I Need Landscape Help!

As if our house didn't already have enough landscaping projects, now that we have had the three large trees removed in the front, we have even more on our plate.  Now that our house can be seen from the road, we will need to make sure that the landscaping is up to par with the rest of the houses in our neighborhood.

Over the last few days, I have been spending the afternoon outside weeding out the garden beds, and actually pulling out all of the weeds that are growing in our grass.  We also still have a good amount of pine needles in the front garden bed from where the trees were.  There is about a six inch layer of pine needles in that garden bed because the previous owner of the house never did a single thing to the landscaping, so years of dead needles have layered up under where the trees were.  And actually if you look at the photo below, all of the orange/rust color that you see in that garden bed is dead pine needles.

In an attempt to get rid of the needles, I raked a section that was probably about 4'x6' and it filled an empty 32-gallon trash can to the top.  With the entire section being about 12' wide by 90' long, it's going to take quite a lot of trash cans/yard waste bags to get the area cleaned up.

Also, now that the trees are gone, there is a direct view of the side of the house, which is where the air conditioning unit and all of the utility hookups are.

This is quite the eye sore, especially since, as you can see, we removed two of the burning bushes that were against the house so that the new air conditioner could actually fit.  We will eventually dig out the rest of those burning bushes, but we haven't gotten to it yet.  I have plans to build a shield for the unit and the other utilities on the side of the house, but it will have a hinged door so that everything can be accessed.  Don't worry, I'll post a DIY when I make it.

In the meantime, however, we have been trying to figure out what we would like to plant. I know that we will be planting an adolescent white birch tree, and we will be keeping the rhododendrons that are planted in that space.  Other than that though? We have no idea, except that we want some flowering plants since most of the ones along the house are evergreens.  I love hydrangeas, but I'm worried about them and the rhododendrons getting too big eventually.

So, I guess what I'm saying is, help?

What would you plant in that big of a space if you had a completely blank slate?

Green Thumb Update

Back in April, I gave you all a DIY for a non-traditional Raised Bed Planter.  After that, I talked with you about what I planted in that planter, and how I labeled all my herbs.

Now, after weeks and weeks of waiting for something other than weeds to show up in my planter, I am happy to say that I have herbs!

They took a lot longer than I thought to germinate and pop through to the surface, but I am so happy that I do actually have a green thumb.

Clockwise: Chives, Rosemary, Oregano, and Parsley.

Basil

The garlic that I planted starting growing thin, little green stems, and then they died, so I'm hoping that the garlic is still growing under the soil.  Guess I'll find out for sure when it's time to harvest!

In the meantime, I can't wait for these other little herbs to grow large enough for me to pick them.  Anyone else having a more than difficult time with their gardens this season? Anyone having great luck? I'll take all the pointers I can get!

That's a lot of Mulch!

Because the previous owner of the house never did anything with the landscaping, we have had a big project on our hands.  So big, in fact, that it has taken us a few weeks to even get all of the weeding to an almost-done point.  The thing about weeding though, is that if you don't put something down over the soil in your garden bed right after weeding, the weeds will come back.  And just so you know, we haven't put anything down in the garden bed, so the weeds have come back.

Since our garden beds only have large shrubs and evergreens, we will need some low-lying flowering plants. I have some in mind, like daisies, lilacs, daffodils, lavender, forsyth, and hyacinth, which I think will look great.  Plus, we will be transporting some plants to the new garden bed that we will have in the middle of the front lawn, just to give the property some dimension.

In snake form: 1. Ornamental Onion 2. English Daisy 3. Lavender 4. Chrysanthemum 5. Jack Snipe Daffodil 6. Coreopsis 7. Hosta 8. Daffodil 9. Hyacinth 10. Sunflowers 11. Lime Rickey 12. Forsyth

We finally started discussing what we will put down, and decided on traditional bark mulch, but in black instead of brown.  We took measurements this weekend so I could start getting quotes on how much mulch we would need, and it is so much more than I thought! If we were to do only the garden beds that line the house, we would need 7 yards of mulch. But, once you include the beds that don't directly touch the house, we more than double the amount, and we would need 16 yards.

That's a lot of mulch!

But the nice thing about mulch, is that it helps things look nice. And that's exactly what our yard needs right now.  With Mother's Day this weekend, it looks as though we won't be getting the beds mulched, but that means that we can shop for plants and hopefully score some of the ones I showed you above.

