In a Rut!

My hubby Tyrone working hard!

You bet your Grass it works!

We had two very deep ruts in our front yard caused by washout and not so great grading by the builders before they laid the sod. They were a huge hazard and I was tired of twisting my ankle so we looked into having it filled in and seeded, but the landscape company wanted a ridiculous amount of money for dirt. I couldn't believe it! I decided that we could do it ourselves! So anytime I was planting new things this spring I would dig out the thick heavy clay soil we have, put it in the ruts and then fill the holes in the flower beds with good garden soil. This worked out very well, and it filled in the ruts quickly. It did take some work to get it leveled out well and at the time we did not have a tamper tool to do this easily so it was a matter of using your feet to stomp it down and then walking around and feeling where the uneven areas were and then filling them in. We then added a thin layer of garden soil and used a garden rake to mix it in before we put the seed down to give it a good base to grow in.

Close up of our patchwork.

We used Scotts EZ Seed which has fertilizer and grass seed mixed in together. This is a GREAT product and I highly recommend it! It is very easy to use. You spread a layer of the EZ seed on where you need it, water it regularly and watch it grow!

May 3rd

This is what the patches looked like after we put the EZ Seed down and watered it thoroughly, it's kind of fun to watch because the fertilizer expands to hold moisture in.

It kind of reminded me of the little sponges we use to get as a kid that came in a capsule and you put them in water and watched them grow into some kind of animal. :)

May 17th

 In just 14 days we had really good grass growth, there were a couple of areas that had minimal growth and we had to add more seed.
Now it is growing in very well and is just about to the point that it needs cut.
If you have any areas like this in your yard that need filled in or have bare patches that need grass, give it a try, you will be amazed at how easy it is!

Spring Cleaning!

Step it up! 

So, I was a little bored with the shape of the large flower bed in the front of my house. It really needed a little something. I really have an aversion to hard straight lines in a garden  I've expanded the flower bed along the garage as well as lengthened it. I was able to spread out the juniper bushes and bring the quince forward away from the wall.

As you can see in the picture below the flower bed cuts off at an odd spot. behind the downspout. My plan is to eventually run a flowerbed down the length of this side of the house to match the other side of the house. We'll see when I actually get that done. :)  It is a whole lot of work pulling up all the grass and breaking up the clay soil and amending it with good garden soil.

Side Yard Clean Up!

What a mess!

Clematis and Knock out Rose looking sad.

It's amazing how fast the grass will take over when not kept in check. The biggest part of this flower bed had my sunflowers in it last summer and after they died off in the fall I cleaned it out and left it.

Tilled in garden soil...

So, it took quite a bit to get it cleaned out and ready for more sunflower seeds! 

My husband found a small battery powered cultivator at our second home, Lowes, and it worked like a dream! It really made it so much easier to clean things out and then till in garden soil to amend our terrible indiana clay soil. Hopefully one day, probably years down the road, my soil will be perfect after adding in all the good stuff!  

After the cleanup! 

Mad About Mulch!

Mulch always makes such a huge difference in the flower beds, it makes everything look complete and cohesive. And it helps with weed prevention and moisture retention for your plants.

There are so many different options when it comes to mulch that it can get very overwhelming and you find yourself asking, "what kind should I get?" "What color and are the not natural colors safe for my plants and all the wildlife that likes to come visit my yard?" "and what about recycled rubber mulch?"

I've done a lot of research and found that it really comes down to personal preference. As for the dyes they use for red and black mulch its typically vegetable base and safe for plants, sometimes the red is colored from Iron Oxide and the black from coal and are naturally occurring substances and ok for your yard. 

The problems with mulch being dangerous is more when they use wood that has been chemically treated. But a good rule of thumb is to check the labels before you buy! Check the link out below for some more info! 

Read more: What Is Black Mulch Dyed With? | eHow http://www.ehow.com/about_6782815_black-mulch-dyed-with_.html#ixzz2T8qq3UT7

Clematis and Day Lilies

Knock Out Roses

Spring Has Sprung!

Spring cleaning! 

After a winter that seemed like it lasted forever spring is finally here and we've been hard at work cleaning out our flowerbeds, expanding our garden and watching everything come back to life! Last spring consisted of us digging all of our flower beds and planting everything new, so this year is completely different.

It's been so much fun watching the plants and woods behind our house change daily. 

March...

