Gardening

I have been working so hard on the landscaping. After we moved in last year we had worked so hard to make the inside of the house liveable and nice, we had no enegery left to do much of anything with the outside. And it really bothered me. It bugged me to walk up to the house and have it look like an eye sore (OK, maybe not that bad, but still) when I knew how much work we had put into it and how nice it looked on the inside.

So, this summer, my job is the landscaping. Charlie has <conveniently> hurt his back, so I've done most of the work by myself (with some very much appreciated help from my parents last weekend). This weekend was no different. It has basically been raining since the last time I updated this blog, but today we had SUN! Glorious SUN and it was about 70 degrees out! So, I got out of bed at 11am, ate some breakfast and set to work. First thing was first, I went to Home Depot and got supplies. When I came back, first thing I did was start to build the raised bed that is going to be in the backyard. For one little girl doing it by herself I think I did pretty good. Only broke one drill bit and below you can see what I got done. The next step, which will need to be done another weekend, is to use the bricks we used to build our wall out front to put a front on this little flower bed.

Next, I set to the bed under our <NEW> kitchen window. Our window guy is finally making progress again. The kitchen window is now in. He just needs to do the upstairs and he needs to put screens/storm windows in, but we are slowly but surely getting there.

Anyways, underneath the kitchen window there is/was a patch of grass. It is really annoying because it is impossible to mow with our little lawn mower, and it sort of looked sad anyways. So, that is gone. We put Round-Up on it last week and this week I laid out some of that black weed barrier stuff and filled it in with gravel. Then, I planted some annuals in the big pots my Mom and I picked out last weekend and, voila, it looks MUCH better.

 Last thing I did today was to hang up the lanterns that my parents got for me from Ikea. I waited for George to leave and then hung them up on the fence posts. They look really cool, hopefully George doesn't get too mad and he will just appreciate them for the ambiance that they bring to our backyard.

As you can see from this last picture, my backyard is still a disaster area. But we are getting there. The next things to do are to finish building the flower bed in the back and to plant some creeping phlox or other good ground cover in the front bed. Then, quite honestly, we will be done. And all this crap will be gone from my backyard and in it's proper place in the garden.

Our backyard is nice because all we have behind us is the railroad tracks and the river. There are not any houses or buildings nor will there ever be. So it is a really nice place to go and sit and just enjoy the nice weather. I'm hoping that when we are done it is a really cozy and inviting backyard with some character. Hopefully all this work adds some value to our house, but honestly, it is just fun for me and has been a good learning experience. It will be nice to have it all done when our friends come to visit at the end of July.

And now, enough distraction, off to do some more work on my research paper. I'll leave you with a quote I found in the facebook profile of my roommate from South Africa. It made me think of my Dad.

"Opportunity is missed my most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."

- Thomas Edison