Another flower bed...
I’m pretty much through with major projecting on this house…at least until I find something else to tear up!
I did replace the door between the screen porch and the breakfast room.
It was set a tad low and over time the “sweep” has begun to scar the wood…so I took out the old door and “lifted” the new door by adding a piece of 1/2” wood beneath the threshold. The door is also 25 years old and metal. I went with a newer, more energy efficient fiberglass door. Not a difficult project and one you can find a TON of tutorials for.
(You can see the old door with a divided light HERE.)
When I ordered the new door I decided I no longer want “divided light” …in other words “grids.” Which meant I had to replace the glass in the den door since it is divided light as well…and of course they have to match. That door is fine and I really only needed to replace the glass insert. Again, not a big deal…love the look!
As I mentioned before, one of the ways I stay busy and “give back” is to help my neighbors with their projects. In the past few months I have helped one build a wood screen around her AC units, installed a water line for a back yard faucet, hunted plants for landscape projects, help set a large pole for a hose reel, modified a metal fence to keep dogs from escaping a back yard and did some fiberglass repair on a garden fountain.
And this week I built a “garden bench” for my neighbor…I will share that soon. Too stinking cute!
Have wagon and tools, will travel!
In between dragging my wagon around the neighborhood, I managed to get a little yard work done.
I absolutely love my back flower bed and love this time of the year when it comes to life! Every time I look out my bathroom window I am so grateful for it!
This is the view from my bathroom window! When the dogwoods are in bloom…WOW!
But I have one area in my yard that bugs me…rocky and wouldn’t grow decent grass.
Since I have transitioned to perennials and don’t have to do as much spring planting, I decide to tackle this area and extend my back flower bed.
Why do I convince myself that ANYTHING is easy? In my mind I think, oh, I’ll just put down a little landscape edging, throw in some compost and add some plants.
Silly me.
First, this area has some massive tree roots that needed to be taken out. So I had to dig the dirt and rocks (more rocks than dirt) away from them, take a reciprocating saw and cut the roots and take them out. Sounds easy…it is not.
Oh, and I cut a buried wire while I was hacking on the tree roots. Don’t know what it is but I cut it and had to repair it.
Then I had to install the metal edging. Okay, first, that stuff use to be around $8 for an 8’ piece…it is now $30 for one piece. What the heck? Second, again, this area of the yard is really rocky so creating a little trench to set the metal edging in unearthed about 4 five gallon buckets of rocks. CURSES!!!!!
So then I decided I really should use what grass was there to fill in a few bare spots around the yard…kind of like “sod plugs.” That took two days and I think I have destroyed my elbow. Don’t ask, I don’t know.
Again, rocks. LOTS of rock. I think I raked up another 4-5 buckets and honestly I don’t think I put a dent in it. I just got it down low enough to top it with about 5-6” of compost. The booger was digging holes for new plants…AUGH!
And of course the whole irrigation thing, which will now not really work well with the new bed addition. So of course that had to be moved which entailed digging MORE rock…what a pain!
I carefully researched plants to make sure I put in perennials that can take full shade during the day with full evening sun.
Another issue…this area is under a huge black walnut. Black walnuts put off a chemical called “juglone.” Some plants can grow under their canopy but others can not! Research, research, research!
The only thing I knew for certain I wanted to plant is a pink dogwood…found a decent one at a local nursery. They didn’t bother to tell me that a tree can suffer “wind burn” if you transport it in the back of a pickup truck without a tarp.
Half the leaves are all shriveled and “dead” but they swore it will rebound next year. Guess I will find out.
I added a serviceberry, some coral bells, a few flowering bushes, and a few annuals just for summer long color. I transplanted some Stella lilies from another area of my yard where they didn’t get enough sun.
All in all I am pretty happy with it…only one regret…I should have made it bigger! But it’s done for now and maybe next year I can play with it some more…right now I am too busy icing my elbow and knees!
ANOTHER COLLEGE GRADUATE!
A few weekends ago we will celebrated my oldest grandson who is graduating from college. Hard to believe! CONGRATS CAMDEN! We are all so proud of you!