I love watching the woods behind our house turn green and fill in. 

Nature Preserve behind our house.

Sedum Love!

When I was taking advantage of a warm march day and clearing out some of the old dead plants from last season and noticed the sedum peaking it's head up through the leafs! Such amazing chartreuse green color!
If you want something low maintenance that does well from full sun to shade than this is the plant for you! There are many varieties and they have beautiful clusters of flowers in late summer to fall. I have both the Autumn Joy and Neon in my yard and they both have amazing color!

Those Darn Squirrels!!! 

Before

We bought this beautiful mosaic bird feeder at Lowes and got it filled and all set up and absolutely loved how it looked when the light hit it.



 We now have 3 feeders along the nature preserve and there is an abundance of different birds that come to visit daily. But along with the birds we have a herd of squirrels that love to feast on the free grub. 

After :(

So of course the next day I look outside to see this guy feasting on a pile of bird seed with my new feeder broken on the ground!

Needless to say I was not very happy! But hey, I guess they have to eat too.
At least we were able to take it back and have it replaced with no questions asked. The replacement feeder must be a little more sturdy because it's still intact and I see one of our little furry friends sitting on it almost daily. 

Until next time... Happy Spring!

Wrapping up 2012, in a nutshell...

Okay, it's been a LONG time since I've posted anything. So, we made a lot of progress last year with our landscaping and looking back at my previous posts I realize that I didn't post much with the "finished" product. We have big plans for our yard this spring and have already started clearing out our old flower beds, expanding some of them and creating new spaces for more planting fun! 
Before I share this years progress and Tips-N-Tricks we've learned I want to share some of the pictures from last year. Unfortunately my old phone died and took with it a lot of pics from later in the summer when things were really pretty so you'll just have to take my word for it... ;)

Gorgeous Giants:

Canna Lilies 

The show stopper for our yard last year were the
canna lilies! We had several patches of these in various places in our yard. These "cannons" are a tribute to my husbands parents who always had them in their yard.
Canna lilies are very easy to plant as they are rhizome bulbs that stay near the surface of the ground. They don't tolerate the cold winters here in Indiana. So, for the best results year after year, the bulbs need to be dug up and stored in black trash bags in a cool dry place like your basement or garage.
These will multiply like crazy every year which makes them great for sharing with your family, friends and neighbors!

Side Yard Progress: 

We added a long flower bed along the side of our house. And of course we had to line the beds with fieldstone we found around new build sites within our neighborhood and surrounding areas. It's fun finding the different rocks and they look great!

• Quick Tip: the best time to find fieldstone is in a new housing addition when they dig a new basement or foundation. Another good place to look is in freshly plowed fields. 

Knock Out Roses!

I planted Knock Out Roses, Clematis and Sunflowers along the side of the house. This rose bush was a distressed plant we got at Lowes and with a little TLC it has now doubled in size since we planted it. I can't wait to see it in bloom this year!

• Quick Tip: BUY DISTRESSED PLANTS! This will save you so much money. Most of the time the plants you find on the distressed wrack at your home improvement store or nursery are either past their bloom time, root bound or just look a little scraggly. When you plant, water and fertilize these plants they will take off and you will be pleasantly surprised! 

Sunflower Starts

So, as I said before, I lost a lot of my pics when my old phone died on me and in turn I don't have the pictures of the sunflowers when they were full grown with their amazing blooms. It makes me a little sad because sunflowers are my favorite and they were so beautiful. I will make sure and post pics this year!
Anyways, I started these guys with seeds and watching them grow up to 8 feet was very cool!

Backyard Progress:

We made some major impact changes in our back yard with a flower bed that goes the length of the yard. Our house backs up to a nature preserve, which is my favorite part of the yard. I wanted to make a transition area with a colorful shade garden that breaks up all the green from the wood to the grass.

Before we had a sea of green, which yes is beautiful but of course I wanted to kick it up a notch. This shade garden has several different varieties of hosta, sedum, bleeding hearts, ornamental grass, lilac and a hedge of weigela that will create a natural fence when it matures.

This year our back yard is going to take on a whole new life with plans for a large patio with pergola and fire pit and new grill!
I'm really looking forward to having an amazing outdoor living space to enjoy our beautiful yard and woods!

I will also be planting more shade loving plants with lots of color to fill in the flowerbed.

