Lawn and Garden

The South Lawn (aka the other lot, aka our yard) suffered benign neglect for at least the past 10 years. The previous owners had a service that came twice a month to mow and tidy up,  but they were not doing anything else. Last year, we had a service for the same thing.

This year is different.

So far, we've created the rose garden. Here we have deeply scented roses from Lowes and a climbing Joseph's Coat from Witherspoon. A cedar shrub was growing out of this little strip of land. Every time we opened the gate we got a hand or face full of prickles. It was quite unpleasant. 

Our best guess is that at some point there was sewage work done that required digging up a portion of the patio. There is a cleanout in the middle of this bed of rock. prior to the pretty rock it was rock covered over in dirt and brush and grass. I spent a lazy couple of hours with the hose washing the rock and removing the mud so that we could put in new rock and stop the growth there.

We also have the beginnings of an orchard and my cut flower garden, but the cut flowers may eventually move. Right now there is a seasonal rotation of tulips, tuberoses, and gladiolus in the rectangular bed which needs the dry stack slate to be built up a little bit.

Then we addressed the drainage on the North Side of the house - we have gutters on the house for the first time in decades. We're basically collecting water at the foundation. So we built two beds and are in the process of creating The Northern River of Knives (ok, so Madeline wants to rename it Little Pebble Creek) which will drain the water to the back yard.  The beds include a range of hydrangeas. I know the area is wet enough, I'm hoping the sun/shade mixture works for them.

Harris and Madeline already cleared out the culvert that runs under the house and Madeline finds this to be a magical area that she can quickly run from front yard to back yard.  Soon we'll never mow this area again and the water will wick away from our foundation using planting and existing drainage systems built who knows when.

In the front yard, we've gotten up the paint chips and scraggly grass that was right by the foundation of the house. Here is a bed currently planted with two kirea japonica. I had one of these at The Purple House and loved it. In another year or two both of those plants will reach the railing. When that happens, we'll expand the bed further into the yard and plant in front of it.  I'm quite proud of myself; I always plant too close to the house and here I might have just made it too far!

Of course there are pots. Lots of pots of flowers all over the place. we're figuring out our pot and hanging basket set up still. Our porch is huge (#humblebrag) so the little pots you buy look... well... very little.

Back to the South Lawn

We've been pulling ivy and cleaning up briars, undergrowth and other what's it for weekend upon weekend now. The ultimate reason is that this will eventually be the main play area for the girls. We've decided to turn the building in the back into a playhouse for the girls and to install the swing set there.

This is the swing set in pieces. Once the playhouse is finished, we'll put the swingset back together.

We also have to figure out what to do about the fence/tree/overgrowth from the church at the back edge of our yard.

 This will be the playhouse after a couple more weekends of work by Harris. It's 13 by 6 ish - quite huge and fun for a play house for the girls. Madeline wants a futon to cuddle on and a lock for the door. We're trying to figure out how/if to honor these requests.  The whole area looks rather ridiculous right now - it's a work in progress. I remind myself that while this is a small corner of yard for us, it's a huge section of land. It's larger than the front, back, and side at Queen St. Probably the same size or larger as the entire front yard at Oakwood.

Did you know I have a large pile of metal. Since we're winding down wars the commodity prices have dropped. You can barely get $3 for copper anymore. It's ridiculous and frankly, barely worth my time for the ton of shreder steal I have.  Harris wants it gone. so.... I've inspired him to use it as raw materials to make things for our yard. To wit -  instead of taking the saw blade, empty fire extinguishers, and zinc, Harris made me another windchime. I can't wait to see what else comes out of that pile.