One of the first things I did when I bought the house was to buy a tree to match my homeownership. Remember, there are no plants on this land, save for some hostas left in front of the porch. It needs a tree-even an ornamental one. I wanted something pretty to build my imaginary dream home off of. The house is a gray color and black, I thought something purple would accent it well. In an online search I found “Burgundy Hearts Redbud.” The leaves are dark purple and green, and the tree would reach a size where the roots wouldn’t run into my water line or be a huge storm threat.
Except that here, a year later, it doesn’t look like that at all. Starting out, the leaves immediately fell off. The tree almost looked sunburnt. Within a few weeks there were only three leaves, and it looked so sad. I emailed the company I bought it from asking what I did wrong and how I could help it stay alive. They said to scrape some of the bark and see if there was green beneath- if there was, the tree was still alive and could be saved. They also advised landscape cloth and mulch and to give some deeper waterings to help the tree get established and thrive. Today, the tree is about a foot taller than when it started, and has bushier leaves, but it’s nowhere near that beautiful image on the store site. Still, I have hope for it. I want it to live here as long as I do.
What started out like this:
Became burnt and shriveled up
And today (granted we’re approaching fall) is this:
I can’t seem to make it look as beautiful as the image on the website shows it. But I have plans to weed, mulch, and fertilize again and see if its second year goes much smoother.
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Another day, a grocery trip to a bulk store led to the discovery of a fairly inexpensive shed- an 8×8 building for less than $1000. I didn’t take it home that day, but it ate at me that I had no real storage to speak of. I examined my budget and rearranged it every way I could to have that shed. In two weeks, we were bringing home two massive boxes (and a very unrelated 12$ desk from a municipal auction site that was too large for any of our vehicles.)
Opening the boxes, I was… overwhelmed. The instruction book was very thick, and the pieces weren’t labeled, so you had to match a “close enough” drawing to the real-world object. I am so thankful to Marcus, my brother Logan, and my son Leon, who helped me dig out and pave an 8×8 square, set up all the pieces and actually built this shed–
The first thing in it was a weed eater taking up residence in my laundry room, which barely had room for the machines meant for laundry as it was. At this point, I’m not homesteading, but I feel like I’m taking steps in the right direction.
**Re-evaluating over a year later, I would definitely use concrete over the pavers that I bought if I could have a do-over. I also would not sink the pavers as deep as I did. Water doesn’t get in per se, but it definitely sits in the hole surrounding the shed. But I didn’t know then and part of learning is failing in the right direction.**