Hip Chick Digs

City chick gets her hands dirty on her urban homestead planting an edible garden, raising backyard chickens, preserving the harvest and working toward a greener future

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Low Maintenance Garden Design

June 9th, 2009 · 2 Comments

My mother is a self proclaimed “black thumb” and has a never-ending battle with weeds in her yard. One large section in particular used to house two dwarf cherry trees, which she eventually gave to Jay and I for use in our landscape. The spot has sat bare for a couple years now and the [...]

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Tags: design · gardening · projects · wildlife

Plant a Teepee

June 3rd, 2009 · 2 Comments

Constructing a simple teepee in the garden is a very simple and fun way to work vertically. Living in the city, we are all space-challenged and I have found the teepee a welcome edition every year. You can use old tree branches or visit your nearest nursery for bamboo stalks.
Tie your teepee at the top [...]

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Tags: garden art · projects · vegetables · vines

Driveway Project Complete

January 18th, 2009 · 5 Comments

The driveway is done! This project would typically take about two weekends to build, but we had a snow storm roll through town and my grandfather passed away. Now that we have had a couple weeks to recover from those things, it took very little time to finish up the job.
My goal was to build [...]

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Tags: projects

Diggin the Driveway

December 9th, 2008 · 7 Comments

One big step in our future driveway project is now complete: the driveway has been fully dug out. It took a couple weekends, but we finished up right before the rains came in. Rather than feeling very satisfied though, I am feeling really annoyed.
Our older neighbor Dan stopped by for a chat while we were [...]

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Tags: projects

Building Garden Paths

September 18th, 2008 · 7 Comments

My garden is very much a work in progress. One of the elements lacking in the landscape are clearly defined pathways. They just seem like so much work to build though, especially for something I won’t actually receive any direct benefit from. Afterall, I know where everything is, where to walk and not walk, etc. [...]

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Tags: design · projects