Yard Spiders

We like to decorate for the holiday's, but Mr. JCrew and I differ on how far to go. He likes to go all out! I like to keep things simple. Part of this is because I know the work that goes into those elaborate scenes.

Mr. JCrew has always wanted to decorate for Halloween. I never celebrated Halloween growing up so it was never a big to-do I was experienced with. But Mr. JCrew got excited when I said I was ready to decorate for Halloween this year. I immediately said we had to have a theme. Our theme... SPIDERS!

We plan to put up cobwebs around our porch and relatively "small" spiders hanging from the porch vine, but the big effort was going to be from our huge spiders in the yard. I found a tutorial and made three! We are on a corner lot, so the main spider is on the corner to grab your attention. Then a second spider is right in front of the house, and a third spider is at the driveway on the side of the house for those that turn the corner, down our street.

No escaping!!

I appreciated the tutorial I found because he laid out exactly what to buy. I am going to change a couple things for my list.

Supplies for 1 Spider:

• 6 – 10’ lengths of ¾ inch PVC pipe
• 8 - ¾ inch PVC caps
• 16 – ¾ inch PVC 45 degree elbows
• 8 – ¾ inch PVC 90 degree elbows
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC 4 way T connectors
• 2 – ¾ inch PVC T connectors
• PVC cement
• Black spray paint
• Bouncy Ball (head)
• Pillow (body)
• Black yard trash bag (body)
• Black duct tape (body)
• Black Zip Ties (body)

He used different parts for the body, but I didn't like how it turned out in his pictures. So, I changed it on the cuff. While in Walmart, I saw pillows and grabbed three. They would be the body. Then I grabbed bouncy balls. They would be the head. I would stick those in a yard trash bag and I'd have my spider body.


I stuck the ball in the center end of the trash bag and tied it off with a zip tie.

I then left the pillow in its protective wrap it was bought in and placed it in the trash bag and tied it off with another zip tie.

This left a tail that I taped flat onto the body.

Mr. JCrew said we could use this technique to make "bodies." :/

The tutorial I found also told you how to cut the PVC pipe into the lengths you need. Having this already planned out made things go much faster. Longest part of a project is the planning!

I cut the PVC pipe and assembled the legs and 'backbone."

 

I glued the legs together and the backbone together. NOT TO EACH OTHER! I want to be able to reuse these, so I can hang the legs and it take up less space. The legs will stay assembled and the backbone assembled while in storage.

TIP! **** I glued the 45 degree elbows to the backbone and if I could change that, I would glue the 45 degree elbows to the legs instead. Gluing the 45 degree elbows to the backbone restricts the movement of the legs. When putting the legs on, you may have to adjust positioning to find balance for the spider and the 45 degree elbow is what helps you.

I used Mister Pfitzer's tricycle to hold the backbone as I attached the legs. You definitely need something to lift the backbone up as you insert the legs.

Now, my list says 2 4-way connectors and 2 T-connectors, but that is not what is shown in the pictures or what was on the tutorial I followed. I bought the materials as the list stated, but those 4-way connectors are expensive and I really only needed 2. The T-connectors can be the ones on the end.

At first, the weight of the pillow would make the legs crumble. I had to make sure the pipes were fully inserted. The boys helped with assembly, and they said it was frustrating. You'd get one leg in and another would fall out.

Once together, I spray painted. Spray paint was much faster than exterior paint I'd have to roll on. I made sure to get the kind with Primer built in. And I didn't sand the PVC pipe before painting. The paint I got said it would adhere to plastic.

With the spider bodies, I also taped the head "up" on the body. I used the black duct tape to make a "collar" that assisted in holding the head up closer to the body. Otherwise, the head would kind of fall down.

The boys then said the spiders were missing eyes, so I took their advice on four red eyes for the spiders. Scary!

This only took one morning to do and the spiders were on display by lunch time. I was so tickled with the results! Come Halloween night, the spiders will move to be closer to the walkways so that the trick-or-treaters have to be brave!

Jackson Vine 2018

At our old house, we planted a Jackson Vine on the back porch. It was the only porch we had. A Jackson Vine does not flower and is usually seen on porches of historical homes.

The Jackson Vine has a saying that goes with it. First Year, it's a sleeper. Second Year, it's a creeper. Third Year, it's a leaper!

We have a large front porch on the new house, so I planted three Jackson Vines. How I train my vines, is I attached a small chain just underneath the roof overhang that hangs all the way to the ground. Then I use a zip tie to attach the vine to the chain.

Once the vine creeps up the chain, I have to create something that runs horizontal to the porch roof for the vine to cling on. At the last house, I just used more chain. But at our new house I used curtain rods!

I noticed last Spring (2017) that the vine was really creeping up the chain. I hurried to order curtain rods from Ikea. They took forever to ship! I was watching my vine grow and it was getting faster!

