Recycling nature landscaping

• by Judi on Apr 21, 2006

I’ve always made use of items around the yard.  When we had a tree cut down several years ago, I used one longer, large piece as a bench to put near our fire pit.  Another peice made a base for a bird bath.  I didn’t like the original pillar for the bird bath, feeling it was too thin and therefore, a hazzard with small child. 

 

I placed other peices of stumps in the flowerbeds to use as a flat surface for the houseplants (I always bring them outdoors in the summer).

This year, with our large pile of wood from the downed trees, I found two perfect pieces to use as a step to our porch.

 

The day I put the steps in, I ended up with some seriously muddy sloggers (my all-time favorite summer shoes) and I stuck 2 sticks in the ground near my steps.  A perfect place to let the mud dry and crumble off.  With a good storm, it washes right off. 

I planted sedum around the stump edges.  It’s already starting to grow and fill in.

We had so much mulch from the cedar trees that I won’t need to buy any mulch this summer.  A major plus is that it smell much better than the rich, dark mulch, and the cedar will help prevent weed growth (so I’ve heard, but am not necessarily seeing this as true).

 

Here you see one bare tree stump (too early to bring the houseplants out just yet) and another post indicating the corner of the flowerbed.  I also used some nice pieces to line the fronts of a few beds, as a border, rather than stone or typical edging.

The phlox and tulips are in full bloom, as is a dandelion.  I try not let the dandelions take over, as they have a tendancy to do, but I don’t kill them all off either.  I love to see a few pretty yellow blooms throughout the yard.  And the kids love to “make wishes” with their floating seeds.  I even see a few periwinkles in the bottom left corner. 

Last month, before I started getting the beds cleaned up from left-over fall leaves, I got a picture of a bunch of daffodils ready to bloom:

 

And then a week later, in full bloom:

 

They seemed to maintain their blooms for so long this year. 

One last picture:

 

A few years ago, we had a long-time visitor to our frog house.  A big old toad.  We enjoyed him for weeks before he moved on.  We have ladybugs, praying mantis, toads all around the yard, hummingbirds and more.. We even had a few deer in our yard last summer - a total surprise to us, since our yard is fenced and has large shrubs all around.

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