Mulching: Before and After

 I've been waiting over a year to be able to

share before and after photos of the yard.

Finally, I have a mostly finished product!

This is the view from our back door looking down to the back of the property.

And this is the same view now.

 And another view closer to the garage.

 This is of course the view from the beck of the property

looking back towards the house.

 And the same view now.

 Close up of the old lilac bush that was outside the back door.

It was rotted and not in great shape.

And now it's gone.

The large area in the photo that doesn't have plants

is the future site of the water garden I plan to put in.

There will be a waterfall in the back right corner of the house.

I'm hoping to be able to do that late summer/early fall

if I'm lucky.

Another wider view of the area.

This is a shot of the side of the house

and the lovely yews.

Another yew full frontal.

And here we are yew free.

This was a really big transformation.

We went from the yews to yew stumps 

to nasty grass and weeds 

to this.

A photo of the area on the side towards the back.

The room with all the windows is the laundry/mud room.

And here is the little garden now.

There was a garden there originally,

but it was full of weeds and mint.

Mint is the devil.

DO NOT plant mint directly into your garden!

Trust me.

Another view of the yews from the front of the house.

And the new view.

I'm thinking of planting a climbing vine on the rain spout.

A clematis would look good there,

and it would give the garden some height.

We don't have a front yard at all- the porch touches the sidewalk,

so I need to make sure the areas I have close by really pop.

Here we have some random shots of the new gardens.

We will eventually replace the old nasty wire fence

with a privacy fence.

The rest of the yard will be picket fencing.

I originally stuck my grandson's playhouse in the garden

to take up space.

I've decided to leave it there for now.

I had the idea to use containers 

and let him plant some annuals to have around his house.

The garden angel that was once my grandmother's.

Now that everything has been weeded and mulched, 

and all the plants have been planted,

it's time to make a list of what plants I'd like to add.

I have another hydrangea that was part of my wedding decor to transplant, 

and I'd like to get a lace cap hydrangea too.

Big E wants a rhododendron,

and I've saved room along the side of the house for that.

I need some more milkweed,

and I also want

rudbeckia (brown eyed Susan),  lavendar,

phlox, columbine, hollyhocks, and some coreopsis-

plus whatever else I happen across that I like. 

Mulching for Mother's Day

 So, I've been dying to get all the flower beds mulched

since last year.

Last year, we dug out a circle around the cherry tree and

gardens along the fence in the back yard.

We only managed to mulch the area around the tree last year.

This year, we dug out more garden area along the side of the house.

Since it was Mother's Day, 

I used it to my advantage and requested slave labor all day for mulching purposes.

 This was the first load of mulch.

We didn't just have mulching to do, 

that would have been easy.

We had to edge and pick up piles of weeds and grass

as we went.

We filled 10 large trash bags of yard waste when it was all said and done.

 In the end, it took 3 loads which equaled about 6-7 cubic yards of mulch.

Everything has been done except 

around the tree.

The transformation is amazing,

and I'll be blogging before and after photos soon.

I still have some areas to fill in with plants

(there's a list)

and hopefully later this summer or early fall

I'll be able to start on the water garden.

I guess now with all the weeding and mulching done,

I have to clean the house.

I Dig Perennials

A couple of weeks ago, my mom, Big E and I 

went to a family friend's house to snag some perennials.

Existing flower beds were going to be dug up

to make way for their awesome new barn.

And since I have tons of garden space to fill, 

I jumped at the chance to score free plants.

We might have gone a little overboard.

We had to stop because we ran out of room.

Granted, the photo shows plants for me and my mom, 

but the only room on the back seat is a small spot for my mom

on the passenger side.

I'm still planting stuff.

It's slow going when you need to weed before planting.

Hopefully I'll have some great photos of the garden beds once 

they're weeded and mulched!

Making Hay

I haven't actually been making hay,

but the saying "make hay while the sun is shining" refers 

to getting stuff done- in my case literally when the sun is shining.

In May I think it rain about 85% of the time

making outside work impossible.

Big E and I installed a new sturdier, taller chicken run in the rain.

l to r: Royal Farms, Louise and Vader the Roo

The girls (and the roo) aren't very happy about confinement of any sort

even if it's a very large grassy area.

I guess it's one of those

"The manure is better on the other side of the fence" deals for them.

We wanted to do something to allow them some freedom and space 

without offering them up as a fox buffet during kit season.

So far (knock wood) it seems to be working.

Nutsy enjoying some watermelon

I try to keep them happy with special treats

like watermelon rinds.

Still, the minute the treat is devoured,

they're back to demanding release from the prison yard.