Our Little Visitors: 

There have been lots of little critters visiting our yard and driving our cats crazy! It is so much fun to watch our cats, Stormie and Shadow, stalk the wildlife out the windows, or as we like to call it... Cat TV!
We have a plethora of different kinds of birds, crazy squirrels, chipmunks and raccoons that come to visit us almost daily.
This year we have already added 2 additional bird feeders and have created a bit of a wildlife sanctuary. I love it!

Stay Tuned for all the changes to come this year... and Happy Gardening!

Weekend Warrior!

I finally have the front yard landscaping done... for now...

Or at least done until I think of something else I want to do with it. 

Front Yard

I honestly think that I have become obsessed with this yard! 

I worked Thursday night and came home from work on Friday morning and drug my husband out of bed so we could go to Lowe's and see if there was anything I liked on sale. I also realized that we spend entirely too much time at Lowe's because the people there know us by name! Anyways, there wasn't a lot of work I could get done on Friday due to being beyond tired but I was able to get a little bit done. 

I was unable to do anything on Saturday cause I had to be out of town all day but was really excited because my awesome husband went to one of those pop up nursery's in the parking lot at the mall close to our house and got some great flowers and other various plants.  So come Sunday I was all business and got some serious work done!

Sunday brings big changes around the yard! 

On a side note... This flower bed gets full sun all day long so I had to pick plants that could stand the heat! 

There is lavender, cone flower, sedum, geraniums, columbine and a butterfly bush that will be the focal point of this bed when it matures. There are also some other plants that I can't think of the names of right now but they look great!
I'm all about planting different types of perennials so that each year it comes back even better than the year before! I also think it's important to pick a mixture of plants with different bloom times so that you have color from spring through fall. 

Flower Bed in Front of Garage

So, I got up early on Sunday and went to church then stopped at Kroger on the way home to get some stuff to make breakfast and was sidetracked with the plants they had for sale out side. I was amazed at what all they had and the prices were great! Of course I couldn't pass up the great deal. 

The rest of the day was spent in the yard planting the flowers, and spreading mulch!

It's so much fun to see it all coming together! I still can't believe how much difference the red mulch makes in tying everything together, and I love the color! We have looked all through our neighborhood and were kind of surprised to find that no one else has used red mulch.  

Don't be afraid to do something different and be yourself! 

Rhododendron

Quince

Another Tip is to buy plants on clearance at your local home improvement store or nursery. You can get some really great deals on plants that are in great condition, and even ones that look a little ragged in the store will perk up and do just fine once you get it in the ground. 

The rhododendron and the flowering quince were clearance plants at Lowe's and were under $10 each! 

Off To The Back Yard...

Various Kinds of Hosta

Now that the front yard is done, for now, I'm focusing on the back yard and my shade garden that will transition the yard into the woods behind our house. 

I really want my back yard to be a place where you can loose yourself and truly relax and enjoy nature! My inspiration for our yard comes partially from my Dad and Step Mom's yard. One think I have always loved about their back yard is that you feel like you are in you're own little world and there are tons different kinds of flowers and shrubs and it is always changing with the seasons. 

 

 My plan is for this shade garden to meander across the back of the yard and it will have the rock border and mulch to tie in with the front yard.

Hydrangea

Like I said earlier I found some great plants at Kroger, they included 4 big hosta, 2 lilac bushes and a gorgeous hydrangea!

Lilac

These lilacs smells so good and will be amazing when they mature and are covered in the fragrant flowers!

Variegated Weigela Starts

Why Must You Cut Through Our Yard? 

We have had a lot of problems with the neighborhood kids cutting through our yard to get home from school or walking their dogs back along the woods.

I had to rethink my original plan to put in barberry bushes that would really prevent people and pets from walking through our yard but figured we might get some complaints and besides that I would probably tear my self to shreds putting them in and keeping them pruned back. So instead I have planted variegated weigela between our yard and our neighbors.

Right now they are kinda small so we had to put rocks around them to keep the lawn guys from not seeing them and mowing them over.  

These weigela will get big and have lots of flowers from spring to
fall that attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Sneak Peak! 

Here is a sneak peak of how the rock border and mulch is going to look in the back, this is the only section I have done right now but it's coming along!

You can kind of see here how I have started laying out the border all the way across the back.

Now I have to dig up all the area where the rest of the plants are going and get it ready for when everything we just ordered comes in.

We also need to go rock hunting again and get more rock to fill in the border.

