry, as evidenced by the success of our numerous breweries and winery.  Distillation is a natural extension of the business already being done in Hamilton County.

Tennessee has a reputation for distilleries across the state, and I think there are unique opportunities for Hamilton County to significantly capitalize on this fact.  As the national demographics for tourism change, I think adding distilleries to Hamilton County makes the county more attractive to a group of tourism that would traditionally bypass Chattanooga in favor of other areas of the state.

Please let me know if you are in favor of bringing distilleries back to Hamilton County.  If you are not in favor, I would be interested in meeting with you face to face to discuss why.

Sincerely,

Emily

The #VoteWhiskey campaign is also very active online, and you can show your support on facebook (here & here), or by using the #VoteWhiskey hashtag on twitter.


I hope you'll take a moment and let your county commissioner know that you support bringing the business of distilling alcohol back to Chattanooga.

*Edit 11/12/12 - Hamilton County Commissioners will hear argument from Chattanooga Whiskey on the 15th, they will vote on the 21st.

[1] http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/oct/09/chattanooga-whiskey-wars-overtake-hamilton-county/