Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
We’re learning about Oklahoma landscaping the hard way. Carlene reads information on the Oklahoma Gardening Facebook page and we observe and try different things and have some successes and some failures. We also have a landscaper named Armando that has been helping us with his knowledge, skills, and abilities. We let him do the big stuff and we try not to kill his hard work. Me – I try to stay out of the way as best I can because I have been known to kill the most beautiful of plants and flowers. Not on purpose, but I do have some mean skills that I am not proud to list on my skills and abilities resume. Besides, sometimes I’m not too smart, like yesterday when I was watching the professionals trying to ease that big tree out of the trailer and into a wheelbarrow to take it to the hole they just dug. I thought I was far enough back out of the way until the tree went horizontal and whacked me in the face. I’m okay, but I’m a little embarrassed.
We read something about leaving the winter weeds alone as they are useful to birds and bees and butterflies. Now that’s something that I can do with gusto. But it is time to rid the flowerbeds of weeds and plant new stuff that will make our Oklahoma homestead a beautiful sight for our great neighbors. Armando hooked us up last year and most of what was supposed to spring back did exactly that. But there were some plants we didn’t like and some that didn’t do what we thought they would do, so those are gone and replacement suggestions are now getting happy in our soil. Armando has been here for two days now and will be back tomorrow also. I rely on him and his crew to do what I used to be able to do but should really leave to the experts now that I am becoming more and more of a tired old, retired man.
I still have lots of ideas and it’s fun for me to have someone that can make my ideas reality. Last year he planted a tree in the front to celebrate our dear Mother (in-law) who we lost last fall. This year, the tree survived the winter weather and is sprouting leaves already. Armando built a stone wall around the stump and we are looking to place a plaque in it. We also had Armando plant two red bud trees on the side of the house. We have been wanting a red bud tree since we moved here, and now we have two. We got a small crepe myrtle tree to celebrate our neighbor Charlie, who we also lost recently. I love the idea of memorializing friends and family with a tree. It keeps the special people in your heart and mind every time you see it.
What we have now is not what I had imagined when we first moved into this house. I looked over the yard with a vague vision of how I wanted it to be. Carlene would share her vision and we would come up with something we both liked, and then we would proceed. We did different sections based on what was needed most and once completed, we stood back and stared at it over and over until we decided it would work or if we needed to go back to the drawing board. With each new portion, we would develop the next section until we were satisfied with how they come together. Being retired, this method keeps us busy a little bit at a time. The results are satisfying for us and we don’t have to spend a bunch of money all at once.
Our property in California was tiny. It took me 20 minutes to mow and edge the grass in the front yard and the back yard. Having a property of a half-acre is perfect for me. It’s big enough to stimulate my creativity and still small enough for me to keep up with mowing and edging. I don’t mow it in one day as my battery powered garden equipment runs out of juice about the same time as my tired old body. That works for me and my ultimate goal is to create a landscape that will allow me to maintain it as I continue to age. I still have a few sections that I haven’t even decided how I want to use it. I’ve been kicking around some ideas for a few years now but haven’t come up with anything that my wife is excited about. We have plenty of yard to stimulate our creativity so I am not in a hurry to take on that last section. When the right idea hits us, we will let the ideas fly. In the meantime, I will continue to mow the weeds.
