landscape my yard

I was doing good watering the plants while the rain was away. It has actually rained a good bit lately, so I haven’t had to worry about it as much. The front bed has been cleaned out completely, weed clothed put down, the pond and waterfall put back together and installed, and mulch filled in. We did run out of mulch though, so we’ll have to buy some more to fill it in all the way. It looks so much better than the jungle it was before!

I went by the store and bought a bag of potting soil and two bags of mulch. When I got home, David had already starting clearing out the front bed that has grown into a jungle. We planted the abelia, put mulch around it, and watered some of the other plants.

At about 5 or 6am this morning, IT RAINED!!!!! Now, if the rain will just keep coming back periodically so we can get out of this drought, that would be fantastic!

I really want to get to work on this goal again, but seeing as how we are getting no rain, and I don’t think I’m allowed to water my plants (though I do it a little anyway, because I can’t let them DIE), I haven’t been able to do much.

I have one plant that still hasn’t been planted. I tried to dig the hole with little success, because of the fact that the ground is like a giant boulder right now. David is supposed to help finish it today, and I’m going to buy some potting soil and mulch today to try to help my poor weary little plants.

If we get some rain sometime this century, maybe I can get a little more done. In the meantime, David’s still putting up fence panels (although I don’t see how he stands out there in the blazing sun and 100 degree weather without passing out) and hopefully we’ll get the front flower bed cleared out completely, since we now have a tiller.

The research garden had their annual plant sale over the weekend, and I bought a couple little flowering plants to go in the bed around the big tree beside the house. I still have a couple other plants that I still haven’t planted, so I really need to get to work on that. It got cold all the sudden down here, so going outside hasn’t been a very appealing idea. Hopefully it’ll warm up this weekend, and we can get some more done.

Holy crap! I went outside yesterday and everything was yellow. The plants, my car, the driveway, the spiderwebs, the doorknobs, the grass…EVERYTHING!!! No wonder I sneezed about 40 times yesterday and was required to have tissues handy at every second, because I never knew when my nose would go crazy!

I went out and watered all my newly planted plants, and my not even planted yet plants, which I really need to get to soon. It was actually very nice and relaxing to go water them. I waited until it was getting close to dark, because it felt like 90 degrees outside. It was HOT yesterday!

My neighbor also came over to introduce himself and ask me whether some bucket was mine and could he have some of our rocks. He seemed pretty nice, but kinda weird too. He told me all about how he was living with his kids, but he only had six months left before they kicked him out. He’s retired and can’t afford to buy his own rocks, because he only get $800 a month. He has to smoke outside, because they won’t let him smoke inside. He’s an alcoholic, and he’s not allowed to drive anymore, because they said he was drunk the last time. He doesn’t mind though, because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He gets drunk a lot. Those all his words, not mine. I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone introduce themselves and proceed to tell me about their alcoholism…

It was quite interesting, and I honestly couldn’t understand some of what he was saying. I tried to be friendly, but half of the time, I didn’t know what to say. “Oh, you’re a drunk? Gee, that’s great!”???

I finished planting all of my large azaleas yesterday. I still have four smaller ones that I have to decide where to plant, and I still have to make a decision on the placement of the quince, loropetalum, and the cherry tree. I’m pretty sure I know where I’m putting the cherry tree, but I think I’m going to dig up the chaste tree and move it instead. I keep forgetting to take my before and after pictures; I need to get on that!

I went by Lowe’s yesterday to pick up a few things, and I went to look at the waterfalls again, as I always do. When we went a few weeks ago, the waterfall that I wanted was on clearance for half price, but we didn’t get it right away. When we went back, it wasn’t on clearance anymore, which seemed really strange. When I looked yesterday, it was on clearance again, so I grabbed the second to last one and took it home! I can’t wait to install it…I’m so EXCITED!!!

Yesterday, we went to a local plant nursery and bought a crape mrytle, yoshino cherry tree, chaste tree, and some azaleas. Then I called my dad to get his advice on planting the azaleas, and he told me he has a bunch, and I didn’t have to buy any. So I went over there and got about 15-20 more azaleas, plus a quince and a loropetalum. My dad grows shrubs, and he’s got quite a collection now. If only I could help him find some customers, so he could sell them now!

David planted the crape mrytle and chaste tree while I was gone. Now we just have to decide where to plant everything else. I’m looking forward to it…even digging the holes!

to get some more ideas and write down info about plant sizes and sun needs and such. The first thing I want to work on is the area by the front door. It’s a horrible mess, as you can see from the picture. It actually looks a lot better than that now though. I took that picture before we ever moved in, and since it was a foreclosure, we had to do a lot of work, like paint over the ugly blue and fix the broken windows. That doesn’t even begin to describe everything we did though.

You can’t tell, but there is a little pond in the middle of that, and I want to make a small waterfall to enhance that area and keep the water moving so mosquitoes don’t decide to take up residence or anything. We do have some frogs that hang around in there, so they help keep them at bay. I plan on totally cleaning out EVERYTHING and starting over. I’m looking at putting in heather, rudolf’s red nosed spurge, english daisies, and maybe some silky fleece lamb’s ear. Still have to do a little research on that.