Front Yard Reveal

Some black mulch, spring bulbs, and a ton of manual labor and it is finally time to reveal the front yard makeover. So first the befores:

Jungle-tastic!

Shaggy for sure. And the in-progress pictures:

Wasteland with a Peony. 

Getting Better and now with mums. And the reveal:

So non-jungle-like it hurts. What you can't see are the 112 spring bulbs (Daffodils, Tulips, and a pair of Irises) that I planted under the mulch. I am hoping for a colorful spring. We also plan on getting some plants in the spring once we see how it fills out. As a bonus, we also did the tree on the otherside of the driveway, before:

And after: 

Fall Color

So last week I also mentioned that we were redoing the front flower bed/mini jungle. We worked really hard last weekend to rip it all out, leaving it looking awful!

Woo, hard work.... So while we were working on getting this back to something we want in our front yard, we picked out some fall mums to add a bit of fall color (and a sneak peak of the black mulch that I put down - Big reveal on Friday):

A rather large orange one:

And some color...albeit not really fall themed:

So while we are still working on dealing with the jungle turned wasteland in the front yard, we did put some fall mums in, hopefully to enjoy for at least a few weeks - it is getting really late in the season. But even so, There isn't much in this space, so I think I will let the mums come back next year to add greenery during the spring and summer, and some color during the fall. Lets see if they come back in the spring. 

Front Lawn: Falling Cleaning

In early September, Chris picked up some bulbs for fall planting:

By some, I mean a lot. There is a big bag of daffodils in featured above and we later picked up another big bag of tulips to mix it up. Both of these are early-mid-spring flowers that require fall planting. I have big plans to get them planted before the close of October. Hopefully, in future years this will be not a big deal, partly because these bulbs will come back every year, and mostly because we won't have to deal with this first:

So maybe, and just maybe, I left the front yard get a bit out of hand. It wasn't really my fault, I swear. The plants left by the previous owner just took over. This left it looking very messy, and devoid of variety - you can barely make out the peony that I found in May.

So Chris and I decided to take some drastic measures. The plan is to replace this triangle of miniature jungle with some mulch and a more 'planned and maintained' look. This will be bordered by some landscaping stones and for this season at least, will feature those bulbs and some mums. So we started ripping it out:

Oh, look, the peony. I was going a bit slowly, so Chris helped me out:

So right now it looks a mess. I'll admit. But this is just the first step. We went to Home Depot and looked at landscaping stones and mulch, but the weather yesterday was gross (like fifties and rainy) so this is a project that will continue into next weekend.  

Ivy, Ivy Everywhere...Not!

So I really enjoy the plant life that is all around here. One thing we don't have a shortage of is ivy:

Sadly, though, this isn't the right kind of ivy to grow on wooden fences. It is English Ivy, which unlike it's American cousin, destroys the wood as it grows. So while I found the ivy very attractive, Chris was unwilling to have it destroy the fence. He decided to take things into his own hands:

So while he did a through job of hacking down the Ivy, he did a slightly less through job of cleaning up. But that is okay, Lucy and I took care of that:

Luckily, the town picks up leaves, cause we have three bags full:

So while the fence is slightly released from its ivy burden, it did suffer some damage before Chris got to it:

It still looks like it is in good shape, and we found some fun stuff under all of that ivy:

And because one can never have enough bird houses:

So the battle continues with the plant life in the backyard...I think Chris might have his sights set on the overgrown bushes next:

Flowers of a Different Color

So I previously posted about how excited I was about the hydrangea in the front yard. My mother mentioned that she didn't really see the blue in the last picture. They slowly turned more blue and I wanted to share an updated shot that really shows off the blue flowers:

Another reason for this post is that I noticed that there are actually two hydrangea plants growing very closely to each other. Additionally, the second one must have slightly different soil conditions or is a different variety because it has molted purple blooms:

They are rather striking next to the blue blooms, but they were quite a surprise. More on stuff going on inside the house later this week, but we had a busy weekend because Shelly came to visit! As those of us on the East Coast know, it was super hot this weekend and it was great to have her over to enjoy the pool and beat the heat.  

A Re-potting Tip that Rocks!

So I have been doing a lot of re-potting lately. One of the plants that recently got a new home was the desert rose, Rosie, who is posing in the pot she will be re-potted in:

So for the tip. Many plants, including this desert rose, require really good drainage and recommend that you let the soil dry out before re-watering. If these plants were in the ground their natural soil would drain this excess water to underground sinks. For the most part the small hole in most pots is not sufficient to provide even drainage. So here is my nearly free tip for correcting this problem: Rocks. 

If you layer the bottom of the pot with rocks this will allow excess water to drain more evenly. Luckily, our backyard did not miss the handful of rocks that I swiped for my project. After the rocks are placed on the bottom, simply cover it with potting soil:

Then I simply re-potted Rosie as you normally would. This year we are trying out moisture control soil to help compensate for our erratic watering and I will be sure to let you know if we are really disappointed or really happy with it. Speaking of happy, here is Rosie in her new home:

This is definitely a tip that I will be using as I go about replacing all of the fake flowers around the house with real ones:

Yes, those are fake tulips on the outside of the kitchen window. File that in the rather large folder of questionable decisions. 

Have You Seen this Tree?

