Posts Tagged ‘yardwork’

So do you remember that post I wrote last year about working on some projects in my yard?  Remember, I showed you this picture?

Well, this is what my yard looked like this morning. (minus all the grass, which we killed last year with copious amounts of weed killer – you can tell someone went a little crazy with the spray bottle and killed some of the lawn, too)

No, you’re not missing something…I didn’t do diddily squat with my yard in the past year, but after 3 hours of work today, this is what that little section (not so little, it was 18X2) looks like now…….

TaaaaDaaa!!  It’s amazing how one project can make you feel so much better about the state of your yard.  We pulled up all the dead branches, replaced the gross wooden border planks with new concrete edging and removed some of the rocks. I was going to take out all of the rocks until I realized how many of them we had and how heavy they are.  There are now three layers of landscaping, but we’re only responsible for this layer. I didn’t know there was one underneath until we had half of this done. Instead, we just added another layer of weed cover and put down some rubber mulch, which I love! It was about twice the price as the cedar mulch we used in the front of the house, but it’s supposed to keep  it’s color for 12 years.  We’ve already added 10 additional bags of mulch in the front over the past two years, easily equaling what we spent today.  We’ll see how it holds up.  I like the idea of using something recycled, too and I’m hoping the strong rubber smell will dissipate with time.

I still have to figure out what I’m planting in those pots (there will be one more). I was thinking about roses, but I’ve heard they are temperamental and I don’t have a great track record.  I think I may just put some begonias or lilies or even some geraniums.

Off to rest my sore arms and plan my container garden.  I’m open to any plant suggestions, but the area gets mostly full sun and I need plants that are hardy.

It’s Spring, which means it’s time to start clearing out all the dead things in my yard that have collected there since last summer.  This includes the cigarette butt collection from my Deck Goose courtesy of You Know Who (and I don’t mean Voldemort)

I get really overwhelmed by yard projects, perhaps it stems from having to do yard work as punishment when I was a kid.  (Imagine raking a front yard with 11 giant trees every weekend in the Fall.  It would make even a strong adult sob like a baby) I just don’t like digging in the dirt all that much either and I don’t have the patience to weed or prune or whatever else it is people do with their yards.  I like arranging planters and putting flowers in pots, but that’s about the extent of my yard interest.  I don’t like bugs.  Or worms. Or caterpillars. Or dead birds.

This year, I decided I would take a different approach in dealing with the wilderness that is my backyard.  I would divide it in sections and concentrate on fixing up one section at at time. This way I am tackling a “do-able” project instead of overwhelming myself with the amount of work that needs to be done.  Doesn’t that sound like a smart, effective plan?  I’m taking the advice of two people who suggested that I try this with some personal things I’m working through and I decided it was a good plan for the yard too.  As you can see from the photos, I have a BIG job ahead of me.

This is the side of my garage and my plan was to clear out the ugly rocks, pull all the weeds and cut out the roots of the bushes and Rose of Sharon plants that used to be there but died (not my fault. ok, yes it was), place a new layer of the weed guard down and then put new red mulch. Then I thought that mulch just blows around and maybe I should invest in red pebbles or rocks.  My plan is to put a few large planters there with an azalea or a rose (can you put rose bushes in planters??) or just begonias. I really like peonies, so maybe some of those.   I’m choosing the planters over just putting them in the ground because of the digging in the dirt issue.  Is that wrong of me?  Should I just get over it and plant them in the ground?  I do want them to live (that would be a change for me.  I tend to kill all growing things)  Regardless of the “in the ground” or “planter” dilemma, I’m debating between the red mulch or the rocks.  Any input from the peanut gallery?

This is just opposite the picture above and is just around my deck.  Jose cut down a HUGE bush that was about 4 feet tall.  I am doing the same thing here…cleaning up the rocks, weeds and putting new weed guard and a layer or rocks or mulch.  Again, I’ll just put planters or nothing. I like the look of clean, pretty landscaping.  We’ll put some more solar lights out here to light up the yard and it should go a long way in making the back yard more appealing.

I’ll be back with “after” photos soon and then pictures of the next two sections.