~gardening~

When we moved into our home December 2008 I wasn’t quite aware of how horrible our yard was. Spring of 2009 we got a huge shock. The first thing we did was clean it up. There was so much miscellaneous garbage around. Pie tins, pop cans, a head band, cups, tires, wood with rusty nails poking out, car batteries, old fencing, unidentifiable junk, bags full of moldy leaves half buried in the ground…

Our neighbors to the right, Greg and Sue, came out and told us they were so glad we moved in. They had been watching us out their kitchen window in awe and said they felt like they were watching TV.

Apparently no one had taken care of the yard in years. Greg mentioned they were the original owners of their house so they’ve seen it all. The original owners put our grass right on sand, no topsoil. Moronic is all I can say. Our grass is a sad sight compared to everyone else. Lance would like to dig out all our grass then lay a load of topsoil and new turf. That’s not going to be cheap.

Last summer, we dug out three hideous bushes in the front of our sidewalk. While doing so our neighbor to the left, Gretchen, thanked us for removing such an eyesore. She hated them as much as I did! We discovered there was a ton of rock in the area that was so overgrown you would have never known. Thank God another neighbor, Barry, saw we were attempting to dig up all the rock (that was mixed in very deep with the dirt since the morons didn’t bother to put a liner between the dirt and rock) and he loaned us 2 wheelbarrows and a rock sifter which greatly helped us. We put hostas in the place of the bushes and it made it look a thousand times better.

That’s all the yard work we accomplished last year. We were busy staining and putting polyurethane on 7 of our new windows.

This spring I got right out there in the yard and started digging up 7 dead bushes along the garage. Lance had to help me with getting 2 out because the roots were just too deep. And what a shocker they didn’t bother putting a liner in between the rock and dirt again! Urg. So far I am only 1/3 done with that area getting the rock out.

Along the fence in our backyard at one point was probably a decent garden but my oh my what a mess. It was basically all weeds. I think I can save one perennial plant that’s in there out of I’d guess a 20 foot long area. So far I have cleaned up half of that. Thank you Lord that there’s no rock in there! One thing I found very odd was that there was 5 different kinds of edging! Wood, brick, green plastic, black plastic, and black tubing. Wowzer! I ripped all that out obviously.

We have 3 mailboxes for ourselves and 2 neighbors in our yard. The rock in that area was completely overgrown with weeds. It took a good 12 hours to clean that out! There was a liner this time but it didn’t help much when they put a layer of dirt on top of it with rocks and then rocks under the liner as well. My goodness. After getting all the rocks and weeds and liner out I planted marigolds. The neighbors have commented how nice it looks.

I also planted some marigolds in 2 planters to go on each side of our new bench. I bought way too many! I still have 9 more to plant.

There is another area off of our deck with 3 lilac bushes that I would like taken out so we can move our steps to where they are. I’m sure that’s going to be full of rock as well.

Once I finish along the garage, the fence, and by the deck we are going to landscape all around the outside of the house with bushes, river rock, and new edging. I will plant a flower garden by the fence too with perennials. And we’re going to put in a patio where the current bonfire sand pit is located. This will probably be done next spring since there is still so much to do with my limited weekends to do it all. Plus we have hopes of getting the last 3 new windows put in and the outside of the house repainted this summer/fall.

Owning a house really is a never ending job. I still have things to do inside too! New kitchen and bathroom counters and sinks and bathroom floors are at the top of my list. I love love love my house though. It is so me. The decorating is all done I just am now tweaking things a bit.