Why I Oughta...

Back in March, I decided that one of the projects that we wanted to take on this season was the creation of clean, new, swooping bed edges in our backyard.  And, in order to figure out what I needed to do - and by who - I created a simple order of operations list of the steps as I see them . Step one:  pick up the Automower boundary and guide wire that rings the perimeter of our backyard.  I started on that project recently and have made some progress.  Here, below, is about 40% of the backyard boundary wire that I've pulled up out of the grass and collected the spikes that hold it in place. This set of wire is littered with those little pigtail plugs that connect the wire in various places that it has severed over the years.  This section of the wire has been picked up and reset various times over the years, so it wasn't that hard to pull up.  There are other parts (the remaining 60%) that hasn't moved since I put it in initially back in 2017, so it is buried in the thatch

Yesterday, I shared a post talking about the concept of creating curvilinear flower beds in landscape design and how one of my initial backyard projects is to move towards a final shape with our beds.  That requires us to carve up a bunch of the current lawn and creating new beds that jut out into the grass.  But, before I can even begin to think about how to make those swoop'ing, curved beds, there is some thinking that I have to do in in order to get both ready for the days of sod removal AND what has to happen AFTER the creation of the new beds to get them ready and dressed for the season.   To arrange my thinking - and to pressure test on what I want to do - I thought I'd create an individual (for me) order of operations document that details the steps in the order I need to take in order to make this all work.  So, let's go. 1.  Remove our Automower wire.   Around the entire perimeter of our backyard, we have a low-voltage green wire buried about 3" or so from th

I went out to the yard to check in on the allium and tulip bulbs that I planted last fall and came across this nice little surprise:  a series of rows of daffodil clumps that had popped up in the yard behind one of our big Oak trees.  You can see the doubled-up Automower wire in the ground and the plastic mesh that the landscapers put down last Summer.  That means that this area was seeded, and as you can tell, it didn't take that strongly.  They'll give us a nice pop of color soon and then recede back into the ground.  I believe that this area is called out as a landscape bed eventually, so I'm not sure that we'll re-seed it this Spring, but probably just let it go as it is.  Since the Automower is wired to run in this area, it will keep the growth short and ready to be swapped out at a later date.  That plastic mesh, though.  I'm thinking that's a project to take on this Spring.  A lot of cutting and some ripping to remove it, where it hasn't been enca

That's our Husqvarna Automower back in business, but in our #NewOldBackyard.  I've written a few times about our Automower here on the blog .  And, on my linkblog/other note-taking/link-saving thing, I even chronicled how we arrived at his/her name :  Go-Go. We had Go-Go installed at Equation Boy/Man's place, so when we were moving out, I went around the perimiter of the lawn and picked up the boundary wire and stakes.  When we got to the #newoldfarmhouse, it took me a few weeks to find the time to spend in the yard putting the boundary (and guide) wires in around the edges of the yard.  Our #newoldbackyard is quite a bit bigger, so the wire installation kit that I ended up buying was the 'medium' version and as it turned out, we had *just* enough wire.  Like maybe 10 extra feet total.  And that's after deciding to not have Go-Go cut certain parts of the current lawn.    All the way in the back there's a densely shaded area that doesn't really have

I've been back at the office all this week, but for the two previous weeks, Nat and I took the kids over to visit their cousins (and my sister and brother-in-law who you know as Equation Boy/Man here on the blog).  I'll be posting some photos of the experiences we had over the next few weeks and I'll be putting up all the photos on the family blog, so if you know the url for that one, you can likely find a full recap over there soon. But, the reason for this post is to talk about my lawn.  Yeah...my lawn. I was in Europe for two weeks and I didn't once think about my lawn.  Why?  Because I had my Automower from Husqvarna at home just busily working away every night cutting the grass like a good robot should do! For full details on the #AutomowerFirst program , go over here to check out this post about getting it set up and the full details .   (Disclaimer again!  I was given this device by Husqvarna to review and if I post on social media every once in a while,

Yesterday morning, some wonderful people from Husqvarna pulled up to our home in Elmhurst in this massive and awesome truck and trailer.  Inside, was a delivery I've been anticipating for weeks:  our new Husqvarna Automower. I wrote about the #Automowerfirst program here on the blog a few weeks back where I mentioned that I was getting this robot lawn mower to use over the summer.  Disclosure here again:  Husqvarna has given me this Automower for free and if I post about my experience on the blog here and on social media, I am able to keep it.  Now...will I want to?  I'm not sure yet!  But, I'm sure hoping so.   Anyway, back to the installation.  These dudes arrived yesterday and got to work.  First thing they did was to cut my grass short which was awfully nice of them.  Then, they went ahead and began to lay down the boundary wire in the yard.  It is this green heavy gauge wire you see in the photo below.  They laid it all the way around the perimiter of the

So, guys!  I have some fun news.  As part of an outreach campaign, the fine folks from Husqvarna have selected *this guy* to test out one of their Automowers .  They're having one delivered and if I comply with some asks (posting photos on social media, etc), I'll get to keep the mower.   So, that's pretty awesome, right? The plan was for the Automower to be delivered in May and then use it all summer and have me document my experience here on the blog and on social (Twitter, Instagram).  I'm all for it!  But...I've had a little bit of an issue with *actually* getting the Automower.  Between some delays and then some scheduling confusion with the dealer in Roselle, my poor lawn (and kids!), who I have been bragging to about our soon-to-arrive lawn robot overlord, are starting to wonder if we'll ever get to see this thing in action.  I'm hoping we can get it figured out and the Automower will be in service next week! In the meantime, the fine folks at H