Lawn and Garden, episode 2011

Winter is a lame time in MN for any type of home improvements.  I really don't think I've done anything to the house since the last post. But, now it's May! The Sun! Grass! Flowers!

I've had a great time the past couple weeks getting my lawn and garden looking nice.  Let's have a look-see how abouts?

The wall of shame. No wait, thats just the privacy fence that separates my neighbor and I.  It was desolate and barren (except for weeds, which were thriving!) when I went at it last week with all the tools in my arsenal (my hands and shovels).

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as if the morning glories from last year self-seeded. Fail.  But I am not to be deterred.  My parents thinned out some ferns, so I planted those at intervals along the fence.  Then I planted morning glory seeds in the spaces between.  In front of the ferns I sprinkled a gigantor bag of "aromatic wildflower mix".  Fingers crossed!  The other new addition is a paver border - doesn't it look so nice?  They are the same pavers I used last year on the side and front gardens.  Thanks to my handy measuring skills, I got the EXACT NUMBER OF PAVERS that I needed. Take that, math gods!

Next up - the side garden leading up to my house.  Last year I planted lots of marigolds.  But since I have a patio in the hopper, I didn't want to plant anything and then lose all my hard work when the sidewalk was dug up.  Instead, I decided to go with lime green planters lining the walk with some red mulch.  Looks very sweet, yes?  Not sure what kind of flowers I have in them...I still have the identifying cards, but they're out in the garage. Blogger fail.

Up close view

I also added planters to the front walk, flanking the front door.

Those two projects took about 4 hours last Wednesday, that not only netted me a fabulous looking yard, but also a wicked sunburn. Go me!

Today, I tackled the front yard.  First was de-treeing the front garden.  I love the way the maple tree looks, but seriously.  Seems like I have little trees growing EVERYWHERE.  All the front garden took was de-treeing and taking out the old mulch from last year to get it all freshened up.  I'm tossing around planting some marigolds in front of the bushes and astilbes....

Final garden project - putting edging around the maple tree and filling the space with mulch.  My dad wasn't a fan of the idea, but I wanted to do it for two reasons. First, grass grows so sparse under the tree and there are a lot of ground roots. Makes mowing a serious chore and it just never looked good.  Second, it would add some visual interest to the front.

See what I mean?  I love the look of it so much.  This is one project I'm so glad I did this year, and all it took was 11 bags of red mulch and two packages of edging (that was not recommended for trees, LOL).  I've also thrown down lots of grass seed in an attempt to get some grass growing along the curb - same trouble spot as last year.  But I think it's working! I have teeny tiny eeny meeny little blades of grass growing.

So, thats my no hassle, upkeep free gardening.  I am not a super big fan of gardening, but I love the results. So I do the least amount of work possible.  And the results ain't half bad, if I do say so.