Thursday, May 31, 2012

Icelandic poppy


This is a different variety of poppy from our others. It is an Icelandic poppy. The Icelandic poppy is slightly smaller, and the color is a different shade of orange. The petals of the flower are much more delicate and textured. Were as our other poppies last around a week, these are lucky to last more than 24 hours.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Failed to thrive


The original seedings we placed in the self watering planter didn't react well to being placed outside, so we got some new ones from a local organic farm. As you can see these are very robust and have been doing well.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

More Spring flowers


These are a new variety in our yard. I'll have to ask Kathleen what they are. I especially like the range of tones across the flower.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Poppies


We have a number of varieties of poppies in our front yard. They do extremely well here in the harsh sun and the bees love them. They also peak a bit later than the irises to make the color of spring last a bit longer.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Gratuitous Dog Photo


Andy the pocket Shepherd seemed annoyed by my flash when I took this photo. He just stared at me as if to say what was I doing by disturbing his nap. 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Bear Lake, RMNP


Here's the canonical shot of Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Took this about a week ago. The snow pack up there is extremely thin for this time of year.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Hoop house


A hoop house is a poor mans green house that uses plastic sheeting wrapped over flexible piping to form a roof. It allows you to buffer the plants from the variable spring weather we have here in Colorado. I made a very simple one here that just drapes the plastic over a wire frame so that I can still easily access the plants. If it works out, I'll build a more substantial one using PVC pipe.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Repairing winter road damage


Most of the way up the eastern side of the Loveland Pass road, the first pull out we can upon was the same location as this road construction. Sometime in the winer someone had wrinkled the guard rail separating the windy road from a few thousand foot drop.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Georgetown Conoco


This little art deco style garage is on one of the side streets in the little mountain town of Georgetown Colorado. I love the architectural elements such as the golden brick and the use of the original owner's name as part of the facade. Its been wonderfully restored, and I purposely swing by it when I'm traveling through the town to the high country.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Occupy Denver


Stopped by the Occupy Denver booth at Denver's Cinco de Mayo festival. 
Bikes seem to be their primary mode of transport. 

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Capital Facelift


The State Capital is undergoing renovation. You can just barely see the skirt protecting the base. Took this at the local Cinco de Mayo celebration. 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Self-watering planter - filling it with soil

The drain pipes are loose in the tub. 


To keep them from shifting, soil is packed around the pipes to just over the top of the pipe. The soil helps to wick the water through out the bottom of the planter.


Next a layer of low density fill is placed on top of the layer of soil. In this case we used a product made out of coconut husks. This layer is where the bulk of the plant lives, while its roots dive into the moist soil layer to drink.


On top of this layer is placed wood chips to act a mulch, and to help reduce evaporation. 


We will see this summer how well this works. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Self-watering planter - reservoir

To create a cavity under the soil I used perforated plastic drainage pipe. The pipe is covered with a fabric sleeve to keep the cavity from filling with soil.


At the end of the each pipe I added a section of smaller pipe to function as a fill spout


This is then covered with fabric and secured with zip ties. 


The two pipes are then fitted into the lined bath tub.


Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Self-watering planter - finishing the interior

The idea behind a self-watering planter is that you create a reservoir inside of the planter to keep your plants hydrated. Before installing the reservoir, I need to construct a floor to support the cavity.


For this I used a few 2x4's supported by cross members secured to the exterior walls. 


Once the floor was in place, a bath tub was created by lining the container with heavy gauge plastic sheeting.