inosculation

This weekend we finally bought our replacement to a tree we uprooted last year that we called the weed tree.  It was a strange hybrid of lilac and some type of unruly weed.  Half the tree had real lilac flowers, while the rest had some cheap variety of imitation blossoms -minus even the sweet smelling fragrance of a true lilac.  My guess is that the lilac bush’s trunk was somehow spliced with the fast growing weed tree’s trunk at some point during it’s early growth.  Apparently the grafting of two different species of tree or bush is not entirely unheard of, and as I’ve just learned, this is called inosculation.  Anyway, the weed tree was non too pretty, grew like crazy, was prone to lilac mold and had a bad root system.  It had to go!

The replacement to the old weed tree, is a sweet mangolia that already has plenty of buds, and looks as though it’s just about to bloom.  Magnolia trees aren’t cheap.  This set us back about $140 including tax.  But for some peace of mind, it did come with a one-year, stay alive warranty.  I’m going to keep a close watch on this magnolia -sleep with one eye open, and an arm chained to it’s trunk.  I’ve heard of people thieving expensive trees; a friend in town once told me that their newly purchased Japanese maple was dug up and stolen out of their very own backyard!

I can’t wait until our magnolia tree starts to mature.  Even as a small shrub, I’m still in love with it, and it already adds a whole new feel to the backyard.

one sunny day

The weather has been so grey, and it feels like winter is insisting on lingering right until the bitter end.  One sunny day last week I managed to snap some pictures of our house.

We’re planning on doing a major reno this summer on the main floor.  It’s a big debate whether to tear down the dividing walls of the front entrance hall, living room and dining room to open up the whole space.  Tearing down the walls will likely mean forfeiting our closet space and place to store our bicycles (we don’t have a garage and we own a row house, so having a place for our bikes with easy access to the front door is pretty key for us).  For now we have agreed that the walls are coming down, and we are banking on our creative use of space to make it all work out.  We also plan on peeling back the many layers of flooring to see what state the original pine-plank floors are in with hopes of being able to easily restore them.

Before the renos start I will post some of the progress we’ve had since our move in 2009.

backyard planning

We were so excited to sit in our backyard after the long winter that we put on our winter coats, poured some pints, and grabbed our new gardening book, Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail that I picked up from Mixed Media.  We can’t wait to start up our vegetable garden, and get working on our landscaping project for this year.