Manual aeration of the lawn

Manual aeration of the lawn
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We've had the lawn for, what, almost 4 years now. It is due for an aeration.

Aerating the lawn involves removing plugs of soil (4" deep or so, size bigger than a dime) from various places of the lawn to promote air and water to go to the roots of the remaining grassroots.

Usually lawn-care companies drive by / call / spam about services. They can probably aerate your lawn in no time, but they charge tens, if not hundreds of dollars and use a power aerator.

Instead, Mr. Self-Torture decides to use a manual coring aerator to do the job. Every foot or so, I push the tool into the soil and every push I remove 2 plugs. Repeat ad nauseum, until entire lawn is covered.

Took me an hour to cover all 4 pieces of my lawn in the front, and another half-hour to pick up all the plugs. (normally the plugs would dissolve after heavy rainfall, but they interfere with my reel mower, so I remove them.)

DIY Recessed Light Installation

The IC-rated pot light installed inside vapour barrier tub
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The dear wife nagged me about wanting pot lights for our living room, which our builder never installed a ceiling fixture.

We asked around, and the cheapest is $80-110 a pop, but they require that we install at least 6 lights.

That's too expensive for us. So, I did it myself.

The process was documented on flickr, as usual!

Baby Fence Mod

Baby Fence Mod
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

So now that Horten's crawling and standing, we need to fence out the stairs so he does do the Humpty Dumpty.

Tyatt found these clear baby fence from Zellers and I'm happy to attach them.. However, our fence posts presents a number of problems.. one, the height of the pressure pads on the opposite side of the hinge matches with the middle round part of the post, so it doesn't pressure mount properly.. and the safety catch thingy cannot be properly attached.. and two, the wife insists that I do not drill into the post.

So, with a few pieces of leftover dimensional lumber, I quickly constructed a piece that wraps around the post and a sacrificial piece for the screws of the safety catch to mount on. The side flaps are there to prevent the main 2x4 from moving towards the stairs (sliding), and the cable ties prevents the piece from falling off the post. Since the gate should be closed most of the time the 2 cable ties should be sufficient.

This jig preserves the post, I think. I think I'll attache foam around the edges of the lumber to prevent Horten from a royal bump in the head.

One of the millions of crane flies in our garden..

One of the millions of crane flies in our garden..
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

A picture of *my* crane flies!

Tiling the outside of our shower

Tiling the outside of our shower
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally getting around to find the tile to tile the outside of our shower. What you see here is inexpensive mosaic ceramic tiles from Lowes.. like $5 per sq foot.. awesome.

More...

Crane flies have invaded!

Lately, we noticed large mosquito-like flying insects showing up in large numbers in our lawn and garden. Whenever I walk in the front lawn a large number of them will take flight. The wife is scared to open the windows..

Yesterday we had a nice lade from York Region come over to evaluate our garden for water-efficiency (i.e. plants and lawn that require less water, and best-practices to reduce water use) and I took the opportunity to ask her about the pests.

Anyways we think they are crane flies.


Picture from sustainableliving.blogs.com

Interestingly, the adults don't really feed.. they hatch, and mate, and they die. However, the larvae (called leatherjackets because of their tough skin) are said to be susceptible to nematodes.. so I think we'll give it a try.

Some more links:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Advice/profiles0206/leatherjackets.asp
http://www.mushroomfactory.ca/2008/04/leatherjackets-cranefly.html
http://www.pfc.cfs.nrcan.gc.ca/diseases/nursery/pests/european_e.html
http://www.plcao.on.ca/customerTips_insects.html
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/leatherj.htm
http://www.pestcontrolcanada.com/Questions/Pest%20Photos%20101%20to%20200.htm (see #180)

Light bulbs for my light fixture in the den

Mostly to remind myself, the bulb I need to get for the light fixture in my den is E14. Something unusual for North America, I guess since the fixture came from Hong Kong.

DIY front entry landscaping project.

The finished look
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

It is finally done.. took us 2 weeks, but it is all worth it.

See the photos of the job here on flickr!

Replacing the steps to my porch

Getting the wall units to be perfectly level
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The builder gave us ugly-ass precast concrete steps to our front door. Now that the weather is nice again, we decided to redo the front steps, and also add some pavers to create a small walkway leading up to said new steps.

I don't have all the pictures uploaded yet, will do that soon after the project is done!

DIY Cedar Mailbox

Cover attached!
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The mailbox is done! Took long enough though.
The build is documented on flickr!

Plan for my new mailbox

Plan for my new mailbox
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

With all the wood left from the flowerbox project, I can build a mailbox as shown!

DIY cedar flower boxes.

Then there were two
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We wanted more flower box space on the railing of the porch. But cedar flower boxes are expensive. Our old 22" one was $24.

I decided I can do better to build our own using cedar planks.

My DIY build is documented here on flickr.

Mulched flower bed

Mulched flower bed
Originally uploaded by t y a t t.

Another year, another spring.

To my pleasant surprise, (well really why should I be surprised) most of my perennials came back. Each of them started with reddish shoots that peer through the soil and then open to review fresh green leaves. Awesome.

This weekend Canadian Tire advertised on their flyer a new product -- coconut husk mulch. It comes in a block that is dried and compressed. The package is a little bit bigger than a phone book. When hydrated, it covers about 12 sq ft. We got 4 packages in total and it covered our flower bed, barely. :-D

What to do after a hard day of shoveling

What to do after a hard day of shoveling
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Man there was a ton of snow. So, after two days of shoveling my driveway, this is one thing you can do.

(and given the amount of snow, I won't be able to forgive myself for not at least digging one hole big enough for me.)

Thanks to Marco for the photoshoot, and helping to clear up my driveway!

Our new flower bed

Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Finally I found the time to build a new flower bed to grace our otherwise barren front yard.

Also we took Pat's recommendation and bought a bunch of nice perennials from Humber Nurseries.

Photos are on Flickr

Harlequin Maple

We started to look at what to do for the yards (front and back) but personally I wanted a harlequin maple just like the one in my parents front yard.

Other trees?
Japanese maple (but there are thousands of species.. must find a nice looking one)
Korean lilac (supposed to smell good.. here's a picture)

Periwinkle Flower

Periwinkle Flower
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

The first flower of our house appeared! This is from the periwinkle that Pat, my friend at work, gave me last year. It had established itself, survived the winter, and grew bigger throughout this spring. :-D

Ground cover for the garden

Forget-me-not


Light purple Phlox
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Tyatt's mom gave us some of her ground cover plants like Forget-me-not and Phlox. We also bought some herbs and flowering plants as well!

That just means we'll have to opening up some flower beds soon.

DIY drapes for the house

Sewing machine action shot!
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

We needed drapes badly -- the Redi-shade is beginning to look old. Ready-made drapes are either too ugly or too expensive, or .. both. Custom-made ones from drapery stores are too expensive. So, we did it ourselves!

See it on Flickr

Closet Remodeling

I am being crushed by the PAX
Originally uploaded by Vincent Ma.

Our so called walk-in closet is very small, and the original shelves did not make full use of the space. We bit the bullet and bought the PAX closet shelves from IKEA.

Installing them was a challenge -- we pretty much had to assemble the shelves inside the closet because the door opening is much shorter than the full height of the closet. Also, the inside width of the closet is exactly the width of the shelves.. we had to plan the order of the assembly to assure we can actually move everything into place!

The assembly is documented on Flickr