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Backyardnotes

~ All things botanical in photos and words—in my West Seattle garden and elsewhere; seeing and creating art and assorted musings.

Backyardnotes

Category Archives: Inspriation

OUT WITH THE OLD POND, IN WITH THE NEW WATER FEATURE

30 Tuesday Jun 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Birding, Birds, Ephemera, Fun in the Garden, Garden Wildlife, Inspriation, Nature

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Tags

bamboo standpipe, Little Giant Disappearing water feature basin, pond, pond replacement, Water feature

Original pond design, circa 1998

Original pond design, circa 1998

IT WAS TIME FOR THE OLD WATER FEATURE, A POND, TO GO. And in its place, a simpler, easy to care for one.

View from the house

View from the house

In the fall of 2013 (!) my grandson and I removed the old pond, all of its rocks, the bog, and pond liner. It was too much of a chore to keep clean under a couple of conifers and time for a new look. It took me a year and a half to figure out just how I wanted it to look and how to achieve that look.

The raccoon family visits

A raccoon family visits

The pond was attractive to our small, urban, wildlife population. I knew that I wanted running water to attract small songbirds; I liked hearing the sound of running water; I wanted to use a large rock from the previous incarnation and the bamboo standpipe as well. I missed the birds most of all.

A Western Tanager makes a rare visit

A Western Tanager makes a rare visit

A Cooper's Hawk makes a visit.

A Cooper’s Hawk rests a while—watch out little birds!

What I wanted was a pond less water feature that was easy to deal with. In March I got serious about it and in my research found the Little Giant Disappearing Water Feature Basin. It was the answer to my needs!

Placement of the basin

Placement of the basin

The Jumping Jack in action with the groundskeeper and grandson

The Jumping Jack in action with the groundskeeper and grandson

 

 

 

 

 

 

We set the empty basin in the old pond excavation for location and elevation. We then brought in 3.5 cubic yards of topsoil to fill the old hole. We rented a ‘Jumping Jack’ compacter to compact the first layer of soil and then set the basin in place and filled around it.

Preliminary layout

Preliminary layout with weed barrier fabric laid down.

 

Once the backfilling and compacting was completed we began laying out the rock saved from the old pond structure.

This is how the reservoir is set up; a central cone/support  protrudes about two inches above the perforated plates

This is how the reservoir is set up; a central cone/support protrudes about two inches above the perforated plates. The Little Giant will carry a load of up to 2,000 pounds, so my rock was back at center stage! Yes!

Downstream, dry streamed.

Downstream, dry streamed.

How do you make a not natural feature appear natural? That is tricky, so it took some time to get it right. I spent three days arranging the rocks. We ended up having to buy more small rock to complete the project. Had I known what I was going to do 18 months ago, I would have stockpiled all of the small rock instead of throwing it into the dry stream bed ‘downstream’.

Almost complete!

Almost complete!

By Saturday, I had the pump/fountain running and within 15 minutes of my walking away, the chickadees were there drinking and bathing! And then more small songbirds took advantage too. It has been so dry here this year that this is a real happy setup for the small birds.

'New' path to the bird oasis

‘New’ path to the bird oasis

Yesterday we finished up by resetting the stepping stones on the path to the pond, added the remaining topsoil and river rock. My goal was to have this project completed by the end of the month and we did it!

completed WF_2

'New' path to the bird oasis

‘New’ path to the bird oasis

All that is left now is to complete the planting and a little fine tuning. And, if at some point in the future I tire of the rock, I can easily replace it with a granite millstone, a stone basin or whatever strikes my fancy. An easy fix!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WINNING SUBMISSION AND NEW DIRECTIONS

17 Wednesday Jun 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Art, Creative, Inspriation

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Tags

Abstract painting, Art, Collage, Diana Sanford workshop, Empty seed packets, Garden poster contest, new work, West Seattle Garden Tour

The winning submission for the 2015 West Seattle Garden Tour!

The winning submission for the 2015 West Seattle Garden Tour!

I SUBMITTED THIS 18″ x 24″ COLLAGE WORK for the 2015 West Seattle Garden Tour poster in March and it was the winning selection! (And I received compensation!)

Some of the seed packet text shows through.

Some of the seed packet text shows through with this whimsical clematis blossom.

I have been saving empty seed packets for a few years thinking I would find a way to work them into a collage. I opened out, flattened and painted the seed packets with acrylic paint in flower and foliage colors then cut out the petal, leaf, root, bulb, and branch shapes to compose the picture above. It was a fun piece to create.

AnythingGrows_leaves

The framed art will be auctioned/raffled during the garden tour as part of the tour’s fundraising effort for local (West Seattle) charities.

It has been a good long while since my last post. Painting workshop, trip to Pinnacles National Park to see California Condors (which we saw quite close in flight) and painting for the past six weeks to get ready for 2 shows.

