southeastsandy's Blog

It started last Thursday evening.  I had someone come out and pick up all the leftover lumber from the fence and deck projects.  The gentleman was building a tree house for his sons.  I was very glad to get rid of it and he was glad to take it.  Now my yard doesn't look like a construction zone and I had fun sprucing it up.

We had rain here Friday, finally.  It rained part of the morning and most of the afternoon.  It stopped around 3:30 p.m. and I was able to go out and do some planting.  I put two butterfly bushes and my new confederate jasmine with its own trellis in the ground.  I spruced up the area around my prickly pears and agave and placed some of the mexican beach stones I bought at Lowes around them.  Earlier in the day I placed an order for 100, 20" stepping stones to do some paths and a seating area under the trees in my back yard.  They will be delivered this Friday. 

On Saturday, I did my supply shopping for my Sunday BBQ to thank my fence and deck builders.  I put my new Rose of Sharon in the ground in the front yard.  It will be the centerpiece of the spiral planting beds and path around the front yard.  I will start clearing the ground for that in the fall and amend the soil over the winter.  I hope to be ready to plant by spring.  I also put new cypress mulch around the back shrubs and knock out roses.  The pine straw placed in November was gone.  I trimmed up the overgrown grass where the leftover lumber pile was and cut down some other weeds along the driveway.

Sunday we had a nice BBQ with lchicken breasts covered in olive oil and garlic cooked on the grill.  An easy recipe that always turns out great.  I added a salad, some yummy vidalia onion cornbread (a Paula Deen recipe) and a green bean casserole.  The key lime/mango pie that my daughter brought went uneaten.  It was a very successful meal.  It was nice to sit on my deck and look over my hard work in the yard.  We watched a beautiful red-headed wood pecker at the bird feeders and talked about ordering some lady bugs. 

Next weekend will be another busy one.  I plan on sprucing up the lorepetalum bed on the side of the house.  I want to add new cypress mulch to that bed as well as work on my stepping stone paths.  My daughter and her husband will be coming over to remove the last of the junk left over from the yard clean up.  There are two old pallets from the cement delivery, lots of leaves, roots and so much stucco left over from the skirting installation I swear the installer could have placed a sidewalk from the front of the house to the street.  It took me four weekends to clean up all that stucco.   It was everywhere.  I'm just glad I will never have to do that again.

I'm having a blast playing in my new yard.  I promise to take more pictures in a couple of weeks to show some of my work off.