Living where we do has a lot of perks, it’s private, usually quiet and there is a lot of wildlife around. We are free from any homeowners association (which I will NEVER be a part of again!) and we are surrounded by trees so we typically don’t feel the blazing heat that people in concreted areas do. Plus leaves and sticks well they make great mulch.
There are some downsides though, the wildlife can be destructive, all those trees drop a lot of leaves, cast a lot of shade and drop a ton of sticks.
It was a beautiful day and so I decided to forego inside stuff and move to some outside stuff. What should I tackle first? Ah, I know…
My very neglected area around the gazebo and pond, the sticks, the leaves, the weeds, oh my! I needed a plan and so I started by collecting all the sticks and hauling them off to the stick pile. Then I raked leaves, and raked leaves, and raked some more leaves. When I started it looked like this.
When I finished it looked like this.
I ended up with 2 large and 1 huge pile of leaves that will need to be removed. I also decided that I’m going to spend a lot of time over here this year. I’ve got a lot of weeding to do and I want to concentrate on making this area heavily planted and easier to maintain. The leaves are a blessing and a curse, they make great mulch but the problem is they encourage ticks. Woodchips and shredded mulch ticks don’t like so I’m thinking of getting mulch for closer to the pond and using the woodchips in the ‘woods’. It should also make leaf removal a little easier.
I found some things that made me very happy while I was over here.
I have been nursing this holly along for years! It started out as a 2 leaf sprig and I have taking care of it and hoping it would grow. I was so happy to see how much it had grown! I love hollies and would love to have more evergreens in our wooded areas, there is very little cover for the birds in the early spring and winter.
My mom gave me this lungwort and I didn’t think any of it had survived so I was delighted to see this little clump blooming away.
My helpers had a great time outside, but Cooper decided that the shade cast by the gazebo was the place to be!
My final project before coming in was a temporary fix to a problem that I’m blaming Tucker for, as prior to him, Cooper never did this!
Tucker feels why walk around the outside when you can cut through the middle and better yet, why go into the grass to pee when you can pee right here. So I put up some fence and put some stakes in the ground when I ran out of fence in hopes it will deter him until the water Scarecrow arrives. Yes I’m setting up a motion activated water sprayer to spay my dog. He is trampling plants that it has taken me years to grow and he does it out of sheer laziness I think. Hopefully he will only have to get wet a few times before he gets the hint, the flower bed is off limits to big feet!
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