Just realized that it has been more than a month since my last post.... In addition to some out of town travel, things have been pretty busy around the house. We're getting into some of the LARGER and more long-term outdoor projects at the moment, which means that the progress isn't as fast and quick to come as some of the early wins, but the pay-off's will be pretty good in the long term! Here's a quick look at a few of the more recent outdoor projects:
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| Astilbe near the back walk |
The first "new planting bed" that I managed to complete was this tiny patch next to the sidewalk heading around to the back door. As you can see, it isn't a huge space, but had completely been taken over by weeds. It doesn't get much sun and stays fairly damp, so I figured it would be an excellent spot for some astilbe. I had originally thought about doing some hostas here, but the space was so narrow that I was concerned that they'd end up just flopping out all over the sidewalk. These three grand dames were snapped up on clearance at Lowes and are very happy in their new local!
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| "Temporary" veggie garden |
This decision met with some raised eyebrows from Jason, who wasn't sure how he felt about having veggies planted right out in the front yard. I assured him that this arrangement was just to get us through the current season since right now we lack any other suitable location. I didn't exactly have time to lay out and dig beds for an entire garden, and I wanted to have at least a few peppers and tomatoes this year. Lacking the cash-flow to actually complete landscaping of the front bed I decided that the best plan would be to temporarily put the veggies out there so it wasn't just a bare mulch spot for the whole summer. I managed to fit in a few tomato plants, a few peppers, and a cucumber, zucchini, and some herbs. (The GIANT hosta was already there and I didn't really want to move him until I know exactly what is going to be happening out here long term!)
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| East side shade garden |
The third project was a general clean-up of the shade garden just off the parking area on the east side of the house. Again, it was mostly overgrown and run down after years of neglect. We also have a very bad drainage problem where all of the water off of the parking area ran right into this bed. Consequently the mulch (if there ever was any) from the bed had been washed away a long time ago and things were looking a bit ratty! I solved that problem by using some pot hole repair cold patch to build a small berm around the perimeter of the bed so that the water now runs down into the lawn without flowing through the bed. You can probably see it better if you click through to the full size photo.
The only other update here was the planting of my formerly potted hydrangea n the front center of the photo above. She's been in a pot for the better part of three years, so I'm hoping she likes her new permanent home! All of the other plants were already here, so mostly all I did was get rid of the weeds and then put down a nice thick layer or mulch. I'm going to be adding to this area eventually, but for now at least it cleans up the appearance of the side of the house.
You'll notice in the two later photos the pots up on the concrete plinths. I placed one of these on each side of the side entrance to sort of form the entrance way. The bases were found on the property. They're concrete and at one time were actually outdoor light fixtures of some sort. (There are a few other discarded ones yet to be excavated from the woods.) I thought it was a pretty clever way to reuse them with a bit of flair.
I've got a couple of other projects to share, but unfortunitely I had a slight file transfer malfunction, so I'll have to re-shoot a few pictures and share those later!
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