Saturday, June 23, 2018

The Gardens part 2.

Here is what everything is looking like at the moment. There had been little to no rain this year so far but everything is doing pretty well. I am so very happy with how everything is coming together.


The backside of the front garden has been filling in nicely. Last year
I tossed a package of wildflowers in and they are coming back
really happy this year.

River rock is complete and the top garden is filling in
pretty well. I will be transplanting in the early fall
some plants to fill in all the new blank spots

An above shot, we have had very little rain this year
and everything is starting to show it

Not to sure what I plant to put here, hopefully something
will inspire me

I realised that I have not been documenting the
changes I have been doing along the sides of the house.
Here is what it looks like presently, I have been
editing, dividing and planting continuously over the 5
years we have been here. 

An above shot of the backyard, gazebo now installed
on the new patio and we have been loving it lots!

Hostas, bleeding hearts, ferns, helleborus, japanese grass, day lilies
and heuchera. Not a great shot but this bed I'm pretty happy
with how it's starting to develop

The new bed we made that I plan to fill with transplants and divisions
of what I have in the early fall. In the back corner against the shed
are astilbe and black bugbane

Here you can better see the pussy willow tree in the back corner of the shed,
I had salvaged this stick from the neighbours cuts that they were getting
rid of. It's finally starting to look pretty good there!

Our very busy main patio. I'm so happy with how this is
developing as well. The planter boxes that Rob made have been superb,
the clematis have been loving the new lattice and the zucchini plants
are already starting to bloom.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

The Gardens part 1.

Rob and I have been incredibly busy this past month. In a matter of two weeks we planned and started several landscaping projects in the front and back yards. The second two weeks have been finishing off these projects, starting some smaller ones and hosting Robs sister and husband for 10 days from England. Both of us are feeling the aches and pains all over, at least now we can sit comfortably in our backyard and enjoy the scenery while we sooth our aches and pains!

This is how it looked early spring

An overhead shot of the same

If you're going to diy, do it in style! This has been
a total lifesaver

Rob picked up a 100 square feet of patio pavers, we
both slowly, moved them to the back with
the help of our wheelbarrow

Location of the second patio has been selected and Rob started
removing all the grass

One of several deliveries from these guys at
The Town Bloom. They were amazing and
pricing and delivery was totally within
our budget
 
Gravel all transported to the back and now needs
to be tamped down with the biggest tamper
I've ever lifted!

While Rob was finishing that I started on the front.
Notice the mountain of river rock at the bottom
of the drive, guess where that's going!

Nothing more fun than a power washer

Ready for the gravel then river rock

Somehow that pile at the bottom doesn't look much smaller

I then extended the flower bed and started dispersing
the mulch

Extended and mulched, just needs to be planted now

Here's the other half
Jumping to the backyard again, here is side garden mulched and
river rock edging. Drainage is pretty poor back here so we have made a
drainage trench under the rock

Rob properly installed the lattice that I had put up
last year for all of the clematis plants. It's also
a before pic!!

Rob and his brother in law building me some
cedar raised beds while Tracy kept an eye on the
kids. I was probably hauling rocks, soil etc!

Some sprinkler fun

Here is our second patio completed and we have
been enjoying so much

Cedar boxes finished and staircase done. Rob constructed a support
for the rock so now we have a proper staircase. Notice the river rock!

We had piled up the sod that Rob removed for the patio and weren't to
sure what to do with it. Well, its now a little hill that joins the
side garden with the garden beside the shed and no more
silly area that need to be mowed

Covered in landscape fabric, topped with soil and edged in river rock.
This was on of the many smaller projects I had mentioned earlier