Thursday, July 12, 2012

Mom's summer project

During the summer, mom usually tackles one big project in the yard. This year, she's taking summer classes so the project had to be smaller. It turned out to be bigger than she thought. 

See all that ivy on the fence? It was all over the yard. See that bare dirt? Covered in ivy.
From the fence on the right past the brown thing (porch swing) on the left was all ivy. 
Here it is with all the ivy gone. 54 bags of yard waste. Three trips to the landfill (the ivy had swallowed a lot of stuff). Four hours with the tiller to try to get rid of the roots. 

Here it is after!

 The grass is starting to come back in the bare spots. 
 See those wooden scallops? 
A previous owner had established a bed here once and planted ivy. 
Yeah, thanks. 

The bed is almost all shade so mom had to really think about what plants she wanted. 
 So here are the plants to get the bed started.
This is a Macho fern. It should get about 3 feet tall and wide. It's huge!

These are pieris japonica. When they bloom, the flowers will be pink!

 This is dead nettle. It already has teeny pink blooms already. Apparently, you can eat this too. 

This is astilbe. There are three of these, two are pink and one white. It won't bloom until next year probably.

So that's what mom has been up to. She brought in all these new plants for us to pee on!

12 comments:

  1. Oh my, that was a ton of work! So much ivy. Have fun watering the new plants ladies! Hehee!
    Love,
    Christy

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  2. wow! it looks great! and i can't even imagine what a pain it was to pull up all that ivy!

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  3. What a lot of work! But I think it's all gonna be very pretty when everything fills in and blooms!

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  4. We like playing in the dirt just like your mom. It sure is looking good.
    Benny & Lily

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  5. Your mom works hard, she is going to make your yard even more beautiful! A puggie paradise

    urban hounds

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  6. Imagine this...my mom TRIED to grow ivy and it died...lol...but if you lived closer my mom would give you lots of shade plants...hosta's work the best and you can never kill them...and after a few years you can separate them and start another shade bed....

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  7. Wow! That looks like quite an undertaking. I can't believe how great it looks now - that's a fantastic garden. I bet it will look amazing when the flowers start blooming!

    Also, like you guys noted - lots of new places to pee on. :)

    -Love,
    Sid.

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  8. 4 Hours with the tiller? Hope your peep's back is ok. These new plants look great. Did you guys help or just help "watering"??
    Stay cool~

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  9. That's AWESOME to get rid of all that ivy! Mama says it's pernicious stuff, and it's not allowed in parts of the country, because it chokes trees to death. Did you get a beer from the pugs after all that hard work?

    Lola Pug

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  10. I cannot even imagine doing all the work your mom did to remove that ivy. What a big change in the yard. Enjoy your new plants!

    Tamara + Rupert

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  11. WOW ... that is a lot of work but it is going to look great when those plants fill in and bloom.

    We like to help mama - the boys pee on everything and Liberty digs things up and brings them in. Zoe acts like she doesn't know any of them!

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  12. Hahaha I love you last comment. But seriously, moms don't like it when you pee on their flowers. I should know. Mom thinks your mom did an awesome job. It must have been hot, dirty work but it looks great.

    Roxy

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