Rain Garden… 2015

The rain garden at the end of the driveway received some attention in the 2015 upgrades as well. We planted the rain garden in July of 2010 (see it here) and have had some attrition over the past couple of years. The plantings along the front edge (in particular) are subject to not only snowplow damage but also the ravages of Minnesota road salt. This round of new plants will probably not be the last!

New Trees… 2015

We lost two thirds of a very nice Hackberry along the driveway in a big wind storm this summer. As a part of the project upgrading the landscaping and plantings we decided to replace it and one White Pine along the border with our neighbor to the West that died last year. The first two photos below show the Hackberry laying in pieces on the driveway and the Tamrac we have decided to replace it with.

  

We placed five White Pines along the West property line in the original planting back in August 2010 (see it here). Four of the trees taken root and prospered. The tree at the top of the hill slowly withered and finally died last year. Matt found us a very nice natural tree at Gertens and placed it in the same spot.

  

Landscaping Before and After

In my Minnesota Native Prairie 2.0 posting just previous I stated that 60% of the plantings in and around the “L” Shaped House have come in “perfectly”. I think the before and after image below shows this nicely. The lower photo shows the area around the stairs leading to the front porch (in early 2010) just after planting the pagoda dogwood trees, the endless summer hydrangea, and various grasses (see it here). The top photo shows this same area earlier this summer (2015) at the beginning of the fourth growing season.

Amazing…

Refreshing a Meadow…

So… Here is Matt Wolfe’s plan for the Minnesota Native Prairie 2.0 (click on image to see it huge). The highlighted areas are being replenished with 1500 new plantings of 19 different plants and grasses, two new trees are being added, and the entire grounds of the “L” Shaped House are being top dressed with pine bark mulch. We are being especially mindful to include plants in the meadow that will attract both Hummingbirds and Monarch butterflies.

We are also re-configuring the irrigation system adding two new watering heads in the highlighted areas while removing heads in the lower right hand corner that are no longer needed. It is especially cool to see that this area has grown in so well that we will no longer have to water the plants.

 

The project starts with the pine bark mulch top dressing. We engaged Justin Crandall Midwest Groundcover to blow-in the mulch. He and his dad showed up with his amazing truck and spent two days blowing  90 cubic yards of their pine bark mulch. The whole neighborhood smelled like a pine forest for two days after they finished!

Matt and his crew form Lee’s Landscape came in right behind the mulching operation to start installing the new plants in the meadow.  Some of the “flats” containing rooted plants can be seen sitting on the freshly installed mulch in the photos below.

Planting the 1500 rooted plugs in the three areas across the bottom of the front yard took two days. The two photos below show the meadow near the end of their efforts. Once they finished planting plugs an application of corn meal gluten is applied covered with a sprinkling of additional pine bark mulch. Now we all sit back and hope for a nice blanket of snow to cover everything for the winter.

Minnesota Native Prairie 2.0

After completing construction and moving into the “L” Shaped House in late 2010 we turned our attention to the yard and landscaping. From the very beginning of this big adventure we have had a master plan for the landscaping and plants (see it here). An integral part of this plan is the native Minnesota meadow extending to the street in the front yard.

 

 

Now that we have seen the results of three complete growing seasons we invited Matt Wolfe back to assess the progress toward our goal of having a native prairie meadow yard and engaged him to supervise the planning and planting of  “Native Prairie Meadow 2.0” at the “L” Shaped House.

I have taken to describing the results of our original planting efforts as having been… “largely Successful”

• 60% of the plants came in perfectly
• 20% of the plants grew “reasonably” well
• 20% of the plants did not make it

Unfortunately three big sections of grasses planted in the meadow region of the front yard fall into the 20% of plantings that did not make it at all. This has resulted in an especially obvious bare area right out front for the last year. Matt is convinced that a combination of more shade than expected in the front yard combined with inadequate  irrigation coverage is at the “root” of our troubles. Deb and Helen think that Phil made friends with the geese instead of chasing them away and that they ate all the sweet grass together.  No matter the cause… we are forging ahead with Minnesota Meadow 2.0!

Autumn Images…

As Autumn arrives we are enjoying the end of the first full cycle of plant growth in and around The “L” Shaped House. In a effort to enhance this beautiful fall season Deb engaged the services of our friend Elizabeth Fischer who has a new business (Garden Junkie Designs) specializing in outdoor seasonal decorations.

The two photos below show Elizabeth and her husband Andrew as they work to transform our front porch with a celebration of fall colors. Their work is really unique and beautiful.

   

The front of The “L” Shaped House with our tall grass landscaping is shown below.

The last two photos show the back yard of the house. The first shows the “no-mow” turf and landscape gardens from a spot under our neighbor’s maple tree in the front yard.

The last photo shows the view of the back yard from a spot just beyond the garage. The “no-mow” turf has come a long way this first growing season. These photos were taken shortly after mowing it for the very first time (huh…?). Matt Wolfe recommended mowing the back yard late this fall to promote “fuller” growth next spring and to discourage rodent (moles and voles) burrowing this winter.

We’re absolutely loving the “woodsy” feel of the backyard landscaping…

Meadow in the Making (Day 7)

By mid morning Schmitty and his crew had finished up all of the landscaping work at the “L” Shaped House and the planting beds were ready for mulch. Mulching by Mark showed up about 10:30 and got right to work installing the pine bark mulch with their amazing mulch blowing system. The small plants in much of the front yard made this method of application the best choice. The photo below shows the crew as they worked their way across the top section of the front yard.