If I had known it would have taken a long time to ship, I would have gone a different route. But the price was worth it! Once the rods came, I quickly hung them. It was easy.

Then I had to zip-tie the vine onto the curtain rod so it knew where to go.

I don't have to zip tie any more. The vine knows to grab onto the curtain rod.

Jackson Vine can be a nuisance to some. It will continue to shoot off "Babies" from the ground. When that happens, I will be glad to share. But if you don't take care of the babies (find them new homes or just pull them up), your Jackson Vine could get out of control fast!

2017 was a big growth year of the Jackson Vine, but 2018 was when it finally covered every curtain rod.

It has been so fun to see the vine grow. In a couple more years it will be really full. Then we will have to start watching for the birds laying nests in there. Hopefully I can keep them out of it. It's not a good spot for eggs! And I will have to keep it trimmed nicely so it doesn't get out of control.

Drip Irrigation

I fully acknowledge I am a plant lady. It’s the first idea Mr. JCrew comes up with for a gift for me. I won’t turn down a plant. You can never have too many. I love to care for plants and talk to them.

I especially love plants in pots. Containers give height to a garden and softens the structure of a porch. 

But with containers, means more attention. Because they don’t have the ground for their roots to spread in search of water, they have to be watered more often than plants in the ground.

My collection of potted plants outside kept growing. I loved the look of a mass of different sized pots. Watering became a chore. I’d refill several watering cans. 

In the window box outside of Mr. Pfitzer’s room, I left a watering can in his bathroom to use. We just took out one of the screens to access the pots. Watering through the screen did not work. 

But it was when I came home from giving birth to Mr. Pfitzer at the hospital that I knew I needed to do something to help water my plants. My short time away, the plants in the windowbox had died. I looked into getting a “Plant Sitter” but it did not work. 

The water was not leaving the reservoir and my plants were dry.

 

I then tried the plant sitter on a larger scale and bought apple juice in glass bottles (instead of buying empty glass bottles). Once we drank the apple juice, I’d fill the glass bottle with water and put a tube in it. The tubing was not long enough, but it also was just too slow.

I even tried braiding scrap fabric and stuck it in the dirt for the water to travel up and into the dirt. This also did not work.

I finally researched drip irrigation. One of my friends from church had explained how her husband hooked up a system to water her plants in her window box. It sounded so cool!

I started saving things to my Amazon Wish List. I started the planning/design process and calculating the cost of all that I would need.

I then looked at HomeDepot and saw that they carried a lot of what I needed. I bought my tubing and sprinkler heads from them.

I used many types of sprinkler heads. I had many different size pots that would be on the same system. My larger pots had two sprinkler heads in them, and the water would need to be on longer in order for them to receive enough water. But a smaller pot would be on the same amount of time as the larger one, but I could use a lower-flow sprinkler head to make sure it was not over-watered. 

The smaller pots use a drip sprinkler head. 

The larger pots use a fan sprinkler head. There are many types of fan heads.

There is one main line that runs from the faucet. But off the large tube, a smaller tube is connected that runs to the pot.

I use elbow connectors to get my large tubing to take corners.

I use T-shape connectors to split tubing to go two different directions. When the big tubing coming from the faucet reaches the ground, I have some of it go to the front porch and some of it go to the back porch.

I buried my tubing in flowerbeds. 

I tried to make it minimal what tubing was showing, but it's not bad. I have gotten use to it and don't notice the tubing.

I checked the connections of tubing and sprayed it with the flex seal stuff to seal any little holes.

The large tubing connects to the faucet using a fancy adapter.

I tried to get fancy and use a timer on my faucets, but I just couldn’t get those to work right. I’d love for it to run itself!

Right now, all I have to do is go outside; turn on two faucets; sit on the porch for ten minutes; then turn the water faucets off.

Watering is done!

Now, there is one change I wish could be made to the sprinkler heads. I wish they would rotate while spraying. They currently are stationary. The water then goes in the same spot. I’m not certain but I think water is wasted this way. I turn on my faucet for ten minutes, but within 3 minutes, I am already seeing a flood of water leaving the bottom of my pots. Once that little area where the tiny spot of water goes down, there is extra water just going right through the pot instead of reaching the spaces in between.

At first, I only had two sprinkler heads for the large pots. But like I mentioned, they don’t rotate, so some plants were not getting water. About once a week, I would take the hose out and give the pots a good watering. The drip irrigation was a time saver for in between the hose watering. I really wanted to make the drip irrigation work for me fully, so I bought more sprinkler heads and designated one sprinkler per plant. You can change the flow on the heads, so that helped. 

In my large pots out back, there are three plants per pot.

In my large pots up front, I have five plants per pot.

I was nervous to put too many heads on the line because it would impact the flow. Having one head per plant, the flow did not matter as much. But I am happy to report, adding more sprinklers, the impact to the flow was minimal.

