On to the next project!

Well, I suppose I mean the continued project of this mess of a yard. I'm not going to lie, I'm embarrassed at how much of a mess I have allowed it to become. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel!


We live on a corner lot and have a decent sized yard for living in town. And, the only lawn we have borders the street. The rest of the entire yard is garden; about 60% of which right now is actually Nebraskan jungle.


Here is the game plan:

1. Identify which parts of the yard will remain garden and what will be converted back to a lawn. DONE


2. Clear out weeds and other vegetation that should not be there from the garden areas. Mulch it and spray with herbicide all areas that NOTHING should grow. COMPLETED TOMORROW

3. Transplant plants that I want to keep from areas that are going to be grass and mowed.

4. Once the garden areas are complete, totally clear out, till and plant grass seed.


Now, there is a large portion of the back yard that is nothing but river rock. I believe there used to be a pond there at some point. That area will simply be sprayed with the strongest plant killer I can buy in order to keep it weedless. I'll deal with all of that next year.

Here is the front and side sitting area that is done so far:

Note.....There was very few fall flowering plants in the yard. So, I have planted mums that you can see here in the foreground. I did finally decide on shrubs and planted three spring flowering rhododendron in the back. Oddly enough, they have buds on them now. I'm not complaning.

If you look in the back part of the picture, you will see the area that will be planted as grass in the next month or so.

Now that the heat warning is over and the Baltimore like humidity has floated away with the cool front that stormed through earlier today, it is time to really get moving! Tomorrow, the area beyond the sitting area and it's bordering stone walkway will be cleared and a new stone border through the yard will be done. With that, I may even have time to start transplanting some of the flowers that will remain in the yard.

I promise to post before and after pictures. This yard has humbled me, but I am determined to keep part of the garden and make the rest more manageable. Besides, Derrek and Ebony need some grass to play on and I need a garden to get my hands dirty in.