I am so looking forward to getting some color in the front of our house.

What are your favorite plants to put in your garden beds?

DIY: Garden Markers

If you look anywhere on the Internet for inspiration, you will more than likely come across Pinterest.  And if you haven't spent hours going through all of the pins, you need to sign up for an account now, but, be prepared to become addicted.

All across Pinterest, you will find different ideas for garden markers, from rocks with chalk or paint on them, to wine corks on stakes.  One of the most popular ideas that you will find for garden markers are stamped spoons.  While these are a really cute idea, I just wanted something different. Loving the idea of stamping metal, I took a look at the Lowe's website, and found hollow welding tubes, and thought those would make the perfect garden stakes.

Once I picked them up from the hardware store, I was told that because they were hollow, they would cut very easily with a hack saw, so I headed over to the tools section and picked up a hack/bow saw that came with a few different blades, including a very small blade that would work on metal.

KOBALT Brand Saw from Lowe's / Personal Pic

I used some clamps that I had to brace the welding tubes to the workbench that way they would be still when we cut them.  If you don't have any clamps, another pair of hands helping you hold down the tubes will work.  

Clamps and Welding Tube / Personal Picture 

Next, I had D help me saw the pipes off in 8" lengths.  The sawing part wasn't hard, so if you don't have a guy around, you can definitely do it yourself. I just wanted to be able to get some pictures!  

Sawing the Welding Tube (Please ignore the dirty fingers from weeding!) / Personal Picture

If the ends of your welding tube are really rough after cutting, you can use some medium grit sandpaper to get rid of the sharp pieces and making it a little more smooth.  

Next, we got to the stamping part.  I bought a Metal Stamping kit, with 36 pieces, A-Z and 0-9, in all capital letters.  I bought this set from Hobby Lobby, and it was over near the jewelry making section.  They had a few different fonts and styles, but I liked the generic font the best.

Metal Stamp Kit / Personal Picture 

We took out the letters that we needed for the stakes, based on the herbs that I put in our planter a few weeks ago.

The "R" for Rosemary. / Personal Picture

Next, we placed the stamp where we wanted the letter to show, and hammered it down.

Hammering the Stamp into the Tube / Personal Picture

When making jewelry with these stamps, they recommend that you only hammer once and make it really hard.  We hammered quite a few times, and I leaned the stamp to each side a few times to make sure that the entire letter was going to show up on the tube.  Make sure that you are absolutely positive that you have hammered hard enough for the letter to show up, that way you don't need to worry about lining the stamp back up with the imprint a second or third time.   

Slightly misaligned "R" after needing to hammer more than once. / Personal Picture

After hammering your letters in, you will want to go over them with a black permanent marker.  Make sure that you get the marker in all the little grooves of the letter stamps.

Coloring in the Letters / Personal Picture

Let the marker sit and dry partially, then with a dry cloth, lightly wipe off the excess marker, leaving the color in the grooves of the stamped letter.  

Wiping off the excess marker / Personal Picture

Repeat the stamping and coloring process until you have all of the letters you want on your garden stake.  As you continue, you may need to go back over some letters with the marker to make them a little darker.  

Personal Picture

Personal Picture

Once all of the letters in the name of your plant have been added to the welding tube, make sure they are colored in, and show nicely on the metal.  Now, you are ready to add the stake to your planter or your garden!

Personal Picture

"Chives" stake for my planter! / Personal Picture

Garden stake in the planter! / Personal Picture

I am so happy with this project, and so glad that it is something different from what you typically see around the Internet!  I just can't wait to see how they look once my plants come in a bit more!

The Weed Garden

Before I get to my garden woes, I want to say "Hello!" to all the new readers coming from ICLW!  This is my first time participating, and while I'm not blogging about what most of the participants are, I hope that you find some interest in my topics and tutorials!  I'm a newlywed, just married to my husband in October, after being together for seven years. We bought a house in the Fall, and are getting used to the trials and tribulations of home ownership.  I'm a big-time DIY enthusiast, sharing my tutorials and home ideas here on my blog.  If you're looking for more information, check out my bio above, and you can recap our beautiful wedding and take a tour of our house too.  Thanks again for stopping by, and looking forward to reading about your journey!


