Sprucing

The sprinkling system project took most of the summer and with that finished we started on landscaping. All we've done outside since moving in 5 1/2 years ago is rip things out so we figured it was about time to replant and spruce up a bit.

It's been a race to try and get things done before the snow flies. We didn't get as far as we wanted to but it will have to wait until spring now. At least we're making progress.

Richard took out one of our big scraggly bush/trees from the front of the house and it really opened things up. It's been cutting off our walkway for years and it's finally gone. Good riddance!

We also had 5 Barberry (prickly red) bushes here in the front that we took out. I liked them but 3 of them were dead and needed to go. See, we're good at taking stuff out, but putting stuff back in is a challenge for us.

We took some string and cut a new line for our flower beds. Whoever said you can use a hose for this process? At least it didn't work for me. It was stiff and extremely difficult to manage. So string it was. And that worked until Olivia came along to "help."

The next day while Eloise was napping, I took Olivia out with me and started hacking away at the grass. Richard helped in the evenings but it still took several days to get it all out. We were exhausted, but still had a long way to go! But eventually we were left with dirt where we wanted dirt and grass where we wanted grass.

Over the next few days we:

1. bought two loads of compost/mulch and spread it over 4 layers of newspaper, which we hope will act as a weed barrier. That's what I read, anyway. It's cheaper than plastic and easier to dig holes through for plants. And hey, if it doesn't work it will just disintegrate over time.
2. went to a nearby rock quarry and selected 1700 lbs of boulders to make our rock wall, which is more like a rock slope. It didn't turn out exactly like we envisioned but we like the effect and it does the job.
3. got some great deals buying perennials at 50-75% off at the nurseries. But it was so late in the season that they had little left to choose from. I only found about a 1/5 of what was on my list. Did I mention this project has had a huge learning curve?

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(After)

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We'll have to do an update post in the spring. It was a lot of work and my back still hurts just thinking about it, but it looks so much better!