The video below shows the mulch blowing operation in detail.

Meadow in the Making (Day 6)

Schmitty and his crew are working on the dry creek bed that runs between our property and the Wright’s on the East side of the “L” Shaped House. Matt Wolf’s plan calls for nine weathered limestone boulders randomly placed throughout the creek bed. The buff limestone bed begins at the driveway and “meanders”  to the top edge of the rain garden. We plan to encourage the moss currently growing in this corner of the property to climb onto the rock bed and boulders.

The extended video below captures the JLM crew as they work to place one of the last boulders near the top of the dry creek bed.

Buckthorn Eradication

Before and after photos showing the buckthorn eradication from our breezeway porch. This view shows just how thick the buckthorn had become in this area.

Meadow in the Making (Day 5)

Schmitty and his crew are busy placing plants throughout the new meadow at the “L” Shaped House. The first two photos below show the front corner of the driveway during and after their efforts around noon today. They drilled holes all over the front lawn using a modified ice auger and place the plantings by hand.

The next two photos show the rest of Schmitty’s crew working in the opposite corner of the front yard planting Blue Gamma grass using Matt’s home made plant spacing tool. The Blue Gramma, Bottle Brush, and Sweet grass arrived in “flats” as very small plantings. The individual plants are just barely visible in the foreground. Matt assures us they will take over the entire area nicely.

The last photo shows the area between the houses as the JLM guys prepare to start planting the Quaking Aspen, Hazelnut, Witch Hazel, and Service Berry plants. This is going to be a wonderful area once we get everything established.

Meadow in the Making (Day 4)

Schmitty and the JLM Landscaping spent the day (Friday) sculpting the new earthen berms and placing boulders in the front yard. Matt and I decided to use five large weathered limestone pieces as our “sitting rocks”  in the meadow. The photo below shows the crew working to shape and smooth the black dirt and sand “top dressing” spread across the entire front yard.

The next photo shows Sarah from Gerten’s working to unload plantings from the truck load of landscaping materials delivered to the “L” Shaped House.

The last photo shows the JLM crew stockpiling plant materials in a nice shady spot along the driveway.

Meadow in the Making (Day 3)

Schmitty and his crew finished up the buckthorn eradication along the property line between our home and the Wright’s next door late yesterday afternoon. There were an amazing number of buckthorn plants growing there … as a matter of fact there was almost nothing but buckthorn in there.

The result is shocking!

The photo below shows the Cat skid-steer taking a well deserved rest after a whole day prying tree roots from the hard clay soil. The hackberry, blue spruce, and maple trees are all breathing a huge sigh of relief  now that the buckthorn is gone.

Amazingly … this little chipper turned all of the big piles into just one truck load of wood chips.

Good riddance!

Meadow in the Making (Day 2)

Day two of the meadow-in-the-Making operations at the “L” Shaped House finds Schmitty and his JLM crew hard at work preparing the front lawn and tackling the buckthorn out back. The first photo below shows the erosion control “wattle” material ready to be installed along the bottom of the front yard.

Next … The tiller breaking up the top couple of inches of soil in the area where the meadow will be planted.

The last two photos show the area between our home and the neighbor’s as Schmitty and his crew work to remove as much of the Buckthorn as possible. The area is absolutely overgrown with this invasive species and removing it is a really big task. While most of the trees are just a few inches in diameter there are more than a dozen trees bigger than 6”.

The Cat skid-steer is the weapon of choice in this battle. Here Schmitty is preparing to ram the forks under one of the bigger plants as he “pries” it out of the ground.

A video of the action…

Schmitty on the skid-steer

A Meadow in the Making…

We are creating a meadow lawn at the “L” Shaped House. Matt Wolfe (JLM) has developed a detailed plan for the meadow which will occupy the bottom half of the front yard. The plan includes a variety of grasses and plantings as well as some boulders for sitting. The city of Minnetonka encourages the creation of meadows and publishes a series of guidelines that include procedures,  plant types, and a requirement for signage.

The image below shows the details of Matt Wolfe’s plan for the meadow lawn on  top of the master plan for landscaping at the “L” Shaped House (click on the image to make it big). Included on the plan document are all of the plant types and the placement of boulders.

The next photo shows the meadow lawn area in the front yard. The city guidelines require that we kill off the existing lawn before creating the meadow. We carefully sprayed the area with herbicide two weeks ago and have effectively killed off everything growing there. Matt’s crew is scheduled to start working on the meadow in two weeks.

In the mean time Matt and I have been shopping for boulders at Gerten’s and Hedberg Landscaping.  The four photos below show five of the boulders we’ve purchased so far…

  

Where to begin…

So after a nearly 10 month absence I’ve decided to re-start my blogging efforts related to The “L” Shaped House.  Since we left off with our friend Janey Westin carving house numbers in the address rock at the end of the driveway…it seems only appropriate to begin anew with her fabulous work on the Rune stone recently installed in the front yard. Here we have our friend Beau standing beside the stone in a photo taken just a couple of weeks ago.

A photo of Janey and Charlie in their Edina workshop as we loaded the finished Rune stone into my trailer for the trip to the “L” Shaped House.

And finally…Paul and Nate working to install the stone on it’s concrete base nearby the pine trees at the bottom of the front yard.