Keeping on track with planting, this weekend, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and spend some time outside.  When we woke up on Saturday  morning, I looked out the bathroom windows to see our pear tree blooming!  When we first looked at the property, Google Maps had flown over for aerials in Spring, so the tree in back yard had white flowers on it.  It took us a while to figure out what type of tree it is, but it's a non-fruit bearing pear tree!  We have been looking forward to seeing the tree bloom and flower since we moved in, so being able to see the delicate white flowers on the branches this weekend was great!

Pear tree flowers. / Personal Picture

D and I have been waiting for the weather to get nice so we can finally get to work on the yard.  Our neighborhood is absolutely beautiful, and the landscaping could not be more perfect.  Since the area is so established, the homeowners have gorgeous mature landscaping and on a daily basis, there must be more than a dozen landscaping and yard care companies around taking care of the grounds of the houses.  Since our house was not taken care of very well prior to us owning it, we are kind of the ugly ducklings at this point.

So, in an attempt to make the house look better, and be in better condition, we have already had the roof replaced, and the exterior painted.  We've also torn up the front walkway, and plan to lay down a new one when the weather gets a little warmer.

"Before" picture from one of our home showing days. / Personal Picture

"After" picture from post-painting and roof replacement. / Personal Picture

Now that Spring has sprung, it is time to clean out the gardens.  The landscaping in the front is nice, but was really overgrown.

When we first moved in, we trimmed things back that way branches and bushes weren't up against the house trapping the moisture, and so the shingles could be painted.  We also tore out some big pieces that were dead and in the way.  In the front, there are a lot of evergreens, but the problem was that nothing had ever been trimmed.

After trimming some things back, and having two truck loads, two garbage cans, and three yard waste bags worth of yard trimmings and branches, we were finally able to get out there to do all the weeding.

This is what we started out with. It looks like there is no defined garden bed, even though there is/was, and I think there are more weeds than plants, which is why it should be called a weed garden.

"Before" near the front porch and garage. / Personal Picture

"Before" below the kitchen windows and more towards the front door. / Personal Picture

Quite the amount of work ahead of us.  I wasn't kidding when I said that nothing had been taken care of.  There wasn't even a single piece of mulch in the garden beds.

D and I set up with our yard waste bins, and got to work, and within fifteen minutes, there was already a huge difference.  It took us about two hours total to get the front beds weeded, and that's with me being more particular and OCD than I should have been.  But, it's finally at a place where we can go buy some plants and then put down garden mesh and mulch.

"After" near the front porch and garage. / Personal Picture

"After" below the kitchen windows and more towards the front door. / Personal Picture

So. Much. Better.

I think we're going to go with a dark mulch, that way the attention goes to the plants in the bed instead of towards the ground.  In terms of plants though, I'm not really sure what I want to do.  Any suggestions on non-invasive low-lying plants or flowers that would match with the landscaping that is currently around the front of the house?  We do want to move some plants, but that likely won't happen this season.

Featured on Instructables!

You may have noticed from the new link on my sidebar, and our Facebook page, or my Instagram, but my DIY Raised Bed Planter was featured on Instructables! This is a huge accomplishment, and I am SO EXCITED!! If you couldn't tell!

So, I just wanted to pop on over here to announce that, and to tell you that on Sunday, I finally mixed up some potting soil, dirt, and garden mix, and planted some delicious herbs in my planter.

My hands were covered in dirt, so I don't have any pictures of the planting process, but I must tell you that I did end up using newspaper (it was actually packing paper, which is just unprinted newsprint) and put about 6 layers in the bottom of the planter.  So far, it's holding up great!

 Planter populated! / Personal Picture

I ended up planting Basil, Oregano, Parsley, Chives, Rosemary, and Garlic!  These are my absolutely favorite herbs, so having them so handy will be awesome.

And as of yesterday, I have my first sprout! EEEEKKK!!!! I can't believe that it only took three days for something to sprout!

My first Sprout! (It's there, I promise - right above center!) / Personal Picture

As you can see from the picture, it's almost microscopic, and my nose was practically touching the dirt while I was looking for evidence that I actually planted something, but it's still there!

I'm really hoping that I start to get some serious progress on the growing front, and maybe if these start growing really well, I'll start building that second planter sooner than anticipated!

Have any of you built the planter, or had success with your herb or vegetable garden yet?