the Youngest Snowbird:

The Deer Have No Fear

Glad I planted so much deer food on our RV lot.

Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

Everytime I peek out the RV windows, I spot neighbourhood deer munching our newly planted trees. Guess that's one of the downsides of living out here in the BC wilderness.

The genius that said aspen trees are deer resistant was obviously talking about urban deer, cause our rural deer love baby aspen leaves.

They also enjoy autumn blaze maples.

But their fave snack seems to be the sweet gum trees.

My complaints aren't really serious.  In fact when we see the deer out there, we don't bother chasing them away. They were here first.

I just hope they don't start telling all their friends about our tree buffet ...

12 more sleeps til we hit the highway   :) 

The Wacky Tree Woman

Our neighbours are probably gonna start calling me that.

There may be a Wacky Tree Woman in your 'hood too; she's the gal that has 10 or 20 massive potted trees she keeps hauling around to different spots in the yard, trying to find the perfect space for them before planting. I need to live with the trees for a few days to feel where they would fit best.  

Over the past month, My Fella and I have decided this is the best RV lot ever, and we love being here.  There are many amazing things about this site and I'll get to those in a future post.  

On the downside:

• the back yard is hit with scorching south sun all day long which makes JohnnyDisco pretty unbearable by about 4pm
• we get our fair share of golf balls flying into the yard

To solve both problems we purchased a whack of fast growing trees from the local garden center. It's that time of the season when deciduous trees are 50% off and we got some wicked deals.

The only trees in the ground so far are these four Swedish columnar aspen planted along the southeast fenceline.  They're tall, thin, leafy trees that make good privacy screens and can hopefully thwart wayward golf balls.  

The aspen leaves make a cool whispering sound in even the slightest breeze... AND wooden stakes made from aspen trees are one of the only weapons in the world that can kill werewolves and vampires. In case you were wondering...

As you can see, the lot is still one big undeveloped space but we're slowly settling in and figuring out where things should go.  

I've wasted almost an entire notebook of graph paper with rough drawings of our lot layout, planning things like:  where to park JohnnyDisco, place the gazebo, build the firepit area, the woodpile, etc.  

We moved both the RV and the gazebo last week to get the best use of this space. And this is somewhat embarrassing but I've relocated the woodpile twice.   Yup, the whole thing.  So now the neighbours are also calling me The Crazy Lady Who Keeps Moving Her Woodpile.

More RV lot pictures to come as we get more done.

Plant Tags and Slugs

We may have another big landscaping project in the works.

Not to sound all creepy mysterious but nothing is finalized yet so I can't say much - BUT ... My Fella and I might be moving to another RV lot here at the golf course next season; a lot we can fully landscape.

for those keeping score at home, another lot change would mean 4 RV sites in two years

If the deal works out I wanna be ready.  Over the past few weeks the internet has been my best friend, doling out free advice on:

• sun and shade perennials
• native trees to BC
• low maintenance ornamental grasses
• landscape layouts
• building your own veggie planters
• alternative ground cover, something besides grass
• why people mulch

If you're not into gardening/landscaping, you'll probably find this post boring, but I did learn some interesting things.  You know those little plastic tags tucked into the plants you buy from the garden center - the ones that describe the plant and its ideal growing conditions?  I've always wondered exactly what full sun or part shade meant in terms of daily hours:

• full sun means at least 6 hours of direct sunlight every day
• part sun plants need 3 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, morning or afternoon sun
• part shade plants also want 3 to 6 hours of direct sun per day, but preferably morning sun before everything gets too toasty in the midday heat
• plants in full shade or deep shade require less than 3 hours of direct sun every day or filtered sunlight throughout the day

It's a rough guideline, but it clears up some of the mystery of where to put what plant. 

Another cool tidbit if you have a slug problem in your garden;  slugs love beer.  I should have remembered this particular fact learned during the niteclub phase of my 20's   :) 

From ehow.com:

"Slugs and snails are attracted to the smell of beer.  Dig a shallow hole in the ground near an infested area of your garden and sink an aluminum pie pan in the hole so the lip is level with the surface of the soil.  Fill the pie pan with beer.  The mollusks will crawl in and drown.  Remove the dead pests regularly and refill the beer trap every several days."

The thought of wasting good beer is kinda painful, but I might give it a try. Wonder what else I'll catch beside slugs.  Maybe one of our neighbours...

Edited later to add:  Hope yer having an awesome long weekend.  The In-laws are all here for a family reunion/camping/golfing weekend and tonight is Burnt Marshmallow Night.  Sadly, no photo evidence of the weekend exists since the official photographer (Uncle Coast Guard) left his lens cap on during the entire first night of pictures. Between that and Pa-In-Law trying to explain an adverb, it's been an interesting couple of days.  Thanks for all the laughs, Out-Laws  :)