Monday, August 17, 2009

Yard Stuff

One thing we learned quickly is that buying a house with a big yard = doing a lot of yard work. We've been spending a lot of time outside. I love it. I can't seem to keep up with the weeds, but I guess we're going for a "natural" look. Yeah, that's it. Anyway, here are some pictures of what we've been doing.

Here's the front flower bed before:
I wish I had remembered to take a picture before we started weeding, because this whole area was completely covered in weeds. You couldn't even see the brick pavers. We couldn't tell what was a weed and what was a "real" plant, so we decided to start from (almost) scratch. At this point we had ripped out pretty much everything except for the hostas and a large bush. Eric is in the process of cutting down a tree that was blocking the front windows.

Here are the flowers I've put in:
In the forefront are vincas (annuals) and behind those are blanket flowers (perennials.)

I repurposed the off-white planters that were on the stoop - you can see one in the first picture, they were pretty shabby looking. I gave them a good scrubbing and painted them black. Here's a closeup of one, surrounded by my container herbs - sage, thyme, basil and parsley. I moved them out front because that way I remember to water them!

And the front stoop from farther back (I should have taken down that flier in the door, whoops.)


Next steps: Replacing the brass lights and house numbers (that's pretty much the theme of all our decorating in this house!) and get a new welcome mat that won't fade in the sun.

This is a before picture that's prettier than the after, because it's not blooming anymore.
Sawyer watering the giant hosta. It's doing great considering it was neglected for a year. I love its blooms. You can see the black-eyed Susan I tried to plant right in front of him but it doesn't look like it's going to make it.


I hung some geraniums in baskets on the pergola in front of the house. I've loved red geraniums ever since my mission - all the houses in French villages have them in their window boxes in the spring.

7 comments:

  1. I wish I could get into gardening... I think if we had money to buy pretty flowers, I could get more into it. For now we just weed the flowerbeds that we have and add wood chips. Sad attempt... but it works for now! Yours look amazing!

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  2. Anonymous1:19 PM

    It looks great! Our problem is not only that we're lazy, but the heat and humidity make being outside unbearable for more than half the year.

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  3. André, we have had that problem here too, it is so hot lately! I have to get stuff done early in the morning or it's unbearable. Ugh.

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  4. Anonymous1:05 PM

    At least you get out to do it, even if it is in the morning. I wish I could say I envy your lack of laziness, but sometimes I like to revel in the glory of my fat, lazy butt. :D

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  5. Hee hee André, I am seriously lazy about a lot of things (cleaning, filing paperwork, basically stuff I find boring) but I really like working in the yard. So it's not that I have a good work ethic (I just heard my DH snort from a couple of counties away) it's just that I like gardening.

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  6. All you're doing looks great and exhausting. I'm looking forward to seeing the improvements in person soon.

    Dad

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  7. Gorgeous! I think hostas grow well in shade, right? I need to plant some.

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Give it to me straight!

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