Yardwork

I think we have finally got our yard in order!  

Last year we (well, I did not participate any because of my surgery) did the bare minimum in our flower beds.  We tried to keep them weeded, and Jimmy and the children put out a little bit of fresh mulch.  I think a small amount of pruning was done too.

This year I wanted to work hard and make our yard look pretty!  Jimmy and Clay do such a fantastic job keeping our grass mowed and the yard edged, trimmed and weed-eaten, and I wanted to contribute by cleaning out and maintaining our flowerbeds (and we have many, many beds!).  It has been slow progress---I have worked an hour or so here and there for over a month--but I think I am done!  All I have to do now is to keep the weeds pulled and the plants watered.

Here are a few pictures of our yard.

 A couple of weeks ago I bought 120 plants!  108 of them were those pink vincas.  I also got four purple and yellow/orange plants for my planters beside the pool, and the rest were herbs.

 Here is this bed before.

I raked out the dead stuff, and then Jimmy tilled up the entire bed.

 I planted the 108 vinca plants!  It took me all day, and I got a sunburn.  After planting them, Jimmy and Clay mulched around them.

 An out of order picture--the bed, after it was tilled.

 Pretty pink flowers--all planted!

 The herbs, sitting in front of our blueberry bushes.

I planted mint, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, and basil.

One of the planters by the pool.
Olivia bought these plants for me for Mother's Day.

The very next day after all of my hard work, planting those 120 flowers, we had a flood!

When I came home from the grocery store, this is what greeted me!

 My poor, poor flowers!

 They were drowning!

 Pitiful!

I am happy to say that the beds dried out, we added some more mulch, and I don't think I lost a single plant!  The bed looks like it did in the first picture.

Over the last week, I have bought and put out 88 bags of mulch.  (Wait, 87, I saved one to put where I may see an empty spot.)  Clay, Sam, and Julie, helped me put out several of the bags, but the majority I have done myself!  I enjoyed it!  It was like getting a workout.  I am covered with hundreds of bug bites, my hands and fingernails and arms are stained brown, and I am sore, but my yard looks so pretty!

Here are some pictures of what the kids call our Secret Garden.  This is the bed we can see when looking out of our kitchen window.  The other side of this bed borders our woods.

Some of my bushes need pruning, but I am not sure how much to cut back now that it's May.  I wish I would have pruned them back in March.  We did get all of our monkey grass cut back, and it is growing beautifully!

When the pink vincas have multiplied and covered the bed, I will try to remember to take and post a picture.