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Yard Update: Fall 2013

Just a heads up, this post is going to be full of pictures of the yard. I wish I had taken more pictures earlier when more was in bloom...

We are having the lawn sprayed with Pylex to kill the crab grass. It is amazing stuff. We are going to reseed later in the fall.


The trumpet vines have taken off this year. They didn't bloom much, but the greenery is nice against the fence.


I love our oak tree. It provides a great shade canopy and the dogs love chasing the squirrels that live in it.


Our rain barrels are still going strong. We haven't lost any goldfish this year, and the water plants are growing like crazy. 


The climbing roses are also growing like mad. We only got one bloom out of them this year, but I appreciate them anyway.


Clematis survived this year :) It is pretty delicate and the dogs like running up the fence and broke the one last year.


We planted several new plants this year. This lily is one of them. 


The delphinium was looking rather ragged, but is doing well now with daily watering.


Trumpet vines and lilies did well today. At one point, we had almost 5' lilies!


I'm excited for when these vines cover the fence completely.


The cacti we planted 2 years ago are monsters. We have split them several times, and they are still huge. They definitely keep the kids off the wall... haha.


Ice plants along the side of the fence. I love these. They are hardy and have beautiful blooms. I'm hoping they will fill in completely by next year. We chopped them at the beginning of the summer and they are already filling back in.


Our roses. They need to be deadheaded, but they have really filled in this year.


Our new lounge chairs. They are great with our new umbrella and we spent a lot of lunches outside enjoying the sun this summer. We hope to get some new patio furniture next year.


Thomas built a new door for our shed. We used out front/back doors as inspiration for this door. It is nice and sturdy and we can lock it using our house key now instead of a padlock. We added the cat door at the bottom because we have curious kitties who have been locked in there before, and it's important that they have an escape route.


The door again. We are doing to get wider trim for the sides and will be painting it.


We are working on the arbor above the walk-through gate. It will help solidify the strength of the gate and will match the other walk-through on the other side of the yard.


A few of our big purchases for 2013: 2012 Volvo C70, Rigid chop saw and Rigid table saw.


The aborvatae are doing well. We hope to eventually have a fedge for privacy. 


Our attempt at corn this year... We had a big wind storm that knocked a bunch of it down. I don't know if we will get much of a crop this year. We are also growing wisteria up the basketball hoop.


The succulents we planted between the driveway and the grass survived the heat. I would love for them to completely fill in and take over the little strip there. 


A view of the side yard.


The rose we transplanted survived and we also moved the hydrangea this year. We got lucky and scored a bunch of free irises from my aunt.


The Rose of Sharon we planted last fall are blooming. We hope these get gigantic and provide some more privacy and shade in the front yard.



More irises.

I love these roses along the house. They are very fragrant and beautiful. 


The front rain barrel.


Only a couple of my mums survived from last year and this is one of them. It looks like it might have to be moved...


Blueberry bushes all survived the heat of the summer. Hopefully next year they will produce more berries next year.


We tried many different types of hanging baskets this year and it appears as though geraniums are the only ones that can survive our heat. We are going to build garden boxes on the cement tops of the porch and plant geraniums or mums in them.


Not much survived under this blue spruce this year... The soil was covered by 2 inches of pine needles, and by the time I raked them up, it was too late. Maybe next year some of our shade plants will come up?


We killed the grass on the side yard and are going to have a garden in there next year. It was such crappy grass and was difficult to mow, so it should be nice to have some flowers instead of grass.


Succulent pot from this year. They were just little babies and have done well with my neglect.


Well, that's all I have for now... I hope to have some pictures of our projects soon. We have several things we are working on. 

Current projects:
-Garden boxes for front porch 
-Finish arbor for back walk-through gate
-Trim for bed 
-Sanding/staining woodwork

Future Projects:
-Painting the house (Spring 2014)
-Painting kitchen (before floors)
-Kitchen, dining room and living room/parlor floors (whenever the woodwork is finished)

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