Jenny vs. The Garden, part one

I know it has been a while...again.

Thought I'd share the latest Beacon Street Before and After photos...

Now that the sun is out and the inside of the house is more or less done ("done" isn’t quite the right word - there are plenty more things to do, but they're all on a more long-term to do list...), the landscaping projects begin. The previous owner (aside from having hideous taste in paint) let the gardens go over the last few years or so. I've seen pictures of the yard in its "glory" and she was a really impressive gardener. However, by the time I moved in, the only thing impressive about the gardens was the sheer magnitude of weeds.

I've been a bit intimidated by the idea of starting outside – there’s so much to do it’s hard to know where to start…. (Not to mention…in most cases, I’m not sure what’s weed and what’s plant…) But finally I decided I need to just make a list of all the areas that need attention and focus on one at a time – and not really think about the big (scary) picture.

To the side of the house is a 3x33' stretch of...dirt. And weeds. And small trees that had seeded themselves and were left alone long enough to become pretty substantial (and HARD to get out of the ground).

Sunday morning I dug everything up, turned over the soil and planted a groundcover (dwarf periwinkle). Am hoping I don't kill it - and hoping it will, in fact, cover the ground. I had thought about doing something a little more involved or interesting, but in the end decided I had plenty of other places for "interesting" landscaping. And hopefully a groundcover will make this fairly low-maintenance. The leaves are really pretty – yellowish with a dark green “outline” and apparently in the spring, there are lavender colored flowers.


It definitely feels nice to cross at least one project off the list. This weekend, I think I’m headed for the front yard. Stay tuned...