Liberated Gardener

The Leaf-Mobile Arrives

I've been getting a lot of compliments on my truck's paint job when I pull up at gas stations these days. One friend christened my truck "The Leaf-Mobile."

 

This is my 1990 Chevy S-10 pickup truck. I bought it ten years ago when it had only 24,000 miles despite being 10 years old then. The owner had the use of company car and only used the truck on weekends to haul fertilizer. He apologized for not having time to clean the truck before he showed it to me (I was the first to respond to his ad.) But when he lifted the hood I swear my first thought was that the engine was clean enough to eat off of. The only reason he was selling it was the gout in his left leg made using the clutch a pain--so he had already bought himself an automatic S-10. 

My mechanic gave it a clean bill of health so I bought it, figuring it would last me 20 years, since I only put about 4000 miles a year on a work truck (I only work in neighborhoods contiguous with mine.)

Within a year the grey paint began to flake and peel. And after ten years there were rust spots and a very blemished complexion. When a body shop offered coupons for 50% off on a paint job I had them sand out the rust and paint it John Deere green. They gave me a $600 job for $300. 

Then despite Chris' doubts I bought some dark green automotive spray paint, clipped some leaves from the garden and used the leaves as stencils and voila. 

Below, the Leaf-Mobile delivers a Leaf-Stabile.

 

Lawn Story

For most of my life I hated mowing the lawn. But about 20 years ago, I learned two things. First, I discovered that the noise of the mower drowned out more than other sounds; it dampened my sense of accomplishment and my ability to think.

            I came to this realization during my time at NCSU working as a landscaper’s apprentice in Raleigh for Bob Mulder--the first organic landscaper in the Triangle area. Bob offered me a set of red and black hearing protectors—they looked like earmuffs—that squelched 20 decibels of the mower’s staccato racket. The first time I wore them I felt like I’d passed through Alice’s looking glass into a calm, quiet world where the mower was humming like a refrigerator rather than roaring like a motorcycle with a busted muffler. At the end of each job, my sense of satisfaction was greater and I had had some “quiet time” to think about organizing my other tasks or, better yet, planning my weekend.

  
 

            The second thing I learned was that if I employed the same kind of annual maintenance to my mower that I gave to my truck I would have a machine that started quickly and reliably. No more starter-rope pulling marathons for me. When the weather’s nice and I feel like saving money, I pull out the mower, drain the oil, soak and clean the air filter, clean or replace the spark plug, and a cranky, crotchety mower becomes lively and eager once again. But on those uh, rare occasions when fair weather and penny-pinching don’t line up, I let folks at a local mower repair shop do a tune-up, plus the blade is sharpened and balanced (a blade that’s sharpened, but unbalanced will wear out the piston—a warning to you do-it-yourselfers.

            These habits have served me well in the past, but have become less important recently. Some years back, I bought a cordless electric mower. The only sound it makes is the quiet whirring of the cutting blade. There’s also no maintenance to be done: no oil, no gas, no filter, no spark plug, no pull rope. All you need is a place to plug it in overnight. I love this mower.

            I would only recommend one of these if you have a small lawn that can be mown in 30 or 40 minutes. The charges on the battery only lasts so long.

            Ok, enough about tools. Here are some mowing practices to help you keep a lawn worth walking barefoot on. Make a habit of mowing weekly. Waiting longer and cutting off more than a third of the grass blade shortens the life span of the grass. Change your mowing pattern to keep from ingraining a pattern on the grass: mow east and west one week, north and south another week, and on the diagonal the next week.

            Bag your grass clippings less often. Leaving the decomposing clippings on your lawn reduces the amount of fertilizer and water needed by about a third. If your mower leaves a few clumps, mowing them a second time is still less work than bagging. Mow fescue at about 3 inches high—when you touch your finger to the ground the grass should be high enough to cover your fingers. Longer shoots, mean deeper roots. With higher grass you’ll have fewer weeds and need less water. I put my mower on its highest setting and leave it there.

One last maintenance tip--I also keep a bag of grass seed available year round for our fescue lawn. September is the best time for reseeding as it gives the new grass all fall, winter and spring to grow roots before facing the summer heat. But anytime that I find I only have a few minutes to get something done, I can stroll the lawn and throw some seed on any bare spots so I can have grass coming up there rather than weeds.

            Two helpful books: “The Natural Lawn” by Brooklyn Botanic Garden and “The Chemical-Free Lawn” by Warren Schultz.

 

A Slate Roof Gets Grounded

Slate roofs can last about 100 years. But even so, a lot of people would rather tear them off and replace them with asphalt shingles that only last about 20 years. Why? Because they don't want to pay for the occasional repair on their slate roof. They aren't saving money and to my eye their house looks the worse for it--but hey, to each his own. 

Adding environmental insult to aesthetic injury, most of these slate shingles end up in municipal landfill. A truly sad end when you think of the labor that went into quarrying the slate, shaping it and installing it. 

With an eye for beautifying gardens and a feel for what it took to shape these stones, I've salvaged a fair share of intact slate roofing shingles and have put them to use in various gardens for edging beds, like this one below, which I installed about 10 years ago. 

 

They are sturdy and handsome, natural and salvaged. A perfect look for a liberated garden. 

Here's a larger view of the entire garden bed, originally created about 20 years earlier for a single Japanese maple tree. 

(I was brought in on this job because the maple was suffering from singed leaves and dying limbs. If you want to learn what the Liberated Gardener did to remedy this situation, check my blog tomorrow for that story. )
 

 

Installing the roofing slate as an edging is a very low tech activity. 

I used a square-point shovel (a spade or edger would do also) to create a vertical slit right slap next to the original brick edging--or concrete walkway--about 6-8" deep. The slates are only about a 1/4" thick, so I then lined up a slate on its side in line with the slit and pushed it down a bit into the opening by hand. Then I used a mallet (a dead-blow hammer would work too) to tap it in as deep as necessary so the exposed height would be about 4 inches or so; high enough to hold a 2-3" layer of mulch in place. 

I then set the next slate into the slit, while butting its end up against the first slate. Tapped it down till the top was level with the first one and then installed the third one. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Generally roofing slates are about 10" across. So if you can create a slit at least 6" deep with the shovel, you'll be okay. 

If the slates are wider than you can push down into the soil, decide how much you want to remove, stack a few of them, mark the top one and cut through them all with an old circular saw and a new masonry blade. 

I say an old circular saw, because the dust from cutting stone will get into the saw and eat the bearings until it quits working. But once you've bought a masonry blade (better yet a longer-lasting industrial diamond blade for about $20) and you see how easy it is to cut stone--and brick--you'll probably want to dedicate that saw to these kind of projects. (And set up a fan to blow the dust away from you.)

And once you've installed your lovely, salvaged edging--so much prettier and longer lasting than any of the plastic crap made from fossil fuels, and cheaper than steel edging, which rusts and looks neglected--you can plant some candytuft or oregano to gently grow over the edging for that relaxed cottage garden look.

And then relax yourself in a shady chair with a view of your permanent slate-edged bed. 

 

A Tinbrella for the Rain

All this rain calls for a good Tinbrella, for those folks who REALLY like the sound of rain on a tin roof. Actually you're looking at one of my sculptures, this one is called Rain Tin Tin. 

But it does work--keeps you dry and sounds good too. Price available on request. 

A friend told me that if I put rain gutters on each side, it would be the world's first hand-held mobile home.