So when I posted those pictures of Chris putting up the flags, I noticed just how over-grown the front yard was. Just as a reminder, here is the 'before' picture:

And here is the 'after' picture:

It is looking a little shaggy. These pictures don't show it but there are also several medium sized trees that are growing under the large trees. Here is a picture of some small Japanese Maples growing near the front bushes:

There was no question. These little guys needed to come out. They were not really viable where they were growing anyway, and I needed to start somewhere with the jungle in the front yard. So I dug them up:

I felt bad just chucking them, so I planned to treenap them over state lines to deliver them to my mother. I had visions of extracting a 'root ball' with lots of soil, but I learned that our soil is a bit too sandy to do so. So I sadly got less roots than expected and next to no dirt.  In that picture above, they just seem like little trees, but there was some much larger trees:

I carefully wrapped the roots in potting soil and plastic bags:

Now for the hard part. I needed to put all these trees into my small red chevy:

Chris has no idea the level of crazy that he lives with. Luckily, 1 part engineer + 1 part crazy = Mission Accomplished:

This is the last known photo of the trees. They are thought to have been treenapped to western Pennsylvania by a small build Caucasian woman and a sausage shaped brown dog and are suspected to be hiding in my mother's backyard. 

Herb Garden: Part 1

So before we found the house, I had big plans for a veggie garden. I had even printed out plans for a 6x6 "All-American" Garden from BHG. But, as we all know, it is now June. We moved in early May and then I have been really busy. Too busy, in fact, to start this garden and now it really is too late. But I have simply shelved those plans for next spring and I am now focused on my kitchen herb garden. I have picked out the six types of herbs I want:

The live plant is sweet mint. The home depot was out of mint from seed and the seeds I had from last year did not start, so I decided it was worth the 3 extra dollars to buy the started plant from that one. The ones that I am going to try from seed are basil, cilantro, rosemary, oregano, and parsley. I also picked up containers from Ikea during that epic trip:

I was pleasantly surprised to find that these containers already had drainage. I bought one large container for the basil and five smaller ones for the other herbs. So then I planted them:

Now I wait. I am going to left them start in the sunroom before I move them to their final growing place, but that is a surprise and as I have to wait for herbs to grow so do you. 

June Flowers!

So as my battle with the Creepers continues, I am finding even more gems hidden under all that brush. I have already gushed about my love for the peony and lily I found in May, and now I have two more lovelies to share. The first of which I knew was there, but wasn't sure what color it was going to be. Meet the hydrangea bush:

Depending on the acidity of your soil, the hydrangea blooms can vary from pink to blue (with shades of purple in between). The varying color depends on the amount of aluminum that the plant absorbs, which is based on the pH of your soil: more acidic (lower pH, more aluminum absorption) = blue flowers, more basic (higher pH, less aluminum absorption) = pink flowers. Sorry to go all Bill Nye on you there, but long story short, it looks like ours are blue. It's a boy! I shall call you Larry. 


I would like to claim credit for finding the next plant, but that really goes to Lucy. So while I was hacking away at the bushes (this has become a daily obsession of mine...with no end in sight), Lucy was suspiciously busy. When I went to investigate I found that she was eating the plants. Normally, this would be a "BAD DOG!" moment, but then I realized what she was snacking on: Strawberries!

As you can tell, there is still some freeing to be done to get to the strawberries, but they are definitely there. It is always exciting to see more variety in the plants and I was especially pleased because these reminded me of the strawberry plant that I got in elementary school while visiting the local farm. My grandfather helped me plant it along my childhood home. So while I had to compete with the birds for ripe strawberries growing up, it looks like my biggest competition for strawberries now has four legs and is shaped like a sausage: 

Dog...the Berry Hunter!

Ode to Ikea

Oh, Ikea, how do I count the ways that I love thee...okay, maybe that is a bit much, but I do really enjoy Ikea. I'd like to think that my style is Mid-Century Modern (think Frank Lloyd Wright and West Elm), but that is really yet to be determined because right now my style is cheap...oh and Ikea, my fair one, is cheap. We ventured out last weekend so I could buy my bookshelves (desperately needed, but more on that later) and found so many things I didn't know I needed. I won't share them all, but here are a few of my favorite things that I came home with:

So these definitely weren't on my list. But they are really cute and cheaper than Old Navy's flip-flops at just under 2 dollars. I've only worn them for a bit, so I can't attest to their durability or long term comfort, but still....they are sooo silly. But now to more practical matters:

Before Ikea, this was just a pile of lids, which were awful to dig through, but now, after Ikea, they are all nicely organized and kept off the cabinet floor. (Yes, for those who are asking, that is carpet...I am not sure what they were thinking, but yea...). The pegs are on a set of cross beams which can be expanded or shrunk to fit any lid size (or plates, or skillets, or...maybe I need more than one). I also picked up some cheap jars to hold items for the bathroom (flossers, q-tips, cotton balls), but that isn't very exciting, so I will spare you the pictures. I am a sucker for the Ikea plants and for orchids. She doesn't have a name yet, but I think she might be Swedish:

 And look, Lucy already approves. She will live happily on my desk, once I get that together. There is more stuff, but trying to keep up the mystery.

Meet Meyer and Mandy

So the best room in this house is, without a doubt, the sunroom off the kitchen:

It looks out on the pool and makes the kitchen extremely bright. Even before we moved in I spoke with our Realtor, Rose, about how I wanted to have a Meyer Lemon Tree growing in there, since it gets really good sun year round and I have a gardener's crush on the little guys. Well this past weekend at the HD, I saw one, reasonably priced and had an impulse buy. Meet Meyer:

He is a little guy, but the tag assures me that he will bear fruit (later this year, closer to December), which I am looking forward to. Until then he will happily live outside on the deck until he 'winters' in the sunroom. Well, also on his display at HD were drawf mandarin oranges....well, I couldn't resist, so meet Mandy:

I hope they will thrive in the sunny conditions and give the sunroom a summery feel even in winter. Plus, I think dwarf plants and fruit are simply too cute. Now I am just looking for matching planters, in bright yellow and orange, or course.