Happy Earth Day!

I spent a good portion of Earth Day Weekend either in the yard or at the nursary down the street. This place has become my new favorite place to buy plants, the prices are decent and the people are far more knowledgable than those mega-home improvement stores. For example, did you know that in my region, Mother's Day is the best time to put tomato plants outside? No? Neither did I, because the mega stores like to put tons of plants out as soon as they can in April, which always made me believe that getting my garden together in the beginning of May was far behind when I *could* be starting my garden. Turns out I have perpetually been right on time with starting my garden... and all this time I thought I was behind. I still want to get my garden beds prepared soon, so they'll be ready to go when I can put plants in the ground.

This weekend I mowed the lawn and even brought out the weed whacker to get those pesky sections that I can't reach with the lawn mower. I still haven't gotten the angle quite right on that weed whacker... either I'm not close enough to cut the grass, or I get it too deep and end up digging up the ground... but with a little damage control I managed to make the edges look slightly better than when I started. Beyond that I concentrated on the beds surrounding the deck, filling 3 32 gallons cans with weeds and forget-me-nots.
The Waterfall

It doesn't look like I did much, but the vinca and bishop's weed were both growing over most of the rocks next to the waterfall, and choking out the hostas we've got. Weeding this area takes a lot of balance, as I have to prop myself on unsteady rocks and yank plants out of the ground. We also had some unruly forget-me-nots growing from between the rocks and through the ornamental grasses to the right side of the waterfall. I left the smaller guys in the middle of the vinca though... I like the blue flowers and in years past when I try to yank them from the center of the vinca it tends to leave unsightly holes in the hill. I also had to pull the bird bath apart and re-level the base, as a critter has decided this hill would make a nice home, and the entrance should be dug out from under the heaviest item in our yard *rolling eyes* The top area, where the massive lilies are growing, is now happily mulched with our magic Storm Mulch Mix (the piles of our shredded storm debris)

The Dogwood Bed


This is the bed to the left of the waterfall area. I pulled all the weeds growing in the big stairs (I really think we should gravel those sometimes) weeded under the dogwood and mulched. Ten wheelbarrows of mulch moved from the far corner of the yard down the hill to this beastly area, but it looks so darned pretty now. The dogwood is blooming (big tree in this shot) this week will be a great time to take pictures of these guys.

Star Magnolia/waterfall area from the top

This is the same area, looking from the middle of the yard towards the house. A lot of today's work involved crawling under the star magnolia (big tree in the middle) and digging out all the dead leaves from last winter. Gotta say, leaving them over the winter helped keep weeds from growing under there... most of the weeds grew in areas that had not been covered in leaves. It's still a pain in the tookas to climb under there though. I mulched this too, to make it just as pretty as the rest of the beds.

The Birdfeeder Bed


This has been Dan's ongoing project for the last month or so. When we moved into the house this bed housed a dying butterfly bush, and that was about it. Slowly we have been adding plants... this year Dan took an oversized hosta, split it into three sections, and put them in the ground and has systematically added plants around this whole bed. Our big issue is that the previous owners moved their lilac bush from wherever it was to the spot it is now, which blocks the sprinkler (which they also put in) so we are currently debating about changing that sprinkler head to a series of pop-ups or a soaker hose solution for this bed.

Time to hang my head in shame. :)





My garden beds, this year's before photo. After the storms, Dan pulled a lot of the cinder blocks we used for the side walls and built up a mid-yard fire pit to get rid of a lot of debris. Do you like my cover crop of weeds and foxgloves? I actually like fox gloves, so they will be removed and placed in a happy home at the back of the yard.