The front lawn has now been mowed this year twice. The second time, March 29, was just a touch-up around the big tree where the remaining crab grass grows quickly. The first time, earlier in March, my 5 year old Craftsman lawn mower died after finishing the front and just as I was starting to work on the back yard. It had been "stalling out" (weird for an electric mower) more and more and finally wouldn't spin up at all. I got a new Earthwise 20 inch electric lawn mower with metal deck, only available as a special order at Home Depot (also available through other stores). This is much smoother running than the last Craftsman mower, though possibly made in the same Chinese factory, they're just finally making nice mowers now (but strangely requiring special order). The last Craftsman mower was the most noisy and buzzy mower I've ever had. I had 3 Craftsman electric mowers before the previous one (going back to 1986 or so) that were quite smooth, and were made in Canada instead of China. Oh, wait, the first one was actually Black and Decker, but it seemed very similar to the second one, which was a Craftsman (and entirely unlike the 3rd buzzy one). I haven't owned a gas mower since about 1986 and I hate them. I also once bought a plastic chassis electric mower and decided it was more like a toy but my mother liked it.
Palmie, the little palm tree which grew large leaves but never seemed to get a secure rooting, wobbled all the time and finally fell to a 45 degree angle, probably due to poor planting and location (it bore full brunt of sprinkler but didn't drain well), was removed a few weeks ago by me and my friend. I was surprised she was finally resolved to remove it (she had wanted to save it in one way or another which seemed impossible). It sat on the lawn for almost two weeks, and then just disappeared. Somebody must have taken it…but for what? Anyway, like all the chairs and bed that got picked up by strangers rather than being collected by Bulk Waste Services, I'm glad that somebody took it, it seems more likely it won't be simply wasted. But are they going to plant it or turn into some kind of decoration? I also thought of them eating it, heart of palm stew. My friend did not want to think about that at all.
But what she has gotten me thinking about is another step in landscaping: the bird bath. Here's an inspiring article about how bird baths should be designed (and/or made). So they should basically have as much shallow area as possible. This got me thinking about the most functional bird bath designs. What you really need is a large shallow area surrounding or on the side of a slightly deeper well. As the water dries up it recedes back into the well and ultimately the well itself becomes the shallow part. Better yet perhaps would be some kind of bladder that inflates in the well and maintains the same water level. Well I haven't seen anything like that.
Here's a nicely finished concrete bird bath with a nice style. But I think the perimeter is not as bird friendly as it could be. The surround of a bird bath should be a place that gives birds a place to perch. So as nice as it looks to me, I think this is not the best design. Most bird baths you see now are also considerably less expensive.
I was just at Home Depot where I saw a 2' high bird bath made of concrete. The bottom pillar was $14 and the dish was $14. That sounds like a good starter kit and would be especially good for the front yard where concrete is heavy to carry and wouldn't be a big loss if someone did take it.
There are several varieties of automatic bird feeder online. There are many devices that add water, including KozyFill, a remote tank which refills the bath to the correct level (it must be mounted at the correct height to do this, and connected to outdoor water faucet).* There are gizmos that stir up the water, and actual fountain equipped baths. I saw one fountain equipped bird bath which was solar powered, for about $129. But it warned that the pump would burn out if the water was too low. (They should make such pumps to withstand running out of water and far worse IMO. Or be easily replaced).
(*Unfortunately KozyFill was discontinued by manufacturer and gets bad reviews for construction quality and engineering. Most unfortunate was inability to handle water pressure…with supply line coming loose, according to bad reviews on Amazon. The auto fill bird bath also got one bad review, though it didn't sound quite as bad.)
But even with auto filling just filling isn't enough and it isn't even the hardest work. It's cleaning the bird bath which is the hardest work, and must be done almost as much as adding water. There is one self-cleaning bird bath I've seen online, and it's very plain and doesn't come with pedestal and requires timer water hook up and is over $200. It's basically a water nozzle in the center that spins around with water pressure once a day to clean the bath.
Palmie, the little palm tree which grew large leaves but never seemed to get a secure rooting, wobbled all the time and finally fell to a 45 degree angle, probably due to poor planting and location (it bore full brunt of sprinkler but didn't drain well), was removed a few weeks ago by me and my friend. I was surprised she was finally resolved to remove it (she had wanted to save it in one way or another which seemed impossible). It sat on the lawn for almost two weeks, and then just disappeared. Somebody must have taken it…but for what? Anyway, like all the chairs and bed that got picked up by strangers rather than being collected by Bulk Waste Services, I'm glad that somebody took it, it seems more likely it won't be simply wasted. But are they going to plant it or turn into some kind of decoration? I also thought of them eating it, heart of palm stew. My friend did not want to think about that at all.
But what she has gotten me thinking about is another step in landscaping: the bird bath. Here's an inspiring article about how bird baths should be designed (and/or made). So they should basically have as much shallow area as possible. This got me thinking about the most functional bird bath designs. What you really need is a large shallow area surrounding or on the side of a slightly deeper well. As the water dries up it recedes back into the well and ultimately the well itself becomes the shallow part. Better yet perhaps would be some kind of bladder that inflates in the well and maintains the same water level. Well I haven't seen anything like that.
Here's a nicely finished concrete bird bath with a nice style. But I think the perimeter is not as bird friendly as it could be. The surround of a bird bath should be a place that gives birds a place to perch. So as nice as it looks to me, I think this is not the best design. Most bird baths you see now are also considerably less expensive.
I was just at Home Depot where I saw a 2' high bird bath made of concrete. The bottom pillar was $14 and the dish was $14. That sounds like a good starter kit and would be especially good for the front yard where concrete is heavy to carry and wouldn't be a big loss if someone did take it.
There are several varieties of automatic bird feeder online. There are many devices that add water, including KozyFill, a remote tank which refills the bath to the correct level (it must be mounted at the correct height to do this, and connected to outdoor water faucet).* There are gizmos that stir up the water, and actual fountain equipped baths. I saw one fountain equipped bird bath which was solar powered, for about $129. But it warned that the pump would burn out if the water was too low. (They should make such pumps to withstand running out of water and far worse IMO. Or be easily replaced).
(*Unfortunately KozyFill was discontinued by manufacturer and gets bad reviews for construction quality and engineering. Most unfortunate was inability to handle water pressure…with supply line coming loose, according to bad reviews on Amazon. The auto fill bird bath also got one bad review, though it didn't sound quite as bad.)
But even with auto filling just filling isn't enough and it isn't even the hardest work. It's cleaning the bird bath which is the hardest work, and must be done almost as much as adding water. There is one self-cleaning bird bath I've seen online, and it's very plain and doesn't come with pedestal and requires timer water hook up and is over $200. It's basically a water nozzle in the center that spins around with water pressure once a day to clean the bath.
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