Taming The Beast

With the 3-day weekend I knew I had to tame the beast that was our backyard.  Since Michael's back surgery in April I've been mowing the yard and weeding the front yard enough to keep it looking respectable, but I didn't have the time (or energy) to keep up with the back yard flowerbeds and they had become a mess.  

The worse the back yard got the more I just wanted to ignore it.  While my flower beds are never spotless and completely weed free, they usually are not this bad.  

It is like baring my soul to show you these before pictures.  

I had this state fair award-winning thistle 

Grass coming up through the mulch and between pavers

Plants that didn't survive the winter, but weeds that were thriving

And my nemesis...

....was this corner of the backyard.  Pretty sad, huh?  When I planted this area I was going for a wildflower look, but did not intend it to be this wild.

It was time to bite the bullet and finally reclaim the backyard. I needed to pull weeds in the landscaping around the deck plus work on 6 other flower beds: remove dead plants, add fresh mulch to all the beds, and plant some new things.  And in timing I would never have planned, we finally had a couple of days without rain and the grass had dried enough to mow.  Again. 

Sigh.

I had a full day of yard work ahead of me.  I whined and groaned about it (because I do that well) and I knew I was going to have aches and pains afterwards.  So I told myself if I spent the 4th of July doing this, I would still have a 2-day weekend to do "fun" things and relax (read as "recover").

Michael still isn't able to help with the yard work, but he kept busy taking pictures and keeping me company. I took the before pictures in today's blog, Michael took the rest of the photos.  

I mowed the yard first, then was ready to dig into the hard work.  I had a bounce in my step as I got out my gardening cart, unloaded 7 bags of mulch, gathered all the tools I would need,  and headed for my flower beds.  

Michael has been teasing me about my award winning thistle for quite a while, so I had to show him that it had been pulled and was outta here! He couldn't resist getting a picture.   Even I was surprised at how big it truly was!  Like my smile and my thumbs up?  Obviously this was early in the day.  

Willow decided laying in the flower bed I was working on would be a good way to help me. 

Belle thought staying out of the flower beds would be a good way to help me.


And 6 hours later... all but one corner of the back yard had been reclaimed. Weeds had been pulled, new mulch put down, and some flowers planted and transplanted.  Even the weed in the deck railing planter was gone.  No beanstalk leading to a magical land in our future.  

I longingly looked at that last corner I had not done.  Mentally I wanted to just do it and have the backyard completely new and fresh.  But my body said, "Are you NUTS?"  I just physically could not work on that last corner,  I was exhausted.  

So satisfied with how much I had gotten done I waved the white flag. I slowly (very slowly) lurched to the garage to put away my gardening cart, and with every muscle in my body screaming in protest I called it a day, headed for the shower, then slept. 

So here are the after pictures.

No thistle!

And fresh mulch!

Most of the weeds pulled.  

And remember that horrible corner where you could hardly see the flowers because of all the weeds?  Much better!  And I planted two new coneflowers here.   You can see the lemon yellow one in the center of the picture.   

The other one I planted is a Cranberry Coneflower.  The color is awesome!

 When pulling weeds I spotted an Asiatic lily that had an offshoot begging to be dug up and moved,  I divided a daylily, and I found a hosta that also had a new offshoot asking for a new home, so put those in this flower bed in place of plants that didn't survive the winter.  I love it when I can shop my own yard! The bird bath will get cleaned another day.

This is my favorite picture of the day, one that Michael took of my Mardi Gras plant.  It reminds me that the hard work is worth every "ouch" I may utter in the following days.

On Sunday I did get that last little corner finished. I pulled a forest worth of maple tree seedlings, transplanted a bleeding heart, columbine, and phlox, and put down fresh mulch.  


I am looking forward to being able to sit on the deck once again and enjoy the view. 

   The beast is tamed.