I spent one nap-time last week spraying all the weeds in our yard. All of them. This week, all the dandelions are withering and dying! YES! I feel so powerful.
The Lawn
Ryan’s in charge of taking over the lawn: I refuse to ever mow. He’s got a one-to-two year plan underway for making it look better. As I walk down the block with Paul, I take note of the lawns that look great. It would be so wonderful to have an OK-looking lawn in a few years. I’m not even asking for great. I’m just hoping the front yard will be relatively dandelion free some unseen date in the future.
I’m becoming accustomed to the idea of “years.” I’m an instant kind of girl: I like to see the fruits of my labors. But I’m realizing that that is not the way with yard work. We do little bits and in the long run it’s going to be better.
But our lawn already isn’t the worst. While our house had been vacant for a least one summer, at least they had a yard service. Two houses down is currently vacant and it must be a foreclosure because the lawn is bad. When I say bad, I mean 6-10 dandelion plants every square foot on the front lawn. Ours has about 1 dandelion or thistle every 2-3 square feet front lawn, about 1 per square foot back lawn, with lots of clover and crab grass too. So ours isn’t too bad. Our other neighbors have not many dandelions but huge patches of crab grass on the front lawn that grow faster than regular grass, thus making a “gopher-like” appearance. So ours isn’t too bad.
Lanscaping
Our empty planting spaces, on the other hand, are starting to look Bad. This will be my territory. Yikes. I’m scared, since I’ve never successfully kept a plant alive. Ever. I’m also not convinced that weeding will be fun. Seeing the dead dandelions did make me feel powerful, though. Yes! I’ve killed something. (Not that that is hard to do, unless we’re talking weeds.)
We put in mulch a few weeks ago and I’ve been waiting to see which of the stick-plants are alive versus dead.
The verdict: It looks like in the front planters, one of the rose bushes is alive; the other three are dead as a doornail. This space is about 10 by 13, so I have lots of perennials to get. We do have two other living bushes, thank goodness.
In the back, we have two living rose bushes compared to four dead ones. Plus we have a huge dead tree stump and another huge dying evergreen. One other tree of some kind is half dead. The ferns (fiddleheads?) are growing in the lawn.
I’m going in to the nursery today, armed with photos. The consultants are willing to look and give advice for free (assuming, of course, I plan on buying from them when I’m ready for plants). I’m also wondering if I’ll be able to dig these plants out myself; that dead evergreen stump is pretty huge.
Here’s the question: What’s the smallest amount of money I can spend to make my landscaping look presentable, year one? I was seriously hoping for $100 but I wonder if that’s reasonable, given the number of dead bushes I’m going to pull out. I’m aiming to tame the front planters this year and worry about the back (minus taking out the dead stuff and the plants growing in the lawn) next year.
On a postive note, I’m hoping that this is a chance to actually be successful at getting things to grow. I just love Spring: it’s even nicer living in a neighborhood. Each day when I drive home, I just love the tree-lined roads that now have white and pink and green blossoms. The world is so beautiful!
Unfortunately $100 won’t get you very far. You might spend $20 on weedkiller alone. We like this stuff that’s like a spray bottle that you connect to the hose. Then it sprays the perfect mixture onto the lawn.
Since you have such a large flower bed, I would consider putting in some pretty flowering permanent bushes. Flowers are very expensive, and will have to be rebought and replanted every year. Also, a great way to get flowers every year, is to plant bulbs in the fall. Tulips, etc.
Good luck. Lawns are nice when they are weed free. Our lawn right now consists of only weeds. It’s bad. But that’s because we didn’t spray weed killer last year, or this year. It goes bad fast!
Yeah, that’s what I’m afraid of. I actually already bought one container of weed killer and a package of rose bushes feed, so I wasn’t counting that. I was hoping I could get some perennial plants now and then I wouldn’t have to go through this again next year — next year I’ll worry about the back yard planter spots.
I am really looking forward to inexpensive bulbs come fall!
I don’t think it should cost that much. Get a bunch of weedkiller and spray away (or get weed ‘n feed). I’d get a trowell, a metal weed-puller thing that looks like a fork (what are those called?) maybe a foam kneely pad, a hose (do you have a sprinkler system?) and if you want to fertilize/ put down some grass seed, a hand held spreader. Those things should go a long way to get rid of the dead some, get some green going and make it look good, then you could wait until next year to get some flowers and bushes in. I got 6 rosebushes for $50 this year. think that pulling weeds is actually kind of therapeutic–after 30 minutes you can look back and see that it looks so much better! (Of course, I haven’t done it in a month…) Happy planting!
Hey Jen, do you have japanese beetle there? Apparently it’s really bad for rose bushes It may be why I have six to eight dead rose bushes. The girl at the nursery said to make sure I got the rose feed with preventative stuff because once the leaves come, it’s too late to stop the beetles. I’ve been reading and these rose bushes are going to be killer in terms of maintenance in terms of feeding every week (don’t depend on rain water). I just pruned my three living bushes! Yeay, and ouch.
Which kind of roses did you get? I can’t tell what mine are. The one in front is completely different in size and style from the two in the back.
Like I said to Jessica, I already got weed killer and I’ve been going out. I was going to go today again but it’s raining!! Ryan is in charge of fertilizing the lawn. And yes, I do need to get something else for the front: I’ve a huge bed that is 10 by 13 or 14 that is completely empty, except for a very weak rose bush. Keeping the weeds dead in there will not be satisfying at all. It looks quite ugly. I’m hoping I can fill that and then the 10 x 10 empty space less than that for $100. That’s what I wonder if it is that possible. And I’m thinking it will be tight. The lady at the nursery said it’s a very bad spot for rose bushes, so I probably won’t put those in again. We’ll see.
The way to get perennials is to make friends with other gardeners. I am willing to share lily of the valley, peonies, grape hyacinths, and some tall yellow things, and short purple things (I don’t know their names) that are spring blooms. I also have hostas and black-eyed susans that are late summer blooms. The peonies take several years to really get established, but that is the same whether you get them from a nursery or from a friend. A few years ago I split off some peonies and also bought a new one from the nursery for $35. They are both the same size and about to bloom this year. Spring is the time to split and plant perennials, so cone on over and I’ll help you dig them out. I’ll give you columbine seed in june when they dry off–they re-seed very easily. I’m looking for some bleeding hearts this year, so I’ll share some of those if I find some.
The least expensive way to get annuals is to plant seeds. It is not too late to put in some four o’clocks or other flowering plants that will be filling the garden by late summer.
Hey Mom, thanks. I’m not ready for that yet — I’ve got to get some bushes in the front and I’m a bit intimidated by that first. When I’ve got that — maybe this weekend — then I”ll get to the flowers! Thanks I’m excited to have pretty flowers.
Also, I’ll write down those plant names and when I go back to the nursery I’ll look up which type of bed they might work best in (ie. wet, dry/ direct and limited sun, etc.) Part of the problem with my mostly dead bed were they planted flowers in the wrong places (like the rose bushes in the partial sun of the front yard). When I showed pictures to the worker at the nursery, she said, “I don’t think the people who lived there before you knew what they were doing!” I don’t want my plants to all die, so I’m going to research these things!
I’m not going to do annuals at all this year. The nursery lady says they really aren’t worth your money at all unless they’re inside and you don’t kill them. And I kill things.
Thanks again.
Sooo…where are you these days! I’m ready for an update!