In the nicer weather, 

Big E and I have finally been able to get the veggie garden tilled.

Because we are also busy at the house, we are keeping this year's garden smaller.

I have beets, radishes, cukes, beans, peppers, squash and tomatoes.

There is room for something else but I'm not sure yet what I'll add,

possibly just some additional tomatoes or peppers.

We also managed to finish digging out the new garden beds at our house.

Now I just need to get some stuff planted in them.

A local new-to-me nursery was having a BOGO sale on plants,

so my mom and I headed out and loaded up the car.

They're still sitting by the garage at the moment,

because I have so much that needs getting done I haven't gotten to them yet.

I'm hoping that I can find time to get that done,

so I can share the progress on the gardens.

I'm happy to report that I was able to get the rest of the milkweed that I needed,

and I can start the Monarch Waystation Certification process.

In other news, 

the bathroom is nearly completely gutted.

I haven't managed to get any photos of that process since it has mostly happened

during the day while I'm at work.  

Thanks to my dad. 

Garden Angel

It's been a busy weekend around here.

It's been raining for weeks, 

and we finally had some sun so I had to kick outside gardening chores into high gear.

We have our first cook out at the house this Sunday, 

and I still have a pretty long To-Do list I'm trying to complete.

Most important on the list is to finish digging out the new garden beds.

Once that it done, everything will look neater.

So I got up early (before 7am) on Saturday

and worked until noon when the rains came in.

Yesterday, I got up and started working at 8am.

At noon Big E came home and started helping.

I'm happy to say that most of the garden beds are defined except for one small area

that I will complete once I get home today.

I went to my parents' house to pick up some of my outdoor stuff

like the patio table, kids playhouse and lawn ornaments.

My favorite is the one pictured above, 

a garden angel.

It was once my grandmother's-

a gift for Mother's Day.

There's a story too.

My mom asked my thoughts on a possible gift for my grandmother for Mother's Day on year.

I suggested going to Frank's Nursery & Crafts and getting her a lawn ornament.

My grandmother and I went to Frank's all the time, it was our thing,

and she liked several of the lawn decorations they had.

So we all went to Frank's and my mom told my grandmother to pick out what she wanted.

She loved this angel, it was one she pointed out to me on several of our trips.

Of course, we never looked at the price and when my mom went to pay, 

it ended up being somewhere around $100.

It was always something we joked about afterwards.

So I picked up the angel

and planned on setting it in the area by the house where the hydrangeas will be going.

But a voice told me to put it amongst the peonies

(It wasn't a voice from the heavens I heard, just a small one in my head, I'm not that crazy).

So when I got home, I set her with the peonies

and it looked like that was where she was meant to be. 

Right now, it's my favorite area of the garden.

Ugly Shrub Removal

This is a lilac bush located right outside the back door

and up against the back of the house.

I hate this shrub.

(it's tied for most hated with the ugly yews on the side of the house)

I like lilac bushes in general, 

but this one has to go.

It's old and hasn't been pruned properly

and has several dead and rotting areas in it.

So I cut it back, 

and last night Big E chained it to the truck

and...

We (well, he) 

ripped that ugly sucker right out of the ground.

With minimal damage to the grass.

I've cleaned up the left over pieces of stump and roots

and filled in the hole.

This area is the site of a koi pond 

that I hope to start working on next year.

One shrub down, 

2 more lilac bushes to go

(and a forsythia).

Diggin' It

Now that Spring has Sprung,
or at least since it's shown up once or twice in between freezing temps,
snow showers and 60 MPH winds,
Big E and I have been working on the outside of the house.
I was anxious to tackle the areas in front of the garage
where two large piles of bricks had been sitting for who knows how long.
Bermuda grass had grown up through the bricks
and snaked its way into the garage.

 I plan to make the area part of my Monarch Waystation,
which will host Common Milkweed and various plants
popular with pollinators.

 Both sides of the garage housed the brick piles. 
Thankfully they're all gone now.

 This side will also be a part of the butterfly garden.
Not that the butterflys, bees and humingbirds won't have other areas of the garden
to enjoy as I'll be planting things all pollinators love,
 I just wanted to provide a quiet corner without a lot of activity from the family.

 The digging up of the new garden beds is going to be pretty labor intensive.
The area we've outlined so far runs the length of the yard which is about 110 ft.

 We also managed to get all the grass dug out from around the tree.
I have already planted some lilly of the valley and transplanted some of the hostas
Miss Bertha had in one of her gardens.
I'll need to put down some landscape fabric in area
and then it will be time to mulch.

Hoping the weather improves so I can keep getting my hands dirty!