Archive for April, 2011

Weedy, The Aftermath

Friday, April 8th, 2011


AFTER

Who knew that $10 worth of wacky weed killing could be controversial? LOOK at that, though. Just look. Weeds? Vanquished. Those are some results.


BEFORE

Remember my burgeoning meadow? This wasn’t even the worst of it, I was a little too embarrassed to show the madness happening behind the garage. Let’s just say there was a forest of weeds (about four feet high).

There are still a few areas that have a dusting of weeds, but these little jerks are checking into the hospice. Death throes and such.

Just to keep reminding folks, my gravel driveway is gigantor. For illustrations sake, our entire house is 1,300 sqft compared to the driveway’s 4,000.

I’m not buying that salt wise what we sprayed over 4,000 sqft of gravel is commensurate with agricultural runoff or road salting in cold climates. Also, it’s totally hard to decipher in my writing sometimes, but when I say “green” in quotes? Total sarcasm. We all can agree that “green” can be overused and inappropriately thrown onto questionable stuff to give everyone the warm fuzzies.

We try to be good around here, but come on, I’m not going to boil water and pour it over our entire driveway. For small areas, yes, but that process would be a nightmare on this large of a scale. We have put plastic coverings down and found it to be less than effective and a total pain to control with the high winds. The Round Up/glyphosate chemical route still freaks me out and is extremely expensive, plus I’m pretty sure Monsanto doesn’t always have my best interests at heart.

The vinegar/salt treatment was super effective and I’m looking forward to finding the super strength vinegar stuff that you guys recommended – I didn’t realize that vinegar could get more vinegary. I am surprised how well the normal household stuff worked, it killed everything in its path, but I’d be wary of spraying the crazy industrial stuff anywhere near plants that want stay alive.

I am terrified of using a blow torch. I just know that I’d light a fence on fire or something.

Of course I don’t recommend salting areas that you actually want to plant in. That’s dumb. Or spreading tons of salt all over the place – because yes – it’s terrible. We were looking for a cheap and effective way to sterilize the dirt that had gathered on top of the weed barrier and between the gravel as well as kill the current weed growth in an area we don’t want anything to grow in. Ever.

We used one of those cheap pump sprayers we had laying around. A good mixture to spray:

• 1 gallon of white vinegar
• 1 cup of table salt
• 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap (we totally forgot to add this)

I don’t mind mixing it up and spraying on any new weeds to keep things under control until the inevitable summer die off. This was a little experiment undertaken as we move into thinking more about fixing up the landscape. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and love the low low cost.

FILED UNDER: after, before, driveway

41 Comments »

Weedy

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011

A few years back we installed almost 4,000 sqft gravel driveway with our bare hands. It was misery. Back breaking misery.

Part of the driveway installation entailed that we lay down rolls and rolls of landscaping fabric to help control the inevitable weed problem. Well, no one quite explained that weeds wouldn’t grow through the fabric, but they would totally grow on top of it. Dirt settles between the rocks and then the weeds are like, “hey guys its awesome over here – lets move in.”

Since installing the driveway, which feels like forever ago, we’ve been battling the shameful ghetto weeds about this time of year. Somehow through a mixture of the super moon, super rain storms and supernatural mystical forces bent on driving me nuts, the weeds have been particularly hardy and spiteful.

We hand pulled the bigger ones, which in some twisted irony are way easier to remove than the baby weeds. So, we tend to let these bad boys get big and then yank them. Usually the summer heat kills everything outright and we wait for the scheduled die off, but it’s been so lovely and wet out that the weeds found purchase and made themselves a little too comfortable too early in the season.

Also found some lovely artifacts hiding in the weeds caught from the wind blowing into our wide open backyard – empty cigarette boxes, trash bags, some cans, chip bags, some stuff that looked like blood – you know all the glittering detritus that Hemet bestows on us.

Weeds? I made you my bitch.

To conquer the little baby and broken weeds left over from the great weed massacre (and to deter any other punks that wanna mess with me) I gave the driveway a nice bath of salt and vinegar. Still tastes terrible though.

50 pounds of salt ($8) and a few gallons of vinegar ($3) from the local Smart & Final are my DIY and more “green” solution than grabbing some chemical weed killer from the local hardware store. Who am I kidding – have you seen the prices on that weed killer stuff? It’s OUTRAGEOUS. We need tons to cover this giant driveway, so my broke ass is going to try this salt & vinegar solution and see how it works.

BTW, after a couple days the left over weeds are looking pretty shriveled and brown; take that you bastards! Let’s see how it works out long term – I’m totally salting the earth out of vengeance, but from what I read the next few rainfalls will probably dilute it all within the next few months. Whatever, salt is cheap and weed killer is not.

FILED UNDER: DIY, driveway, landscape

62 Comments »

DEN, continued

Friday, April 1st, 2011

I mentioned that the den was oddly laid out. I swear, it totally is. It’s tiny, has three entrances, a huge built in desk and most importantly houses the precious cable and television that our lives and decor must revolve around. I watch TV unashamedly and I love it.

Check out the small walking gap between the desk and the chair. This is precise reason the sofa is always in the corner – there is physically no other place it can go. I know, it’s not ideal, but it’s all the space allows for. Suck it den.

This office half of the den is one of my least favorite parts of our home, but ironically, also the place where I spend insane amounts of time. I’m not bitter. I’m not totally seething with fury over this.

When we bought the house the first thing I wanted to do was rip out the desk. This plan was vetoed, but every time I clip that desk edge with my upper thigh I dream of taking a sledge hammer to this thing.

This stupid effing desk. This ugly bulky poorly laid out terrible crappy built in desk. I try to avoid photographing it since its dumb and ugly and I hate it – and normally its covered in paper – because yeah, bloggers lie. My desk is this clean on photograph day or like once a month for special guests.

We can’t tear it out because all the flooring would have to be replaced and frankly, I’m just not willing to dump a bunch of cash into the desks removal and the repair that goes with it (because, oh yeah, there is even more stupid effing wainscoting that would have to be dealt with and the last thing I’m paying for is to fix that hot mess).

I would like to put a door on the weird open section since its stupid. Also, I need to move the electrical outlet down inside the desk, because WHY IS IT OUT THERE ANYWAYS? Then all the ugly cables could be hidden, and not by loose papers, but by being smarter than a desk.

Does this very simplified floor plan explain what the layout dealio is? There isn’t a lot of leeway for another type of furniture layout – although I have tried and failed – so our biggest hope is to just get the right pieces and live harmoniously with the awkward space through sheer perseverance and willpower.

On a happier note, I did recently acquire this vintage Eames DCM chair. This has been on my must have list for forever and I’m ecstatic to report that it is much more comfortable than the Eames shell chair I was rocking before. My big ol’ booty is supported and lower back is enjoying the scoopyness.

I actually picked the chair up on the same trip that I found the lotus pendant. I grabbed it in a little antique store along with this vintage Winnebago toy as a gift for The Boy. He loves motor homes? I guess that’s something you can love right? He’s always trying to convince me we need to get one and is constantly showing me craigslist postings, but if we go traveling via a car I want a vehicle we can stuff furniture into. Talk to me about a box van, honey pants.

FILED UNDER: before, decorating, den

52 Comments »