Monday, May 21, 2012

Landscaping Project

Well, the realtor supposedly in charge of selling off my dream house never bothered to get back to me, and while I could easily waste years of my life dreaming of this place, as I have no money and have heard nothing, I suppose I should do as the song says and 'if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with.' (Abysmal lyrics, actually, but fitting.) As the 'one I'm with' is a cute little house with the world's most boring lawn, I figured I should do something about it. I've started landscaping, and have put together two flowerbeds, one of which is quite large. I'm not finished with the large bed yet, but it's filling out quite nicely.

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Here's the before shot. We started by trimming those trees you see on the right way back.

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A closeup of the location of the large flowerbed.

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Some purchases: verbena (purple and red), periwinkle (pink), rosemary (rear center), and miscellaneous mint (upper right - it was sold to me at a yardsale by a man who claimed it was citronella plant, although after googling citronella plant, I have discovered that it definitely not what is).

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Flower bed outlined, crepe myrtle planted.

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Flower bed outlined with bricks, crepe myrtal, verbena, purslane, and lantana planted

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Mint, rosemary, and mulch added.

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This is what it currently looks like. You can also see the smaller bed (home to azaleas and periwinkles) between the front of the car and the left half of the porch.

2 comments:

John from Daejeon said...

It's looking very nice. It took me a few years to realize that the only thing better than a flower bed is a vegetable garden (much to my mother's disappointment that she no longer gets rose plants from me on special occasions).

I know I upset a lot of people in the subdivision I bought into a few years ago in preparation for my retirement as I ripped out all the old, unkempt roses, honeysuckle, and half-dead oak trees. I now have a 100+ asparagus plants, several peach, plum, apple, and nectarine trees, grapes, blackberries, and some pecans and walnuts growing instead of plants and trees that can't feed me but still cost money and water for their upkeep. It boggles my mind that more people don't grow people food in their yards as it would definitely help with the cost of their food bill and many of them could definitely use the exercise.

It's funny to notice that over time, many of the ones who stuck up their noses at me for thinking about my future are now stopping by and asking about some of the vegetables and trees I have growing and if I know where they might be able to pick up some for themselves. Also, my mom is glad to see me whenever I visit as I have worked up a small garden for her to keep her up to her ears in tomatoes, beans, okra, squash, peppers, cucumbers, radishes, and sweet corn. Now, not having as many roses taking up valuable garden space makes a lot more sense to her.

Katy Eagles said...

The outcome of your landscaping project looks great! It actually gave your front yard something rather interesting other than your ‘boring’ lawn. How’s your front yard now? Did you add new plants to your lawn? I bet the verbena, periwinkle, and rosemary flowers you’ve planted are already in full bloom, and are making your lawn colorful and beautiful!