New House Blog: Episode LXXVI - The Hedgerow

We begin this Episode with a brief overview of our anti-wasp initiative (it doesn't have a fancy name like G.R.O.S.S.S).  We will then discuss our brand new hedgerow.  Finally, we will take you on a tour of our recently-unearthed pre-Bishopian artifacts.

Anti-wasp Initiative

We don't like having too many wasps, yellowjackets, or hornets around our New House, so we decided to take passive action against them.  We took action by hanging some traps, and then were passive as we let the traps do the work of trapping and killing the pesky pests.

Trap Number One is your basic plastic wasp trap.  The wasps are attracted by the attractant inside, they fly in, and they can't find their way back out.  After a while they die.  This trap has caught a lot of western yellowjackets.

Trap Number Two is a variation of Trap Number One. This one has an upper chamber, filled with one kind of attractant, and a lower chamber, which uses the same type of attractant as Trap Number One.  The two chambers are designed to attract different kinds of pests. So far we have caught nothing in the upper chamber, which tells me that we don't have the types of pests it is designed to attract.  The lower chamber, however, has caught a lot of western yellowjackets.

Trap Number Three is a completely different type.  It is made of blue glass.  The idea is that the pest bugs are attracted by a home-made attractant (recipes abound online), they fly in the hole in the bottom of the jar and can't find their way out again.  So far we have not caught anything with this trap. Possibly we have the wrong mixture, or possibly it's a bad location - or possibly both.  It's the best looking of the three, however.





The Hedgerow

As you recall from the previous Episode, we laid down some pavers in the front yard to create a retaining wall and border.  That project was, in fact, the first part of our hedgerow project.  The second part of our hedgerow project was the actual planting of the hedges.  We chose Petite Butterfly Sweetpea plants (Polygala Fruticosa 'Petite Butterfly) for our hedgerow because of our past experience with these plants: we have three in the succulent garden and they have thrived; they are drought-resistant when established; and we know they won't get supertall and completely block our view of the street and sidewalk - we want a low hedgerow, not a hedgewall.

The first step in planting was clearing the ground and making it somewhat level and even.

Look at that level, even ground.  The yardstick shows the scale of the project.  You can also see that we left a few poppies intact.

The second step was digging 15 holes for the 15 plants. There are no pictures of the empty holes.  Digging was hard in our clay-like dirt, except for holes #5 and #11, which were easy to dig.

Here are the 15 sweetpea plants in the garage, prior to planting.

Step three was the actual planting of our hedgerow sweetpeas.  They are spaced about two feet apart, and about 18 inches back from the brick border.

Step Four was the application of mulch.  Just look at all of that mulch in the garage.

Here you see the mulch after application. We chose red mulch because we like how the colors all work together and contrast nicely off one another.




BYA Update

This Back Yard Archaeology update showcases several pre-Bishopian and Old Ones artifacts that were uncovered during steps one and two of the hedgerow project.

This first artifact was found during step one - the smoothing and leveling of the ground.

As you can see, it is a bottle of brownish glass.  We can only guess what it once contained. It is similar in size to the bottle found in this Episode.

Possibly related to the bottle, but found several feet away and at a much deeper depth, is this aluminum can top.  It appears to be of an ancient pull-tab type.

The only marking on the can top is the word, "LUCKY," stamped into the thin metal. Could this once have been a can of Lucky Lager? Or was the can-maker named Lucky?

This coil of metal was an intriguing find. To most people it would appear to be a rusted length of metal strapping tape, but to the trained pre-Bishopian archaeological eye it appears that it might have been used as a rusted bracelet or anklet of some sort.  The pre-Bishopians seemed to be fascinated by rusted metal.

Artifact four is money.  One U.S. cent.  The date on the obverse is 1980.

There is no date on the reverse.

These next two artifacts we feel are from the Old Ones, those ancient and mysterious people who pre-date the pre-Bishopians.  The first is a seemingly-random slab of concrete, buried several inches deep in the ground.  

The second is also a seemingly-random slab of concrete, buried about a foot deep in the ground.  What were these concrete slabs originally part of?  How did they get buried so deeply?  

The Seventh Battle Of The Stump

We end this Episode with a stunning account of the Seventh Battle Of The Stump.  This stump was located at the corner of our front yard nearest the intersection of our driveway and the sidewalk.  It was in the way of our hedgerow project, and it had to come out.  

It doesn't look like much from this angle, but we couldn't see how extensive the root system was, or how tenaciously it was going to cling to the earth in a futile attempt to thwart us.  

As it turned out, there was not much underground, and there was no futile attempt to thwart us.  That is the stunning part of this Battle Of The Stump - the lack of resistance and the ease with which this battle was won.  In fact it was more of a friendly game than it was a battle. Longspade went into the ground and dug a little and the root came out very easily.  So now the record is Bishops 7, Stumps 0.


Happy Hedging to you all!
   bIsh