Update on Projects

Awhile back, I laid out 3 goals for this summer for house projects:

*Fix garage ceiling
*Give the windows a good "spring" cleaning
*Plant new grass in back yard

So far, we've worked on project #3, getting some grass to grow in the backyard. If you'll recall from my previous post, our yard was torn apart by our loving and playful pup, Ella. Given the energy and rambunctiousness of a 2 year old lab mix, you can imagine how much she loves to run around the yard, chasing everything from toys, sticks and even her tail. With all this darting back and forth over the already not so green grass, Miss Ella managed to turn our back yard into an area filled with dirt and mud, leaving no grass to be seen.

As the weather warmed up here in the 'Nati and spring sprung, we headed out to Lowes to have a chat with a garden expert about a durable grass seed that might have a better shot up against Ella playful ways. (Because even though people say Lab mix dogs call down when they turn 2, I don't see that happening for us anytime soon with her!) We ended up buying some "Smart Seed" and got started by raking up the dirt lawn and preparing the area for seeding.

We sectioned off half of the backyard with a temporary fence, and got to spreading the seed with our new handy walk behind Scott's spreader. We also planted a nice Azalea bush in the corner to try to deter Ella from barking when she sees the neighbors. (Though I doubt this will really make much of a difference in that area, but it will be a nice pop of color in the backyard!)

So far, the new grass is growing great! It's actually time for a cut and we're going to work on sectioning off the other half of the yard next week. Miss Ella is one smart dog, because she managed to jump our temporary fence last week and has now made it a fun backyard game of jumping to the newly seeded side, and then barking at us because she can't get back over the fence! (We'll have to get some taller yard stakes this time for the second half of the project to try to keep her from hopping into the newer seed.)

Nothing like watching grass grow to get you excited for summer time! I'll leave you with a fun picture of my girl Ella. Here she is back in February, running and jumping across the backyard. You can see that she truly enjoys playing and not even snow can stop her from "flying" in the yard. I wish the new grass seed luck, I think it's going to need it! (HaHa)

Have a fabulous weekend my "blog checking friends"!

As they say on HGTV, it's all about Curb Appeal!

One of my favorite shows is Curb Appeal. It's this fantastic 30 minutes of television (well, not really 30 when you count the commercials!), anyways on the show a homeowner submits their home for a face lit of sorts, where a landscape designer will come out and put together a plan to update the outside of the house. Usually this includes a new coat of paint, possibly new windows to be more specific to the time period when the home was built, and almost always new landscaping for the front of the house. This brings me to my latest project going on ... working on the curb appeal for my 1960's Cape Cod house!


First up is the front landscaping, or lack there of in my case! When I bought my house it was framed with some old school bushes, that in my mind, had to go. With the help and muscles of JJ, this was a taken care of within the first few months of moving in. Below is a picture the front of the house after the bushes were removed.
This Spring I decided it was time to get a plan together to add some shrubs & flowers to make the walk up to the home more welcoming. I enlisted the help of a "landscape guru" I work with and also got some get advice from a local garden shop to get the plan moving. I spray painted the layout I wanted and edged the lawn to form the area where the front flower beds will be added:

After the grass died off, it was time for the heavy duty tools. And with heavy duty machinery, comes the help of JJ and his muscles!! We borrowed a tiller and used it to break up the dirt and pull out the old clumps of dead grass. Going on the advice of the "guru", we added some Peat Moss to the soil to get it ready for the new plants. From that point it went pretty fast, I picked out the foundation shrubs I wanted to use....Green Mountain Boxwoods & Rose Glow Barberries. Added some small mounding grass called Liriope and used different annuals like Impatiens and Zinnias to add some color.

After the planting was done, I used some brown small pine bark mulch to finish up the beds for this season. I think I may add some more perennials over time, but this is a great start for now. Overall, I'm really happy with the plants I've chosen and hope that my research pays off to make sure they are planted in the correct amount of sun/shade.

Next up on the Curb Appeal...painting the house!

Got any color suggestions?!?!