More Landscaping Update

Well, we're rushing around getting ready for the movers to come tomorrow, but I wanted to put up a few last photos to remind myself of some of the landscaping we've done since last summer. We wanted to do much more, but then found out we were moving. I would have liked to till up the garden area and really plant it, but just had time to clear out the brush, pruned up the blackberries and raspberries and put in a few heirloom tomatoes and a compost bin.

BEFORE garden area

AFTER garden area

AFTER garden area with compost bin

Last Fall front flower bed after a lot of work

Last Fall side flower bed after a lot of work

This Spring flower bed after some plantings and mulch

The plantings don't really show in these photos since they are small, but I hope to come back someday and photograph them when they are bigger. You can't really see the hardy roses I put in or all the starts of flowers my friend, Marie, gave me. You can just see in the side yard how well the irises seem to be doing since I transplanted them from other places in the yard last fall.

Landscaping Update: The SCARY SLOPE

Before

I wish I had gotten better "BEFORE" pictures, but this is a photo of what we have come to call

"THE SCARY SLOPE." 

It came with the house in Utah we bought last summer. The photo above is after my husband lit into it with a machete. Imagine what it looked like creeping over the sidewalk before that. Most of the slope is hidden behind the trees. Notice you can see a small part of the random rock pile, the stray redish scalloped concrete tree surround pieces in the foreground and the volunteer sumac leaning over the sidewalk. Then call your attention to the tangle of crown vetch cascading down the slope covering over frightening hummocks of overgrown trailing cottoneaster bushes. Now imagine lots of little scampering sounds coming from somewhere deep inside the tangle with the cat from across the street acting as a frequent sentinel and pouncing on things periodically. One of the first things the adjacent neighbor told us when we met him was that he wouldn't mind if we did something with that slope.

All spring I've been spending hours working my way into that mess with loppers and thinning it out. It was just a tangle of long snakey cottoneaster tendrils. Imagine my surprise when I eventually discovered there was some pretty rock terracing under some of it.

After. See my neighbor's house? He's pleased he doesn't have to view that tangle anymore.

This slope really needed some sort of feature to make it interesting. Since my husband wouldn't buy me the huge and expensive natural stone obelisk that I've been admiring at the stone yard, I decided to recycle that heap of rocks and scalloped tree surrounds into terracing for a pathway that would meander up the slope and through an opening in the rose of sharon hedge into the front yard. My son liked taking this secret shortcut when coming home from school even before the trail was built. Here is the new trail (yes, there were that many rocks heaped up on the slope in a pile). The steps are covered in landscape fabric and mulch to keep them looking nice.

The rose of sharon hedge at the top is just starting to leaf out. It will be bloom from late July through frost.

The concept for the landscaping here is to keep it "meadowy" and to incorporate a few plants that will look well in late summer and fall. My friend let me "shop" for plants in her verdant yard. Alongside the trail I've put in several white daisies and a couple of purple aster plants that I'm hoping will naturalize into the grass. I still need to find a bush that will give me nice autumn color and winter berries for the birds for the left side. We planted two dwarf apple trees to shade the slope (and very likely feed the deer).

One of two new dwarf apple trees. The crown vetch is difficult to get rid of, but now that we can actually reach it with a trimmer it will help.

"Secret" entrance through the hedge.

Once the daisies and asters take hold and start to spread there will be flowers along the path softening the hard edges.

Like I mentioned most of these materials were recycled from my own yard. The cost has been $26 for two small bare root apple trees, $5 in mulch purchased from the landfill where they chip up tree branches and trimmings that people drop off, $13 for landscape/weed fabric and $6 for pins to hold the fabric down. And did I mention the MANY hours of hard work?

Totally worth it ☺

We'll be moving soon so it may be years before I see how it all turns out with the plants growing. I'm glad I took the time though.

Sue

Flower bed project update

For those of you who have been following my blog, you know we recently purchased a house that needs some TLC. I have already shown some photos of upcoming yard projects.  Here is an update on one that is nearly completed--the flower bed between the front porch steps and the house.

Before--just a slope of hard packed dirt

In progress--I dug out rocks from another part of the yard that were inexplicably just left in the grass to mow around for the last 17 years

In progress--my son enjoyed this project because I unearthed a lot of worms.  He's 9.

After--a retaining wall I made with the rocks to keep the whole thing from washing away. I added a lot of compost to improve the soil. I hauled the extra dirt away to fill washed out trenches in another part of the yard.

After--one little lonely dwarf Alberta spruce planted for now.  I have another to put on the other side of the steps when I get that dug up. I will plant some flowers next spring--or possibly put in some pansies soon.

A few things to do . . .

We recently purchased a new house with .4 acres in what I describe as a somewhat "jungly" condition. One of our neighbors mentioned that the previous owner rarely ever mowed.  We have our work cut out for us, but we are looking forward to making improvements. We've been living either in the desert or in an apartment for the last 7 years and haven't even owned a mower in that time, so this is a big change for us.

Here are some "before" photos of upcoming projects:

This is what I call  "the scary slope"  in front of the house. It's got various types of trees, a lot of crown vetch, an assortment of weeds, some junipers and who knows what else is hidden in there? The neighborhood cats enjoy stalking prey here and I'm scared to know what exactly lives in the mess a few yards from my front door. This photo was taken after my husband went after it with a machete. It was spilling out over the concrete making the sidewalk impassable.

This is the official garden area. This is after I spent an hour or more digging out buried tomato cages and pruning back some blackberry canes.  It's still a tangled mess that needs many more hours of work.  I plan to make a compost bin in one corner and a small salad/herb garden and flower cutting garden in the rest--nothing too ambitious.

I call this one the "hidden spruce."  Our yard slopes up in back so that this beautiful blue spruce could be seen from the back of the house nearly at eye level if the scrub oak wasn't in the way. It will be trimmed back a little. My husband already trimmed back some of the small branches.

And this is the front door with a patch of eroding dirt between the sidewalk and the garage and a patch of weeds on the other side. I'm thinking that a smallish conical tree with blue-green foliage on either side would be nice to set off the entrance. I also want to improve the curb appeal by sinking flagstones into the sod in front of the picture window to make a patio seating area to take advantage of the splendid mountain views from there.

The view.  No need to improve that.

Sue

Rose of Sharon

 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Song of Solomon 2:1

As I have mentioned before, we have a new house with a big yard. We have an entire hedge of Rose of Sharon and a few others scattered around. They grow tall and make a nice visual barrier between us and the street. Rose of Sharon are a type of hibiscus. The ones we have are a pink doubled flower variety that looks much more like a rose flower than the single flowered type. They are blooming right now in August and should continue through September.

This bee was very busily wedging himself between the petals.

Just can't get enough.

I love the mountain view.

Sue