Garden Plans

7+ ton additional pile

Spring break weekend was busy! The funny part of this week was we did not plant trees. The whole point of this spring's prep ended up incomplete.

So what happened? From my last post until now a lot of shoveling was involved! All Tuesday and Wednesday I shoveled dirt and pushed the wheelbarrow because I was too impatient to wait for us to purchase a cart for behind the lawn mower. The 7 ton dirt pile managed to fill in the holes and extend "the beast" partially. We simply ordered another load of dirt. Communication somehow became muddled and we received twice as much as before. I wanted to cry.

halfway finished

Here sat a pile twice as big. We now only had four days to complete our list. The clincher was the muscles sore from the previous two days. Another pile of mulch was added to the list of piles needed shoveling, but at least we had our cart to tote it all in!

The good part of all of it is, although we still have not planted our evergreen trees, our yard is mulched for another season and we got the grass seeded right before the rains came. Now we wait. The grass is supposed to come up in 10-21 days and then we can seed whatever washed away.

halfway sloped

completely sloped and seeded

We did decide on a local place to order our evergreens from and are waiting to see how it will turn out. They are supposed to deliver and set the trees in the ground for you. That would be amazing.

Spring Prep Update

7 tons topsoil

I honestly did not know what to title this back-breaking experience. Saturday we were scrambling around trying to see what local nurseries offered in trees, soil, and mulch. In the process, we added to our outdoor plans. (more on that later)

Saturday we visited three nurseries and our local Lowes in search of the perfect evergreens for the "the beast" side of the house. What a nightmare! Due to how narrow that side of the house is, our options continue to narrow. 

While searching for trees, we began to really think through the process. Local nurseries were advising us to kill all surrounding weeds, amend the soil, add fertilizer, and mulch on top to maximize the amount of growth the trees could grow yearly.

We went to Lowes to look at all the plant labels. We were looking at the evergreen labels, tree labels, and shrub labels reading how much sun they would need, how big they would become at maturity, and viewing the overall picture of them at maturity level. A waft of sweet smell caught our senses. There on display sat gardenias. We had gardenias at our old house. My husband appreciated their delightful smell at our old house, so we bought them. The nursery worker warned us to wait until the last frost before planting them........yes, we have more plants to plant now, ha!

Since our house was built last year, the ground has been stripped of its topsoil. The rains have created rivets in our soil. We decided we would start with purchasing topsoil. The topsoil was only $135 for a 7 ton load, including delivery.  So there was that huge pile on Monday staring at us.

Here we are four days later sore from hauling dirt in our wheelbarrow all day yesterday. Our sweet neighbor suggested another local nursery to check out. Needless to say, I am excited! The more nurseries the more options, I say!

Our total list for this year is starting to look like this:

• Fill in rivets with topsoil
• Level out the yard
• Seed the yard with zoysia grass seed (should come today)
• Plant Gardenia bushes
• Dig holes for trees
• Decide on trees!
• Purchase trees this weekend
• Purchase and bring in mulch this weekend
• Plant trees

 And all because it's Spring Break this week....we're a gluttony for sore muscles.

New Adventure Update

It's almost been a year to date! Yes, we are still working on last years plan.....sad to say, we have not begun implementing any part of our plan. I will say we have successfully decided on a landscape plan!

For our current yard, we are branching into the low maintenance theme. We took forever deciding on a grass last fall. It was late fall when we planted the perennial rye 50 lb bag for $30 we found at our local Hudson store. Because we planted so late and the winter weather turned hot so fast, here in NC this year, the grass has turned brown this month. Typically rye grass will last from fall until late Spring. Perennial Rye enjoys cooler weather below 70s. We were spoiled with a wet winter so we did not have to water the grass seed.

This spring we will be planting with two different grass varieties zoysia and Kentucky bluegrass and will update on how well they do. This time we simply ordered from Amazon. The key to grass is a great fertilizer and keeping the seed moist until it sprouts.

On a side note, I hate grass!!!! It's not economical, it robs plants of their water, it requires a lot of mowing which translates into gas, etc. Needless to say this yard does not make me feel relaxed, at the moment. Ok, off my rant. :)

We have gone from 2.5 acres down to .8 of an acre. Our plan is to create a low maintenance property boundary and privacy hedge around the sides. Once that is established we want to create the back yard more like I prefer a yard to look like. Stay tuned. This upcoming month will be a lot of posts on planting our privacy trees!

back yard with steep slope

Needs retaining wall

Back yard sees into all the neighboring yards

side yard

side yard

side yard

Side yard