 Until next time... Happy Gardening! 

The Eclecticness Of It All!

Just can't make up my mind... Ever...

I have a very eclectic taste in most everything in my life from music to fashion to home decor. And naturally it's now overflown into my yard. The way colors, textures and shapes can work together just amazes me.

Iris, Columbine and (a kind of sad looking)Peony

I can't just pick a few kinds of plants and go with it. I just love so many of them I can't decide so I think I need to try them all! My husband, Tyrone, tends to give me a hard time about it due to the fact that he thinks I need to have a plan and I'm more of a 'just go with it' kind of person. So, hence all my flower beds have a little bit of everything in them but I think it just adds interest and depth! It can pose a problem when we go to the local garden center and I can spend hours just perusing through the isles looking at everything and may pick out 100 things or nothing.
So, I'm sure I do make him a little crazy cause he would much rather have a plan on what we are going to get and use stealth tactics and swoop in get what we need and get out with as few casualties to our bank account as possible!
But as much as I make him crazy he usually lets get my way and sighs and says "happy wife, happy life..."
What can I say... I'm a lucky girl! :)

Power of the peony...

As you can see in the pic above the peony, which may be easier to identify as the wilted pile of green behind the rock to the left, has been looking rather sad and my loving but not so patient husband kept telling me I need to find something else to plant there cause it wasn't going to make it and of course I didn't want to admit that he might me right on this one. 

But my "Garden Guru" (AKA my Dad) said to give it time and it will probably be here longer than any of us cause they can live for like 100 years. So, I just kept watering it and sending it good vibes and having faith that it would eventually perk up. 

The Little Peony That Could

Much to my surprise on Friday morning when I got home from work I decided to take a look at how things were coming along and I had to do a double take and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me because there was a single white bloom smiling up at me! 

I was so excited I had to show Tyrone right then and show him the power of the pony! 

He just laughed and said "I guess you're right!" 

VICTORY!  

In The Beginning...

In the Beginning...

A few weeks ago I started working on landscaping our yard at our new home. This is my first attempt at landscaping and gardening and I'm finding that I really enjoy it! It's hard work but it gives you such a since of accomplishment when you see it starting to come together.

Right Side of Driveway

I started by mapping out where I wanted flower beds using field stone found in our neighborhood after the builder had started construction on a new house.
It's really amazing how much good sized rock you can find like this and it saves a TON of money! The boulders on either side of the driveway were found when they dug our basement and the large boulder by the garage was on our lot and is one of the main reasons I picked the lot!
Yeah, I know, I have a thing for rocks! 

Lt Side of Driveway

Pulling up the sod is a messy job but luckily since our sod was still pretty new and hadn't had time to fully take so it wasn't that difficult to pull up.

On the other hand, the ground underneath the sod was solid clay and full of little rocks. I had to get a hand tiller and mix in several bags of garden soil to try and get it ready for planting. But several blisters and a soar back later the soil was usable!

The back of our SUV looked like a jungle! 

One thing that I wanted to do more than anything was drive down to Gosport Indiana to my family's farm and dig up plants to bring up and put in our yard. My grandparents always had a beautiful country garden with a variety of different plants and lots of color!

We were able to get Iris, Columbine, Bleeding Hearts, Peony, Sedum and Prickly Pear Cactus!

Prickly Pear Cactus

*Yes Cactus does grow in Indiana and actually does really well!!!


FYI it is NOT FUN to move! Three weeks later I still have cactus needles in my hand (yes I had leather gloves on). But the result is so worth it! And it's a fun conversation piece with the neighbors.
I can't wait till this blooms! It has beautiful yellow flowers!

Back Yard Bliss!

Our back yard faces a nature preserve which is the number one reason we chose this lot for our new home! I'm a country girl at heart and my husband is a city boy so this was our compromise and I couldn't be any happier with it!

We have big plans for a deck and poured concrete patio with fire pit next spring but for right now we are working on getting my shade garden in that borders the woods. 

Shade Garden

I am planting lots of hosta and other shade loving plants along the edge of the woods to make it look like our yard just continues into the tree line. 

Hosta, Sedum and Bleeding Hearts

I absolutely love Bleeding Hearts, they just make me smile! 

I was able to get a small plan from the farm but I am defiantly going to have to get more and different varieties! 

Well, I have lots more to share but it can wait til next time... Happy Gardening!