It's a Jungle Out There!

So the flowerbed had become a bit of a jungle this summer. Yeah... this picture is a bit embarrassing. When we purchased the house we inherited lots of plants that we had no idea what to do with! : ) I cringe at the thought that the former owner might ride by to see what we have done with the place and fall over dead!


Unfortunately a lot of these wonderful plants have been here for some time and have become intertwined, overgrown, and some are trying desperately to escape the perimeter of the flowerbed.

Most of the green you are seeing to the left of the bunny are weeds or Japanese lanterns. I decided the lanterns, as neat as they are, were looking more like weeds and growing crazy across the whole flower bed so they had to go. I also had gotten tired of letting the irises, lilies, and daffodils soak up the sun for next spring so I went ahead and cut them off as well. I was nice enough to leave the peony (for now) that will get trimmed back in the fall. I also trimmed the boxwood and raked some of the mulch out to make room for more later.

I may call myself clever, and crafty but I am not either of these in the yard/garden. I am trying and learning and hopefully one day I will catch on. I am however, cheap by doing it all myself and moving/re purposing as many plants as possible.

So here is the end result of a long, hot, day working in the flower bed. The boxwood looks a little patchy because some large parts of it were actually growing separately from the ground. I removed those so that the main bush could fill out more.

What is in store for the future of our flower bed? Short term: get rid of the red mulch and replace it with brown. I also want to plant some low maintenance plants and attempt to move some of the bulbs around. My gladiolas and irises fell over and need to be planted deeper.

Long term goals: I would like to replace the scalloped brick edging with something more updated. Mr. Bunny you are cute but you've gotta go! I am working on growing new sage and rosemary from cuttings from the current plants so I can dig up the old ones and move/replant the new ones. The sage is actually hanging out of the bed and the rosemary has roots as thick as a small tree.

As for the rest of the front yard we also plan to plant grass where the azaleas used to be and maybe line the walk with some liriope once the weather is cooler.

So stay tuned for future updates and pictures showing improvements to the front yard.

Another Fabulous Freebie

How do you get your ugly overgrown bushes removed for free!? Yep you guessed it....Craig's List! Who'da thought someone would want to come to your house and dig up your old overgrown bushes but apparently lots of people do. I got the idea while feeding my addiction to Young House Love. They had bushes removed in the front and back yards. After I posted the "free large mature azelas" add, I had 8 people contact me wanting to come get them. The nicest couple came by and in two days they were all gone! Keep in mind we still need to take out a few more things and then grow some grass...so this is the before and after and later I will post the after after.

before





After!

Stay tuned for the after after ; )

Hopefully the weather will stay relatively cool and in a few weeks I will have time to trim bushes, weed, mulch, and grow some grass. Also if you look closely we are apparently growing some plants in our gutter...oops! Too many inside projects has left our yard needing some TLC. Stay tuned...