… and by “midwest” we mean an Australian midwestern territory, however … any U.S. Midwestern area could do the same. There’s nothing said in this video that couldn’t be said of America’s native flower landscape we only took pride in it and fostered its restoration.

Joyce Kilmer wrote, “Only God can make a tree.” A mock log, on the other hand, can be made by almost anybody.

After transplanting some salvaged wild currants (locating them uphill from our composting area), I recognized I needed to add something in between the shrubs and compost piles in order to suppress weeds and, more importantly, satisfy an aesthetic need. I ended up constructing what appears to be a large, fallen tree.

Scrounging from my collection of hollowed-out stumps and harvesting bark from dead quaking aspen, I made what appears to be a 15-foot-long, fallen tree.

The construction also serves as a haven for small critters, which our dog finds endlessly entertaining.

Over the last four decades, I’ve had a half dozen different laundry line arrangements, but none was so aesthetically pleasing and yet perfectly functional as our current hillside-to-house system. The photos tell most of the story. A salvaged split-rail fence holds one end of the lines, while an iron garden stake (painted green to match window trim and screwed to the window framing) supports the other end of the lines. The fence feels like an organic member of the prairie hillside, and the iron rail turns nearly invisible against the house. ~ J.B.

pakuataichi on May 26, 2011 “Bees Please” Mason Bee Box in the roundabout at Yew & 6th in Kitsilano, Vancouver, BC. Chloe Bennett Design.

See also: Creature tower video.