Garden

I have a new obsession! I've never been much of a shopper or buyer of things for myself, like some women. I have never really cared about clothes or shoes much, unless it's for my girls! Through the years, I have however found projects that I obsess over. I have loved scrapbooking, web design, decorating my house, etc. Well, my latest obsession is my yard. More specifically, my flower beds. In our house, we refer to it as our garden! Don't let the name fool you, there are no consumable vegetations in our garden, just pretties! I have spent every extra minute, which I don't have many of, and any extra money, which is also limited, on our garden! I started working on the front beds as soon as the weather allowed! It was the beginning of March when I started. It took me forever to just get things cleaned up!

Here is Randy helping me clean out all the leaves and trash!



Evidently when the people who built our house did the landscaping, they were drunk or blind, or both. If not, they were spatially challenged and definitely not OCD like the new owners!


Everything was uneven, and not spaced out correctly. Also, they definitely did not watch HGTV or Landscape Weekends because they would have known better! If you can't tell, I was working with a mess! Honestly, I could have just taken everything out, and started fresh, but that wasn't in my budget. I left some "foundation" shrubs and worked around them. Here are some before pictures.














As you can tell, it was yucky! The first thing I did was pull up the plastic edging, and pull some weeds. The start of the first big project, that included the entire family.. Even my mom came to town and helped! I cleaned out all the dead growth, grass, leaves and weeds. Brennon helped till the dirt, then we added lots of dirt to fill in the low area. This was, and still is the most surprising thing about landscaping to me. The dirt! I have never been so shocked as to how much dirt a project takes! Our beds needed to be filled with lots of dirt because they sloped down towards the house from the yard. As you can see, about a foot, in some places, of the foundation of our house was showing. I bought 10 bags of dirt the first time, 25 the second time, and still ended up getting 2 loads of dirt from Sutherlands! The sad thing is, it still needs more! We also planted 8 Indian Hawthorn bushes in front of the shrubs in the front bed. In front of those we (my mom) planted the pink and variegated Dianthus. In the big bed in front of the windows, I cleaned out the yuck, filled in with dirt, and bordered the bed with rocks. I looked and looked for just the right stone to use for the look I wanted. I googled pictures and found a rustic look I liked. I searched around town at all the mainstream stores, and I couldn't find anything I liked. As I was driving to get Aniston from daycare one afternoon, I had to turn around to go back home to get something I forgot. I turned around in the entrance of Pitt's Stone and Gravel. I've lived in this town for 20 years and driven down Seymour Hwy hundreds of times...and never seen it! I noticed they had big bundles of stone in these chain link fence looking baskets.... Just like what I wanted!! Of course they were already closed... So the next day I went! Long story short, I hand picked the rocks I wanted, and spent $35 on all the stone for my border! What a deal! I even took a tape measure to make sure the rocks I lined up would be long enough! I bought 6 extra just to make sure... After we layer them out, I had six left! Am I good or what!!?? In my house, we call that Ches Bosticking it! (that means always using a tape measure, level, or whatever it takes to make sure it's done right the first time!) Anywho, I was super excited about my find, and I was even more proud of myself that I drove randy's truck, loaded and unloaded the rocks myself! Go Me!

Here are the "after" pictures...















My only regret is that I didn't get bigger rocks...I'm waiting until my landscaping is more established to see if I still want it changed.

Here is a street view..






And a side view...


And from the walkway...


The porch and front bed..






Since then, I have added some ground cover to the curved area of the large bed. I've also googled for pictures and names of this stuff. I have found that it is called "Ice Plant" or "baby sun rose". Scientifically, it is Aptenia cordifolia. More recently, I have added a leaning pot with the Ice Plant trailing out. I also planted 3 Knock Out Rose bushes behind the pot.






And, yes, I have planted them... Just no picture yet!

One of my favorite things I've added are the Texas Sage bushes. They bloom the prettiest little purplish flowers.. Love them! I also added a tall Oakland Holly on the left and some pots on the right of this bed. I tried transplanting one of the shrubs that was uneven, and it died! Bammer!






My next project, hopefully this coming weekend, is dirt and mulch. Hopefully, for my sunburned skins sake, my husbands sanity, our bank account, and our water bill.. I'm done for this spring!

We'll see! Stay tuned for pictures!

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