Alright... Yesterday, or the day befor I guess by the standards of my tv's clock, I was out looking at my front lawn and I went crazzy.

Within five hours I got tierd and had ripped up almost a third of it!

My mom came out of the house right when I took the picture.
One of the crazziest experiences of my life. It seems so foren to be working towards killing your lawn. Their were so many grub it was discusting but every time I brought a load of sod across the street into the bush half there population in robins were pecking at them! Whords of them would fly in.
Grass is so compleatly over rated, I'd take a sea of clover any day(I've said that so many times)!
Anyways I'm going to take progressive photographs of the yard as I go along cause I'm thinking of turning it into a japanese style garden and I have it in my head that it already is there and as I take the pictures I can calculate the future of it or at least the next step . Maby I'm just crazzy?
Their's a japanese maple under that birch and I think I'm going to train both of them with clipping techniques. The trunks on the birch are useless on the tree as it got broken in an ice storm a few years back and the new shoots are from lower on the trunk. I'll use them for something ! Any one have any ideas? I'm thinking I'll put a purple leaf beach hedge along the front and keep it short just so when your in the garden it keeps your attention inside and out side of it you can still see in.
Short of a few rock islands as a path way I can't think of anything else yet. That juniper to the right I'm thinking of taking it out to use for bonsai and I don't know what's going to happen to htose two roses on the sides of the bay window . They haven't been trimed for years, still have some hips on them from last year. Any one have any experience or good sites about japanese gardening? I think the hardest task will be blending the garden into the side of the house, that's why I posted these two picks insted of other views.
Well I'll leave it to you guys for now !
I'm going to go get some trees tomorrow.
Josh.

* * * *

The answers will come when needed. Otherwise, I'm guesing time will make me feel silly.

I use a photo program to clone plants, trees, etc. from other photos onto a photo of my yard that I am working on. Then I know exactly what it's going to look like when I get done. I love to go out and take a photo of a blank area that needs some landscaping, then do the whole project on the computer first. It gets me more inspired when I can see what my work is going to look like when I'm done, and you can rearrange everything until it looks right, so the finished product will be perfect! If you want a hedge somewhere, a rock pathway, a row of trees...just zap it on with a computer and you can see what it's gonna look like.

* * * *



Buckle up! It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car!

While I was working in the flower beds today I found a lot of grubs. I thought about what you had said about the birds, so I got an empty plant container and started throwing the grubs into it. On my way into the house I dumped it in my bird garden. They went wild!!!

* * * *



Buckle up! It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car!

An Update!
End of day two which was monday.

I got all the bricks lined up and the clover seed in(don't know anything about clover breading) I also put a row of some what decaying wood to suport the earth I levled out on the left. I don't know what I was thinking at that point. Do you think the fungus as in not the mushroom kind(at least yet) will be a hasard to my garden? Their was liquidy goo fungus growing on some of them but I scraped it off. Is their some organic/non harmfull product I should spray the logs with as the point of this was to avoid pesticides weed killer and fertilizer? I planted alot of local moss I collected in the cracks and anywhere I could fit it on the logs so that should take it over sooner or later. The moss here seems to adapt to the sun as long as it stays wet but if it doesn't cover the logs it will still have plenty of space to look nice on them .
I would put the pic I took but it was right when I finished placing them and does it no justice!
I'm trying to think of a fern like plant or something that will grow over the logs but not cover them so that the moss will be happier. It needs to handle full sun to part shade for the last 3-4h of light and be hardy up to zone 2b lets say. It's in a place were it might even get killed from to much snow piled on it from the neighbours shovling their drive way so something that dies back and/or should be dug up in winter anyways.
For anyone interested here's where I've gotten so far turning one of those blue star junipers into a bonsai. I'd say I've gotten half way through the prunning(just need to thin out all the branches now so it doesn't look like a bush) and then I need to start getting it in a smaller pot.
The pot is cut off in this pic

I'll try to get a better pic of the log thing on here soon so that you can understand what the plant needs to do.
Thanks for looking

* * * *

The answers will come when needed. Otherwise, I'm guesing time will make me feel silly.

I forgot to mention...I have trailing soapwort growing in an old rotting half hallow log with moss & it is doing great & looks really neat.

* * * *


z5b

Thanks for all of the bonsai info apples...I think I am going to actually give it a try:) You can talk bonsai to me anytime...I am really interested in this type of gardening. I have a very small yard...we just moved into town from the country this past winter, so I have lost the ability to really add trees to my landscaping. I figure with bonsai, I could still enjoy growing trees...just little versions of them:)

* * * *


z5b