The front of our house has been an eyesore, since we bought. There was so much to do inside the house that I was fine letting the outside go with minimal maintenance. Well, after it being a pet peeve of mine for the past two years, I attacked. Our front garden started out with GIGANTIC bushes, that had grown massive and overbearing. A few years ago I had taken down the ones at the far corner, hoping that I could have flowers in there. While I was recovering from having Sophia, the weeds took over. Some friends of ours had also given us some plants from their yard, that I just kind threw in without any thought or reason. I wanted to keep them, but didn't want them to die and didn't have the energy to think of anything better to do.
Friday afternoon, I attacked the Rhododendron and the bushes near it. I love the purple flowering bush, but it had grown up past our bay window and was mostly dead underneath. So, I hacked it down and snapped off everything that was dead. The bushes that were around it, I had originally thought were just one massive beast of a bush. Turned out they were 5 bushes that had grown in together. I pulled out 3 of them and left 2 brutally mutilated. I'm thinking they were supposed to be cute little low bushes that went crazy with no one to trim them. I hope they recover, if not they will go next year and be replaced with something smaller and prettier. I then dug up and replanted the ones our friends had given us. One I have nicknamed "The Hairy Beast". It grows up into this huge grassy plant and sprouts out these beautiful dark purple orchid looking flowers. I love it, but it needs a haircut every spring. The other was just an ornamental bush that I moved to the far end.
This process also involved digging up and moving the bulbs I had planted previously. All my Tulips and Hydrangeas were moved to the front corner where my Daffodils live. Then there is this beautiful bright pink bulb that had appeared on the side of our house that I moved to underneath our Flowering Pear tree (no pears, just flowers). On the side of the steps that you don't see, I just trimmed back the other green bush and twin green/white bush to the one in the above picture.
After all the replanting was finished, I put down weed blocker cloth. Then it took 17 bags of red mulch to cover everything. We also bought some nice small ground flowers in blue and some Dust Millers for the other side of the steps, they are Erik's favorite so we had to. So now, the front of our house looks like we love it.
Today, I worked on my veggie garden, which I've decided to make into a Salsa garden. I'm able to grow tomatoes like nothing, so if I can grow: Jalapenos, peppers, and some cilantro, I'll be all set. We go through salsa like crazy in our house and I found a great recipe last year. So I'm going to attempt canning it and see how that goes.
While I was at Lowe's, I had spotted 'Organic Garden Weed Blocking Paper' which you can use in your veggie garden and then till into the soil after the season is over. It took 3 rolls, but after the madness of weeds that took over when I was pregnant, I'll try anything. After Erik mows the lawn, I'm going to use the lawn clippings as mulch to hold moisture and the paper in place. I put it down today since the weeds are starting to have fun growing again.
All that is left is the corner by the driveway. We had planted some decorative bushes there, but it's an eyesore and drives Erik bonkers when he is trying to mow.
So, that's what we've been up to this past week. If there's any money left over after this, we still have windows to replace.
Oh the joys of home ownership.
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