Yard Working It Up

Sunday, May 15, 2011


Soooo, how's your yard work coming along? I'm still in an imaginary lawn competition with the house down the street. For five years they've tried to have a nicer yard than me but not for long.... dun dun dun.

I absolutely won't blow dandelion seeds into their yard as I'm walking by their house because that would be so mean. Who would even think of that??? (Hanging my head in shame.)

See the flower above? It's a perennial. I just learned what that meant the summer before last. I don't know what it's called though. For now I'll call it.... purple flowerisculus.  

Last weekend my little wanna-be perennial garden looked like this:


My pretty garden full of dead leaves and garbage. Today I cleaned it up a bit. I raked all the leaves, pruned all the dead flowers and stems, and added some nice, rich soil:



I still have no idea what I planted or why I planted them in that weird configuration. All I remember is that there are some peonies, some cone-flowers, and some clematis in there somewhere. Hopefully they get bigger and, you know, start to look nice or something.

I also spent the day fixing the hundred pee spots all over the front yard. I dug out all the dead grass and then filled the spots in with top soil, grass seed, and starter fertilizer.


I also over seeded some bare spots:


It's still too early to plant any annuals where we live (Zone 4a) but hopefully I'll be able to fill up my empty window-boxes next weekend. I'm debating whether to go with a white/green scheme this year or use the same yellow/white/purple/pink scheme as last year.  

P.S. Alex worked on the lower level of our backyard deck today. He started it late last summer and wasn't able to finish before the winter. I am so excited that we'll finally have a deck this summer! We still have a lot of finishing touches to do (railings, stairs, etc.) so I'll try to post some progress pictures as we go along. If you're interested in checking out Phase I of the deck project, click here.

P.S.S. Thank you so much for your comments on the shutters we made and installed last weekend. I appreciate your feedback so much!!!

P.S.S.S. I'm on Week #2 of my photography course and am sort of getting the whole aperature, shutter speed, ISO thing. I snapped a few pictures tonight on my walk with Roary and guess what.... I didn't have my camera on any of the automatic settings! Yeah!!! 


9 comments:

  1. Don't you love the surprise of what you planted where with perennials? I always get so happy when I see those hints of green fighting their way up through all the dried up dead stuff.

    We need to work on all our pee spots in our yard too... but it's been raining since Friday so I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. The neighbors put down grass seed on Thursday and I'm pretty sure it's floated away in all the rain... maybe it will float over to our yard.

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  2. Your little garden is going to look great, once it grows in. Peonies are one of my favorites, along with purple cone flowers. Can't wait to see the progress. Have a great week.

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  3. Sounds like you got a lot done. It's going to be beautiful :)

    I need to work on my yard today, since it's actually sunny outside for a change. I don't have any pee spots to fix, but our whole yard is a lumpy mess thanks to moles...a never ending battle :)

    Tricia

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  4. Your little perennial garden looks great!! Can't wait to see more pics once the plants grow & mature a little more!! Loving your photography too!! I am also finally getting the hang of manual mode & the whole aperture, shutter speed, ISO thing!! A little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it...its not too bad!!

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  5. I think your landscaping looks great! We have gotten back into cold weather, so I haven't been out much to plant my flowers.

    Keep up the good work, I think it looks great!I like the purple flowers!

    Jodi

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  6. lol - at least i don't feel so alone about the grass "pee spots"~ your garden is looking good & it's so amazing to see the progress - just a spring clean up & a few plants & it's so cheerful! xoxo, tracie

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  7. Hi Sarah! Lovely flowers.
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  8. I'm waiting to plant some annuals too. I love your colour combo of yellow/white/purple/pink. I'm leaning towards something like that, with some colour to make my beat up old porch not look so bad! What a difference a little bit of clean up can do for a garden. Your perennials look like they're coming in nicely :)

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