my babies...
I love my yard. When we met each other, she was so abused and neglected. Years of unraked leaves left her battered and tattered. Decades of life without fertilizer. No grooming, trimming or nurturing. She was abandoned, left to the brutal care of the wild, a wicked step-mother, indeed.
I found her breathing her last breath when I arrived and preceeded to enact some CPR. I'm not a green thumb per say, but I do have an affection for nature that would make some people question my psychological standing. I started by raking leaves and clearing debris. Old bear bottles, a water softener buried under piles of grass and rocks and downed trees. Old telephones, dolls, and musty clothes. Tires, hoses, balls, and gardening utensils. You name it, it was all over the place. It seemed like whoever lived there before discarded things out their windows when they were done them.
I ripped out the overgrown foliage around the house and labored to pull up the Boston Ivy ground cover that had taken over. All the Arbs and Yews had to go. There was no salvaging them. The only piece of landscaping that I kept was a Magnolia tree at the front corner of the garage. Somehow, it had cared for itself in the midst of the abuse.
With tender loving care, I leveled ground, picked rocks, and dug decorative edges that would serve as a border between lawn and mulch beds. I took up pen, and designed a colorful arrangement of shrubs and trees that would become my nursery. These infant bushes would need me for some time before they could walk on their own. I figured out the dimensions and locations of all the plants and left for Lowes to see if I could find the deal of a life time. I arrived just after they recieved a shipment of new plants. These were vibrant in color, supple and young like a babies behind. They were the $4.99 plants, but I could tell I was getting a whole year for free cause another shot of new growth was yet to come. I bought exactly what I needed to complete my design.
These are the babies I adopted that day:
1 Japenese Maple (that was 29.99)
2 Larger Alberta drawf spruce (19.99)
4 smaller Alberta spuce
5 Burning Bushes
2 Limemound Spirea
3 Goldmound Spirea
2 Sistena Plum
2 Verigated Dogwoods
3 Ornimental Grasses
6 Dwarf Boxwoods
2 dwarf Hydragea
6 Gold lace junipers
5 Blue Rug Junipers (ground spreading)
4 gold Euonymous
4 Blue Star Junipers
1 Weeping Cherry (59.99)
2 Bird's nest spruce
1 Pink Dogwood (39.99)
1 Golden Privot
That's my nursery full of babies needing affection and love from my gentle agrarian hands. This year, they are in a toodler stage of sorts moving along with a surge of growth that makes me proud, obnoxiously so. My Japenese Maple put out new shoots of growth that are nearly 2 feet long and counting. They are majestically weeping as well which makes for a more asthetic picture. Everything is at the peek of its color, bright and loud as if to yell, "We're back!"
I mulched for the second year in a row. Last year I needed ten yards of mulch spread at 5 inches to get a good base down. This year I got 7 and it just barely covered the ground. I put in another 2 yard mulch bed around my grouping of 5 large cherry trees. It's a sight to behold.
And my lawn, she is doing much better. I gave her a shot of ferilizer earlier in the spring that boosted her confidence and color and last week, I broadcasted a round of weed and feed all over her green surface. The next day, it rained, breaking down the granular pellets and soaking it into the ground ever so delicately. I'm looking forward to the by product of that investment in the weeks to come. I have another round of weed and feed for next month...but good things come to those who wait...that's what I keep whispering to my lawn when she pines for more. She knows I'm right. She also knows I good for my word.
I cut down three white pines that were under my soft maple trees and were being deprived of the sun needed to grow healthy. I think it opened up some good space that my lawn needed as well. The only casualties have been a thorn tree and an all-but-dead poplar that needed to be felled.
I just planted some hostas that were given to me and I'm fixing to plant some ferns that were given to me this last weekend around my apple tree...it's needs some covering at the base.
I love my yard. Can you tell?
I found her breathing her last breath when I arrived and preceeded to enact some CPR. I'm not a green thumb per say, but I do have an affection for nature that would make some people question my psychological standing. I started by raking leaves and clearing debris. Old bear bottles, a water softener buried under piles of grass and rocks and downed trees. Old telephones, dolls, and musty clothes. Tires, hoses, balls, and gardening utensils. You name it, it was all over the place. It seemed like whoever lived there before discarded things out their windows when they were done them.
I ripped out the overgrown foliage around the house and labored to pull up the Boston Ivy ground cover that had taken over. All the Arbs and Yews had to go. There was no salvaging them. The only piece of landscaping that I kept was a Magnolia tree at the front corner of the garage. Somehow, it had cared for itself in the midst of the abuse.
With tender loving care, I leveled ground, picked rocks, and dug decorative edges that would serve as a border between lawn and mulch beds. I took up pen, and designed a colorful arrangement of shrubs and trees that would become my nursery. These infant bushes would need me for some time before they could walk on their own. I figured out the dimensions and locations of all the plants and left for Lowes to see if I could find the deal of a life time. I arrived just after they recieved a shipment of new plants. These were vibrant in color, supple and young like a babies behind. They were the $4.99 plants, but I could tell I was getting a whole year for free cause another shot of new growth was yet to come. I bought exactly what I needed to complete my design.
These are the babies I adopted that day:
1 Japenese Maple (that was 29.99)
2 Larger Alberta drawf spruce (19.99)
4 smaller Alberta spuce
5 Burning Bushes
2 Limemound Spirea
3 Goldmound Spirea
2 Sistena Plum
2 Verigated Dogwoods
3 Ornimental Grasses
6 Dwarf Boxwoods
2 dwarf Hydragea
6 Gold lace junipers
5 Blue Rug Junipers (ground spreading)
4 gold Euonymous
4 Blue Star Junipers
1 Weeping Cherry (59.99)
2 Bird's nest spruce
1 Pink Dogwood (39.99)
1 Golden Privot
That's my nursery full of babies needing affection and love from my gentle agrarian hands. This year, they are in a toodler stage of sorts moving along with a surge of growth that makes me proud, obnoxiously so. My Japenese Maple put out new shoots of growth that are nearly 2 feet long and counting. They are majestically weeping as well which makes for a more asthetic picture. Everything is at the peek of its color, bright and loud as if to yell, "We're back!"
I mulched for the second year in a row. Last year I needed ten yards of mulch spread at 5 inches to get a good base down. This year I got 7 and it just barely covered the ground. I put in another 2 yard mulch bed around my grouping of 5 large cherry trees. It's a sight to behold.
And my lawn, she is doing much better. I gave her a shot of ferilizer earlier in the spring that boosted her confidence and color and last week, I broadcasted a round of weed and feed all over her green surface. The next day, it rained, breaking down the granular pellets and soaking it into the ground ever so delicately. I'm looking forward to the by product of that investment in the weeks to come. I have another round of weed and feed for next month...but good things come to those who wait...that's what I keep whispering to my lawn when she pines for more. She knows I'm right. She also knows I good for my word.
I cut down three white pines that were under my soft maple trees and were being deprived of the sun needed to grow healthy. I think it opened up some good space that my lawn needed as well. The only casualties have been a thorn tree and an all-but-dead poplar that needed to be felled.
I just planted some hostas that were given to me and I'm fixing to plant some ferns that were given to me this last weekend around my apple tree...it's needs some covering at the base.
I love my yard. Can you tell?
Comments
Love ya
Jim