awol

I realize I have been AWOL from the ol' blog for several days. I really do have a good excuse.

Our yard has been in a state of severe neglect for at least one summer in recent memory. It took several days of hard manual labor to get it rectified. Overgrowth of legitimate plants and weeds alike had pervaded some areas while others resembled lunarscapes due to the recent drought. I pulled, cut, hacked and cleared the first offenders and invested, dug, and planted the second. Oftentimes DH would do some of this but he was laid out with allergy / flu/ bacterial ear infection. He had a painful ear, pluggy head, terrible cough, sneezing, and general grumpies to boot. He did dig the hole for the tree when he observed what a crummy digger I am. Little holes I can make all day long, but at big holes, I honestly suck. Many thanks to my extremely patient MIL who sent email after email with Landscaping for Dummies advice to this self-acknowledged dummy.

Yesterday, having gotten most of the planting and much of the trimming done, I spread 8 bales of pine straw and 2 tractor scoops of mulch. It sounds easier than it was. Make that, filled the wheelbarrow 15 times and hauled mulch down the hill, then spread it.

We used to have a truck, but no longer. Once I coughed up the cash for the Japanese maple, it took me an hour to find a friend with a truck we could borrow to get the tree home. I did think the $25 the nursery wanted to charge for delivery was reasonable, in light of the cost of gas, but I just did not want to spend anything more on the doggone tree.

Bringing home 8 bales of pine straw also presented a challenge. At first, I thought 4 would do it. My Mercedes is on the small side, and I know plenty of Mercedes snobs who would gasp at the thought of what I put mine through. We now know I can fit 4 bales of pine straw in it; 2 in the trunk and 2 in the back seat, sitting straight up like little passengers. There is room for one more back there, to tell the truth. But, I thought I just needed 4, so off we went. After spreading them, I realized I needed 4 more, so went back to Lowe's and repeated the process. Thank you Lowe's for the gift card I got in the mail, $10 off on purchase of $50. I do have a bare spot or two and plan to get 2 more bales in a few days.

The yard definitely looks better, that is, the beds look better, while the lawn itself is a tableau of fescue, chickweed, and crabgrass. I out-and-out asked DH yesterday if he will apply weed killer, seed, and feed to the grass. There was a look of panic on his face as he said, "You mean, NOW?" No, I assured him, just this spring; so the yard will look nice. "Oh," his face resumed its calm demeanor. "OK." (He thinks I will forget.)

I do have "before" pics but am not posting them. Here are the "afters." I believe I'll go sit on the porch.

Landscaping

My DMIL is helping me think what to plant in (and take out of) our pitiful yard. Her help has already been great: This doesn't live long, this lasts forever, this is great for shade, this does well in sun. You can find this stuff in books but it is much more credible coming from her. She has one of those yards where people slow down while driving through the neighborhood. It really is lovely.

I was assigned to notice what I like in neighbors' yards, so my new camera and I took a walk (or three) this afternoon. The cam is great but the chip that came with it is so small that I can only take 4 to 6 pictures, then I have to run home, unload the chip, and run back out again.

In lieu of sending her the pics one-by-one, as necessitated by our email server, I am posting them so that all of you can enjoy these lovely yards as well. These yards are all in our great neighborhood.

This little yard doesn't really have any shrubs I want to copy, but I have included it because I am so proud of our sweet neighbor for being selected Landscape of the Month. She all but trims her foliage with manicure scissors. The tree in the left gets a blunt cut every year so that not one leaf is awry. I have actually observed her sweeping the ceiling of her porch. (Doesn't everyone?) (Not me.)
You can barely see her sitting on her porch. She wanted to step out of the way before I took the photo but I insisted she stay. I am so proud of her.

This house is the back-door neighbor to the house above, and it won Landscape of the Month last year. These are the only 2 houses in the 'hood that have won it, and they sit back-to-back. This yard does have several elements I want to integrate: I love the little "hedgehog" bushes atop the wall. DH says they are Helleri holly. If we got some, could he prune ours to look like hedgehogs, too? I should know the name of the lovely flowers spilling over the wall, but I do not. It's in lots of pretty yards and I think we need some of that, too. I'm afraid you can't see their backyard white picket fence. I fantasize of having a picket fence.

They have a little Japanese maple in the far right foreground, which we have discussed. The clematis on the light post is a bit congested to me; it appears as if the light can't breathe. But, who am I to criticize? I love this yard and think they have done an awesome job. What you can't see is the tiny St. Francis fountain tucked into the garden to the right of the stairs, under that double window.

Part of our yard is shady and this yard seems so cool and refreshing, although we do not want any more ivy. We have some. It was busily asphyxiating our pecan trees when we bought the house and DH beat it into submission. I do like the potted dracena by the steps.

This house faces the same direction as our house and I think they do a nice job with it.

This is my gf's house. There are 3 of us and all our names start with "M." We were a fearsome threesome but one of us moved so now I fear we are the gruesome twosome. She just put some Angelina Stonecrop in front of her fence for a shock of chartreuse and I was pleased to be able to call its name as I saw it at the nursery last week.

Here is the view of her front yard inside the gate. I needed to get another shot as she has flowers in other areas, but the data chip filled up and it was time to go home. She also has beautiful tea roses that cascade over the fence when they bloom.

She designed this walk and resting area and had someone install it when she had the fence built. It is a 9000% improvement over the way it looked before.

So, that is the mini-tour. As to our own plans? Still pretty much a blank slate. I am sure I will post any improvements as we make them.