Making Progress...

While other parts of the country are still having some freezing temps, we've definitely been enjoying spring for a number of weeks now. We'll be hitting nearly 80 tomorrow and we'll start easing into summer from there. The yard improvements are nearly done. SO SO SO happy about that. I've put in what feels like a gazillion hours of work. We've lived in our home eight years and when we moved in we were given one tree. Over the years we'd done some work, but it really wasn't looking like much. I really wanted to put in a ton of effort and see if I could get some good base landscaping in. So...we've planted five new trees -a DD Blanchard Magnolia, a Little Gem Magnolia, two Fan-Tex Ash, and a Blue Point Juniper. Planted 20 purple lantana, 2 hibiscus, 12 flats of Mexican heather, 33 Indian Hawthorn shrubs, 24 pony tail grass plants, 6 knock out roses, 2 Texas mountain laurel, a celeste fig, some type of blueberry bush that I forgot to write down the variety, 7 tomato plants, 1 green bell pepper plant, 6 purple loropetalum bushes, 3 plumbagos, a mexican sage bush, and replaced a few of my foxtail ferns that didn't survive the unusually cold winter. We also did some container plants with the girls...marigolds, dahlias, lilies, and a sweet (scotch) broom. To top it all off we've put down 122 cubic feet of mulch (61 - 2 cubic ft bags) and will probably need about 40 more cubic feet to finish it off.

A front landscape bed around our live oak tree had been very small - maybe 4 or 5 feet in diameter at most - and we expanded it to some 20+ feet across after bringing in nearly 100 cubic feet of topsoil.

Our lawn, unfortunately, is far from done. We struggle with weeds like crazy. The way our neighborhood was designed, the drainage for our row of houses goes along the back yards of all the houses, including ours before wrapping along our side yard and down to the storm sewer in the street. We're the last "stop" as the rainwater drains past the row of houses which, much to my dismay, results in a hundred varieties of weed seeds being washed into our yard. Ugh. My preferred weed deterrent method is manually pulling them because I'm not crazy about dumping a ton of chemicals on the yard, especially since the dog and the girls like to play back there. But it's completely unreasonable to consider pulling weeds for hours each week. So we've applied some topical weed killers. I really hope between that, consistent watering and mowing that we can get them under control soon. It's so disappointing to put so much effort into the yard, but still be plagued by these pest weeds!


I am really looking forward to enjoying our yard as the spring and summer progress. Here's a peek at a few of the things that are blooming right now. :)



First Row: Hybrid Lily, Purple Trailing Lantana, Yard weed that the girls pick by the handful, MarigoldsSecond Row: Bridal Wreath (Spiraea), Sunny Knockout Roses, LoropetalumThird Row: Hen and Chicks Succulents, Celeste Fig Tree, Blueberry bush, Sweet (Scotch) Broom