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improvement

Typical Sunday

in botany, garden, improvement

Clockwise from left: Lady Fern, Cast Iron Plant, Lace Fern, Variegated Flax Lily.

Sunday was nothing but a gardening day for me. Starting in the back yard, I swept the dead leaves from the back porch, trimmed the nandinas, pulled more overgrown lirope to let the hydrangeas breathe again, moved a silly frog, trimmed the tree ferns, and dug daffodil, iris, and grape hyacinth bulbs from their wooden deck pots. We've had such a mild Spring so far that the grape hyacinths are already pushing up leaves! I need to bury them in sand and hide them in a cool area of the garage when I get a chance. Then I can haul all the old wooden pots to the curb as they're finally starting to fall apart.

After a trip to the Home Depot Landscape Center and Calloways, I moved to the front yard. I planted about 30 'Bada Bing' begonias and a couple white caladiums around the sidewalk by the front door, divided a Cast Iron Plant that was blocking one of the sprinkler heads, added an Autumn Fern and a second Lace Fern under the cypress tree, mirrored an Evergreen Giant Lirope to hide part of the brand new gutter downspout, and weeded the hell out of my azaleas.

I need more days in my weekends. The whole point of me going outside this morning was to mow the grass...which I didn't get done. I put it off once it started to get hot but by the time I was finished with the gardens by the front door, it was 9:00. Oh well, it can wait another couple of days. On come the sprinklers which hits me in the back of the legs with cold water, prompting me to quickly clean up my tools and head in for the evening.

My weekends seem to be nothing but yard work any more, which I enjoy, but I need about 3 full days to get everything done that I need to.

Sodding

in garden, home, improvement, landscape

After having some foundation work done and a french drain installed last summer, we ended up with a drainage issue on this side of the house. We hacked out the old holly bushes weeks ago, but I finally had enough consecutive non-rainy days to level the ground and lay some sod. Well, not really level. The newly laid sod is slightly angled away from the house towards the french drain and angled away from the fence towards the camera. The french drain is a few inches to the left of the left white pvc cap stretching the length of the house. I'm exhausted, my hands hurt, and I have a length of about 12 feet of ground left to sod to finish the first two rows, but I'm happy I made it this far.

Once I finish laying the sod, the next project is to add a couple flower beds in rings around the oak trees. White caladiums, pink begonias, and ferns, oh my! And we'll be getting gutters installed on the 6th to further help divert water away from the house. I need more days in my weekends.

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