Yard Work

I wish I had "before" pictures, but I don't.  Nobody thought to tell me I should've taken some until it was all done:)  They probably didn't know how much I was really going to get it changed!!!

Last year before Pappa and Grandma's house was sold, Clint and I took a few things to transplant at our house.  Clint took a couple Rhododendrons and I took a Hosta, Lily of the Valley and Lilac.  We'd also planted a few plants up there that we received when Pappa and Grandma died.  We basically dug holes for them to get them in the ground and they were planted on the grassy hillside.  I knew I wanted it changed, because it was pretty hard to mow around everything, and I really wanted it to be a flowerbed.

Last fall my big camellia plant was stripped of everything green by the deer!  It's still looking pretty sad, but every week it gets more leaves opening.  I think the flower buds must start the prior year, too, because there was only one blossom . . . and the deer got that, too, after about a day of being partially open!!

Twenty years ago when we moved here, David built a rock wall and I had about 2-3 feet wide of petunias growing there every year while we lived in our trailer.  During the digging and building of our house, the rock wall was partially buried and hadn't been kept up anymore.

Christopher and Clint helped me dig up and turn over the hillside.  We dug out all the rocks from the wall.  There were tons of ferns growing out of it and they have severe root systems that had to come out!  David didn't seem to want to have anything to do with my project, so we were on our own.  I knew he'd get tired of watching us building the wall (probably not the correct way) and come give his two cents worth after awhile.  After getting about 3 feet done, he came and did a couple feet and then said it was our deal.  The boys didn't like all the digging, but they did enjoy prettying it up, by building the wall with me.  After we got the wall done, I put down landscape fabric and then covered it with barkdust.  Tara helped me with most of that.  I think it turned out really nice:)

I always hate it that grass grows up into the rock wall and it needs weedeating, so I dug out along the front flowerbed and added barkdust along it so we can mow easier.

We've had this for many years.  Just cleaned it up a bit and added barkdust after redoing the rock work.

Our neighbor sells Clematises, and Tara gave me a couple (that I got to pick out) for Mother's Day.  I planted them along our pumphouse.  I need to get a couple trellises for them.  The one on the right is ready to bloom and will bloom again in the fall.  The one on the left will bloom during the summer months.

I know for all of you fancy landscapers out there, this probably doesn't look like much, but for us it is:)  I'm glad to have it done and hoping, hoping, hoping I can keep the deer out of all of them.  We just scared off three this morning!