Striving for Simplicity: yard

Showing posts with label yard. Show all posts

Friday, January 23, 2015

To Do List 2015

Let's begin with a summary of items that have rolled over from year to year. Some of these we have decided we are not going to do, but here's the full list:

outdoor patio around bottom of deck stairs (moves grill off deck) - no longer happening
walkway from driveway around the lilacs to outdoor patio - no longer happening
living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
flowering shrubs on the inside of yard edge - no longer happening
backup generator for whole house - still a possibility but we are leaning towards no
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
backyard shed - no longer happening
figure out garage storage
re-paint guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

If we take the above list and remove the items that are no longer going to happen, we have:

living hedge border along far-side of the yard and down the driveway - started but incomplete
air exchange unit for the house
new bulkhead for the basement exterior stairs
figure out garage storage
re-paint study which is now the guestroom
continue clearing edges of yard
1 or 2 bonfires to clean-up yard waste and deadwood

Now let's add a new project to the mix.... a nursery :-)

Needless to say, the list needs a bit of re-arranging! I'll fill you in more as we figure things out, but a lot of my absence over the past few months has been due to the ill-named morning sickness. I'm getting better but some days it's all I can do to get up, go to work, come home and eat dinner, so please pardon the sporadic posts!

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Fall in the Yard

I think being out in the yard in the fall is one of my all-time favorite things! The grass has slowed growing, most of the bugs are dead or dying, it's cooler so lugging around plants, dirt, mulch isn't as much work and the leaves are putting on a beautiful show! :-)

I came to the conclusion that the last 'lilac bush' wasn't really a bush at all this summer. It was a junk tree. I put off pulling it up thinking it would attract the japanese beetles that killed off my smallest dogwood tree this summer. I abhor those stupid things!

So I finally pulled it out and planted 2 containers of bulbs and 3 small bushes that were given to me as a few friends were cleaning out. Thus, the side garden against the garage went from looking like this:

to this:

The new bush in a mini rhododendron

and this is where the 4 buckets of bulbs went.

I might break down next spring a buy a more established lilac.

And the back raised garden bed - the last little one went from looking like this:

to this:

whew! what a difference a few months make!

I moved the 3rd NY Astor and planted another hydrangea.

It doesn't look so good right now, but there are green buds on it, so I'm going to give it some love, fertilizer and time and see if I can get it growing again :-)

Pictures I took this morning..... I love my backyard!

Friday, September 19, 2014

August Thoughts....

September is slipping away from me - the days drag on by the weeks keep flying by. I still can't figure out how that's possible! We are so jam-packed/scheduled! Pretty much through the end of the year at this point which is hard for me to believe but I think it's Matt's Grad school schedule that keeps us planning so far out.

In any case, my computer died (again) around the second week of August. It was frustrating at times for sure, but then because I had no laptop I could focus on other things, which was wonderful!

Here's a post I wrote just before the laptop broke:
The house is very quiet now. All house guests have departed. July was a wonderfully crazy-full-awesome month! I feel like I always have a do-to list before family shows up for a visit and this year was no different.

I finally finished planting the gardens I created last summer!

Once again, I switched study and guestroom so that

Oliver, Melissa and LadyBird had more space while they were here.

I managed to get some holes and dings patched before they arrived.

I was hoping to get them painted as well, but oh well!

Then, while they are here I focus all my time and energy on soaking up every moment and house stuff falls behind. I don't mind - family is way, WAY more important than laundry or hanging shelves in the basement, etc. Lucky for me, I have a handy brother who likes to help out while visiting:

This is his impression of ghost busters.... what he's really doing is applying a garlic spray to the yard. It's a natural bug/mosquito deterrent that works great and we love it! It's our third year using it.

He also hung Matt's shelves in the basement

AND applied the privacy sticky paper to the front door

We learned the hard way this summer that the garlic spray does wonders but it doesn't keep the horse flies away, so Oliver went online to find a solution. He copied one that we all thought was crazy - but you know what? it worked like a champ! He took to counting how many flies he caught each time and then would make us guess :-)

Also? He's also great with Reese who really REALLY hates his toe nails being clipped.

All in all, he's one of a kind and I'm so lucky he's my brother :-)

PS. His wife Melissa is also totally awesome ;-)

PPS. We are going to see them for Thanksgiving this year! I can't wait!

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Summertime! and the Livin' is Easy.....

For the past few years Oliver, Melissa and their dog LadyBird have come up from TX to spend a chunk of their summer with us - we LOVE having them!! Here are some pics of our adventures this past month: