Front Yard Plans

So, I've been saying this for two years now but hand to god, we are actually finishing the front yard this year. Know why? We hired someone to do it. All of it. I know, not very DIY of us but sometimes you just have to decide what you are willing to do yourself and what is just not worth your time.

It will be going from this

to this

Work starts Monday and I'm excited to see what paying people to do all the work is like. We seriously thought about doing it ourselves, but just know that with the baby it would take longer than we would like. I've been waiting two long years for this front yard to be done and I'm glad we are finally getting on it.

Be back Tuesday with an update!

Cheers!

Welcome to my Life

The floor tile came yesterday but it was too hot to do anything but laze about. The Guinea Pig and I played on Pinterest and then planted some strawberries. It was a good afternoon. Today I'm off to go thrifting with my new IRL friend Megan from The Baroness. Wish us happy hunting! I'm looking for some dining room chairs...

Front Yard Progress: Hedge Edition

Who doesn't love a dramatic before and after? I've already shown you the first phase of this project (here) but I thought a little picture by picture run down would be fun. 

To begin: The view from the street right after we moved in.

First phase: Remove that ugly rusted fence and hateful juniper bushes. Juniper in Gin? Great. In my front yard? Not for me. 

Phase two: Trees. Buh-Bye

Phase three: Planting!

Last Wednesday the guys from NurseryTrees.com planted five English Laurels. I now am the proud owner of shrubbery. We chose Laurels for their reputation for their look and speedy growth. Soon (about 5 years) we should have a nice tall hedge that provides privacy but doesn't block the view. It will be great to have a usable front yard instead of the monster pit from before. 

Here's one more just to compare: 

I'd say it's an improvement.

Cheers!

Sometimes a Pinterest Idea Actually Works!

Pinterest can be pretty hit or miss so I thought I would share something that actually worked!

I am successfully regrowing green onions.

And it was just as easy as it seems. Just put your root ends in a bit of water and they will grow back giving you a whole new bunch in a few weeks. I don't know how useful this is long term (I'll let you know if they keep it up) but it is pretty neat to see them getting bigger and bigger each day.

Ahh the power of nature. Anyone else have any Pinterest successes they want to share? The fails can be pretty hilarious but I like it even better when it actually works!

Cheers!

I Spy With My Little Eye...

 Our house! I told you I had a big reveal. In case you don't remember, this was the view from the street when I left for work Monday morning.

Can you believe the difference? Check this out.

Inside before

Inside after.

The amount of light in our front room is unreal.

I wasn't home to see the action but Daniel got a few shots. Apparently they climbed up the tree removing the branches as they went

And then came back down the tree removing the trunk.

As you can see they aren't quite done yet.

How much do my neighbors love me right now? Of course the yard looks like a few trees exploded, but, well, they kind of did.

Norman has been pretty skeptical about the whole thing so far.

But that is his usual attitude. I do feel a smidgen bad for Honey Bunch. The Cedar was her favorite play toy. (here she is playing in it just hours before they started bringing it all down)

I promised her I'd get her a new tree though.

More to follow once things get a bit more in order around here but I wanted to show the world our cute little house.

Cheers!

Jumping Junipers!

One of my resolutions this year was to give my house a bit of curb appeal. Boy was that a bigger can of worms than I thought. We started out with this

I swear there is a house in there somewhere. Of course it hasn't helped that I have been ignoring the problem for the last year, but I digress.

 First thing that had to go was that awful fence. It was completely rusted through in some parts. While Daniel did the removal I started on the mass of juniper. We got to about here before I gave up.

Can you see my path of destruction? I managed to bag and tag about half of the juniper while Daniel got out the entire fence.

After taking a few weeks off to recover (that stuff itches!) we finally got back out there and decided this would be the weekend. Everything must go!!

 Not too shabby right?

We were pretty lucky that some guy pulled up and asked to take away our fence (saves us the trip) so we managed to get everything pretty clean.

I did unearth some interesting artifacts hiding in the deep recesses of the Juniper Jungle.

Whomever lived here before must have had quite the menagerie of plastic animals. I have also found a giant beetle and a Lego shark. I'm starting a collection.

We are inching closer to our clean slate... I should have a pretty big reveal for tomorrow so stay tuned!

