Before and After

I don't mean to boast, I really don't...but I'm PROUD of my yard and its progress in one short year. The original owners of my house were "naturalists" as the neighbors put it. That's a nice way to say they didn't believe in using chemicals or even pruning/clipping hedges. Everything was just free to grow. As a result, the yard and landscaping looked like this when I bought my house in July 2008.


I suppose I really should have written this post in July, to commemorate 1 year of owning my house, but that will be a different post. For now, since it's spring and things are blooming and green, I want to focus on changes that have taken place to the exterior of my house since I've bought it. Thanks to help from Mom and Dad (providing a Japanese Maple, and pulling out old hedges), Leslie (being a BIG help with labor, and planting a tree), a co-worker (for using his SUV to pull out a small tree), and Scotts turf builder this is what I have so far this year:



I can explain about the improvements. First of all, we have landscape edging, which I feel provides a nice divide between yard and bed. It's relatively inexpensive for the look it gives, and just takes time to put down. There is red lava rock as a bedding, and under the red lava rock is a weed barrier. Under the week barrier is a mixture of Preen pellet weed killer and liquid round up, mixed for a toxic solution to ward off weeds. Don't judge me. As far as foliage goes, the small items on the ground are a blue star juniper (soft to touch) and a yellow/green juniper srub. These don't spread too large if taken care of. Next, is my favorite. A red lace leaf Japanese maple. It survived the winter and looks amazing. This small tree is gorgeous. I have two large boulders on the ground for a backdrop, and solar lanterns that give off a nice dim light at night...it looks amazing. Then there's the gnome who protects this area, his name is Barnaby. Moving on down now there is some sort of small evergreen tree, this was already here when I bought the house, we just trimmed it. Then there is a small green leaf Japanese maple that my dad brought me from South Carolina. This one is still very young and is staked to be straight. Then there is another evergreen, and on the end of the house is a weeping cherry tree. All of these should not grow much larger, just more robust if trimmed and taken care of. The weeping cherry tree looks excellent in spring, and is a popular corner garnish for houses in my neighborhood.

So, this is what I've been busy spending my days working on this spring, and I still need to finish up (if you can see, more lava rock needs to be put down on the end). Take a look at the grass though. That's a big improvement in just one season. I'm very happy with it and I've had a great time working on it. This is a fun part of home ownership to me!

Also:
- Leslie and I are coming to South Carolina July 2 - 5
- Go see State of Play in theatres
- Happy Mothers Day mom, I love you!