around the yard

Part of staying in our house still means that I'm ready to get rid of all these bare patchy lawn spots and create a "lush oasis" for our backyard and a place for the kids to play. 

The before, with the neighbor's tree.

This was a huge bare spot, and we chopped our neighbor's tree down (with his permission) that was hanging over onto our side. But it created a big spot where we could only see his sheds. Doug planted these climbing hydrangeas, which in several years though (unfortunately) will be tall and lush and a beautiful visual. 

(there is fencing between those poles so the hydrangeas will be able to climb up and branch out.) 

After planting the hydrangeas and the fresh sod.

Several years ago, mom and I dug up all the stuff around the deck and planted violets, but sadly none of them stuck around. And it's just been this yucky dirt and bare spots for years. 

We laid sod all around the deck and also later planted some shade grass seed when we ran out of sod. 

Sod is actually pretty hard to take care of. We watered it forever for weeks, but one too-close grass cutting and it messed some of it up. Sigh. So we are going to see how it grows back next spring, and maybe come then, rip of some of those spots and do the grass seed instead. But hoping it grows back better!

This very splotchy spot in the back gets a lot of downed leaves and not much sun. 

Another leafy, weedy area by the side of the house. Cleared it all out, laid down some weed barrier, and then covered with pond rocks. 

Looks so much better!

Also laid 18 bags of brown mulch around my flower beds, and 8 more of cedar mulch on the other side. Seems like I'm always pregnant when I do my mulch beds and it's so much work! But it makes everything look so nice.

And finally blooming:

Blooming!:

And my garden growing away:

landscaping fun

This my friends is what $85 of hydrangeas looks like. Yes, those shriveling up, browning hydrangeas were still full price. That's what happens when you buy at the end of the season and the cheaper places like Lowes are sold out and you have to go to the expensive nursery Bordine's.

I have wanted those gorgeous big white snowball hydrangeas for 3 years now. When mom and I did the landscaping last year I bought 2 "Annabelle" hydrangeas and planted them out front. The first year I didn't get any blooms. This year they bloomed like a queen Anne's lace and just a few petals, I didn't understand. I sent a picture to one of mom's gardening friends and she said it was a "lacecap" hydrangea.

So Bordine's had not one, but 2 plants mis-labeled the year before. I called them to complain and they were going to not do anything since I didn't have my receipt (a year later). Anyway, they finally said I could dig them up and bring them back. But then Doug was too embarressed to do that. So we decided to dig them up and relocate them to the other side of the house and get 2 new ones. So yesterday mom came over and that is what we did.

Before views:

The North side of the house. The big plant is a rhodedendron that gets beautiful pink flowers for 2 weeks a year, otherwise looks like this crazy bush. And those are my precious peony plants on either side of it. That spot isn't great for peonies because it doesn't get full sun.

The front of the house. So there we have the 2 lacecap hydrangeas with a large butterfly bush in the middle.

The backyard view and the fence in front of the kayak rack.

After working all day, with a stop for lunch, we were done.

The after views:

So now I have 2 "little lime" hydrangeas flanking the butterfly bush. They will have light green big blooms that will fade to this kind of dusky pink in the fall. It's not exactly the big white blooms I wanted, but I think they will still be nice. And my hydrangea research showed the little lime was a lot hardier and easier to grow than the Annabelle. They should be about 5 feet tall too so should be a good fit for that space.

Moved the lacecaps to flank the rhododendron, and there's one small empty spot where next year I'll probably get another hosta to balance it out on the right side.

And finally the peonies will enjoy full morning and afternoon sun in front of the kayak rack and hopefully be full of blooms next year.

So, I think I'm done with the landscaping. We used barrier cloth to help block weeds, and I'll have to re-mulch every year, but hopefully the very hard parts and high maintenance parts are done.

Today will be a fun day of trying to cram the cat into her carrier for a trip to the vet. This morning I caught her peeing in the laundry tub and then into August's carseat (twice) EWWWW. So we're getting her checked for a UTI or to see if this is just behavioral. I like this cat, but I absolutely will not spend my days searching for and cleaning up cat pee. So who knows.