It Never Ends

Well, there are a lot of things that never end. But what I'm thinking about today is landscaping and yard work. It never ends. In fact, for us, it has hardly even begun, and yet I'm tired of it already.

I don't mean to complain, but landscaping just doesn't give me that same boost of excitement and energy that interior design does. There are many people near and dear to me who have a love for gardening and yard maintenance. Apparently, I haven't caught that bug yet.

I just want the landscaping to be over and done with so that we can enjoy the great outdoors known as our yard without constantly thinking about all the work that is still needed. Alas, that isn't going to happen any time soon.

The last 3 yard updates I have given you all involved digging out all the plants/flowers/bushes we do not want in preparation for planting new items. That digging-up process is still in the works in some areas, but we've been able to move on in other areas. Here's a brief update.

A week or two ago we paid to have a landscaping company come and aerate the lawn for us. They also put down some weed-killing stuff (don't know what it's called) and some help-your-grass-grow-healthier seed (again, don't know what it's called). They are doing a total of 5 lawn treatments and each treatment is around $33. So, not too bad. It's something we would do ourselves if we had time for it. We just don't have time.

Here is a picture after the first round of aerating. The tool they use puts little holes all over the yard. The little bits of ground that they dig up look like little clumps of poop all over your yard. YUCK. At least they break down after a few days.


The aerating will help allow the fertilizer, seed, and other nutrients to penetrate the lawn and soil, thereby producing better results. Our grass is currently patchy and rough. It needs improving to say the least.

In addition to the few items the landscaping company is doing, Joey decided we needed to actually throw down some new grass seed in the bare spots of the lawn, including some of the areas where we dug out plants/flowers and want to grow grass instead.

Joey bought a few bags of EZ seed at Lowe's.


After throwing down some seed, Joey used orange tape and sticks and marked off the areas of new seed - just to ensure no intruders marched across the yard.


There were several spots around the yard that needed patching, including around the base of our trees where we had ripped out bricks and hostas back in March...


...we just want grass around the trees instead. Hopefully, with some good watering, we sill start to see grass sprout up in the next few weeks.


Another area that needed seeding is the row of dirt along the side of the house. We are narrowing the flower beds by more than half the width to allow for more grass on the west side of our property. The yard is small. So, the more grass the better.


This next picture shows where the side of the yard wraps around to the front of the yard. We still have to dig out the stumps of the big bushes Joey chopped down. These stumps run deep and have big roots. It's gonna be quite the process to remove them. We will then add some grass seed over part of the area and plant some new smaller plants/flowers too.


We're gonna have to get creative to find a way to hide the air conditioning unit that sits in the front corner of the house. I don't want it viewable, but it needs to be accessible for any maintenance/repairs that may be needed down the road.

Lastly, here's a shot down the east side of the house. It's the mostly-untouched side. When we looked down the side of the house a few weeks ago, all we saw were some daffodil buds and a few other flowers popping out, which we thought should be simple to remove.


But when we looked down the side of the house last night, the dirt and grass area was COVERED in some other type of plant (we think hostas) that is growing up everywhere. And let me tell you, these things have root systems like you wouldn't believe. I spent an hour digging up roots and only got about 3 feet cleared of these things. It's insane.


So, we're going to move to Plan B and basically kill everything down this side of the house using a common grass/weed killing process. More to come on that.

You can see from these pictures just how much still has to be done in this yard, but we're making baby steps in the right direction!


Missed some of the previous yard-related posts? Catch up HERE, HERE, and HERE!