Mulch!

And pressure washing!  I had a busy weekend styling the nautical party (pics and details starting tomorrow) and working around the house.

Our little house looks brand new and sparkly thanks to some mulch in the front beds and a round of pressure washing today.

Here is what the house looked like earlier this year.

You can't see it here but slowly spider webs and grunginess had taken over the house.  I should have taken some before photos but I think you can visualize it!

Here is what we look like today!

ah...if only the grass still looked as good in the top picture.  Dang southern heat!

The mulch was $2.57 a bag at Home Depot and we got 16 bags for the front area.  The pressure washer was free because we were able to borrow it from a neighbor.  So all in all some pretty cheap upgrades with a big impact!

Funny how Kaya is in the after photos too.  Do you have a dog that follows you around too?

Covering A Chain Length Fence With Vines

Rudy and I have a section of our chain length fence that we need to camouflage.  We are putting in new fencing for part of the yard but leaving our chain length fence intact. 

We are going to start our new fence where our neighbors fence stops but as you can see we have a section of chain length that will need to be spruced up.

Our thought is that we could cover the fence with vines.  We currently have ivy that would work.  I took some of the longer pieces and wrapped it around the fencing to encourage it to grow.

I am thinking though it may look better to use prettier vines.  I found an article on DoItYourself.com listing other things you can use such as black eyed Susans which I love.

www.hear.org

And Cardinal Climber...



New England Folk Network

And I do love jasmine vines which I bought recently.  So we shall see.  I think our new fence will be in by the end of June most likely.  All depends on when we can get the time to put it in.

Backyard Redo - Plant Selection

Happy 7 months to Reed! Yay!

On to the post...Rudy and I are well on our way of getting our yard in shape.  Rudy transplanted a bunch of ground cover, I have planted some flowers and we have put together our plan for the back yard.  We have a need for some privacy plantings as well as flowering shrubs.  After doing some research at our local home improvement store we came up with the following plants.  Our yard is very shady so we had to stick with plants that had flexible light requirements or preferred shade or part shade.

Privacy "fence" - Emerald Green Arborvitae

Layered with several flowering shrubs like this Indian Hawthorne

And this Gardenia

And some Rhododendrons

I love Rhododendrons...you can just feel the coolness that they bring to the air as you get near them.  They cover the landscape in the mountains of North Carolina nestled at the foot of trees and the beauty is so calming.

I do need to identify some smaller shrubs to plant around our patio.  I like Juniper Shrubs like this one but they need more sun then our back yard will have.



So I am going to keep thinking on this one...perhaps there is another plant similar in look that can be used in part shade yards.

First we are going to put in our fencing and then get going on the plantings.  So excited!

Garden Dreaming/Planning

Now that our house is pretty much set, I am setting my sights on the outside of our house.  The thing is that I am not a garden person...I want to be so badly!  But I have a hard time keeping things growing or even knowing where to start.  This is what the front of our house looks like now...

It is kind of plain jane...which isn't a bad thing necessarily but we need a little love.  Anything in my life that I have done well has been because of interest, enthusiasm, education and practice.  So here I go...

Introducing:  Project Decent Yard

Here are some pics of gardens I like.  I love black eyed susans.  And I love the fullness of the plantings here.

umn.edu

And again the fullness in this one and the terrace.

mosaicgardens.wordpress.com

lyndakelly.webs.com

I have the interest and enthusiasm.  Now for the education.  I found this great resource from Iowa State University for building your landscape plan.  Here are some of the steps they lead you through.   

I like how they keep it basic and give you examples of plantings.  It is a step by step workbook that is free and by the end of it you will have your own plan for a landscape.  I am a very visual person but also pretty type A when setting a goal, establishing milestones, timeline, etc.  So this speaks to me in that way.  Of course this will be something to work on probably all summer long so I will keep you posted on my progress!