To say that “Derek has been busy in the yard” would be a huge understatement. He’s been at it since we moved here over three years ago– as you saw him fix our dead grass. He’s relocated sprinkler heads, diverted our natural spring to a french drain, mulched and lined all of our trees with limestone that he’s collected from neighborhood building sites, aerated/ fertilized/ seeded, and done countless other projects that I probably don’t even know about. (This weekend he mowed our yard plus three others!) He will grace you with more informative yard posts since he does most (who am I kidding?!) all of our yard work; but here’s an update of some of his projects in the works– that, for the most part– have been FREE!
USING ROCK AS EDGING
The good thing about having a rocky foundation is that we have tons of free rock to use for landscaping. (The obvious bad part is that Derek had to dig it up and haul it all to desired location.) When we moved, we were the only house in our culdesac. Now the last of four houses is being added. Upon each build, he has salvaged rock and used it to beautify our own yard. Since the last house is nearing completion, Derek gathered more rocks and lined the mulch beds around our house. He still has yet to dig them into the ground and remove our black plastic edging, but we are already loving the new look!
PLANTING YEWS
For Mother’s Day, we went to Home Depot and picked out two upright Yews for $20 ea. We wanted something that would eventually hide the window bump-out to the left of our front door. Planting the yews meant that three of our Sedums had to be moved elsewhere. (He moved these to the backyard, which you will see in a later post.) He also planted a Braided Azalea that he had given me for our 4th Anniversary. The yews are supposed to grow to be 6 – 8 ft tall, so hopefully our vision will come to light in a couple years.
PLANTING ARBORVITAE
Turns out we totally lucked out and have the best neighbors. One gal that Derek mows for was getting rid of two Arborvitae trees in her front yard. One tree didn’t get enough light where it had been planted and she just didn’t like the look of them. So she just gave them to us! Derek and I had recently been talking about finding a solution to hide the gas meter on the side of the house and the two trees have done just that. I hope they like their new home because we think they are a great addition. (Also hoping the brown parts will turn green, as they should get more light in their new location.)
WEEDS BE GONE!
Recently, we had let weeds overtake our retaining wall. It was on our to do list, but it kept getting pushed back. (Probably because we’d rather blow bubbles with Mya or take her on a bike ride!) But since Derek was outside most of the weekend, I figured I should try to contribute in some way. So I put on the gloves and pulled the deep-rooted thistle. We still need to spray the little stuff, rake, and mulch, but it was instant gratification to see those weeds gone.
Even Mya tries to get in on some yard action. But seeing as how Derek seems to have it under control, we should probably just stay out of his way…
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