I'll post more photos, I swear!

We're getting there! ALL of the perennial beds (three new, two replanted), the herb bed, and most of the shrubbery has been planted. We're still looking for homes for the lilacs and are in the process of trying to get rid of our mountain of mulch created when the stumps were ground down. While still not finished, progress is definitely visible. I'm going to be in the back yard cleaning up tonight for a little BBQ we're having, so I'll try to snap some photos of it to post. No promises, but I'll really try.

Oh, right! While you're waiting to see what it really looks like right now, here is a link to some photos of the tree removal that Ted shot.

Who took my trees?!

Wow! What a difference! The tree guys finally showed up yesterday and deforested us. It looks VERY different. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we have a long project list for the weekend. Shrub planting, herb replanting, perennial bed planting, grass seeding...like I said earlier: busy, busy, busy. I'll try to get some photos of the tree removal up soon.

Busy, busy, busy!

What a weekend! Absolutely beautiful weather led to a weekend of much garden progress. If only these good-for-nothing tree guys would actually show up! What started two months ago as a nice little cottage garden project has blossomed into a garden extravaganza. First there was the addition of the new perennial beds and the removal of the trees. This weekend we decided to repaint the shed and add some shrubbery to the front of the house. We have some photos of the repainted shed (which looks very sharp), and I'll try to snap some pics of the shrubs (boxwood) when we get them in. All I have to say is that it's really falling into place...if only we hadn't butchered our plum tree...

Back to the drawing board...

Had a lot of high winds last night and the greenhouses were pretty much destroyed. I guess Velcro isn't really high-winds-worthy. Time to make a trip to Lowe's to find a more industrial-strength fastener...

Planning starting to repaint the shed this weekend, also. Busy, busy, busy.

Who needs grass?

So much for the new grass...I mentioned earlier that we killed the best part of the lawn putting in the raised vegetable beds. Below is a series of photos showing the progress. The final product isn't shown, unfortunately. I'll try to get shots up soon of how it looks now. The grass is actually growing up pretty well all over the place, despite all of the new dirt dumped over it, and the beds are full of healthy, happy tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, radishes, beans, carrots, peas, chard, etc... We'll be eating Kale in a couple of weeks!

No more grass for us...it was hard to break ground here after we spent so much time last year rebuilding the yard from scratch.

...and of course we needed to find a place for the soil we excavated, so we basically spread it out over as large an area as we could. Luckily, must of the side yard was already dead.

Here you can see three of the raised beds set in place, and the pile of bricks that we (Viola) would be laying over about four days.

Viola at work with the last section of brick (500 total).

Most of the brick completed and the greenhouses in progress.

Finished brick and two greenhouses in place.

Look for more soon!

Tree guys

OK - we got our 4 quotes from tree guys estimating how much it will cost to take down the 8 or so trees around our property. Let's make it a quick guessing game to figure out which one we're going with:

A. $1,200

B. $3,000

C. $1,250

D. $775

If you chose anything but D., you must have forgotten that Zach took a pay cut last year. With luck, we'll have much more sun hitting the new lawn by mid-May. We'll keep you posted.

Back in business?

Well, the wheels are in motion at 21 West Lane again! Viola and I have dusted off the to-do list in our minds and have a few projects in mind for the summer season. This includes the addition of a new set of raised vegetable beds to supplement our 600-square foot plot down by the lake, the creation of a few more flower beds, and the removal of a bunch of trees.

The garden plots have already been installed at the time of me writing this, and I'll try to upload photos soon. The tree job is currently being quoted by a few professionals (don't worry Ted, we're hiring this one out), and I'll try to be there when it happens to catch the action as it happens. In the meantime, try to check back in. I'll try to remember to keep posting things of interest.