The Giving Tree
When we had our house inspected we were told we should take down this tree:
It is too close to our foundation and also has some sort of disease so it is pretty sad looking. Juan, determined not to pay anyone to do it, bought a chainsaw with an extension and started bit by bit taking it apart. I was helping him lower branches pully style when I realized the branches were covered with lichens Parmelia sulcata to be exact.
My next thought was dyestuff so I spent a few hours scraping branches and filling up two ziploc bags with fungi. Supposedly it yields a yellow to golden brown color.
The weather is gorgeous and my plan today was to garden, but I got derailed, not to mention sore fingers, from working to scrape off the lichens. The day is still young though so I am going out to plant jasmine, water our new plants and transplant the dye plant seedlings.
The tree isn't down completely yet. The big fall is what makes me the most nervous. Juan, as always, is underwhelmed by the task. I'm glad he's so handy. The past two weekends he spent digging a French Drain all the way around our house. The rains here are biblical and there is a slope towards the back of our house. The soil here is "gumbo," which is to say heavy red clay making this an epic job. Here's the after shot of the back of our house. The plants in front, which will come back, are Ruellia, which the hummingbirds love. The vine on our house is Fig Ivy.
It is too close to our foundation and also has some sort of disease so it is pretty sad looking. Juan, determined not to pay anyone to do it, bought a chainsaw with an extension and started bit by bit taking it apart. I was helping him lower branches pully style when I realized the branches were covered with lichens Parmelia sulcata to be exact.
My next thought was dyestuff so I spent a few hours scraping branches and filling up two ziploc bags with fungi. Supposedly it yields a yellow to golden brown color.
The weather is gorgeous and my plan today was to garden, but I got derailed, not to mention sore fingers, from working to scrape off the lichens. The day is still young though so I am going out to plant jasmine, water our new plants and transplant the dye plant seedlings.
The tree isn't down completely yet. The big fall is what makes me the most nervous. Juan, as always, is underwhelmed by the task. I'm glad he's so handy. The past two weekends he spent digging a French Drain all the way around our house. The rains here are biblical and there is a slope towards the back of our house. The soil here is "gumbo," which is to say heavy red clay making this an epic job. Here's the after shot of the back of our house. The plants in front, which will come back, are Ruellia, which the hummingbirds love. The vine on our house is Fig Ivy.
Labels: dyestuff, gardening, home sweet home
posted by Jeanne at 10:28 AM
1 Comments:
Thanks for linking me...I'm honored. These days I can't seem to do much more than rant but hopefully things will get better in the spring. I can't wait to see pictures of your dye garden..I have a plan drawn up for a medicinal herb garden so maybe we can trade goods!
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