When we first moved into our new home it was early spring, and the lawn was still fairly dormant. Now that summer is in full swing, we can now see how much work both the front and the back yards need.
We were told by our next door neighbor Emilio that the elderly couple that lived here before us spent a lot of time outside. The lady, he said, would be out twice a day everyday, morning and evening, down on her hands and knees trimming the grass by hand with lawn shears. I guess he thought that meant they were meticulous and sentimental about their landscaping. Well we certainly didn't care for how overgrown all the bushes had become, and wanted to do something about the major weed problems.
To date I've ripped out two truckloads worth of bushes and have at least one more truck load still to uproot. Lots of bare ground is now our motif in the front. In back it hasn't been quite as major, but bushes have come out of there as well. We have a maple and I think a sweet gum tree out back that are perfectly positioned to tie up a hammock between, so I've backed off the grass and mulched around them. Out front we have a large oak, and we've recently done the same to it. To our dismay, the squirrels here love to dig, eat, and bathe in the mulch. Every so often I have to clean up the edges of the scattered mulch chips.
As spring came on we got to see some of the bushes and plants blossom, so we decided from that too which ones we wanted to keep. Most of the blossoms that we like are gone now, so it'll be next spring before I can post some pictures of them. We did have to take out some of the flowers though, like some day lilies that were in the perfect spot for a vegetable garden. Right now we've got zucchini, summer squash and tomatoes planted. the sugar peas and the lettuce didn't survive the severe rainstorms and tornadoes that we've had this year.
With so much bare ground out front I tried getting some grass seed down to fill it in. From the picture above you can see the pathetic result from my sad attempt at getting grass to grow mid summer. Oh well. I did get something to grow! We'll just have to wait for fall when we can get some sod. It's nice to have several nurseries close by; we have several sod options available and I'm excited to see the lawn get to where I'd like it to be.
We also have been fighting a mole problem that looks like its already starting to curb with the treatment we gave the lawn in getting rid of the grubs that they are apparently after. I hope we can keep them away. Moles are so devastating to the lawn! If the lawn isn't full of weeds somewhere, then its thin from all the destroyed roots from the moles.
Sometimes it can feel a little overwhelming with everything I want to get done in the yard. But at the same time I love working in it! Being raised doing yard work I'm surprised how much I've learned now that I'm a homeowner, especially about lawn care. I've got a fertilization coming up in two weeks, a weed treatment a month later, then dethatching, aerating, sod and overseeding just a month or two after that. This weekend I plan on finishing up the flagstone landing area in front of our porch with creeping thyme as a gap filler. I'll grab some pictures now to post some before-and-after shots. Too bad I didn't get them when we first started out with a quarter acre of hideous bushes!
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