I wish I could offer you a before and after picture of our tree, but in what can only be described as a miracle, my husband tackled the job of pruning our branches before I had the chance to nag him about it take photos. Being eager to do work around the house is such a rarity that I actually inspected the trunk of the tree to see if it had a Virgin Mary image growing on it. It turns my husband’s inspiration to get out and tidy up our branches was not from the divine entities above, but from the people at Fiskars who designed our new Pruning Stik Telescoping Tree Pruner.
Landscaping
Fall is easily my favourite season – the air is crisp but comfortable, unfortunate armpit-baring tank tops get replaced with cozy armpit-hiding cardigans, and there’s glorious raking to be done. Raking? Really? Yes, really! We all have our quirks and raking is mine; raking leaves is easily one of my favourite household chores. It’s relaxing, productive, outdoorsy, and like the McRib or buying DVDs from “Disney’s vault”, available for only a limited time. There’s choice too! You can use a classic style rake or go all out on the latest in rake technologies. What’s not love? Back aches. The fact that a new pile of leaves can blow in at any moment. That it cuts into valuable pumpkin pie eating time. Well, if that’s your attitude, comedienne Amy Sedaris provides something else you can do with your rake – but it may not be suitable around children. Or your parents. Or anyone you have to look in the eye later. [click to continue…]
Normally I would write an article and then ask you to watch the video at the end. However, in this case I think you need to see it before you read it. Before you watch the video I just want to throw in my two cents. I think it’s a fantastic idea, beautifying city streets and islands. I know in my home state and probably all others, highway crews cut large medians of grass which could be cleaned up and beautified. I know it may result in some job loss or job restructuring but it seems it would look nicer and draw communities together if they could organize and beautify their public roadways and walkways. [click to continue…]
Astroturf 2.0. Image Source: Synlawn.ca
When my husband and I were recently shopping around for a house, we came across a beautiful old place that had a great cottage feel. The home had a lot of upgrades but still kept a lot of its original charm – and I was smitten. And then the real estate agent showing the place said something I would have never expected to hear: The backyard lawn was actually Astroturf, or more generically, artificial grass. [click to continue…]
Illustration: ThisOldHouse.com
Planting trees has always been a bane on my existence. I have a hard enough time remembering to feed my kid and he cries when he’s hungry. The needs of a tree are so much harder to discern. However, necessity and the fact that I got tired of throwing money in the ground have caused me to be a better arbornoer harbinger arbitrator, uh, tree-grower-person. I have planted eight trees in my life with only three surviving the year, and these are things that typically grow on their own. Although that kind of success rate would land me the three spot on the Twins, or really any team this year, in the planting world I think they’d call it genocide, or maybe “arboricide.” Luckily, the guys at This Old House have an excellent article outlining eight really simple steps, with great pointers to avoid leafy green carnage. [click to continue…]
