weekend update: taming the wild

On Saturday, my mom came down to help us with some red fence removal by lending her hard work & pick-up truck.  In return, I cook a feast (more on that later) and offer my sparkling personality.

The picture above is the 1/2 started state my yard was in for a couple weeks; we started pulling some fence down, only to stop when we realized we have no means to dispose of it.  So, yeah, this is the view that greeted me everytime I looked outside.  Fabulous.

Anyways, lets remember the beginning (or close to it):

Now, over the weekend, we laid more grass seed, planted a rosemary bush and an azalea, removed most of the remaining red fence, cleared the hill and side garden, planted hosta along the stairs, and mowed.


BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Funny story, I started planting some of the extra hosta from around the property to line these stairs.  Only to find out my mom had a few huge bunches at her house, which happened to be the opposite style (white edges with green inside) from what I had just planted.  Soooooo, uprooted the recently planted hosta and replaced with the other variety.  And, ta da!  I'm eager for these to fill in to made a thick border for the (less than appealing) stairs.

Also?  I lied to you.  This isn't completely a "weekend update"... the hosta transplanting was done earlier.  Shh!  It'll be our little secret.


Now, for the fence & vegetable garden...

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER:

Oooohhh, Aaaaahhh!!!!  So, to tally the work done: rock border moved out to meet the patio, removed old boxwood bushes, transplanted all remaining hosta and daffodils, removed red privacy fence, and cleared out all remaining junk from behind the fence,* leaves, weeds, and excess ivy. 

True, now I can see easily into the neighbor's yard, which may or may not be a good thing.  But, it also makes the yard feel bigger and will allow more sunlight to reach the vegetable plants.  Which, in case you didn't guess, is totally awesome!!

*Behind the fence, there were a bunch of metal posts, trash, a fiberglass whip, and wire.  Yup, this is the gold I find in my backyard.  

Meanwhile, the Hill of Pain and Doom still spreads its reign of horror on all who challenge it.

BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER: 

I gave the hill a good dousing with poison & brush killer, to try and get things good and dead.  Or dead and good.  Whichever way you look at it.  I'm sure it killed something... but not a lot.  Or, rather, not enough!  I wanted to go on a weed & poison killing spree.  Take no prisoners!  Ask no questions!  But, I was thwarted by the lack of chemical strength, (or maybe lack of "ammunition"?  Next time: 4 containers of brush killer...  per weed.)  Back to the matter at hand: soaked the weeds, transplanted all random daffodils from around the property to make a line behind the rocks at the base of the hill, filled in the line of hosta (between the daffodils & the rock line), and then raked, cut, & cleared all debris.  So, though the hill is still home to the most wretched weeds, it looks better!  

Our rationale for leaving the weeds for the time being is that the roots, damned as they may be, are holding some of the hill in place and thwarting that dastardly erosion.  Will work on uprooting & banishing all interloping plants once we have the new, permanent residents (probably a basic ground cover) ready to go.

Here's the final "AFTER," once the weekend was done:

You can't tell, but there are tons of tiny baby grasses incubating here!

Just wait until that path & patio are sparkling with awesome renovation.  Just... wait...

Yup.  There you go.  Very productive & satisfying weekend.  And I am oh-so-glad that we chose to do this work in the humid, 88degree heat.  Smashing good idea.