Fall Yard Work

Kevin has been working nights this past week so I have been trying to keep busy by working outside, that way I don't disturb him too much while he's sleeping during the day.  When we moved in, we decided not to do much in the yard because we needed to save money, and we also didn't know what would grow on it's own through the summer.  We got a couple of nice surprises.

1. Day Lilies all along the back fence in our yard, and under our tree in the back.
2. A Bleeding Heart (one of my favorite flowers) in the side yard.
3. Some nice flowering bushes in the back.  
4. Gorgeous Black-eyed Susans in the front garden.

The general lay out of the yard is nice too and there are a lot of ready-made beds, even though they are empty.  We also have a lot of things I want to change, such as ALL of the ivy/ground covering that is in a lot of our garden beds.  You have already read about the trees out front and evergreen bushes (gone!), other than that, I really just want to add more flowers, container gardens on the deck and possibly an herb garden.  As for what I accomplished yesterday, I knew it was a good time to transplant plants in the fall and to plant bulbs.  So that's what I did.

First, the problem areas:
Ivy and random small trees/bushes at the base of the tree

 Messy corner

Blank bed along the back of the yard.  The green plants along the fence are Day Lilies, but I want something that will bloom in the spring, and others to fill in during the summer.  The twig sticking up is a rose bush, I think it's dead but I am afraid to pull it out in case it isn't.

 Blank bed

 

 Overgrown side bed

The first thing I did was tackle the ivy and bushes under the tree.  Realize, I don't really know what I'm doing so I first pulled everything out and then did my best to dig up roots.  I am sure I will be seeing some pesky ivy in the spring.  I left the day lilies and the hosta that was already there.

The next thing I did was plant daffodil bulbs all along the back border.  I bought a variety pack of bulbs at Lowes, and as the package suggested tossed them into the bed and planted where they landed (for a natural hap-hazard growth pattern).

I also planted some large yellow daffodils in the front bed, just for some spring time blooms.  Did I mention that daffodils are my favorite flower?  Seeing them peek up in the spring just makes me happy.

Another issue was this dead tree.  We have two Japanese maples along the side of our deck that we love, this was a third one I am guessing.  I am not sure what happened to him, but he had to go, so I busted out my hand saw and went to work.  After cutting him down, I realized he really was dead all the way through, so I didn't feel as bad about it.

The last thing I wanted to do was move some plants around.  I decided that since we don't have extra money to spend on landscaping, at least at the moment, I would fill in blank areas with what we already had.  I took this large clump of hostas and split each plant in half.  I looked up on the internet how to do this, and from what I gathered there isn't any special way, so I took a shovel and dug in the center of the plant and around the outside of the half I wanted to move.  I know hostas are pretty hardy, so I am not too worried about them coming back.  I also made sure to water all transplants over the next few days. 

I planted two of the split hostas where the dead Japanese maple was and one under the tree.  I also moved the bleeding heart from the side yard and planted it next to these hostas.

It doesn't look like much now, but I think it will be a good start for the spring.  We can plant some annuals to fill in the back bed and the front bed.  I am still looking for a shrub for the front of the house, so if you have any ideas let me know!

Here's a quick overview of the backyard how it looks now ... mainly for comparison in the spring!  It's also kind of nice to see it green for one last time before fall really hits.

Just one more, how can you not love this face?  He says "Go Phillies" for tonight :)

All in all I am pretty happy with what I got accomplished.  I've realize I enjoy yard work more than I expected and I am excited for the chance to really do a lot of landscaping in the spring.  My goals for next year are:

Plant a shrub in the front bed

Plant a few more perennials in front bed

Fill in front bed with annuals

Two container gardens on the deck

Box planters on the railing of deck

Place fence around AC unit - planters on fence - for herbs? Something like this:

Fill in back bed with annuals

Clean out side bed - it's still a mess

Clear out any ivy that comes back!

Oh yeah, and hopefully we'll have our backyard fenced in by then too.

Any suggestions or ideas? Just let me know!