Cheers!

Updating the Back 40

My parent's house actually has a back 40 but ours is rather smaller. Still, I did finally finish planting it which is something to celebrate!

We added this cute little Japanese maple from Costco ($35!!) and some nice ground cover. My hydrangea from last year is looking good too. I also put down some weed block so hopefully it wont all get over grown again.

That spindly stick is our silk tree which apparently doesn't even get leaves until mid summer. Who knew?

But since this space looked more like this 6 months ago...

I'm excited for the rest of the progress.

My Irises are finally blooming too. I was not expecting these color combinations but I think they are pretty sweet.

And finally, a full picture of the yard. You can see by the upper corner I've got some branches to get rid of but I am keeping that spot free of plants for my shed. Hopefully we can break ground on that when we get home.

It's a pretty far cry from what it looked like last year before we left for our honeymoon.



The painting saga continues. With a minor miracle they will be hung before we leave so hopefully I will not disappoint!

Anyone else been working on yard work? It is the time of year for it here. We've had some great weather.
Cheers!

When Lilacs Last In the Dooryard Bloom'd

I'm not a huge Whitman fan but his Lilac poem always sticks with me. Yes, yes, I know it is ostensibly a poem about death, but to me, lilacs mean Spring. I always forget in the depths of winter how much I miss flowers and every year Spring seems almost miraculous to me. Things that I thought dead are now alive again (thankfully I'm a lazy gardener and don't pull things out just because they look dead). But I digress. Really this post is about my little window in the stair-well.

Since Spring has been springing I've been keeping flowers here to brighten my days and today the lilacs stole the show.

I love their delicate fragrance and the cute little milk glass vases. The stairwell is tight and they fill up the space with such a beautiful perfume (this is how I found out daffodils smell good). I love seeing them there as I go up and down for the laundry. Sometimes even the smallest detail can brighten a space. Need a pick-me-up? Put some flowers wherever you have space. They will most certainly brighten your day.

Cheers!

Reclaiming Some Space

The front porch was one of the selling points of this house, but, for the last few months it has looked like this

and then like this

Not exactly peaceful or useful. This weekend it was so nice I just couldn't take it any more. I finally took charge (in between spackling and sunning) and moved the last bits of drywall away.

 Much better right? Now I can finally show off the planters I finished last weekend.

Now on warm days we can sit and sip wine and watch the sun set.

Perfection.

Cheers! Linking to

Frugal Friday

 

Curb Appeal

Not going to lie, we still haven't touched the front yard. It is going to be such a huge project that we are still budgeting and planning for how to tackle it all. Clearly this is not going to happen before the kitchen is done. But, it has been too nice the last few days to stay inside so I figured I'd get a little closer to bringing that much needed curb appeal to the house.

Remember last fall (on my last planting binge) when I worked on the curb strip? Well some how over the winter it went from this

to this

Apparently this is what happens if you don't weed. Live and learn right? I wasn't even sure what was still alive under all of that but a few hours later I had found my original plants. Then I added more (because more is better right?)

You can see my original plants didn't get very far. I added a few Euphorbia (top left) and some more gound cover type plants. The tree is still in the pot because I wanted to be able to keep using it at Christmas on the porch. Here's to hoping with some regular weeding they will thrive.

Anyone have any luck getting rid of crab grass? I swear that stuff has roots to China!

Cheers!
Emily

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The sun came out for a few hours last week and I decided it was the perfect time to putter around in the yard. Gotta catch those rays while you can right? We did most of the planting last fall when I went a bit crazy ordering bulbs. All of my daffodils are up and some of the tulips are starting.

I also seized a 50% off sale at Home Depot to add some fruits and veggies in. I got rhubarb

And strawberries

The classic tomatoes

And a few sweet pea plants that will hopefully grow up over the trellis

I planted zucchini and cucumbers by seed but I've never planted that way so it will be interesting to see what grows. We also scored a blueberry bush at Costco.

With some luck we will be feasting this summer (that is if Norman doesn't strip all of my bushes clean). My yard has come quite a way in the last year. Can you believe it used to look like this?

Yikes! But it least it goes to show how far a little work can take you.
Cheers!

Linked up to
Centsational Girl's Garden Party