Yard Projects: Front Yard

I know I haven’t been updating around these parts lately, for a while I just felt like I had nothing to say.  Then, I got out of the habit.  Then, I started working my hiney off on my yard.

I thought I’d do a few posts on my yard projects!

Arthur, rolling around in the grass.

My favorite project was the flowerbeds in the front yard.  It made such a huge difference and was such a fun way to spend the day with my mom.  She’s awesome at garden stuff and I learned so much. 

The bed on the side was so seriously overgrown.  It was full of blue salvia that had grown wild, grass (what were they thinking?) a rose bush, some ivy, and lots and lots of weeds and rocks.  We (and by that I mean her) turned over all of the dirt, and then as she pulled stuff out I transplanted it to other places in the yard.  We moved a second rosebush into that bed and then I bought one more, so that there’s symmetry.  I added ice plant and flox, so that will grow in and fill out over the years and be really beautiful.  I’m also going to add some peonies from my sister’s yard; it’s the perfect place for peonies with all of the sun it gets.  I realized as I added two flats of plants that I had never put those kind of plants in the ground before.  I had only ever done containers.  It takes about thirty seconts to add plants to a container.  I thought that's what it would take to get them into the ground, too.  Wrong!  It took about an hour per flat.  I had to use a real shovel instead of my hand held spade.  I had to add compost.  It was so fun to own my own ground to put them into.

Before.

After.  Flox on the edge.  Ice Plants in corners.  Rose Bushes in the middle.  I changed to a smaller planter to allow more sun to reach the climbing rose bush in the corner.

That day, I also put in the new climbing rose bushes.

One of the climbers.

While Mom and I worked on that project, my brother also came over to mow the lawn for me.  Awesome, right?

Remember last year how I was trying to rehab my front yard, “Wes”?  This year he came back much fuller than last year, but still had some major bald spots.  I over seeded him again, and then used plugs from the grass that we pulled out of the flowerbed (plugs are basically like hair extensions).  That worked so well and made him look so handsome that I decided I needed to fill in the rest with extensions from a piece of sod.  So I bought just one piece for $4 at home depot and gave him some more.  He’s looking pretty great.  Plus, the new baby grass seeds are still growing, so I think he’s going to look pretty awesome by the end of the summer.

Wes, with hair extensions.

Stay tuned for more!