It is a time saver and I’m so glad I did it. I turn on the faucet, sit on the porch for a couple minutes, then turn the faucet off. So easy! 

When I saw my new sprinkler controller had an option to handle drip irrigation, it got me considering connecting my drip irrigation as a new zone to my sprinkler system and letting the controller handle it! That research is ongoing and I will let you know when I tackle it!

Items I used:

bubbler

drip

thin tubing (1/4")

thick tubing (1/2")

elbow

T-joint

Tube Cutter

End Closure 

Your sprinkler head comes with a coupler attached, so you do not need to purchase those separately.

Summer Flowers

I am having so much fun in the yard. I frequently read tips on how to plan your garden so that there was always something in bloom, but I didn’t focus on that tip when I designed and planted my yard. I had a good plan, but then things change because a plant is not happy where you put it and needs to be moved or dies. And there was a lot of that going on for the first two years of my gardening at the new house. But this third year has been rewarding. I am getting to see a new bloom every day!

When I pick plants, I pick them because I like the color or shape. I’m definitely drawn to blues and reds. And I love purples. But I throw in some whites and yellows so that I am balanced. Some flowers bloom quickly and some linger. And it is really confusing when the plant label tells you it blooms in the “summer.” What part of summer? Early? Middle? Late? Spring flowers are easy. Spring is short (here in Alabama). We jump right into Summer. I shared the flowers in the yard that boomed in Spring. What bloomed after that post I will categorize as “Early Summer” and I will share in this post.

Early Summer

Stella d’Oro blooms in late Spring/early summer. It is one of the first daylilies to bloom. It disappears in the Winter, so you don’t want it to be the only thing in the flowerbed, unless you’re okay with a bare flowerbed for Winter.

Frost Proof Gardenia has a strong smell. I wrongly assumed that they needed shade and I had some water issues with their location and lost 2 of the four, and I think their issues affected their blooms this year. The bushes weren’t covered in white flowers like they usually are. And they actually rebloomed this year in late summer. Mine are just messed up right now, because I don't see anyone else's gardenias blooming. Frost Proof Gardenias won't die in the Winter like other gardenias, but they like the sun, so plant them accordingly.

Butterfly Bushes bloom in Spring and Summer. I have a darker blue one that I love the color on and it blooms earlier than my pink ones.

Mid Summer

Nikko Blue Hydrangea is a plant I want to love. The first two years, they bloomed pink. I worked to amend the soil and this year, they were more blue! Yay! One out of the 3 stayed pink, so I still have to work on it. I used the acidifier, and even put nails in the ground! But then I found Black Kow Manure. I put it on late in the season, but it was so beneficial for the hydrangeas! I cut off their blooms and a lot of green leaves sprouted. It was the most growth I've seen on the hydrangeas! I plan to put the manure on them three times next year and also cover them for the entire Winter. They only bloom on old growth and the Winter can kill them and then we start all over from the ground and lose the progress from the year before.

I call it my special coneflower, because it was an expensive coneflower! I had six, but I messed with them and only four came back and then I transplanted them closer to the front door so they could be seen. They have been blooming non-stop.

Coneflower comes in many colors, and I have the one that is the “normal” or “common” one to find that is cheap.

I do have another type of coneflower called “Pow Wow – Berry.” It, too, was in a different spot and I loved it so it could be seen. It is a nice pop of color by the side porch.

Black-eyed Susans bring that yellow color in where you need it. They are a perennial that disappears in the Winter and spreads. I took some babies from the larger plants and spread them out so that I could cover more area. The bunnies love my baby plants and eat them each time I transplant them.

BabyMoon Café Daylily is a larger daylily that blooms later than the Stella. It was given to me by a neighbor when he got it off the clearance rack at Lowes. I had it where my special coneflower was, but because it got so tall and blocked the plants behind it from view, I needed to move it. I moved it out near the utility boxes to give the neighbors something pretty to look at. It has a beautiful bloom and performs nicely.

Did you know that Hostas bloom? I have several different varieties and they all have white flowers.

Late Summer

Limelight hydrangeas are my favorite hydrangea because of their ease to care for. I cut them back in the winter and don’t have to worry about protecting them if they start coming back and we are expecting a frost. They bloom heavily and the blooms last into Winter. I leave the blooms on until Christmas and then I cut them off.

Crepe Myrtles love heat. I had several at the old house, but chose to only have one at the new house. I train them into trees with the trimming, but once they are good, I stop trimming them and let them be. Each tree has a different shape. I liked the shape of this one and the pink color. It goes with the butterfly bushes near it. (I never took a picture of the Crepe Myrtle blooming this year.)

Summer is a hard time period to make your yard look good. There’s a struggle to keep things watered. Spring is gorgeous with all the new blooms, but you cant forget that there are some pretty awesome plants that can keep the color alive through the summer.

Good luck!