What i did on my summer vacation
That's actually a bit misleading. I started this about 3 weeks ago, and the semester only ended yesterday.
I haven't been doing a lot except paint the house, do homework, and play in my garden. The house is still not entirely photo worthy, but i thought i'd share what i've accomplished outside. So far i've spent most of what i had budgeted for gardening on 2 trees (crabapple and Japanese maple), a bunch of ground cover, and a compost bin. scholar's pseudomom who lives just a half hour north of us was VERY generous, and i spent a full day at her house digging and weeding, and she gave me a small lilac, a forsythia, a spirea, 2 giant hostas, a huge clump of spiderworts, 2 kinds of sedum, and some Dutchman's Pipe.
Anyway, the first thing i did was plant the crabapple, and rip up most of the invasive grass and weeds in the front yard on the side away from the driveway.
The second major task was ripping out all the grass on the Inferno Strip, also known as the verge, boulevard, treelawn. The strip between sidewalk and street that the city owns but we must maintain. It did occur to me that a cheap weedwacker would be cheaper than the $60 i spent on the ground cover plants. But the ground cover plants are nicer than a weedwacker! It took two days to pull up all the grass, move the pavers - i was 'rewared' with about 300 pounds of broken up concrete when i moved in, including a handful of still square or rectangular pavers, and some decent granite or quartzite stones - and put in all the groundcover and the hosta and the daylilies i'm using to fill space for now.
Then after spending the day at SuperMom's i spent all day yesterday putting things back in soil.
The front yard and Inferno Strip:
A = Daylilies B = A bush of some kind
C = Butterfly bush? D = Green hostas
E = varigated hosta F = Snow on the mountain
G = Thyme H = Sedum - dragon's breath
I = Spiderworts J = Mint
K = Creeping myrtle L = Snow in Summer
M = Nutmeg thyme N = Ajuga
P = Clover Q = Japanese Maple (Bloodgood)
R = Crabapple
Pre-existing plants are marked with a *. Unmarked plants are ones i put in.
The back yard:
A = Temporary mulch pile (multiple years of not raking driveway. Actually really good pine mulch mixed with dirt)
B = ancient and extremely tall laundry pole
C = compost bin
D = daylilies
E = Korean dwarf lilac - might be dead
F = Lupines
G = Container full of non-creeping sedum
H = Forsythia
I = Spirea
J = remnant of old trunk
K = lilac
L = bittersweet
M = Chives
N = Container with Dutchman's Pipe and a small hosta
O = Mint (lots of mint scattered but this is the big cluster)
P = daylilies
(Bold plants were there. Unbolded i put in myself.)
I will weed and straighten up the backyard soon, but for now, the major planning is done. There isn't much else i can do until i decide when and how to rip up that blacktop. Having that much debris removed and soil delivered will be costly, so probably next summer.
Hope you all approve :)
I haven't been doing a lot except paint the house, do homework, and play in my garden. The house is still not entirely photo worthy, but i thought i'd share what i've accomplished outside. So far i've spent most of what i had budgeted for gardening on 2 trees (crabapple and Japanese maple), a bunch of ground cover, and a compost bin. scholar's pseudomom who lives just a half hour north of us was VERY generous, and i spent a full day at her house digging and weeding, and she gave me a small lilac, a forsythia, a spirea, 2 giant hostas, a huge clump of spiderworts, 2 kinds of sedum, and some Dutchman's Pipe.
Anyway, the first thing i did was plant the crabapple, and rip up most of the invasive grass and weeds in the front yard on the side away from the driveway.
The second major task was ripping out all the grass on the Inferno Strip, also known as the verge, boulevard, treelawn. The strip between sidewalk and street that the city owns but we must maintain. It did occur to me that a cheap weedwacker would be cheaper than the $60 i spent on the ground cover plants. But the ground cover plants are nicer than a weedwacker! It took two days to pull up all the grass, move the pavers - i was 'rewared' with about 300 pounds of broken up concrete when i moved in, including a handful of still square or rectangular pavers, and some decent granite or quartzite stones - and put in all the groundcover and the hosta and the daylilies i'm using to fill space for now.
Then after spending the day at SuperMom's i spent all day yesterday putting things back in soil.
The front yard and Inferno Strip:
A = Daylilies B = A bush of some kind
C = Butterfly bush? D = Green hostas
E = varigated hosta F = Snow on the mountain
G = Thyme H = Sedum - dragon's breath
I = Spiderworts J = Mint
K = Creeping myrtle L = Snow in Summer
M = Nutmeg thyme N = Ajuga
P = Clover Q = Japanese Maple (Bloodgood)
R = Crabapple
Pre-existing plants are marked with a *. Unmarked plants are ones i put in.
The back yard:
A = Temporary mulch pile (multiple years of not raking driveway. Actually really good pine mulch mixed with dirt)
B = ancient and extremely tall laundry pole
C = compost bin
D = daylilies
E = Korean dwarf lilac - might be dead
F = Lupines
G = Container full of non-creeping sedum
H = Forsythia
I = Spirea
J = remnant of old trunk
K = lilac
L = bittersweet
M = Chives
N = Container with Dutchman's Pipe and a small hosta
O = Mint (lots of mint scattered but this is the big cluster)
P = daylilies
(Bold plants were there. Unbolded i put in myself.)
I will weed and straighten up the backyard soon, but for now, the major planning is done. There isn't much else i can do until i decide when and how to rip up that blacktop. Having that much debris removed and soil delivered will be costly, so probably next summer.
Hope you all approve :)