Yards Wars Round 4
I am closing in on finishing the yard area. I found a Crepe Myrtle sapling behind my back deck. I thought it was dead but it has new leaves on it. It will get planted behind my front porch. I will add two shrubs at $5.00 each from Wal-Mart, put out some new mulch and then I'm down to spraying the weeds for the rest of my time here,,,assuming I find a new place to move to.
I have had a couple of neighbors comment that the place looks better than it has in a long time. My hard work is paying off.
Anyway, in this round the results of my hard work are starting to show. First up is my planter box. Originally this is where I had put some Sweet Basil. The basil took off at first then developed black mold on the underside of the leaves and within two weeks all I had left were little brown, dead twigs. In the 10 years I have been growing basil this was the first time it had died on me. People said it was the sun, not likely. Or maybe the wet spring, good thought. Or that the feral cats had peed on the basil, possible as they have sprayed my porch railing posts.
Instead of trying basil again I bought two 6-packs of wave petunias at Wal-Mart. I used to grow these in hanging baskets up in the NC mountains. I put three in the planter box. They seem to be doing well after two weeks.
In these large pots I added two small wave petunias in a pink color to help fill the area out. See the butterfly stake? It was a gift from the ladies across the street. They have a few in their landscape beds and I had been admiring them. So, I asked one day where they got the butterfly stake from. She said "the dollar store". There are two of them less than 2 miles from the neighborhood. The next night when I got home from work I saw that they had given me one. I repaid them with two jars of homemade strawberry jam.
It is a neat butterfly and I would love to find another one to stick into the top of my 3-tier planter.
Speaking of my 3-tier planter, I think maybe I finally got the plants right. I had originally put Primroses in the 2nd tier. They hate the heat and all the sun. I replaced them with,,,wave petunias. The begonias on top are doing really well as is what ever I have in the bottom tier.
My marigolds are doing well.
I spent a fair amount of time cutting this down during the winter and then pulling all the grass and weeds out from between the stalks. It looks great now and I have 5 more of the landscape bricks near the driveway that I am going to dig up and move here to finish the border.
Another project was to replace the screen in the storm door. Aside from the door and the small kitchen window I only have 4 windows that face where the wind comes from 90% of the time. Of those 4 windows, 2 do not have screens, 1 doesn't even open and the 4th is in my bedroom and I don't want to open it due to people, mostly teenagers, walking between the homes. Now I can open the front door and the kitchen window, the back door and the dining room windows and get a wonderful cross breeze in the house. I do not run the A/C unless I really need to. I would much rather feel the breeze.
So now I am off to find possible new places to live come October.
I have had a couple of neighbors comment that the place looks better than it has in a long time. My hard work is paying off.
Anyway, in this round the results of my hard work are starting to show. First up is my planter box. Originally this is where I had put some Sweet Basil. The basil took off at first then developed black mold on the underside of the leaves and within two weeks all I had left were little brown, dead twigs. In the 10 years I have been growing basil this was the first time it had died on me. People said it was the sun, not likely. Or maybe the wet spring, good thought. Or that the feral cats had peed on the basil, possible as they have sprayed my porch railing posts.
Instead of trying basil again I bought two 6-packs of wave petunias at Wal-Mart. I used to grow these in hanging baskets up in the NC mountains. I put three in the planter box. They seem to be doing well after two weeks.
In these large pots I added two small wave petunias in a pink color to help fill the area out. See the butterfly stake? It was a gift from the ladies across the street. They have a few in their landscape beds and I had been admiring them. So, I asked one day where they got the butterfly stake from. She said "the dollar store". There are two of them less than 2 miles from the neighborhood. The next night when I got home from work I saw that they had given me one. I repaid them with two jars of homemade strawberry jam.
It is a neat butterfly and I would love to find another one to stick into the top of my 3-tier planter.
Speaking of my 3-tier planter, I think maybe I finally got the plants right. I had originally put Primroses in the 2nd tier. They hate the heat and all the sun. I replaced them with,,,wave petunias. The begonias on top are doing really well as is what ever I have in the bottom tier.
My marigolds are doing well.
I spent a fair amount of time cutting this down during the winter and then pulling all the grass and weeds out from between the stalks. It looks great now and I have 5 more of the landscape bricks near the driveway that I am going to dig up and move here to finish the border.
Another project was to replace the screen in the storm door. Aside from the door and the small kitchen window I only have 4 windows that face where the wind comes from 90% of the time. Of those 4 windows, 2 do not have screens, 1 doesn't even open and the 4th is in my bedroom and I don't want to open it due to people, mostly teenagers, walking between the homes. Now I can open the front door and the kitchen window, the back door and the dining room windows and get a wonderful cross breeze in the house. I do not run the A/C unless I really need to. I would much rather feel the breeze.
So now I am off to find possible new places to live come October.
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