Let the Work Begin
Well the move to Stratford has come and gone. We have been in our new home in this great little community for one month as of today.
I'd love to say the yard is looking good (it isn't) and the gardens are all in full bloom (they aren't), but wouldn't it be great to be able to say that?
We took possession of this house last February when the yard was under several feet of snow. Since then our attention has been focused on the squadrons of workmen busy inside the house and not so much on the outside. With the coming of spring and the inevitable melting of the snow it was pretty apparent that there was a lot more work to do on the yard than we remembered.
My guess is that yard and gardens haven't seen much maintenance in about 3 to 5 years. The garden work this summer will, of necessity, be mainly weeding, edging, re-claiming gardens from grass and cutting back that which has gone wildly out of control.
Here are a couple of before shots of a little plot beside our (nasty) garden shed. One of the rhubarbs is about 7 feet tall. The thistle beside it is at least 6 feet, though it was initially dwarfed by the rhubarb (The-Plant-That-Ate-New-York).
Then there is a shot of what that little garden looks like now. I intend to make it into an herb garden. Since it is so late in the season now, most of the herbs will have to wait until next spring to get started. I did manage to find two very sad looking basil plants in the sale bin at Zehrs and bought them for 26 cents each!
For the record, it took me almost 5 hours and 3 yard waste bags to clean out this one little corner of paradise. I salvaged some decorative concrete edging from another sad little garden to keep the soil and plants safe from the driveway. I don't normally like this edging, but it was handy and there is no point in adding to the Stratford landfill site unnecessarily.
Before:
After:
There is an old cast iron stove of some sort in the back of this garden by the cedars. I'm reasonably sure there are no human remains inside it. I did make a brief, half-hearted attempt to dig it up but since I was hot and tired I arrived at the conclusion that it will add interest to the herb garden and really should just stay there.
And here's the original home of the concrete edging that I re-purposed. It's a little hard to tell which side is garden and which side is lawn.
I'll end today's post with one more before-after pair. There are mature gardens around the entire house and deck. All are overgrown and under-weeded. Most have been planted with things that need full sun to thrive though our house is surrounded by very large shade trees and these gardens are pretty much in full shade most of the day. Lots of work to do yet as I've only finished cleaning out on one side of the house. I guess that means I am about 1/4 done.
Before:
After:
I'd love to say the yard is looking good (it isn't) and the gardens are all in full bloom (they aren't), but wouldn't it be great to be able to say that?
We took possession of this house last February when the yard was under several feet of snow. Since then our attention has been focused on the squadrons of workmen busy inside the house and not so much on the outside. With the coming of spring and the inevitable melting of the snow it was pretty apparent that there was a lot more work to do on the yard than we remembered.
My guess is that yard and gardens haven't seen much maintenance in about 3 to 5 years. The garden work this summer will, of necessity, be mainly weeding, edging, re-claiming gardens from grass and cutting back that which has gone wildly out of control.
Here are a couple of before shots of a little plot beside our (nasty) garden shed. One of the rhubarbs is about 7 feet tall. The thistle beside it is at least 6 feet, though it was initially dwarfed by the rhubarb (The-Plant-That-Ate-New-York).
Then there is a shot of what that little garden looks like now. I intend to make it into an herb garden. Since it is so late in the season now, most of the herbs will have to wait until next spring to get started. I did manage to find two very sad looking basil plants in the sale bin at Zehrs and bought them for 26 cents each!
For the record, it took me almost 5 hours and 3 yard waste bags to clean out this one little corner of paradise. I salvaged some decorative concrete edging from another sad little garden to keep the soil and plants safe from the driveway. I don't normally like this edging, but it was handy and there is no point in adding to the Stratford landfill site unnecessarily.
Before:
After:
There is an old cast iron stove of some sort in the back of this garden by the cedars. I'm reasonably sure there are no human remains inside it. I did make a brief, half-hearted attempt to dig it up but since I was hot and tired I arrived at the conclusion that it will add interest to the herb garden and really should just stay there.
And here's the original home of the concrete edging that I re-purposed. It's a little hard to tell which side is garden and which side is lawn.
I'll end today's post with one more before-after pair. There are mature gardens around the entire house and deck. All are overgrown and under-weeded. Most have been planted with things that need full sun to thrive though our house is surrounded by very large shade trees and these gardens are pretty much in full shade most of the day. Lots of work to do yet as I've only finished cleaning out on one side of the house. I guess that means I am about 1/4 done.
Before:
After:
posted by Anne at 2:05 PM
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