Depending on who happens to be reading this, you may come up with a variety of answers to that question. :) What I’m referring to, however, is our innate ability to begin massive outdoor projects when the weather is not conducive to them. Like, for example, putting up our metal storage building in strong winds. Or building our front entry in between rain showers. Or this weekend’s landscaping project on the hottest weekend of the year. What’s up with that?
It all started innocently enough last Thursday. The kids and I were going to Lowe’s that morning to survey the plant situation. I had made my plans and taken lots of measurements, and we were going to check things out. It turns out that Lowe’s had some really good deals on the perennials I was looking for, so we wound up buying them. I spent less than $120 on all the plants I needed. How is that possible?
All the perennials I was planning to purchase were sold in two or three different sizes. I could have spent a lot more money by getting the larger, more established plants. Instead I opted for the smaller varieties. It saved me a TON of money and I’m willing to wait for them to grow. Most of what I bought are fast growers, so it shouldn’t take forever. I can be patient. :) A few of the plants are not in this photo above, because I’d already placed them on the north side of the house in the shade.
Jas went by Lowe’s Thursday afternoon and purchased the landscape edging we had already selected. I didn’t want to mess with the stone blocks. We’d gone that route at the old house and we decided against them for two reasons: 1) too expensive, and 2) a major pain to install. You can’t just plunk them down on the ground and call it a day. The job of making them level and fit nicely together is more than we really wanted to tackle. I really want my plants (when they get nice and big) to be the stars of my landscape, so we opted for no-dig black edging. The kind we chose is simply driven in the ground with stakes, and it was super easy (and super fast) to install. And it was a lot cheaper than stone blocks! We liked the look of it because it’s very unobtrusive, and once we mulched everything it gave it a nice, clean look.
Our tiller was not working, so we had to make a trip to Sappington’s Saturday morning (amid picking up the rabbit and purchasing groceries) to get parts. Jas worked on it Saturday afternoon, and by Saturday evening we were tilling up all the areas for the future planting beds. It was sickening outside, but we worked in the shade so it wasn’t completely unbearable.
The next step was to lay out the edging material in the design that I wanted. This stuff is really easy to bend and shape, so that didn’t take very long. We had just enough (yay!), so after that we were ready to begin planting Sunday morning.
Sunday was exceedingly hot, and we had to take several breaks to avoid getting too overheated. It didn’t work, with Jas throwing up (and then feeling much better) Sunday night and me barely able to move on Monday. But we got everything planted, fertilized, watered, and mulched by about 7:30. I didn’t have the energy to take any photos that evening, but I did take some this morning (Tuesday). We still have a little work to do, which I’ll explain in a minute.
The front yard has two variegated barberry bushes in the middle, flanked by two rose bushes. On the end closes to the steps are two daylilies and two variegated liriopes. As soon as those bushes grow a little this is going to look really nice.
The north side of the house (above) has four hostas of different varieties. In case you’re wondering, the big open space in the middle is being saved for the peonies I’m getting from Susie this fall. We didn’t get them in the spring, and now it’s way too late to do anything. Oh well, I can wait a few months. As you can tell in all these photos, I just watered right before I took these (hence the dark spots).
The backyard has some Golden Eonymous, a couple of Cranberry Cotoneasters, some beautiful purple salvia, two Snowmound Spirea, and a Crape Myrtle.
The grass under the deck has been sprayed with Roundup, and now we’re waiting a few days for it to completely die. Once that happens, we’ll add more mulch to cover all that. I’ll probably end up replacing these photos when that happens, but this gives you an idea of what it looks like. Just imagine that grass being gone and mulch being in its place! :)
On either side of the steps to the deck we have six marigolds and a Moonbeam Coreopsis. Over by the air conditioner is another cotoneaster and a spirea. The spirea are supposed to get nice and big and fluffy white, so they should hide the air conditioner nicely. Just like before, the grass you see under the deck will be dead and replaced by mulch this weekend. We also need a little more mulch to finish out under the a/c unit, and then we’ll be totally finished.
Everything is small now, but it won’t stay that way forever. And even though I normally have trouble being patient when it comes to home improvement projects, I’m actually looking forward to nurturing these little plants and watching them grow.
Ultimately, we survived the atrocious weather this weekend by drinking plenty of water and Gatorade, and taking breaks when necessary. We also worked only in the shady areas, which definitely helped as well. At least it’s done, and that’s another project we can cross off the list. All that’s left is to add the planter boxes for the front entry, which hopefully will get finished this weekend. Then we can sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor. We’ve worked like dogs all spring, and it will be nice to sit back and relax for awhile.
