You're Welcome House

Whew! I am spent! My arms ache, my back aches, my fingers are cut, bruised, blistered, and battered. All in all, it was a great weekend.

We finally got a truck here to load up rocks out of the flower beds out front. It took lots and lots of work, but the front beds are nearly done. We also finally found some more 'state park brown' (organic) mulch. Mmm Hmm. My favorite.

Here we used the sifter we made to keep most of the soil in this side of the bed - it worked magnificently, I must say. We also removed 3 shrub things from this spot. Can you imagine? It was crowded before. We ended up leaving about a foot of rocks between the house and the mulch, and a little ring of rocks around each bush. I'm going to camo the rocks later with a speckle of mulch just to hide them. This really opens up the corner of the house. Before with the shrubs it looked sort of fortressy and it was hard to get between them and the real bushes (yes, we know they are square). So, out they went. Here's a little more finished product.We need to get soil and more mulch to finish the rest. Some of it is just going to have to be a little bit rocky like this area. We removed two Autumn Joy Sedums here. I'd rather see some soft greens and a little bit of color. It has to be short because we step over this spot sometimes to get to the door from the car; it has to be full shade; and it has to be drought tolerant because let's face it, I'll never water it.Those are the red brick things from around the Crimson King. When we were removing the rocks from around it, we noticed that like the Pine out back, some of the roots are too near the surface to put them back right. So, out they went too. The little unidentified tree on the west side got this treatment as well as the square bed.
We need to replace that piece of wood there, but I really kind of like it like that. It gives it character. Ha! I just noticed that it's a smiley face. I don't know what that thing growing between the Autumn Joys is, but I left it there anyway.

We filled an entire truckload this weekend and still have the east and west side beds to do. I'll bet all the beds in the front yard will be done this week, weather permitted. Yaaay! Right now, though, I just want to rest my weary bones on the couch.

High: 66 Low: 40, sunny; Lunar Phase: Waxing Crescent, 1% of full.