THE WORKSHOP: The first four days of April were spent at a pastel workshop lead by Diana Sanford. The focus was intuitive painting and abstract expression and was a blast! We spent seven to eight hours painting each day and I came away with stacks of paper that are/were foundations for new work. We painted with Sumi ink, gesso, and layered pastel over the top; we used unconventional ‘tools’ to paint with; we painted quick studies, long studies and ‘duets’ in which we painted with a partner. We even painted a group collaboration that was outstanding! I painted without expectation or intent and it was energizing and freeing.

Sumi ink, walnut ink, charcoal, gesso

Sumi ink, walnut ink, charcoal, gesso

Sumi ink, gesso, pastel

Sumi ink, gesso, pastel (finished post workshop)

Sumi ink, gesso, pastel

Sumi ink, gesso, pastel (finished post workshop)

 

The finished group collaboration

The finished group collaboration

So, now my work is heading off in new directions and will be featured in a group show next month. Exciting! More announcements next week…

 

 

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A SCHOOL BUS & RADISH TOPS

20 Friday Jun 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Cooking & Eating, Creative, EAT!, Flowers, Harvest, Inspriation, Vegetable garden

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Tags

Asparagus, pesto, Radish tops, Radishes, school bus, school bus planter, Sockeye salmon, toy school bus

LindaBus_4

A FRIEND OF OURS IS RETIRING FROM SCHOOL BUS DRIVING TODAY. I wanted to find a little toy school bus at Goodwill. What the groundskeeper found instead was a BIG school bus toy with an open top that I immediately saw as a planter! After a few holes were drilled in the bottom for drainage, I added window screen mesh on the inside to keep the soil in. I added a few homemade stickers and plants and here it is. I think it’s adorable and I think our friend will too.

LindaBus_5

 

Our friend is a dog lover who fosters dogs.

Our friend is a dog lover who fosters dogs.

ABOUT THE RADISH TOPS. I had intended to make this post yesterday after a prolonged hiatus of from the blog (too many other projects to deal with), but that bus planter was just too darn cute to leave out.

I picked some very nice radishes on Wednesday and the tops were too nice to toss into the compost. They had a slightly tart flavor and I thought they would make a nice ‘pesto’ type sauce.

grwingradishes

I combined the radish tops with some aspargus spears and four or five garlic scapes in the food processor.

Garlic scapes and aparagus

Garlic scapes and aparagus

Ready to purée

Ready to purée

radishpesto_1

Add some olive oil and a little salt, pepper, and purée until smooth. Taste for seasoning. At this point it can be put up in small jars, topped with a little  olive oil and frozen for later use or top with oil and store in the fridge for a couple of weeks. Cheese can be added just before using if you plan to use it on pasta in a more traditional pesto style.

I managed to fill a pint jar

I managed to fill a pint jar

We cooked a piece of Alaska sockeye salmon on the grill adding some of the sauce near the end of cooking.

Sockeye salmon with radish top pesto

Sockeye salmon with radish top pesto

Radish greens

Radish greens

Using radish tops was new for me. I knew they were not much different from most mustard greens other than the leaves being a bit fuzzy, so I thought: Why Not? It’s nice to figure out ways to get the maximum out of what I harvest from the garden. Maybe carrot tops will be next! How do you maximize your harvest?

 

 

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REDWOOD SEATING IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

02 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Ephemera, Fun in the Garden, Inspriation, West Seattle garden

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Tags

garden bench, Garden seating, garden views, redwood seating

Redwoodseating_1OUR NEIGHBORS CUT DOWN FOUR OLD TREES, one red cedar, one redwood and two deodora cedars two days before Christmas. It was tough to see them go. One deodora was growing up against the gutter, so there was little other remedy. All of the trees were 50+ years old. I asked for three of the cut rounds; the two redwood pieces now have a second life as seating in the vegetable garden. The original ship’s plank bench that we set up (found on the property when we moved here) on a couple of terra cotta flue tiles, finally rotted away several years ago and we never really found a satisfactory replacement that seemed to fit. I laid down a level, crushed rock base for the rounds to sit on so they won’t come into contact with wet earth when we have long periods of rain (like our record breaking 9 inches in March this year). I removed the excess rock, added some soil and transplanted some creepng thyme around the base of the seats.

A long view

A view through the vegetable garden

A view through the vegetable garden

The combination laurel and horrible holly (who in their right mind would really plant this?) hedge provide a windbreak from the north wind and the pine branches overhead give a little shade from late afternoon sun. This is a pleasant, sheltered spot to sit and view the rest of the garden. Read a book. Take a rest and contemplate. Do some reading. Listen to bushtits and nuthatches in pine branches overhead. Inhale the sweet perfume of honeysuckle that has woven itself into the horrible holly. Have a drink and watch the sunset color develop. These redwood rounds are the perfect solution–they look right, they’re the right height for sitting, and they will last for a very long time.

Time to go and contemplate some garden planning.

 

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FIVE PIECE PAINTING PROJECT–UPDATE

25 Tuesday Feb 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Art, Inspriation

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

collaborative painting, Laden table, Laden table painting

LadenTable_2THIS IS ONE OF THE THREE ‘PAINTINGS’ in progress for the multi-canvas/painter project in progress. I think it will be fabulous when all five canvases are complete. It already reads as one, even with different painting styles.

 

 

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